no-budget

[Chance1234]

also ok i might have more to spend that more people but thats all from damm hard work, no one has given that to me, for the record as well my qualifiactions read 9 GCSE's and thats it. i work damm hard for everything i do.

if you want to do something badly enough you find away, and i tell you this im going to one day soon direct a big budget film, plus more and most importnatnly im going to have my hands on the Palm De Or award, and i can tell you this, that film is going to be "in The Key of A" and ill do it in less that three years from now. if you want ill meet up with you and we will go to the nearest william hill and ill stick a ?100 down on that. im going to make this industry full stop.




------------------
5YLAC Films

www.itkoa.co.uk

http://www.lookingglass.atfreeweb.co...ghts/index.htm

download the deadlights trailer at

<http://www.lookingglass.atfreeweb.co...s/images/deadl
ights_trailer1.rm>

[Chuck Noland]

I wish I could earn ten grand... I've only got ?10 -- and that's the truth.
IT consultancy, hmm...

[marti-c]

I think i can speak for a lot of folk on this board to say ,thanks for a great run-down on what your background is and where you see yourself going in the future chance! You've been honest in saying what your strong points are and where your weaknesses lie. One point chance is to look back and see how far you've came from the first intial decision to embark on film-making ( whether for career or pleasure) I'm sure when you think of how much you've learned you should be very proud of your conviction and stamina. I find the creativeness and constant hurdles put up in front of myself does sometimes make you lie back in your bed staring at the ceiling, wondering if it really is all worth it! Then straight out the blue you get a sense of achievement by some positive feedback and the high pushes you on to the next project.

For all you can bring down this country, i still believe that if you try, try and keep trying then you can be anything you wish to be. So many people fail because they lack the staying power or the focus to reach their goals. I personally have achieved everything that i have hoped for so far, and i have plenty more goals for the future.

I am just sorry you live so far away Chance or i would be offering my services to help out on your new project. It's not the project i admire ,it's the attidude and drive that you possess that would make it a pleasure to work with you.
It is impossible for you to fail Chance ( i think in your dictionary "fail" just means "minor drawback"

This concludes the party political broadcast on behalf of the Chance Party

see ya
marti

[miker]

On the off chance that anasazifilms was talking to me (not that I'm the only one here, but I did mention de-valuing your skill)

Am I in it for the money?
No. I'm in it primarily from a subversive educative point of view. I want to make films or create concepts that entertain and also educate or promote a thought process. I class The Matrix as such a film and also Star Wars and Shawshank Redemption, and Titanic and Man Bites Dog and UHF and Boogie Nights, well I hope you get the idea.

Do I want to get paid for making my films, either by commission of through sales?
Of course I do! At the moment I make a living as an IT professional, I'd much rather make a living doing something I am passionate about. But until such a time I am building a mini-empire of kit and contacts so that I can come out of my cocoon with something truly worthwhile. I class myself as truly independent, I would rather turn money down to keep control of my projects.

But by now you're probably thinking I'm talking out of my arse, I am shallowly trying to be your 'mate', 'mate'. Wrong again tosser!

I have experienced this industry from the arse-end to the insider's:

[all dates approximate, very much abridged]:

1990 - does art college, realises that it *will* be possible to follow my dream of being a filmmaker, taking onboard ethos taught in 'Skywalking', biog of George Lucas.

1990 Professor Pompanickel Goes Terminal is directed and produced by me. It's 10 miuntes of shit of course, but I know that the underlying story is good.

1991-1994 works in a factory building hard-drives. Amazingly these SCSI drives can hold up to 2GB, wow! Record a couple of music tracks with a friend and do videos for them. Works on projects with students at Bournemouth Uni, I get to cur my teeth as a runner, off-line editor and Assistant Director. Sam James (currently appearing in UK AOL adverts, at the time he was doing McDonald's adverts) 'stars' in 32B and compliments us by saying that we work as well as any professional crew he's ever encountered.

1994 saves up 500UKP and does Panico 'foundation in film' course. Meets ppl and directs first short in a professional manner - 'Adult Contacts'. Shot on Hi8, edited manually between two crappy analogue decks. Low budget around 17UKP (but not zero, note!)

1994 Decides to move to London (Wood Green) and follow the dream of filmmaking. For now, Toys-R-Us part-time on a 3 month contract, and housing benefit will have to do to pay the rent

1994-1995 works in a professional (paid) capacity as a freelance runner on Spidercom shoots. One of the Spidercom directors, Guy Ritchie, has this crazy idea of making a feature film. I'm a runner on his short 'The Hard Case', his ticket to making Lock Stock. Also work on other short films funded by various individuals, including students from the London International Film School, who suck donkeys.

1995 Get six weeks work experience at Planet24, working on the Big Breakfast as an assistant in various departments. A runner's job comes up which I apply for and don't get, allegedly because I am not a girl. Also decide that working for 30UKP for 18hr days at Spidercom sucks so I decide to try and move on-

1995 I want to remake Adult Contacts properly (as a short film, not video) so I place an ad for actors in PCR (which costs nothing BTW). Get loads of CV's and a call from Jon-Paul Gates of Film Network Productions. This could be it!!! But it wasn't. Adult Contacts never gets remade and is filed under 'experience'.

1995 Get invited to the set of Terry Jones' Wind in the Willows. Excellent day, can't help but think I fit in. Rumour has it that most of the crew will be going on to make Star Wars Episode One, cool! David Tatersall certainly did...

1996 Hook up with 'Dream On Pictures', a production company funded by a graphic designer. Although we come up with tonnes of good ideas and a few finished scripts, no one can get enough money together to make anything. On one of the shoots I meet a fellow polymorph Tom Bloor, and we still work on projects together to this day.

