[melodic flourish]
Downloaded from YTS.MX
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
[somber music]
I just wanna apologize...
to Mike's mom, and Josh's mom,
and my mom.
I'm so sorry for everything that has happened
because, in spite of what Mike says now, it is my fault.
And it's all because of me that we're here now,
hungry, cold, and hunted.
I'm scared to close my eyes,
I'm scared to open them.
[gasping]
We're gonna die out here.
[Rick] At the point that you were hired,
what exactly did they hire you to do?
They hired me to write the business plan.
[Rick] What was the budget for the film
in your business plan?
The budget in the business plan was $300,000.
[Rick] So let me get this straight,
you're writing a business plan.
-There's no screenplay, -Right.
-there's no movie stars, -Right.
-there's no name director, -Right.
It's this weird genre, which is mockumentary,
how the heck do you go raise $300,000 on that idea?
Very carefully.
The business plan is the thing that gets people excited
that, why this film is gonna do well.
[Rick] So when you were sitting there,
writing this business plan,
did you think, oh my gosh, "The Blair Witch Project",
this is gonna be the highest grossing independent film,
ever made, the highest return on investment,
or did you think, well, it might work,
what's going through your mind
when you were putting together the business plan?
It might work [laughs].
One of the things the filmmakers were aiming for
from the beginning was for people to believe
that this was a real story.
And what I said to investors
was that the budget was low enough,
that there was a good chance that they would at least make
their money back because everybody who saw it believed it
was a true story.
Sometimes people will ask me if it was a true story
all these years later, and I will say no.
And they'll say, who are you protecting?
[Rick] What was your top projection
for "The Blair Witch Project"?
My projection for the revenue was $23 million worldwide.
[Rick] And what did it do?
$350 Million worldwide.
[Rick] So why would anyone ever hire you
for a business plan?
No. The whole point is that you wanted to make more.
I've always said if I was gonna forecast
they will earn $350 million off a $300,000 film,
they should never hire me.
That would have been insane.
My name is Louise Levison. I'm a film finance consultant,
and I write business plans for independent filmmakers.
[Rick] I don't wanna put words in your mouth,
but in many ways you were one of the architects
of the entire film since there was no script, no star,
and you sat down with a blank piece of paper
and created an entity called "The Blair Witch Project".
There's a lot, that's been written,
what we might call "fake news" or "misinformation"
about the film.
The truth is it was shot on 16 millimeter.
Well it's super eight and 16.
[Rick] Right. So they had like a $300,000 budget.
Yeah.
[Rick] There was something like 89,000 in there,
for the transfer from 16 to 35.
A lot of people thought they just went
and got a video camera, went out in the woods, made a movie,
-I know, yeah.
but that was sort of the big part of the marketing
and the joke.
Which was bumped because I'm over here on the side.
Yeah, I did that.
But over time, the numbers that they said the budget was
has even gotten lower.
So that right now, someone on the internet
is saying that bunch for "The Blair Witch" was $15,000.
I was like, wow.
[Rick] But the truth is,
as innovative as it was in concept,
it was a traditional business plan,
-Right. -a traditional budget,
shot the way films are done traditionally,
-Right -it just pretended not to be.
[Louise] The thing that filmmakers have to remember
is that you have to make something you really care about.
You can't say, well, now horror films make a lot of money
so I'm gonna make a horror film.
It's really hard work.
Even though it looks like, well, they didn't do much.
It's very, very hard work raising the money
and making the film itself.
You really don't wanna be doing that
unless it's something you really care about.
Because if you don't care,
you're gonna be making a lousy film anyway,
no matter what it is and no matter who's in it.
You can have stars in it,
they can't really overcome a really bad film.
[Rick] "The Blair Witch" was a cultural
and media and box office phenomenon.
It was on the cover of Newsweek and Time.
[Louise] Right.
[Rick] And it was made by
five unknown regional filmmakers.
Right.
[Rick] Do you believe, based on your experiences, that today,
the same situation could occur again?
Absolutely.
-[slate clapping] -[upbeat music]
My name is Scott du Pont.
I'm a professional actor and a film producer.
There's a lot of secrets to raising money for movies.
The first thing I think is you gotta have
the right psychology.
Everyone seems to think that people out there
you're talking to don't want to give you money
for a high risk investment.
I believe it's the opposite.
I believe every single person I talked to actually wants
to give me money.
Now, with that said, not everyone is in the position
to give you money.
There might be liquidity factors.
There might be a husband and wife that talk you back,
but I believe you have to talk to every single person
you run into.
I was working on a movie many, many years ago,
an Adam Sandler picture called "The Waterboy".
I'm sitting up in the stands with 5,000 other extras.
I ended up sitting right next to this guy.
He had kind of a grungy T-shirt,
he had some holes in his straw hat,
ended up talking to him 'cause I talk to everyone.
That gentleman, Jeff,
ended up giving me $780,000
for my first feature film.
So, you can never, ever pre-judge anybody.
[upbeat music]
My name is Maggie Phillips Pamplin.
I'm a producer, production designer and artist.
I think the advice that I would give
to a beginning filmmaker is to gather a team around you.
I think there's a misconception that there is one producer
and he or she brings in the money.
People think that they are not the ones to raise the money.
I just think anyone can.
Anyone can have a relation or a friend or acquaintance
or business acquaintance that can come in
and help bring money for an independent film.
And you can be part of a team.
You need more than just yourself.
You need to start gathering people around
and really have everyone pitch in
and have everyone have ownership in that film.
[Scott] This is extremely important.
I've done this in every single one of my 12 plus films
over the last 20 years.
The first thing I do in my production office
is I build what's called "The Wall".
I literally take up an entire wall.
Sometime it's 10, 20, 30 feet wide.
And I write different columns of people that I know.
I start with my family.
In magic marker, write a big column of family members.
I write St. Andrew's people,
I went to high school years ago, cousins.
So you have all these different categories of people.
You start writing down their names
and you never ever pre-judge anyone.
[upbeat music]
My name is Rick Pamplin.
I am a screenwriter and a motion picture director.
I was teaching seminars and I met a very interesting man
that was distributing movies direct on video
to places like Blockbuster and United Artists Pay-Per-View
and Showtime and so I was one of the pioneers.
My very first film "Provoked"
was made under that guaranteed distribution
and under that new methodology
of how to make a motion picture.
I just started telling every single person I knew,
every student, every faculty person, I said,
I'm making my first feature film as a director
and I would like you to invest in it.
And one thing led to another and eventually we raised
the entire budget.
So we made the picture for $115,000
and on the figures that I've seen,
the picture made about a 50 to one payback.
This small little independent film with virtually no names,
which was kind of a feminist diehard.
I love making motion pictures,
I love writing,
I love working with talented people,
but I hate the concept of raising money,
asking people for money.
You know, lots of very wealthy people have told me
that you have to get over that fear.
So when I needed to raise larger amounts of money,
I had gotten everybody I knew to invest
so I at times would bring in funders or finders
and pay them a percentage of the money
that they would raise and I've been very successful at that.
And I prefer to work through a producer
or an executive producer who has the skills to raise money.
I think the reason I'm probably successful
in raising money is persistence.
I never ever give up.
And one of the reasons why this producing team
we'd had a lot of trials and tribulations through the years
and a lot of it was totally unfair.
I see this movie as redeeming the partners of this movie.
So I just said, you know,
I'm gonna lock myself into my office.
If it takes two years,
I'm gonna sit there and make over a thousand phone calls,
do a thousand meetings and here we are,
we finally got it funded.
A lot of times when you raise money in a movie,
it gets a little bumpy like this ride
and people think they're going to give you the money.
They sign the contract, and then they aren't able.
You don't decide what order your films are made,
your investors decide in what order
you're going to make your films.
I think there's something really true:
if you get up in the morning
and you think you will just die,
if you can not get out and make your own film
and produce your own film.
If you don't think that every day,
then you might not be a producer.
But if you get up in the morning
and all you're thinking about is how to make a film
and how to get your film out there,
then you're probably a film producer.
I had the great fortune of directing a film
with Ernest Borgnine, Academy Award Winner, living legend,
over 200 motion pictures.
I had group of investors who came to the set,
saw me make the movie,
the movie opened in theaters.
The movie was nominated
on the Ballot for the Directors Guild,
the Academy Awards and people got very excited.
And one of those people was the great artist, Borgnine
who said, kid, you're done making little pictures.
Let's make bigger pictures.
We had all kinds of stars calling us,
knocking on my door at Universal Studios,
wanting to come in and be in my movies.
You know, we really try to communicate with investors.
I try to always be responsive,
but sometimes investors become, you know, abusive.
My son came up with an idea called "Crime Busters",
which was basically little meets the police academy.
So, we designed "Crime Busters" as the most commercial film
I could ever make that would be an instant slam dunk
and we would make the film
and then we would go on to making more artistic films,
more representative of what I wanted make here.
