kye Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 We talk about earning money making films, but there isn't a thread for it, so I thought I'd start one. Contribute anything you think is useful! Levi Allen just posted his year-in-review video and it's got a bunch of useful content that might be valuable to people. For those of you who don't know Levi, he runs a one-person production company and runs a 100k follower YT channel (that's taken 8 years to grow) that he hasn't monetised. He talks a lot in this video about building his business and some strategies he's implementing, how to balance passion projects with client work, and reflecting on his journey so far. It's good content for anyone just starting their own production company or looking to do that. There's an index available so you can skip around easily, but he's a great communicator so it's a good listen. One of the things I thought was interesting was that he hasn't bought new filming equipment in the last year (although he did spend over $10K on new editing gear!). Emanuel, Mako Sports and sanveer 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kisaha Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 57 minutes ago, kye said: We talk about earning money making films, but there isn't a thread for it, so I thought I'd start one. Contribute anything you think is useful! Levi Allen just posted his year-in-review video and it's got a bunch of useful content that might be valuable to people. For those of you who don't know Levi, he runs a one-person production company and runs a 100k follower YT channel (that's taken 8 years to grow) that he hasn't monetised. He talks a lot in this video about building his business and some strategies he's implementing, how to balance passion projects with client work, and reflecting on his journey so far. It's good content for anyone just starting their own production company or looking to do that. There's an index available so you can skip around easily, but he's a great communicator so it's a good listen. One of the things I thought was interesting was that he hasn't bought new filming equipment in the last year (although he did spend over $10K on new editing gear!). Professionals do not change gear easily, or at will. Equipment is a very serious commitment and investment. That is why Canonikon are still at the top. Unfortunately, in our profession, you always have to buy something, and that something, usually is very expensive. I mean, some professionals buy pen and paper, and we have to buy 2000$ lenses and microphones. It's all good.. Mark Romero 2, Emanuel and kye 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmmbeats Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 This episode of Go Creative Show (which I love) is pretty relevant. I wouldn't pay the several thousand dollars the guest charges for his courses personally, but he does seem to know marketing in this sector very well. https://gocreativeshow.com/mastering-the-production-and-filmmaking-business-with-paul-xavier/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emanuel Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 3 hours ago, Kisaha said: Professionals do not change gear easily, or at will. Equipment is a very serious commitment and investment. That is why Canonikon are still at the top. Unfortunately, in our profession, you always have to buy something, and that something, usually is very expensive. I mean, some professionals buy pen and paper, and we have to buy 2000$ lenses and microphones. It's all good.. Oliveira was used to say a painter could be hunger only to be able to buy the pencils, no hungry would be enough for a filmmaker to afford film or lab fees. Fortunately we have digital tools today : ) EOS M ML RAW is a Godsend for 100 bucks or so. Bought three units this week : -) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webrunner5 Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 23 minutes ago, Emanuel said: EOS M ML RAW is a Godsend for 100 bucks or so. Bought three units this week : -) Oh my God. I am going to send you some smart pills. ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emanuel Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 1 minute ago, webrunner5 said: Oh my God. I am going to send you some smart pills. ? Where do you find the same offer for such peanuts price range? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webrunner5 Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 I find Rabbit turds work pretty well. Try some. I guess the veggy diet they are on help. Cheap also if you have connections. ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emanuel Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 Have you tested anyone to properly review about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webrunner5 Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 Just now, Emanuel said: Have you tested anyone to properly review about? I am in the middle of the evaluation. The taste is a bit off, but I Think I feel a little smarter. I am hoping no side effects like twitching ears, hopping in random directions, etc.. It could be a breakthrough for an amazing cheap entry price. Might be a smart move, get it... What are you going to Do with them? Use them as crash cams, C cams? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emanuel Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 I don't give a damn for brands or mainstream, but outcome and usability. You can have multiple handy point-n-shoot spots or distribute them among your trainees yet for different projects at same time all available in RAW to match the big boys. What else can you ask from? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kisaha Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 That was sur-real! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kye Posted February 3, 2019 Author Share Posted February 3, 2019 13 hours ago, Kisaha said: Professionals do not change gear easily, or at will. Equipment is a very serious commitment and investment. That is why Canonikon are still at the top. Unfortunately, in our profession, you always have to buy something, and that something, usually is very expensive. I mean, some professionals buy pen and paper, and we have to buy 2000$ lenses and microphones. It's all good.. I know.. I wrote that to try and cut through the continual "new camera" discussions on here so that people didn't think Levi was just another YouTuber who only talked about new cameras. It's us amateurs who are buying the new equipment all the time!! In terms of pen and paper, I remember talking to an amateur screen writer who wrote feature films once, and he said that the writer was the only person without a budget. He was referring to the idea that he can write space battles or car chases or battle scenes with thousands of people just as easily as he can write two people talking in a room, but for every other person involved in making a film there are huge cost differences of filming those different types of scenes. 