Should I listen to other people when they say don't direct my first feature film?

[boltnrun]

So once the film is made, how will you promote and distribute it? Do you have a marketing budget? A marketing plan?

[IAmFCA]

IP,

 

So far so good -- as we have asked questions, you have answered them with clarity and I do not detect a tone of defensiveness at all.

 

I am recapping a few good points that you and others have made:

- Costs come from various sources - time, travel and hotel, materials. Labor is the most expensive and time is the next. If your film addresses an issue, maybe you can find a non profit who wants that story told and solicit their assistance/guidance/brand name, and with their help, attract more/better personnel for less cost. If you spell out your production in 15 minute increments, you will be more likely to organize and align shoots and resources and achieve an efficient production sequence.

 

- Your story needs to be told -- that is how this project motivates you and meets your needs. Who needs to hear it? Why? To attract producers and others, frame your story in terms of how they benefit to the viewer.

 

- Take every risk you can imagine, if the reward warrants it. Risk/reward is ALWAYS the equation.

 

- Nothing warrants a threat to your personal security. Your financial health, your ability to live in whatever manner you require to feel secure -- that MUST remain protected. If it is at risk, your anxiety will affect your ability to make the film. You need the clarity and the peace that comes from having a secure foundation.

 

- What happens afterwards? You make it and it sits in a can? You partner with an event coordinator and put on a free show in the town square? How does this film

help you? You mention having shorts, and not attracting attention. A longer edition of the same product will attract even less attention: would you read a large book that you were unsure of? What if the book were only four pages?

 

Thinking of the foregoing, it might make sense to find someone who can assess your work to date, and help you get positioned for the attention you seek - whether from producers or agents or whatever. Better to tweak your approach now, before making a bigger statement.

[ironpony]

Well I could maybe shoot it in a bigger city with more talent around, like some have said, but I do not know how I would do that since I do not know anyone in Vancouver, Toronto, or L.A. that could help so I would be having to hire crew and cast of total strangers, and having to rent locations to shoot on, from strangers, compared to what I am use to, which is using the connections I have here. So maybe it is do-able, just have hardly any idea how I would do it.

 

I felt like I had a much better plan here, compared to going to do it somewhere else.