Here I am 10 years later, I've been smeared on the internet.
I've had my life threatened.
I've had people sue me simply because it's taking too long
to raise the production funds.
I had very dark, terrible thoughts, but faith
and a great wife saved my life
and my revenge is making this movie.
I'm not dead.
You haven't destroyed me.
You haven't bankrupted me.
I'm still gonna make "Crime Busters".
I'm still gonna make the other two films
and I'm gonna make this film.
The best people I've ever met at fundraising in my life
are in this motion picture and I'm so thrilled
so I'd rather let them talk about it.
[soft music]
Yeah. I think this is a great business, I mean.
It's full of heartache,
and all those cliche things.
You're gonna get beat up pretty good
but still, it's a wonderful business
because you're...
What are you giving? Joy.
Hopefully a few laughs or hopefully you scare somebody
or whatever the hell you're trying to do
in your picture.
It's a wonderful, wonderful thing.
[Rick] Did you ever try to raise money for films
or did you have to?
No, I never did.
I never liked that idea.
I wouldn't be good at it.
[Rick] What's the secret of getting a project funded?
Is there a secret either in Hollywood or as an independent?
Well, you got a script that is a commercial script.
Commercial in the sense that it's got the things in it
that people wanna go see.
[Rick] What advice would you give to a young director
starting out today?
Find something that's good,
that you believe in,
that you'll fight for.
Don't let them tell you how to make your movie,
you make your movie.
[Rick] Where does Hollywood get their money?
[Louise] Hollywood gets their money from banks.
[Rick] What's your take when people say
that Jews run Hollywood?
Does it offend you? Does it not offend you?
It offends me because if anything goes wrong,
it's like, let's blame the Jews,
which since I've grown up before, it was the original cry.
When anything was going wrong, it's let's blame the Jews.
But I don't think it's...
I think at one time it was true.
I don't think it's so true anymore.
If you look at who all the executives are.
[Rick] Conversely then, is it easier
for a Jewish filmmaker to make a film than--
No. No. It's a money driven thing.
[Rick] Is it easier for a liberal to make a film
than a non liberal?
No, that's another thing.
You know, oh yeah nobody likes my idea
because those people are liberal.
Now we're talking about Hollywood,
and we're talking about
see, independent's a whole 'nother place.
[Rick] Is it easier as a white male to get a film made?
Probably, yeah.
[Rickie] Harder as a female?
Yeah.
[Rick] Harder as a minority?
Yes, definitely.
[Rick] But I think that's changing.
Yeah. No, I know it is.
And again, it really changes more from people
starting with independent films
because they just need to,
they can start with small films.
They can just find people who believe in their film,
put it together and make a film
and once they're successful,
when you're telling about studios,
then again, they're right,
they don't care who you are
as long as they're gonna make money.
Yeah. I think I know what's commercial
and you may hate that word,
but you have to have a little bit of that sprinkled
around in the screenplay.
[Rick] What do you think of the movies today?
Not much.
[Rick] Why?
Well, I see them trying to be commercial,
trying to, what do we do to make this picture make money?
Well, let's see.
We can have some bare boobs.
We can have...a rape scene
or we could have
a comedian say wisecracks for the whole movie.
My name is Russell Cardinal.
I am a location manager.
Well, I think Los Angeles,
everybody wants to get something for nothing.
You know, when I first went out there,
I went to a lot of potential opportunities out there
and they all expect you to work for free when you're young
or you don't have a, you know, really strong IMDB.
Well, Los Angeles is an expensive place to live.
Very difficult to get around.
Everybody's always late,
very difficult to stay professional out there.
There is a lot of greed and a lot of cutthroat
and stealing of ideas I believe
but there's also the greatest people in the world.
The most talented people behind the scenes
and it's a really great place.
I want them to understand that when you go to New York,
whether it's for a year or two years.
Two years, better than one.
And then you go to LA, you're a New York actor.
[Rick] And is it because of the stage work
that they would maybe do off Broadway do stage?
They'll do off Broadway and they'll do...
Also, there's a network with New York actors.
That's very important.
If they don't have any other place,
certainly not in Hollywood.
In Hollywood they're out to, you know, find out
where the next party is or what whatever's going on
but then it's not about the work.
Whereas in New York, it's about the work.
But you still believe they need to go to New York?
I do.
And then from New York to Hollywood?
Yes, the last time I was on Broadway, I was in a play.
It was a good little play.
There were five of us and we were all newcomers.
And I remember Richard Watts said,
"we hope these young people
"don't go to Hollywood."
I left the next day for Hollywood.
[laughing]
[Rick] What is wrong with you?
What possesses you to do this?
You have to do it.
If you wanna be a legitimate film producer,
or if you're a writer and you want,
if you're frustrated with some big studio
picking up your script,
if you're a director and you want to direct something,
sooner or later if you or your team of people with you,
don't talk to every single person you run into
or if you don't ask for money,
you're not gonna have any money.
And whether you're a writer, whether you're a director,
whether you're a producer, any end of the business,
if you want your project to get out there,
it's very unlikely that some studio,
oh, we love that script out of the hundreds and hundreds
of scripts we're getting in Hollywood,
we'll just pick yours.
Or if you're a director and you're trying to break through,
the quickest, easiest way to make it,
especially in the independent world, is just talk to people
and get your own money.
I mean, the equipment's a lot smaller,
it's a lot cheaper.
There's all these new platforms.
It's never been easier to distribute,
but it all starts with the money.
If you don't have the money,
there is no movie so it's that simple.
[soft music]
[audience applauding]
So I wanna ask you guys a couple of questions.
How many people here wanna make motion pictures,
make movies?
Okay. How many people wanna write movies, be screenwriters?
Raise your hand.
Screenwriters.
How many people wanna be directors, direct a movie?
How many of you wanna act, be actors?
Okay. Let's talk to you guys about things
that you're interested in.
Hi, I'm Alex Hassig.
Do you think it's important to go to school for acting
or do you think it's easier just to go to school
for something else and then find opportunities
around cities and such?
Great question.
I think when you leave here, wherever you go, undergraduate,
if you wanna study theater acting, I think that's great.
I didn't.
I was actually an economics major.
I fell into my passion for acting later,
but I think whatever you do,
you also need to take some business classes
to take some marketing classes,
to be very, very well-rounded.
I became the busiest, most working actor
in the entire state of Florida.
And I'm not a great actor,
but I knew how to market myself and I knew how to network.
So I think all that stuff is really, really important.
What's your name?
Brendan Asaf.
I was wondering, for a junior director,
what you think might be the best place to start,
for example, would it be a good idea to try directing
in theater before directing and film or television
or are these mediums entirely different
from one another?
Theater and motion pictures
are two different mediums completely.
Number one, you've gotta have a sample of your work,
a student film.
Number two, it helps if you're a writer,
if you have a spec script
and number three, I think assistant directing
is a great way to learn, to get in,
to really learn your craft.
Grace Sodie.
Okay.
So as an aspiring screenwriter,
there's always this fear that you're just rewriting
as you reference the same one story
that's been done over and over again.
How do you overcome that?
I'll tell you one way to avoid it.
I've had people come to me with stories that are essentially
"The Blair Witch in a Submarine",
"The Blair Witch on Mars"
and I keep trying to tell them "The Blair Witch"
has already been made.
You don't wanna remake somebody else's film.
You can learn the format and the technique
in about an hour but you've got to open up your heart.
There's a great quote by an old sports writer
named Red Barber.
He said, writing is easy.
You just take a razor blade and cut open a vein
and bleed on the page.
And having faith is not having any fear.
And you need to be bold as a filmmaker,
you need to say things that other people aren't saying.
If you wanna make a film, almost always
there's some good that somebody wants to do.
Don't get corrupted by the money.
Don't get corrupted by Hollywood or the fake propaganda.
Make that film.
[soft music]
Angela Lodato.
I teach film studies and broadcasting
at Saint Andrew's School.
In film studies what I love to do is analyze film
in ways that students don't think to
in terms of screenwriting,
in terms of music cues,
in terms of what actually puts a film together
in ways that can make
an audience empathize with characters.
Not in terms of what's entertainment,
but in terms of what can actually reach an audience,
what can actually touch an audience?
[Rick] What kind of films to the students talk about
wanting to make?
We watch a lot of dialogue films
and we watch a lot of older films with a slower pace.
Prior to coming in,
all they can think about is action and something
that is pure entertainment.
After taking some of the courses that I teach and learning
how you can touch an audience through deep emotion,
they start talking about how to find their own inner voice
and start expressing it in that fashion
rather than just flesh.
Some of them really are appreciating independent films.
And what they like about them
is that they're more accessible.
Particularly if you look at all the female objectification
that has gone on since the beginning of print media
and now of course we're seeing so much of it now
with male objectification.
A lot of them are starting to rebel against it,
which I'm happy to see.