1996 start flexitime work at Ticketmaster UK, in the Communications Building in Leicester Sq., working in their call centre taking bookings for tickets and trying to justify booking fees to customers. Start working as a freelance sound recordist on independent shorts - needless to say all unpaid hard work!!

1997 Save up enough money to build my first NLE system, based on a Pentium 200MMX and a Matrox Mystique with Rainbow Runner daughtercard. It rocks. Now I have the 'back-end' of any of my future productions....

1997 various things happen in personal life, take a job as a Techie at Ticketmaster, shift-work and pays around 12000UKP per annum. Concentrate on writing, but can feel my connections in London faltering as I decide that enough freebies have been worked. I join BECTU as a Boom-Op, hoping to manage to get some paid work. It still doesn't materialise, so I carry on working for other ppl for nothing.

1998 BECTU give me a lead about the FT2 scheme - work on features for a couple of years, for 8000UKP per annum. I apply for the first interview and get through, hurrah! A second interview is required later in the year.

1998 get called for second interview for FT2 (my doorway to the inside world of film) but also my girlfriend is now pregnant!! What to do? 8000UKP is not going to give a good quality of life for a family living in London!! This is a major crossroads for me. I decide to put the dream on the backburner and get a 'proper' job, working in IT near Portsmouth. I also get a mortgage and a car, and feel like I'm really selling out to the plastic society. Michelle gives birth to Daniel and we're all happy.

1998-1999 carry on working with Tom doing weird shit, some of our work gets shown at the ICA and also local London film-fests. I hatch a plan to make my short Ad-Astra, and also bump into a mysterious character on-line with the moniker of Chance.

2000 Failing to get a payrise from 18000UKP to 25000UKP to support my family I go contracting and get 40UKP per hour at CMG. It's a long drive, but it means I can save up, get my 3CCD Panasonic DX110 and build another NLE system, based around Dual 600 Coppermines and a DC1000DV. Shit, now I can do MPEG2 and master for DVD!!

2000 Filming for Ad Astra is completed. The final cut for Ad Astra and Deadlights is completed. I feel that both projects have a 'studenty' feel about them, but that's okay, I am now once again back in control of my filmmaking destiny. Fuck London, if you don't find a way into 'the' industry then create your own. Digital technology paves the way for this to happen.

2000 Contract at CMG concludes after 8 months

2001 Contract with Cargill PLC begins. Had to take a paycut to 30UKP, but at least I don't have to suit up anymore and there's scope for a rolling contract (support vs design)

2001 Work begins on creating a sit-com, slated to shoot soon. This project is designed for broadcast, and I am now savvy to exclusive and non-exclusive licensing terminologies. But I will not 'give' it away to the BBC, ITV or whatever. If the BBC can cream 30,000,000UKP from licensing rights to Teletubbies per annum and *still* fool you into paying the license fee, then I'm sure I can negotiate a tidy sum for an exclusive rights lease to my project. If it's any good of course. It will be.

2001 An old friend approaches me to help direct/produce a video for Lisa Fitzgibbon. Unpaid naturally, but he's a good friend and perhaps it will lead to more work from http://www.orana-records.com

So to go back to your point of 'no-budget' being poo-pooed. I understand the mindset, but get Real. You may love your no-budget flicks, hell I've got a whole back-catalogue, but they will not feed and clothe a family!!!

I may come across as bitter, I hope not to. I love filmmaking, I love films. And I commend *anyone* who puts something together, whether for 10pence or 300,000,000USD (James, you know who you are!)

But the indie scene is becoming increasingly dominated and subverted by the 'big' players, which stamps all over free speech (the consumer does not like to think about a plot)

I am now an underground filmmaker, which sounds far more exciting but basically amounts to me not being able to make a living as an independent filmmaker. So from a certain angle I am in this for money, but only because 21st century society dictates that you must work for money because money is a recognised currency pretty much anywhere you go. Comprende??

anasazifilms, why should I be ashamed of myself? You talk as if you are not yet an adult with responsibilities.

[the ball is crossed to the other side of the court...]

[randombob666]

"get Real. You may love your no-budget flicks, hell I've got a whole back-catalogue, but they will not feed and clothe a family!!!"

I see,I feed a clothe my family by spending our money on a film , rather than making the film for nothing and spending the money on the family??????????????????????

[Chance1234]

Nope, ive looked and looked very hard but cant seem to see the flow of this topic in the "How to win Friends and Influence People"




Chance




------------------
5YLAC Films

www.itkoa.co.uk

http://www.lookingglass.atfreeweb.co...ghts/index.htm

download the deadlights trailer at

<http://www.lookingglass.atfreeweb.co...s/images/deadl
ights_trailer1.rm>

[miker]

"get Real. You may love your no-budget flicks, hell I've got a whole back-catalogue, but they will not feed and clothe a family!!!"

Read the sentance you dimwit, or would you like me to highlight the words 'no-budget'????

And have my no-budget flicks kept my family? Of course not!

Are they leading a path to my destiny?
Of course they are!

Is my IT company keeping my family?
Yes! With change left over to make films!

Is my filmmaking a hobby?
No! It's a passion. One day it will dictate my lifestyle to a certain extent no doubt.

[eddie]

It seems pretty clear that people here are at very different points in their life and film making experience. We are not all cam-corder nutters.
A bit of politeness might not go amiss. (or just carry on like this regardless, makes for fun reading anyway!)

[Chance1234]

Ananzai films come back and fight like a man, god dam it !