10 hours ago, Emanuel said: Oliveira was used to say a painter could be hunger only to be able to buy the pencils, no hungry would be enough for a filmmaker to afford film or lab fees. Fortunately we have digital tools today : ) EOS M ML RAW is a Godsend for 100 bucks or so. Bought three units this week : -) IIRC that's why we get the strange budget sizes for films, like No Budget which is actually a large amount of money - it's because the cost to develop the film for a movie was a cost that couldn't be lowered below a certain point. Even if you only shot a 1:1 shooting ratio, you would still have to buy and develop 90 minutes of film, which cost a lot of money. Nowadays for that same amount of money you can buy a modest camera setup, have a small budget for expenses, and pay everyone to make a film and still have money left over. It wouldn't be a great film, but the idea you can make a feature film for less than a "no budget" film is amusing from a language perspective 9 hours ago, webrunner5 said: I am in the middle of the evaluation. The taste is a bit off, but I Think I feel a little smarter. I am hoping no side effects like twitching ears, hopping in random directions, etc.. It could be a breakthrough for an amazing cheap entry price. Might be a smart move, get it... What are you going to Do with them? Use them as crash cams, C cams? It depends on the camera ML is running on, and what you're shooting. If you are shooting something without exotic camera movement, are shooting manual lenses (where the focus will stay put), and have the time on-set to fuss with focus etc, then ML can be great. It's when you need to work quickly, need to be able to monitor real-time to change focus and framing on the fly that some ML setups aren't so good. Andrews post about the EOS-M shooting 5K shows what is possible, and yes the monitoring is abysmal, but if you were to only shoot for a 1080 delivery then the camera is under hugely less strain and all the monitoring and performance potentially improve significantly. If you have a set of lenses and are shooting drama or interviews where people are sitting around talking then ML is a gift from the gods! IronFilm 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Collins Posted February 3, 2019 Share Posted February 3, 2019 By the by, one of the obvious observations in photography - is that the many of the most famous photographers in history came from 'independently wealthy' families - meaning they never really needed to work for a living... Off hand, I am thinking of Ansel Adams, Cartier-Bresson, Diane Arbus, Sebastiao Salgardo, Richard Avedon but there are many more. It isnt really surprising I guess because it is far easier to create a body of interesting work if you have no pressure to earn your daily bread and butter through weddings, school pics and other commercial photography. I wonder if the same rule applies in film... Emanuel and IronFilm 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kye Posted February 3, 2019 Author Share Posted February 3, 2019 57 minutes ago, Robert Collins said: By the by, one of the obvious observations in photography - is that the many of the most famous photographers in history came from 'independently wealthy' families - meaning they never really needed to work for a living... Off hand, I am thinking of Ansel Adams, Cartier-Bresson, Diane Arbus, Sebastiao Salgardo, Richard Avedon but there are many more. It isnt really surprising I guess because it is far easier to create a body of interesting work if you have no pressure to earn your daily bread and butter through weddings, school pics and other commercial photography. I wonder if the same rule applies in film... I'd imagine so. There's a thing in the fashion industry (and others too I'd imagine) where to get a job you need to work as an unpaid intern for long periods of time. The fact that you have to work long hours and these offices are in the middle of big and expensive cities means that you can't work a second job to pay rent, so these opportunities are basically only available to people with money. Considering that to make money in film you must do a lot of work up-front as well as make contacts and build your network, if you didn't have pressure to put food on the table it would really make a large difference. Not as much as working in downtown NY 15 hours a day, but some at least. IronFilm and Emanuel 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmmbeats Posted February 3, 2019 Share Posted February 3, 2019 Quick snippet from Griffin Hammond: IronFilm and thebrothersthre3 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mako Sports Posted February 3, 2019 Share Posted February 3, 2019 Levi is such a cool down to earth guy kye 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronFilm Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 On 2/3/2019 at 4:10 PM, kye said: In terms of pen and paper, I remember talking to an amateur screen writer who wrote feature films once, and he said that the writer was the only person without a budget. He was referring to the idea that he can write space battles or car chases or battle scenes with thousands of people just as easily as he can write two people talking in a room, but for every other person involved in making a film there are huge cost differences of filming those different types of scenes. If he is a smart writer then he will think about who he might be selling his scripts to, and what their budgets would be, and will tailor his script to match that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kye Posted February 6, 2019 Author Share Posted February 6, 2019 1 hour ago, IronFilm said: If he is a smart writer then he will think about who he might be selling his scripts to, and what their budgets would be, and will tailor his script to match that. Yeah, that's pretty much the next thing he told me. Basically his point was that writers can do whatever they want, but no-one will buy your script, so you have to be careful and understand how films are made and write around those limitations. I heard that he had a bit of a reputation in less mainstream circles because his scripts often featured particularly realistic street fighting and criminal elements and most of his scripts were made by low budget productions to cater to people that like shows like Underbelly or whatever. It was funny because he didn't really seem the violent type at all, either in his tone, his home, or his career. Although he did give me some dating advice once, and that was to date as many girls as possible, to have multiple ongoing relationships at the same time and be completely open about it with everyone, and basically see who would be willing to fight hardest for his attentions. He said that that's how he ended up with his wife, and I think they'd been together for 30+ years at that point, so he was an advocate for his approach. That's not the kind of strategy that I could bring myself to ever do, but thinking about it now he really was a cool guy. Meeting him in his younger years might have been a much more exciting experience! IronFilm 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronFilm Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 Got to agree with all that advice kye 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kye Posted February 12, 2019 Author Share Posted February 12, 2019 Worth watching. It's partly an ad for his course, but there's also lots of useful stuff in here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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