So they're starting to think more about independent films
and by which they can create films
that are using more real people, if you will,
and just reflecting more of human nature
the way it really is.
I'm Ty Hammer.
Does all of your advice and more extreme ideas
also apply to television and all of its respective jobs?
You wanna work in television?
Maybe.
Aim high.
I went to prep school.
I went to this school called Cranbrook.
They always pounded in our heads, aim high aim, high.
Shoot for movies and if you fail,
you can always work in television.
All right.
-Never start in television. -[Louise laughing]
If you start in television,
you're gonna end up I don't know,
selling oranges in the freeway or something.
My name is Nikita.
You mentioned few times writing business plans
for motion pictures and it's an interesting path for me
that I would like to consider.
Is there any advice that you could give me,
what majors to take along with finance or business
that would help me start up?
Finance and business is good.
I worked in other businesses for 20 years
before I got into film and I've been doing this for 30.
So I like to say that I graduated from college
when I was six in case everybody can add.
Yes. Ma'am, what's your name?
I'm Avery Stark.
How do you come up with the ideas for films, characters,
and ideas for issues inside the movie
to make it long enough?
I was hiking up the Hollywood Hills,
with one of my business partners,
a place called Runyon Canyon.
This was, God, probably 10 or 12 years ago.
And we came back down the hill,
in the parking lot there was this brand new Tesla Roadster
and a bunch of us had seen this documentary
a couple of years prior called
"Who Killed the Electric Car?"
which is a really provocative, interesting edgy film.
So we're sitting there, within 10 minutes this guy,
the owner showed up,
he had 30 people crowded around his car asking questions.
"You mean it runs on no gas?"
"How do you plug it in?"
"How far does it go?"
So we got back in our fossil fuel car
and we looked at each other and said,
someone's gotta make a movie about these new cars
that we thought at that point were coming out.
We took a big gamble with our investors
but we had a pretty good inkling that in the next two years,
the market was going to be flooded with electric cars
and thank God every single car company
now has different plugin models.
So that's how that whole documentary came about.
It's just a story that had to be told.
Hi, I'm Jenny Hemmer.
Personally, I want to get into like costuming
and makeup stuff for film and theater.
And do you have any advice on getting my work out there
as a costumer?
Yes. Work on everybody's student films, build your reel,
learn your craft and you'll be very in demand
and I expect to hire you in a couple years.
-Alright. -Thank you.
-My name is Tim Lerr. -Yes, sir.
So in a short summary,
what would you advise on how to make
your potential investor care about your project?
You put together a business plan that shows him
what a wonderful project it is.
Like what would you put in your business plan?
The most important things that are gonna make him care
are gonna be the story, the audience,
and then all those numbers I was talking about
that are at the end.
You have other things you have to put in there
that are just business things.
But basically the story has...
He has to care, or she has to care, about the story.
If they don't care about the story,
then they're not gonna care about the money.
After that then they worry about the money.
You've gotta start with a story
that you're passionate about like Rick said.
And then after that, I really think it's a numbers game.
So getting back to what is the electric car,
I called up hundreds and hundreds of people.
A lot of people said no.
And then I made a phone call to an old fraternity brother.
I went to Rollins College and he said,
wow, you're making a documentary about electric cars?
Next thing you know, he came on board
as the executive producer.
So sometimes it's about just reaching enough people,
it's gonna spark with one person
who puts up most of the money.
[soft music]
I've been teaching here for 26 years
and what I find fascinating is that something happens
to a student when they have a camera in their hand.
They find that they're able to speak in a way
that they never did before.
I had a student once, I'm going back maybe 12 years ago.
Great guy, but he was just always sort of on the wrong side
of the administration, if you will,
in terms of discipline issues.
And we used to talk after school,
and I remember one time I asked him,
can you describe yourself to me?
He couldn't do it.
But I gave him a camera and I said,
could you do it with a camera?
The next day he came back to me with an image
that I still remember.
It was his shadow on the ground.
And he put as half smoke cigarette on it.
He just threw it down.
He stepped on it and he walked away.
Go put that into words.
Do you, tell your students that they can incorporate
-their faith into film? -Yes.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Nothing is off limits if it's deep in your soul
and you want to express it, even just for yourself,
as a catharsis, go right ahead and do it.
Nothing's off limits.
It seems like this would be a really tough time
to be a kid, to be growing up.
And this is kind of a loaded question,
but are the kids all right?
They're facing challenges and situations
that I never experienced in my life.
In terms of whether they're all right,
it's hard to say.
If you take, for example, just even coming to school
and feeling safe in terms of the violence in schools,
the school shootings.
When they talk to me I always just try to be quiet
and still and listen.
And they're expressing anxieties that I never experienced.
So when I hear their choices of music, books, entertainment,
I understand why they're gravitating towards
the harder edgier things.
I think it's expressing what they're feeling inside.
Are they okay?
I think they can be, they just need guidance.
They just need to learn how
and it's finding that still inner voice,
that deep character within them,
whether it be faith in themselves,
faith in a higher power, whatever it is,
they just need guidance.
Hi, I'm Samantha.
And I was just wondering if there were any times
when you felt like giving up and like how you overcame that?
Yes. I've been very depressed at times.
I've lived in my car.
I've been broke.
I've had people slander me on the internet
because when I cast a movie and I audition
a hundred actors and 99, don't get it,
they like to write bad things about me.
I have anonymous people that are jealous of me,
it's very hurtful but I have bigger fish to fry.
I have bigger stories to tell.
And I think that if you look at what happened to Jesus
or what happened to the Gandhi
or what happens to anybody who advocates something
in our society, in our world,
sometimes, you know, they're vilified.
And I just think you have to be strong.
I go through a lot of periods
where just no one wants to do it
and you just really learn to get through it.
A lot of people have mentioned going to Hollywood.
You do not have to go to Hollywood.
There's films being made all over this country
besides other parts of the world
and you can be an actor, you can be a director,
you can be a producer,
you can be in the business I'm in, whatever,
without ever going to Hollywood.
Hi, my name is Colin Vinny
and I am an actor at Saint Andrew's
and I was just wondering where I could go or what I could do
to start transitioning from the high school stage
into more films and more professional things.
I heard that Tom Cruise, when he first started out,
worked on 50 student and short films.
So when I first started I wanted to transition away
from commercials.
Up in Orlando, where I was living
there was eight full-time film schools,
including Full Sail, UCF, Valencia.
I did over 50 student films.
Mostly on the weekends.
So I really wasn't giving up a lot of income
and that's really how I polished my craft.
I had a reel and I got the respect and I was networking
and then from there, that's kind of spring-boarded
my whole film career out of those short films.
Yes, sir, what's your name?
Tristan Moss.
What's your favorite film?
That's too hard to decide.
"Napoleon Dynamite", isn't it?
[audience applauding]
I like that film.
So my question is, I was just wondering like,
if you have a short film what would be the very first thing
that you would do to make your work more well known?
If you can, if it's not too far go to a film festival.
I've gone to Sundance for 30 years
and I keep telling people
now that's a more expensive track to take,
but I learned so much early on.
I was already trying to do what I did,
but nobody knew who I was.
I didn't have a book out and I started going to Sundance
and talking to people.
That's the biggest thing,
is send your film into film festivals
and get the experience of knowing how to do it.
-Ok, thank you. -[Rick] All right.
Thanks so much.
There's somebody else. Yes, sir?
And your name is?
Hi, I'm Will Hagan.
Hi, Will.
I just really wanna know what is yourfavorite movie?
-My favorite movie? -And why?
Well, when I'm really depressed "Citizen Kane",
and when I'm depressed and don't wanna be depressed,
"It's a Wonderful Life".
Those are probably my two favorites.
In the old days there were great role models,
men and women of character
and today it seems more exploitative
and it seems harder to find role models.
Do you see a yearning at all for the kids for that?
Interestingly enough, I do see it when I show them
some of the older films.
They identify with the older films
in a way in which I never thought they would.
And when we have the class discussions,
I hear them identify with the role models,
to which you're referring.
So, yeah, I do.
They may be absent in the present films,
but they now know where to find them
in some of the older films.
Are you hopeful enough and optimistic
that this new generation will create movies
that will provide moral leadership, role models?
I think I'm optimistic in the sense that there is starting to,
I think, be a backlash of all the violence
that they're seeing.
I mean, look today on campus,
we just had a demonstration against the gun violence
that just took place and the school shooting
that happened a little while ago
only 30 minutes away from here.
I think what the kids need to do is not just deal
with the externals networking so on and so forth.
That's wonderful.
I think they need to learn how to develop an inner strength.
They need to learn how to identify with who they are
and that's something that's truly missing in our society
and I think that needs to go hand in hand with the external.
While we're rolling I just wanna say that,
this is an extraordinary experience today.
This school, you really, really went to bat for us.
This might've been the most important interview
we've done in the movie.
I love you, I salute you,
you are a courageous person.
You're a leader.
