My first short film took over a year to make. Here’s why.
I starting writing the script in June 2021 but I properly placed the initial efforts into green lighting my short film onto pre production around early march 2022 with the storyboards as the 1st thing to do.I organised 1st pre prod meeting and hiring my film friends as above the line crew in July 2022. Casting finished in late April 2022. Outside of my group of friends, I externally hired a film armourer to cover the legalities along with supplying the prop weapons on set and a talented hair + make up artist for the femme fatale character.
It cost around $5k in total to make. Some expenses covered by the exec producer and a couple of my mates but mostly from me.
- Equipment purchases
- Equipment rental costs
- Paying crew
- Paying cast
- Premiere costs.
- Merch costs
- Film festival fees
I was busy working on other film related projects and other jobs in parallel to the production. The editor and foley artist didn’t start post production until December 2022. The colour grading on my part took a lot of time perfecting as I was compositing the overall black and white grade along with all the reds present in certain shots. The manual process was abysmally slow as I had to manually scan and composite the monotone and reds frame by frame due to quick actions from the cast.I was also saving up for merchandise and screening costs to prepare for the film screening.
The foley artist was taking a long time as well as going M.I.A temporarily (due to being in between gigs at the time), putting post production to a stand still until all the stems were sent to the post sound mixer.
My best friend that helped me immensely on the short passed away during post production. Had to grieve greatly.
I dedicated the premier to my friend. I also donated my cut of the profits to “Epi-awareness” out of solidarity to my greatest friend. Episodic-awareness is a charity currently in development from the parents of my deceased friend. the aim is to raise awareness on the critical dependancy people have on episodic pens for health reasons along with 2 other agendas. One is to use the donations to supply episodic pens for people who need them but cannot afford them and for businesses to equip into their first aid kits in parts of the world where epi pens are optional rather than compulsory.
After the screening, I Submitted Full Circle to various film festivals around the world whilst simultaneously selling Full Circle onto my website and these TVOD (transactional Video on Demand) platforms;
Whilst Full Circle was going through the film festival process, i also dealt with the remaining unsold merchandise from my premier screening via contacting my local clothing boutiques that sell the kind of apparel that my t-shirts matched the style of. I Had 1 successful consignment deal with a 50/50 split agreement. I left my t-shirts in the store for a month and hoping we get a few bites. Any T-shirts left, i will try to sell via Facebook marketplace, Etsy, Amazon, Wish and of course, ebay. Give it a month to try that method and if there are still any t-shirts remaining, i’ll just give to the rest of the cast/crew (assuming i have one for their size).
Once Full Circle has finished the film festival circuit, I'll self distribute Full circle onto all SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand) & AVOD (Advertising Video on Demand) platforms that accept and monetise short films. I'll write another blog with an update If you wish to see full circle there instead. I’ve also added the Full Circle poster & T-shirt to my apparel store YOTKO Apparel if you want to grab one for yourself there.
I write this blog to send a message of hope for first time filmmakers that are all pumped up on creating their first project. Good things take patience as good art is never rushed. Whether it takes an hour or a decade to get your art made and known worldwide, do it.
Comments
Post a Comment