DETOURS: Coming Soon to Amazon Prime!

I'm delighted to announce that DETOURS will be released soon exclusively on Amazon Prime! This means that it will be free to watch for members, and available to rent or buy for non-members. I'll post an exact date as soon as I have one.

It's great to be working once again with Distribber on this - they've been terrific with my first feature, Surviving Family, and I'm looking forward to continuing the relationship.

Here's a small taste of Detours - one of my favorite scenes featuring Carlo Fiorletta and Peter Graham, with Tara Westwood at the wheel.

Lower Prices, or the McDonald's Effect

One of the challenges of indie filmmaking - like many other small businesses - is figuring out the best price point for your product.

My first feature, Surviving Family, is available on iTunes and Amazon Prime. Prime members can watch for free but for iTunes and regular Amazon, I set the price. The split is 70/30 for iTunes sales and 60/40 for their rentals; it's 50/50 with Amazon. I work with Distribber for the set up and to collect revenue; they do not take a percentage of sales or rentals.

I recently decided to reduce the rental price in both places to $0.99 - it took a bit of persistence (and help from the Distribber support staff) to make that happen, as it's what the companies consider a "promo" price rather than a "regular" price.

Why did I do it?  For a small movie with some recognizable actors (Billy Magnussen, Tara Westwood, Katherine Hughes, Vincent Pastore, and the wonderful Phyllis Somerville) but that is not widely known to movie watchers, I need people to take a chance with their entertainment budget. I figure $0.99 is the cost of a cup of coffee at McDonald's and a reasonable amount to gamble on an unknown movie.
 
Was this a good move?  I'll let you know in 6 months!

Working With Police on Film Sets | Rolling Tape interview

I had the pleasure of being interviewed earlier this week by Forris Day Jr. for his podcast Rolling Tape. We had a terrific discussion about working with police on film sets, which I did for both of my features: Surviving Family and DETOURS. We discussed the differing experiences in Jersey City and Ocean County, NJ, shooting with a process trailer (check out some great shots of that), and the police officer who let us use his house as a location.

It was a fun interview to do, and hopefully it will take a little bit of the mystery out of something that many low-budget filmmakers find intimidating.

Interview on "Rolling Tape" Podcast

I met actor, writer and host Forris Day Jr. several years ago, when he gave my first feature, Surviving Family, a great review, and also interviewed me for "Scared Stiff Reviews."

Forris is now working with the Borgus Network on a new podcast called "Rolling Tape." I greatly enjoyed being interviewed by him recently about Women in Film, as well as both Surviving Family and my new fesature, DETOURS.

Check out the interview at the link below - the photo is of the wonderful Tara Westwood, who stars in both movies. And if you like the podcast, subscribe!

The Art of the Edit - Part 1

[Author's note: if you received this via email, you'll need to click the link and go to the website in order to see the video portion.]

As a screenwriter, I'd love to think that I have the most impact on a movie - after all, if I didn't write it, it wouldn't exist.  Right?

The auteur theory presents the director as the creator of the movie.

In reality, the finished movie that you watch is made in the editing process.  And the final product can be far from what was written and what was shot.  In my first feature, Surviving Family, we split a major scene into 2 separate pieces to pick up the pace and bring a major character back on screen sooner.  And in my 2nd, Detours, we re-arranged the order of many scenes to create a better story arc.

This post looks at the changes to Surviving Family; I'll look at the Detours changes next time.

The pivotal scene in Surviving Family comes roughly half way through the movie:  the amazing Phyllis Somerville as Aunt Mary Giaccone explains to her niece Terry, played by the wonderful Sarah Wilson, why Terry's mother killed herself.  It's an amazing and emotional scene, and many viewers have cited it as their favorite.  But it's long, intense, and talky.  Here's an excerpt:

In the original edit of the movie, that scene was followed by an equally good and intense scene between Terry and her ex-boyfriend, played by the terrific JD Williams, best known for his work in The Wire.  Here's a brief clip from that scene:

But when we put the 2 scenes back-to-back, the sequence was (a) too long and talky and (b) left our wonderful leading man Billy Magnussen off screen for too long.

Director Laura Thies was the editor as well.  After feedback from test viewers, Laura watched the 2 sequences many times. "What happened?" is said in each scene. She inserted a short scene to split the 2 long ones, which also brought Billy back into the sequence.

Here's the piece that she used as a bridge:

It worked beautifully.  But if you want to see exactly how, you'll have to rent the movie for yourself - it's on Amazon Prime (free for members, starts at $2.99 for non-members) and on iTunes.

To be continued...

Casting Name Actors in an Indie Movie

Richard Kind & Tara Westwood in a scene from Detours

I've been asked the same question a lot recently:  how did I get name actors in my movies? Specifically, how did I get Richard Kind and Paul Sorvino for Detours, and Vincent Pastore for Surviving Family?

In some ways, the answer is the usual one:  have a good script with roles that are attractive to actors.  But there are a couple of practical things that you can do to ease the way.
 

Tara Westwood & Paul Sorvino on set in Detours

Director Laura Thies & Vincent Pastore on the set of Surviving Family

First, hire a good casting director.  They know the actors' agents and managers, and have spent their career developing great contacts.  They also have a (very) good idea what Actor X's rate for a low budget project will be, which will tell you who is worth approaching and who isn't.  I've worked with the wonderful Caroline Sinclair on both Surviving Family and Detours - she's been casting indie movies (as well as shorts & commercials) in NYC for 25 years.  She's both very knowledgeable AND a pleasure to work with.  (My husband Carlo Fiorletta had met Caroline several years earlier and recommended her.)  There are plenty of good CD's, but I'd suggest getting recommendations from people whose opinion you value.

Second, get a good entertainment lawyer - mine is the terrific Jonathan Gray - he too has been in the business for 25 years.  He's not only knowledgeable but he also truly loves movies.

We all think of entertainment lawyers as protecting us from getting sued and/or helping us if we do.  But I learned quickly that for a producer who is just starting out in the business, they are an enormous help with negotiating deal memos (i.e., contracts) with actors.  Agents and managers are (understandably) suspicious of committing their clients to work for an unknown producer.  So even if the actor WANTS to do your movie, you've got to convince their representation as well.  The agents and managers ALL knew and respected my attorney, and having him on board facilitated the negotiations tremendously.

It goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that in order to hire a reputable casting director  and an entertainment lawyer you'll need to convince them that you know what you're doing.

I'll make one final point on this subject:  the absolute best way to have a star in your movie is to cast one BEFORE they become a star, so you can benefit from their success without paying a high price.  But that's damn hard to do.