You're a person of faith and you gave us
a great blessing today.
I wanna thank you.
-[crew applauding] -Thank you.
You're awesome.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
It's a difficult time to be growing up.
It is, you know it is.
You can see what's going on around you in this community.
You can change a lot of that.
You can do things better.
Do not squander the opportunity you have here.
Soak in every bit of knowledge you can get
from this institution, from your faculty,
from your classmates and realize the power that you have.
Every one of you is significant.
Every one of you is here for some purpose,
a purpose greater than what you may think.
As a kid I went out to Hollywood
and I let Hollywood convince me otherwise
and I learned to play their games.
You don't have to do that.
Make a better world.
God bless you, thank you for coming.
[audience applauding]
[upbeat music]
My name is Nichole Weaver Hanson,
and my occupation is Entertainment Attorney.
First of all, it's a good idea to hire
an entertainment attorney because entertainment attorneys
know the ins and outs of the financial aspects
that are involved with investors.
You have SEC complications to look into,
you have various states with different regulations
to look into.
So it's important to note, to have somebody
who knows the ins and outs and the possible pitfalls
that you can fall into as an investor and as a producer.
Best advice I could give a producer
from an entertainment attorney standpoint
would be to make sure that they have
their contracts written correctly for their investors
to make sure that they have all the state regulations
and the federal regulations taken care of
because there's not just the civil aspect
of somebody's money being taken.
In other words, that you could sue me if I was a producer,
it's also that there are federal issues involved
and you can also have federal charges and state charges
brought against you
if you don't handle film investors money correctly.
My name is Richard Troutman and I go by Rick.
I'm an attorney here in Winter Park, Florida.
And I think so long as the person raising the money
finds people who can understand that language,
that they're probably gonna lose all their money,
they are aware of the high risk
and they signed that document knowing what they're signing,
I can't imagine how the producers of the movie
or the people that raised the money for the movie,
could have any legal liability.
I don't think people that are giving money to a film
really think of it as a business.
I don't think a business plan is that helpful
because I think they realize that it's it's high risk
hopefully with the chance that if it hits,
if it gets popular and people watch it,
then they're gonna make, you know, a lot of money
and they probably shouldn't put more money in it
than they could easily lose and not lose any sleep over it.
My name is Kevin Dinneen
and after graduating from the Wharton School
I spent the majority of my career
as a real estate investor and attorney.
I think a business plan is very important
but I do think it's much more difficult
in the movie business than in others
because I don't think anybody candidly knows
what's gonna catch on and what your gross is gonna be.
You know, I think it's the same as in any investment,
a previous track record and a person who really
has a little consciousness of budget
to keep the costs out of control,
because even a great movie,
if the budget's three times what it's supposed to be,
isn't gonna do much return for the investor.
I think you better have a little fun in it too.
And I think you better sort of believe in the project
and that even if the movie doesn't make a fortunate,
at least you're proud that you were part of it.
[soft, exciting music]
[Rick] Let's talk about Salma Hayek.
How did that come about in "The Prophet"?
Kahlil Gibran was considered one of the most popular poets,
in a sense, behind Shakespeare.
He lived in the Middle East
and then he moved here and taught
and he wrote this book, "The Prophet",
which were essays on life.
And they took this book and decided to make it
into an animated film and had a different animator
animate each chapter in the book
the way they saw that chapter.
It's a terrific film.
It was a fascinating way to do it.
I wrote the business plan and it was a gentleman
who'd been in my UCLA extension class,
who was the executive producer on the film, Will Nex,
who then called me and hired me to do the business plan.
[Rick] And how did Salma Hayek become involved?
She became another executive producer.
She was a fan of Kahlil Gibran's writings
and she helped raise the money for the movie.
You can not even begin to imagine how difficult it was
to try to...
It's a film that breaks all the rules.
[Salma] Yes, there were many times where I said,
what, am I crazy?
What was I thinking?
But whatever happens with the film, every headache,
it's been worth it because I am very proud of the film
and for the people who have seen it.
There's been people who tell me
it is the most inspiring film I've ever seen in my life.
Maybe not for everyone.
Not everybody wants to seek for the best silent side of them
and not everybody wants to remember to be a child.
Not everybody wants to have a moment with themselves
as they have a good time but for the people who do,
there's nothing out there like it.
And this is for them.
[Upbeat, vocal music]
You're gonna be all right.
[Man] My crime, poetry.
As a Lebanese woman, as a Mexican woman.
What's misunderstood in general
is that we have to look at
individuals as individuals.
We have to create art pieces
that make people remind themselves of how precious
we all are and give them the courage to explore
their uniqueness so we can find new ways of thinking,
so we can change the world.
I hope the film makes people curious about their perception
about the Middle Eastern people.
Yeah. And particularly when it comes from you,
because everybody knows you.
You're well known around the world.
And so when you come, and I loved it in Cannes,
you stood up and you said,
I'm also an Arabic Lebanese actress,
not only Mexican.
It's true.
That means a lot to people to understand
that even sometimes...
I'm proud.
Proud of me.
[upbeat music]
Greg Hopner, I'm the founder and CEO
of the G-Star School of the Arts and G-Star studios.
[Rick] Let's go back to when you were a producer,
did you ever invest in a motion picture?
Yeah, that's how I got into the business.
I was actually working with Burt Reynolds
up at the Burt Reynolds Theater
and I was around a lot of movie stars and I was doing hair.
I was a hairdresser back then
and a bunch of people in the movie industry
were there obviously all the time.
And they came up to me one day and said,
do you wanna be a producer on a movie?
And I said "yeah, great, what do I do?"
And they said, "well, the producer comes up
with all the money."
I said, "oh really?"
"So you want me to put up money?"
"Yeah, sure." So I did.
And I found out later that wasn't true.
My name is Alistair Hunt.
I have almost 10 years of film
and television production experience
from on-set production assistant
and a assisting with two or three production companies
in all aspects of production.
I am trying to be a independent filmmaker
and I can tell you that as I have tried to raise funds
for my projects and colleagues' projects,
it has been by far the biggest challenge and undertaking
I've ever considered.
[Rick] And why is that?
Rejection [laughs nervously].
[Rick] Do you ever regret pursuing
the motion picture business as a vocation?
I absolutely don't regret pursuing
the motion picture industry, the ups and downs,
the good times, the bad times have been fabulous.
[upbeat music]
I'm Jon Zietz, I'm a producer director
and president of Think Visual Group.
Almost every project I did in middle school and high school
was a film, some kind of short.
So I loved it.
I knew that's what I wanted to do with my life,
but, at the same time it needed to be practical
and I went to the University of Florida
where I majored in finance.
I took every film, media studies,
every film course they had,
my parents always encouraged me to follow my dreams
but also have something to fall back on.
And so, while I was going to school,
while I was getting that degree,
I would come home on the weekends, summer breaks
and work on first a short film
and eventually a feature length film.
We created a feature length independent film
on a $3,000 budget.
I wrote, produced and directed the movie with a friend
and fellow filmmaker and that experience ended up
being the film school that we both never had.
I like to call it a psychological drama.
A kid who's in college finds out that his twin brother
who he always thought was dead and had died
when he was younger, he's actually still alive.
There's a lot of twists and turns in there,
but essentially that's what it is.
A feature length psychological drama, very independent.
[Rick] And what happened
to this $3,000 feature film?
So we had a big premiere for the film locally
at Cinema Paradiso.
It was part of a couple of small film festivals.
And eventually we actually secured a distribution deal.
Went through the entire process of packaging it
and getting it ready for distribution
only to have about a year later the distribution company
actually go out of business.
My name is Sadie Cabrera.
I'm a co-founder of Think Visual Group and I serve as DP.
Well, I can trace it back to high school.
I was in a school where they had a magnet program
and they had the largest broadcasting studio,
back in 1996.
And so my, my background,
you could say that it was broadcasting.
And immediately after that one of my teachers hooked me up
with a company that was...
They would shoot events, social events.
I started with that and built basically a business
or a little bit over 10 years, like 13 years.
And it was something that, it taught me a lot.
Eddie and I first met each other in 2001
and actually the funny thing about it
is the night that we met,
we made an award-winning short film.
And so we worked together on a number of other projects
through the years but we didn't fully join forces
until after 2007.
And ultimately what prompted that was a trip
that we took to the Grand Canyon.
What? Wow. if we fall, we die.
And we just decided that let's take this trip
and let's try to formulate something
and come up with the start of what it's gonna take for us
to fulfill our dreams.
[upbeat music]
We, at the time, had very troublesome relationships
and I think it was almost like a spiritual thing
that we wanted to go all the way down
and I guess bury those relationships--
[both] Leave them at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
December 29th, '07,
we're inside the Grand Canyon, it's very cold.
We still have like four and a half miles to go.
I gotta go back to try to sleep.
Peace.
[upbeat music]
Well, we have that energy, nature,
-getting spirit accomplished. -Spiritual adventure.
