Nah, absolutely needing $200K to make an indie/real indie/DIY movie is an artificial/unnecessary requirement
Since movies - features - can be made for $0 to million$ - I don't think it's healthy for me to set up a specific $ standard (as was mentioned in this post) to meet before embarking on a new project (reminds me of the not very productive 16 MM era - ah the sweet sweet wasted nineties :). Maybe my real thinking was that it would be nice to have a whole bunch of money around when I am making & distributing my next fiction feature so that there will be greater flexibility - more room to get things done well, pay bills early, etc. So, the plan from that post is still on - raise $s & put it aside for film projects - but - the filmmaking track will be independent from the overall financial life track - unless of course I get the deep urge to make a period epic or something (which i do not see happening any time soon) - or some such project that absolutely requires a lot of money to get started on.
Anyway, work (mostly writing at the moment) on the next project is happening, also I'll need to start fundraising for that & other film projects - and the two tasks can be mostly independent of each other - as far as waiting to have a certain amount of money before starting a project. Giving yourself the freedom to do what feels right for a given projects at a given moment is probably a lot healthier & productive way to approach dealing with the relationship between money & filmmaking/distribution. Specially in this digital age - where shooting & editing something is easy.
However, the broader goal of eventually not needing a day job & being able to take a lot of time to work on one of my movies is I think still a great goal to shoot for. So there will need to be (& always have been to various degrees) a connection between money & filmmaking from time to time - but - I think the beauty of the DIY path is being able to get a project going or even finish a project even when there isn't a lot of money around (just takes a lot of time in that case) - & I think that's a great thing to keep in mind when making new plans - it will remove money from being an impossible road block.
Updates on other projects:
Will be having that house screening/sneak preview of my most recently completed flick Indie Film Blogger Road Trip this Sat 11/1 at 4 PM in Brooklyn. I'll e-mail everyone about it tomorrow.
Date Number One DVDs are still on the way. They'll be here in November.
- Sujewa
Anyway, work (mostly writing at the moment) on the next project is happening, also I'll need to start fundraising for that & other film projects - and the two tasks can be mostly independent of each other - as far as waiting to have a certain amount of money before starting a project. Giving yourself the freedom to do what feels right for a given projects at a given moment is probably a lot healthier & productive way to approach dealing with the relationship between money & filmmaking/distribution. Specially in this digital age - where shooting & editing something is easy.
However, the broader goal of eventually not needing a day job & being able to take a lot of time to work on one of my movies is I think still a great goal to shoot for. So there will need to be (& always have been to various degrees) a connection between money & filmmaking from time to time - but - I think the beauty of the DIY path is being able to get a project going or even finish a project even when there isn't a lot of money around (just takes a lot of time in that case) - & I think that's a great thing to keep in mind when making new plans - it will remove money from being an impossible road block.
Updates on other projects:
Will be having that house screening/sneak preview of my most recently completed flick Indie Film Blogger Road Trip this Sat 11/1 at 4 PM in Brooklyn. I'll e-mail everyone about it tomorrow.
Date Number One DVDs are still on the way. They'll be here in November.
- Sujewa