-It's very spiritual. -Spiritual.
Very much a rejuvenating trip.
Exactly what it needs to end the year right.
[Eddie] End the year, right.
Look at this scenery.
Once we were there, we realized it was like,
look, we both wanna get to the entertainment industry.
We wanna make films.
We had a realization there.
We said, we're gonna leave our past lives behind
and we are going to concentrate full force
on how we're going to make it
into the entertainment industry,
how we're going to realize our dreams.
But we also realized we're not going to do it quickly.
We'd already learned when you try to do something too quick,
that's typically when you fail.
We both agreed that it would take us at least a decade
to transition our company from corporate to entertainment.
In fact, it has been,
-10 years now. -10 years, yeah.
Almost exactly 10 years right now
and we're finally producing this feature
which is 15 years after we produced that last one.
Right.
My name is Kujaatele Kweli.
Most of the people in the industry called me Kooge.
I'm an empowerment educator.
I'm a producer, I'm a director and I'm a writer.
Filmmaking is both an art, a science,
and it's also a business.
And if you're not prepared to excel in all three areas,
this isn't the business for you.
What are they interested in?
There are people that are interested in
not eating animals, [chuckles]
not killing animals and wearing them for clothes.
There are people that are interested
in this whole immigration struggle that's taking place.
There are a lot of people interested in
various political issues.
So what you want to do is put together
a community of interests.
Number one, I teach that you have to have
a compelling story.
Content is king.
So if you don't have that, it doesn't make any difference
what you're pitching.
It's got to be good.
Then you've got to be able to tell that story well
or you can have a compelling topic,
but you don't know how to tell it well.
And telling it well means telling it visually.
I had hair salons and I got divorced and it was a mess
and I had to sell them all off in one thing or another
and pennies on the dollar
and I wound up being absolutely broke.
All I owned, and at that point I had a,
I don't know if anybody remembers a Geo,
but it was a little car.
It was this big.
Everything I owned fit in the Geo,
including my clothes, a computer
and I had a two drawer file cabinet in it also.
You know, I was just broke and I was cutting hair
and I thought, well, this is the end of my life.
I, you know, I'm not making any money, hardly gotten here,
I don't have any skills.
What do I do?
And I, in the middle of the night,
I woke up and I thought about my son whom I love dearly
and he's here now with me,
but he was six years old at the time
and I wanna do something for him.
And he loves when we were doing movies,
he was always on set and he loved running around
and doing all that kind of stuff.
So I said, I'll start a small little video program
for him at least make him happy and I'll call it G-Star
'cause his name is Gregory.
So it would be Gregory and then the star
that would stand for students in the arts.
I went and started a summer camp
for middle school students and we turned out
a little half-hour video cassette format show,
we finished it and darn if PBS didn't pick it up.
And that show lasted four years on PBS.
[Rick] What advice would you give young filmmakers,
just getting started looking to raise funds for movies?
I was taught to, don't ask for money.
If you ask for money you'll get advice,
you ask for advice, you'll get some money.
[upbeat music]
Somebody came up to me and said,
you should start a school, a charter school literally.
And I said, what do I want to school for?
And what's a charter school.
So anyway, I went down to the school district
to sign up for this thing
and they wound up giving me a school.
And I walked out the door and I had a piece of paper
and I went, oh, I think I really made a mistake here.
And six months later, we opened.
We opened with 156 kids.
So I knew I was in profit.
So each year we added more kids and more kids
and now we have over a thousand here
and we built our soundstage.
We started doing other things and it just grew
into a full regular motion picture studio.
We wanna change certain things that we see
that are wrong or not being done right
and put them in the most beautiful form of art
that I believe the world has ever seen, which is filmmaking.
You get to play with all the spectrum of things that,
you know, from sound, lighting, camera work,
through all of the different arts that have existed
and we get to play with them.
So it it's phenomenal.
I think there is no end because ultimately I'm hoping that
the films I make will live on forever
and that is ultimately my legacy.
I believe that the power is there in filmmaking
and in film to do that.
You can change the world with what we do.
[upbeat music]
[upbeat music continues]
My name is Kim Karel Zink
and I'm a Senior Account Manager here at Production Hub.
Production Hub is an online directory at its core.
We're a global network of local crew and vendors.
Production Hub is a resource for kind of both sides
of the supply and demand chain.
We work with people that are looking for crew,
vendors, freelancers facilities for any of their production,
post production live event needs
and then we work with the people
that provide those services.
My tips for people that are trying to finance and get money
for their own film is to ask.
If you don't ask you, don't get.
I think a lot of people passively ask these days.
I think there are great tools for that with social media
and Kickstarter and it's wonderful,
but focus in on specific people and ask them.
It's just like sales.
You're trying to sell your product.
You're trying to sell yourself
and have people believe in you and invest in you
and your film and your project.
So ask them directly.
If they say, no, that's only going to help you move on
to the next person.
So just ask them, just come right out up, you know,
everyone, call them.
Pick up a phone and call them.
If they say no, they say no,
but it's gonna be very hard for someone to say, no,
if they've been asked directly.
People will have no problem ignoring, you know,
a social post or an email
but if you pick up the phone and call someone,
I bet you'll get a yes, I bet you get something.
My name is Jenelle Jordan.
I'm a Production Manager at Production Hub.
We work with folks that call in or, you know,
fill out our web form and find out their needs,
their budgets and then help in any part of the process.
You know, whether it's just finding the cameraman
and handing off the information or, you know,
helping out with call sheets or scheduling,
visits to studios, site visits, event logistics,
anything like that.
For filmmakers trying to raise money
my first go-to, you know, resource
is always your local government.
So whether it's a film office or film commissioner
or your local representatives, you know,
see if there is any incentives locally.
If not, you know, start researching grants.
You'd be surprised by the amount of,
even small couple thousand dollars grants.
But that adds up quickly,
every little bit helps.
And then, you have great things like GoFundMe,
philanthropic, different opportunities
for documentaries and stuff like that.
So there are a lot of different resources.
Use your local resources and network
and build relationships with people.
Don't try and do everything online.
Even though we are, a very internet focused world,
meet people face to face, go to trade shows.
You never know who you're gonna meet,
what you're gonna win.
I've met so many people that win cameras and equipment
at trade shows because they go in
and they put their name in and they come back
and there's a drawing and there you go.
And support those local organizations.
They need your support too.
You don't know how you can help them
later on down the road.
There might be people that are looking to do the same thing
that you're trying to do and meeting up with them,
collaborating, joining forces that might
be the secret ingredient to getting you where you want to go
with your project, with your career as a whole.
My name is Ken Hickman.
I have raised millions of dollars for the movies.
After 20 years in California,
I knew a lot of the movie people and a lot of the actors
and a lot of the producers I ran with them.
I would never invest in a movie.
Last thing I would ever do.
I moved to Orlando to expand our insurance company
and I met some fellows from Universal.
They kept after me for about a year to invest in a movie
and I just wouldn't have anything to do with that.
But we became good friends and after about a year,
I went home one night and I told my wife, I said,
these guys are different.
They have a passion I've never seen before
for the movie business.
And I said, I'm gonna take a small plunge.
And I did during a premier.
I was so impressed, again,
with the drive and the passion
and the professionalism.
And they asked me to help them out to raise some money
and I got involved.
We had some successes and 20 years later, still involved.
Well, basically I've raised a lot of money.
Primarily I've raised money from either the federal
or the local government.
I've raised money, for example,
from the Department of Justice,
for anti-drug prevention campaigns,
from their Orlando Tech Health department,
for teenage pregnancy prevention.
I raised money from foundations for a documentary series
on resident ownership of public housing.
Most students and people want to go get money from, is the
actual worst place to get money from.
And that is people in the industry,
people in Hollywood, they don't have money.
They may have contacts but they're not gonna put money
into your project.
Oddly enough, the place to get money
is from people that don't have luxury jobs
in the entertainment business.
Most investors honestly come from your friends
and associates.
Essentially, this is the key to raising money.
First, you establish relationships,
and then you ask people that you have relationships
for money.
See, opportunities are plentiful.
Money is plentiful.
Relationships are rare.
I'm Jeanette Bliss, and I'm a realtor.
I'm Tom bliss and I am also a realtor.
[Rick] How would you characterize
the whole business of fundraising for movies?
I would look at it as more of an opportunity
to invest money and be sure that they understand
the rules of the game.
[Rick] Is different selling a piece of real estate
versus selling someone an interest in a movie?
I don't think so.
Everybody's got a hot button and you need to find it,
whether it's real estate or a investment into a movie.
Different things, turn different people on
and you need to read the people and find that out.
This film industry, as you well know,
is extremely different and could be difficult.
Raising money for a film is not easy.
It's one thing to find the money,
it's another thing to get the check.
They think, movie stars and the industry itself
being wild and unpredictable and some success
and they know big names that are going to be successful
so I think if you had somebody very successful
that would walk in and be in a movie
you'd probably have more response
but yeah, in general, they roll their eyes.
[Rick] Most people think Hollywood or filmmaking
is a big con game and they're like,
"ah, I don't want anything to do with it."
Why is that?
There's a lot of evidence out there that, uh...
they're right,
in a lot of cases.
How many movies, uh,
big movies have been made,
where the investor didn't get one dime back?
I've never brought an investor in, to my knowledge
that I don't say, look,
if you can't afford to lose $10,000 on a card game
in Las Vegas in a night's time, don't invest in a movie.
And there was no sense of trying to sell somebody
a black suit if came in to buy a white suit.
So you've got to really evaluate who you're talking to.
And you're right, the international buyer
is totally different.
Their motives, their goals, the way they communicate,
their aggressiveness, they're totally different
than your domestic investor.
One reason why we've been so successful
is that we have come across honest and we are honest.
That's very important.
Just don't tell the investor what he wants to hear.
Tell him the facts.
And I have found out something over the years,
nothing happens overnight.
If you don't have patience you're probably gonna be
in a lot of trouble and it's never gonna happen.
Some of the greatest movies ever made take 10, 20, 30 years
to get on the big screen.
And you can have, uh,
13 signed contracts for all the money,
13 different times
and all of a sudden there's a real estate crunch.
All of a sudden there's a stock market crash.
All of a sudden, one of your key investors
or two or three of them pass away.
You've just got to stick to it and make sure it happens.
And you can't ever give up.
[soft music]
I'm Chuck Elderd, Film Commissioner,
Palm Beach, County, Florida.
Well, the first thing we do is attract filmmakers
to an area.
So it's an invitation for filmmakers to come and shoot
in that jurisdiction.
We also make it extremely easy for filmmakers to shoot
because we tell them where they can shoot,
most of all, where they can't shoot
because they may fall in love with a location
and all of a sudden they find out
they can't use that location.
And then we are responsible for helping them do two things,
stay on time and stay on budget.
We are part of the production crew
and that's the first thing we look at.
And when we take that responsibility,
it's not just when you come here and shoot,
it's when we talk to you on the telephone and we say,
we have your location or we don't.
We have wonderful shorelines.
We have wonderful other locations.
And we have 2,000 square miles of gorgeous locations.
All of this is the kind of location you wanna shoot in
if it matches your script
because then you have to have the cooperation
and that is what the film commission is here to do.
All of the services that you're looking for
we can help you provide on your budget.
Hi, I'm Christy Andreoni
and I'm the Production Director
with the Palm Beach County Film and Television Commission.
First starting out in the industry,
I had no idea that film commissions existed
and I didn't know that government
got involved in the industry.
But the more I was exposed to it,
the more I saw how beneficial it can be
when you're an independent filmmaker or otherwise
because you have a place to go
in no matter what community you visit
where you can get all expert information on locations,
on what kind of regulations there are,
on what kind of permits might be needed
and what kind of crew is there,
on what kind of catering companies
might be best to work with.
How do you talk to filmmakers
as a state that currently doesn't have incentives?
The message back to filmmakers,
especially young filmmakers is,
sometimes those incentives that you hear about
the motion pictures getting are more difficult
to handle on your budget because the incentives
comes with responsibilities.
They call them deliverables.
So if you're gonna get an incentive,
you wanna know what is the criteria for using that?
And maybe it doesn't fit into your script or your budget.
There is no free money.
The money comes with responsibilities.
The money comes with red tape
that you may not want to be involved in
and only experience will tell you that.
What we have to do in the absence of the incentive
is make everything else better than anything else
they're gonna find.
With Florida, that kind of comes naturally
because there's such a diversity of locations,
sunny year round weather.
What we have to do beyond that is really offer
the best service we possibly can.
So that's having a staff available 24/7
to address their concerns,
that's being actively involved
with location scouting process to make sure
that they come here and film.
And all we can do is make sure that every other aspect
of production here is the most ideal it can possibly be.
When you're filming in these major production hubs
in LA or New York you're not gonna have
some of the barriers here that you have there.
We wouldn't be a film commission without Burt Reynolds.
I'm very fond of Burt and I'm always impressed
with how much he cares about the young people
in our community.
Once a year we have him in the student showcase for films.
He gives a grant to young students here
that meet with him and interview with him
and he's still teaching well into his 80s
as well as still acting.
So we're proud to call Burt Reynolds our favorite son.
[Rick] What advice would you give a filmmaker
looking for funding?
Have a really good story.
There are a lot of projects that may sound
like they're really good to you.
They may even look good on paper
but we are in the entertainment business, and storytelling
is first and foremost.
So know that you can tell that story.
When you start throwing in the locations
and the attachments know that you can get the money to pay
for that story to be told to where it is entertaining.
The rest of it is do your homework, research.
A potential film investor wants to know
you have your ducks in a row.
That you know that your film is gone to shoot from A to Z.
Not only is the permit important,
your investor's gonna wanna know you're gonna have insurance
and you're gonna get permits
and under what circumstances
you're going to do those things.
You cannot take a shortcut in making a film
and think you can do it without permits and insurance.
And that's the bottom line to getting the confidence
of a financier.
My name is P.J Marks and I'm an investor.
I actually have worked on several movies.
One of the ones I worked on was called "Meatballs 4"
and it was a water ski movie
and I was the water ski coordinator.
[Rick] And how did you get that job?
I was actually working at SeaWorld at the time
and I intercepted a phone call and kind of stole it.
And then I've also worked on one that I produced.
It was a wakeboarding instructional DVD
called "The Book DVD".
They owned a Wakeboard Camp at the time and all my students
were asking for a wakeboarding instructional DVD
and there really wasn't a good one at the time
so I got together with a couple of friends of mine
and we put it together and I put up the money
and it did really well.
I think we got about a 38 times return on my investment.
My name is John English
and I'm a retired government worker.
[Rick] Have you ever invested in a motion picture?
Oh yes.
I started out small and when I learned
what I was doing somewhat,
then I started moving on to bigger projects.
I was very reluctant at first.
What type of financial return do you expect
to see on a movie you invest in?
Well, I hope to see my initial investment
or at least two and a half times the investment
then royalty checks every 90 days.
[Rick] Oh, excuse me.
Scott has walking in on the set.
Scott, what's going on?
John, I wanna thank you
for being one of my most loyal investors
over the past 10 years
and instead of mailing the checks, here's a few checks.
So open them up if you want.
Okay, sure will.
Okay. I love it every 90 days when this happens.
There's approximately three checks there.
Well, there's one I'm very happy with.
There's another one I'm very happy with.
So out of the three, I'm really happy.
One's a smaller one but I've expected that over the years
for it to diminish.
I have never actually invested in a movie before.
This is my first chance.
I knew some of the people involved who were great people
and I thought it was an interesting diversification
of investments.
What turns you on about investing in a movie?
The fact that a there can be potentially
a very high return in a short period of time
but I think it's counter cyclical to real estate
and the stock market and other investments.
My name is Carl Blesione.
My occupation is I'm a dentist.
[Rick] Have you ever invested in a motion picture?
Never.
[Rick] What turns you on about investing
in a movie?
Well, first of all, you wanna make money,
that's number one.
Number two, turning you on,
listen, I like getting in front of the camera
so if I could be part of something like that
to exude the passion and the excitement of it,
that turns me on too.
My name is David Mackey and I'm an actor.
The phone call that Scott made to me regarding this film
just came out of the blue
and I listened to his remarks, his pitch,
and after just chatting with him
for a good 10 minutes or so,
I felt very strongly that I needed to be a part of the film.
The way I got involved in this was,
I think you saw a post that I made,
that I was looking for something to invest in
and you sent me some things and I was kind of interested,
but it never really clicked until I talked to you
on the phone because when I started asking you questions
about this, you had all the answers.
There was no stumbling.
There was no I'll get back to you.
There was no BS.
Every time I asked a question,
the answer was right there right away.
I have a natural tendency to like to help my friends
and to help pretty much all people.
I do that in my law practice and in my life.
So when I received the call
that there was just a certain amount of money needed
to break escrow, it was a really easy decision for me
because the film sounded like a great idea.
So between the friendship and the need that was apparent
at that particular time,
it was an easy decision for me.
[Scott] All right. I got one more question for you.
I'll just preface by saying we're gonna be friends
no matter what.
Okay.
So I'm just gonna throw this out there.
We need like three or four more $5,000 shares
for our marketing budget.
Would you like to put in another one or two shares?
I'll put in one more share.
We get that on camera?
[Mark laughs]
Casey Tennyson, I'm a writer, I'm an author,
I'm a book publisher and I own an ad agency.
Invest in something you're going to have fun with
and something that you like,
in a topic that you're interested in
because then you become a better investor
because then you're gonna be excited about it,
you're gonna help promote it
and really word of mouth and networking
is all part of a marketing mix.
Was one of the reasons that you invested in this film
that you could promote your own writing and your own books?
Yes, of course.
So, my books, my novels, again,
were always written with the intent
of making them into films
and so this film just ties in perfectly
with what I'm already doing in the world
and I can't wait to write an article about it.
Thanks for including me.
I'm excited to be a part of it.
[Rick] What the hell are you doing here?
Man, I am excited, Barb we're investing in a movie.
It's exciting.
[Rick] Is this the first movie
you've ever invested in?
Yes, absolutely.
[Rick] Why did you invest in thismovie?
We were approached by a friend
who we have a lot of faith in,
I was intrigued by the magic of movie making
and wanted to see the set and what it was all about.
For me as a business person and a practical person
it was a win-win.
Here's an opportunity to help move another friend
along in his career and have a potential to capitalize on
their experiences and also to help promote
what we care about.
It's helping other people with their health
and eventually a lifestyle of a retirement residual income.
[upbeat music]
Oh, it's so great to be here.
My name is Bob Bell and this is my beautiful wife--
[Barbara] Barbara Bell.
And you know the feeling you have just before Christmas,
just that excitement and anticipation of, you know,
there's something really special right behind the door.
That's the way Barbara and I feel about
what we're sharing here today.
I was introduced to Valentus by a friend
that I knew 30 years ago.
They told me about a product.
Jenny Craig meets Starbucks, oh my gosh,
a weight loss coffee, my energy level's great
and so we just had to share it.
And by sharing it, we're helping other people.
The latest part we came out with was the hot chocolate,
which is really exciting
because who doesn't wanna lose weight
while drinking hot chocolate?
We have these beverages that you just add to powder to it
all natural, no GMOs and it helps your body function better.
So if you wanna learn more about this, go to our website,
www.youseeresults.com.
Barbara and I look forward to meeting you
and helping you meet all your health and wellness needs.
Thank you so much.
[applause]
Well, to be honest, being the biggest investor
is a little nerve wracking.
I mean, this is my first big project
and I'm really rolling the dice,
but now that I'm here and I'm meeting everybody
and I'm seeing what's going on every day,
I'm starting to feel more comfortable with it.
Well, one thing I realized about this project
is the enormous amount of pre-production.
I think that's something that's really overlooked.
The planning that goes into it is probably more important
than the actual production itself
because that's not gonna happen
if everything's not laid out right.
And I was really blown away by the amount of work
that everyone's put into it beforehand.
There's a track record, there's a history.
and all of these things make you feel more comfortable
as an investor.
[Rick] Valentas, we took money to put them
in the movie and to promote their product, you know,
and I loved them, they're great.
But do you think we in any way hurt
the integrity of this film by taking money from them
even though we'll disclose it in the credits?
I think any other movie, yes it could be compromising.
I think in this particular movie,
'cause the whole movie is about film financing.
The whole point of this movie is to show and empower people
how they can raise money for their movie.
Well, Bob Bell, I've known for 35, 40 years.
One of my best friends.
I called him up, there's no secret that every single person
that we talked to, if they had any interest,
they could possibly be in the movie.
And we got a lot of the investors in the movie.
So in Bob's case, we knew he had this great product
that he's passionate about.
I said, Bob, if you put in a little extra money,
we can actually put your product,
not only mention that you're a Valentus representative,
but we can actually put your products, show your products
in the movie.
[Rick] I just think it will be criticized
by some people that we lost the integrity of the movie
by doing it.
And you know, as a filmmaker, you'll always want purity.
I always want integrity.
They're wonderful people.
I know nothing about the product,
but it's just odd that we did it.
But I do think it's an interesting example
and you should have got a hell of a lot more money
than we got from him.
He got a hell of a deal. [laughs]
[upbeat piano music]
[audience applauding]
My name is Donovan Parker.
Welcome.
Thank you.
I wrote a script based on Christopher Dudus Coke.
It's an interesting story.
Everyone love it.
I want to know about the financing of that project.
I love writing and I want a connection to make it happen.
My suggestion is when they're trying to raise money
and they need to put together a business plan,
they first perhaps find a producer to work with.
If you're lucky, also a director to work with.
I think it's really all about networking.
You never know if you learn that skill
of just meeting people and talking people,
you never know who you could meet,
that can take your screenplay, get excited about it,
and help you finance it or help you take it to a studio.
Palmer Edward, and I'm a screenwriter.
I've written a script.
I'm an award winning screenwriter.
I've won awards and you know, just film festivals
and things like that. It's small stuff,
but I'm trying to write
between one and $5 million low budget.
Any advice in what I could do to keep it that angle
and make sure I don't go past.
I'm gonna say if you've written eight screenplays,
you haven't sold one,
you're doing something wrong.
So what you need to do is go back and figure out
what's the flaw in the material.
When I taught screenwriting,
I used to teach an introductory class and a workshop class.
We sold about 65 movie scripts out of my classes
in the years that I taught, which was unbelievable.
Some of those movies got made like "Closet Land".
The Steven Seagal movie, "Hard to Kill" got made.
What happened in my classes was the first 10 ideas
that every screenwriter had never sold.
So I used to tell them you have to come up
with a hundred ideas.
So I made all of my writers come up
with a hundred movie ideas.
Almost every one of the 65 or so scripts that sold
was above number 75.
It was the last 25 that you finally figure out
what you wanna say.
You wanna figure out what your story is.
And what I think you need to do is come up
with a hundred great ideas.
When I used to go to the studios to pitch ideas,
and I went to most of the major studios,
the studio executives would say to me,
"tell me a story I've never heard."
-[Louise] Yeah. -[Rick] "Dazzle me."
And one studio executive said to me one time,
I hear dozens of pitches every day.
And he said, when I go to bed at night
and I put my head on the pillow,
it's the idea that I think of I call the next day and I buy.
You've got to create an idea that's so unique,
so original, so compelling
that someone is willing to go raise money for it
or write you a check for it or make that film.
And you're competing against everybody.
You're competing against me, Steven Spielberg,
you're competing with "The Blair Witch" guys.
You're competing with the smartest,
most creative people in the world
and you've got to come up with something better, unique
and original
That's interesting, but you're the second person
that gave me the advice about the a hundred concept.
Who's that other person?
A guy out in Hollywood.
That's a genius.
If you don't have a fire in your belly to tell those stories
and to cram those stories down someone's throat,
to make money people look at them
and to pay attention to them,
they're not gonna get paid.
So my thing is, get in touch with your passion.
And I think the people that make great films
have a sense of outrage, a sense of anger
and that drives them to create great art.
And we live in a society today, in my opinion,
where it's getting harder and harder
to be an original person.
You're penalized.
You know, my favorite filmmaker is Stanley Kubrick
and Stanley Kubrick went out, made all these great movies
and warned us about letting everybody become a number
and losing our humanity and machines taking over
and everything that Kubrick projected in those movies
is coming true.
Look at what's happening in our society and in the world.
And so art will save us.
Politics will not save us.
Media will not save us.
And art has the capability because it opens people's minds,
it changes opinions, and it influences people.
-Thank you. -[Rick] That's my answer.
[soft music]
Hi. My name is Laura Faye.
I'm a writer and I wrote a book about Muslims in America
based on my own experience as a teacher.
I have a couple of questions.
One would be how to get it made into a screenplay.
You made a point earlier about there are other people
who create and then there are the people who have control.
I wanted to know if you could speak to that a little more
and how do you have both?
Because one of my fears about making this into a film
is obviously losing control.
First thing I would recommend is make it a published book.
Even if you go on and do it through Amazon,
just to control a copyright and to have content control.
It is treacherous when you have original literary material
and you don't want someone to steal it or dilute it
or rip it off.
I would get the book published
because then you're in control.
Almost every book published in the world is read by somebody
who wants to make a movie of it.
In other words, they're looking for that product.
You'd be shocked.
One thing that appeals to me and what you just said,
and there's a shortcut.
You go to a star to play the character in the memoir
and let's just pick, you know, who would be a good example?
Reese Witherspoon.
Reese Witherspoon, perfect example.
Reese Witherspoon has her own company
and she makes great movies and she might wanna play
that character or she might wanna call one of her friends
and now you're kind of on a fast track.
Whenever you can get a movie star attached
to your literary property, you're now in the fast track.
You're like in the turbo lane
and it always makes everything go faster.
It's harder to maintain control,
but if you publish the book,
they're gonna respect you a lot more
and you're gonna be able to remain part of
the creative process.
What happens is, when you write a screenplay
and you're just trying to sell it,
you have no creative control.
Like in your case, they're just gonna throw money at you
and they're gonna tell you to get lost, right?
And so, you know, that's fun for awhile,
but then it's like selling your children.
You really don't like doing it.
You know, when I first sold scripts...
You're right, I don't know your children.
You are correct.
Thank you.
Thank you for asking. I appreciate it.
Hi, my name is Gabrielle A. Paris.
I'm an actress and a student of Mr. Burt Reynolds.
So the thing that you're talking about
with the whole producing and the actresses
and they want the good parts,
I've had a really hard time with that in terms of quality
and just, you know, I had to really learn like,
who's the sound guy?
Who's this guy?
Who's the AD you know, what type of camera
we're using, is it 4k?
All the good stuff, is it a good editor?
So I had to learn the back end of it.
So I just recently had somebody write just a short film
and I played the lead in it.
I produced this, I co-produced it
but I didn't put my name down as a producer on it.
You didn't put your name on it?
Not as a producer
because I was talking to another producer
and I was like, I'm producing my first short film.
He's like, well, that kind of makes you look bad.
If you produce your own films.
I don't think it hurts at all.
No.
It says that you're motivated.
It says that you're willing to put yourself out there.
I think you're to be commended for it.
I a hundred percent agree with Louise.
Yeah, I totally.
You're a actor and a producer.
Yeah. So I totally agree,
you should have your name on as a producer as well.
So go back and fix those credits if you want.
One of the first short films I did,
very, very little money, $5,000.
It was a pretty beefy short.
Ended up being 29, 30 minutes
and we got a lot of local press with different people
that were attached to the film.
Just little pieces of press however we could
then we started taking it to festivals.
We got really lucky, won first place
at the New York International Film Festival
and because of this buzz that we started developing
from these festivals,
that's what ended us getting a million dollars
to make the feature version of that short.
That was where I was--
So if it starts playing well in festivals,
promote it as much as you can, you know,
it might be expandable into a feature.
Lot of feature films you've seen over the years started out
as a short film.
It's very strange.
Sometimes it just takes one person for you to connect with.
You're gonna be successful
just because you're doing that.
See, 99% of the people never do anything.
They just talk about it.
Right.
[ominous music]
[soft music]
I'm passionate about self-expression art.
I write and I was making a movie when I was in Michigan.
It was about the struggles of...
It was about a couple cool cats going through a rough breeze
at a hard time, really.
But it--
Wait a minute. Say it again, couple of what?
Cool cats going through a rough breeze at a hard time.
And I was making this movie and the idea
was to make it sort of a musical and add the poetry into it
but it was about two people who I met through my job
and Lansing up there.
They're a homeless couple trying to get back on their feet,
who had their six kids taken away.
And I thought their story needed to be told
and I got really into, very passionate about it.
It was a no budget movie, not a low budget.
It was, I love it, but it's okay.
It's not 4k, It's more like "no K"
but it's way too long right now
it's like, I don't know, three hours
and I don't even know what to cut out,
but I definitely know it needs more but I'm not there
so I can't really finish it,
but I'm kind of trying to cut it together still
when I have time.
What else do I have to say?
I have a question for you.
Oh yeah, will you fund my movie?
I will potentially invest in it but I won't fund it.
And the key is to finish it.
No matter how good or bad it is, finish it.
Like this guy right here with the eight screenplays,
no, I give a lot of respect to this guy.
He's finished a screenplay.
He will be a motion picture screenwriter
in this lifetime.
You've already started and committed,
but you got to have stick to it-ness.
You've gotta get obsessed with one project,
get a project that you can't sleep at night
'cause you're thinking about and finish it no matter what.
I don't care if it's bad,
sometimes it's okay to make a bad film
to figure out what you did wrong to go make a good film.
I applaud you for asking that question.
Will you fund my movie?
Because a lot of people just are afraid
to ask that question.
So really get focused, really figure out a game plan
to finish this movie and just have that persistence.
A quote by one of my favorite indie directors,
John Salzi, said,
"Raising money for a movie is like hitchhiking.
It could be the first ride.
It could be the thousandth,
but you have to stay out there with your thumb out
and be patient and you also have to know
when not to get into the car."
I wanna leave you just with one little secret
that I've never shared with any group before in my life.
I firmly believe you have to pick up the phone
and call somebody.
Whether it's an idea, whether you're looking for money,
I believe that's the truly the best way
to further your career.
So here's the secret and you're kind of breaking
the rules a little bit.
Here's exactly what a friend of mine did.
If you go on some of these social media sites,
if you do not mask the phone number,
sometimes you can click and find the phone number,
but more often than not, you can't find the phone number.
Sometimes you can Google.
It's a little bit easier to us
but it's still pretty tough to find people's phone numbers.
So this individual, who's a producer in Hollywood,
he posted an all his social media sites.
Oh, I just lost my phone and all my contact information.
Will you please DM me your cell phone number.
Within two or three days, he got about 400 phone numbers.
By the end of the year, he had his next feature film funded.
So a little trick.
If you happen to lose your phone,
there's a way to get a lot of phone numbers
and just reach out whatever you're trying to do.
I wish you all the best.
I thank you deeply for coming tonight.
I hope you learned something from this
and I appreciate you all being in my movie.
Thank you very much.
[audience applauding]
[soft music]
So here's the thing, Ken, as we're wrapping up this film.
we wanna pitch you to come on as executive producer
on our next film.
Scott, Maggie, and I wanna talk to you tonight
about you coming on board.
This is the last night of filming
and we want to do another film in this budget range.
And we've got a very creative idea
that's never been done before that we believe can be done
for the same exact budget we just did this documentary.
And I wanna know what it's gonna take
to get you to commit to being
the executive producer on that.
[Scott] I think if we can shoot for June 1st as a target,
never promise any investor anything,
but that would be the targeted delivery date
for all the funds.
And if that went well, we could shoot this summer
and still catch a late Sundance entry.
Now, if we miss that target by a month
or two or three months,
we can still shoot at the end of the year, either way.
-[inspiring music] -[dialogue fading out]
[Rick] Y ou have the power to make the movie you wanna make,
the way you wanna make it.
Don't squander the great opportunity you have.
Empower yourself,
make the things that you want in your life
and make a better world.
Make a better world.
God bless you, thank you for coming.
-[audience applauding] -[soft music]
[upbeat music]
[Rick] What question should I have asked you
that I didn't?
[Burt laughs]
I can't think of a single one.
[Rick laughs]
[Rick] You're too nice.
[upbeat music]
[Rick] There were lots of actors
when I was in Hollywood imitating you,
but your personality,
and your range,
I think you're one of the most underrated actors ever
in the history of cinema.
To go and do "Deliverance",
then go do "Smokey and the Bandit",
to do the films and the prolific number of films you made,
you directed, you produced.
I mean, it's an extraordinary achievement.
What was the secret?
Was there a secret?
Was it hard work?
Was it you learned your craft?
Was it the force of your personality?
Is this question too long?
Thank you, first of all.
I never had a problem...
going into the darkest place to go,
the hardest place to go.
You know, you can't try to be anybody, just be yourself.
[upbeat music]
[Rick] But you also produced, how did you get the money?
Because when I was in Hollywood, people said,
"Burt Reynolds can film the yellow pages and we'll fund it."
In other words, if you wanted to read the yellow pages,
the studios would have backed you.
Is that true or did you just pick up the phone and say,
hey, I wanna do this or somebody brought you a project?
I haven't tried the yellow pages yet.
[upbeat music]
So many films, so much diversity,
so many great pictures.
I just think my gosh, you've been part of America,
you and John Wayne.
It's like, if there was a Mount Rushmore of actors,
if you will look at the box office and the popularity,
it's you and John Wayne, those are the numbers.
I mean, that's an extraordinary accomplishment.
I hope you like John Wayne.
[crew clapping]
Yeah. I love Duke and I love this work.
[upbeat music]
[Rick] Did you ever have,
when you were directing people,
try to tell you how to make a movie?
Oh yeah.
And I tell them how to make a couple of other things.
[Rick] Might've been a knuckle sandwich
in some of those.
It was something like that, yeah.
[upbeat music]
[Rick] What's the secret of getting
a project funded?
Is there a secret either in Hollywood or as an independent?
Well, you got a script that is a commercial script.
Commercial in the sense that it's got the things in it
that people wanna go see.
I mean, I don't know, what's the hottest movie today,
you know?
[Man] "Black Panther"
"Black Panther", yeah.
[Rick] "Black Panther's"
what you just said earlier
but it's something people haven't seen before.
-It's overdue, it's overdue. -[Rick] Exactly.
That an African-American has not had the lead in a movie
playing an action-adventure hero,
is ludicrous. And this is what?
2000 and what?
[Rick] Let's say 19 by the time this film,
this film comes out. No, I'm just teasing.
No. In "Wonder Woman", same story.
Same thing.
[upbeat music]
[Rick] One of the highlights of my life,
to do this interview with you.
You are an absolute national treasure
for this country, Mr. Reynolds.
Thank you, sir.
-God bless you. -[crew clapping]
-Thank you. Thank You. -[crew clapping]
You're very kind, very, very kind.
Easy to to talk to.
God bless you.
[ominous music]