Over the years my co-producer Diane, and I have worked with a lot of filmmakers, especially new filmmakers trying to get their first projects made and distributed. One thing we continue to see is that we spend so much time concentrating on making the movie that we sometimes forget what happens after the movie is finished. We all want to make a great movie. We want a strong script, good performances, great photography and a story that connects with an audience. But we learned something during our years in this business: A great movie isn't always a sellable movie.
That's sometimes difficult for a filmmaker to hear. When you've spent months or even years developing a project, raising money, finding locations, hiring cast and crew, solving problems and finally getting the movie finished, you naturally believe that if the movie is good enough, someone will want to distribute it. Unfortunately, that's not always how this business works. A distributor isn't just looking at your movie as a creative project.
They're looking at it as an investment. And that's something we think every independent filmmaker needs to understand before they start making the movie—not after they've finished it.
I Tell Filmmakers to Think Like a Buyer - When we are working with a filmmaker, one of the things we try to get them to think about is what the person on the other side of the table is going to see. We may see a great screenplay. The buyer sees a product.We may see wonderful performances. The buyer is asking whether the cast helps sell the movie. We may be excited about festival selections and awards. The buyer wants to know whether those awards will actually help attract an audience. Neither side is wrong. They're simply looking at the same movie from two different perspectives. That's why we believe producers need to start asking business questions much earlier in the process. Who is going to watch this movie? Not everybody. Who is the actual audience? How old are they? Where are they? What other movies do they watch? How are we going to reach them? Does the movie have recognizable cast? Does the subject have international appeal? Can someone look at the poster or trailer and immediately understand what kind of movie they're being asked to watch? What makes someone stop scrolling and click on our movie instead of the hundreds of other movies available to them? Want to learn more contact me: [email protected]
We will be adding the grandfathered accounts this weekend. Please be sure you have enough information to confirm who you are in your profile. I know many of you! Thank you! For those I don't know or have no information in the profiles; this is not an autonomous community. We want real people, real filmmakers and we want real integrity and real accountability in our communications. It's not the place for snipers. You can find those places in mass online. Thank you to all the participants for all the very cool posts! You are the best! Truly, Kim.
Please do check out the short film I made a few years back. Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8MiNHXLf_o&t=1s
Official trailer for ANCESTRAL BEASTS (30 second), fresh from its sold-out world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival!
Debut feature film by writer & director Tim Riedel! Director of Photography by Joey Forte of Brannek Films!
Starring Morgan Holmstrom, Darla Contois, Shannon Baker, Victoria Gwendoline, Asivak Koostachin, Koostachin, Gail Maurice, Jesse Nobess, Jess Salgueiro, and Josh Strait!
Coming soon to more film festivals and theatres in 2026 & 2027!
Supported by Telefilm Canada, Indigenous Screen Office, Toronto & Ontario Arts Council, Mongrel Media, Crave, APTN, and CBC Films, with love and support from our friends, family, allies, and Métis & Indigenous communities!
Executive Producer of ANCESTRAL BEASTS
Comic con was last month and there was plenty of filmmaking panels that weren’t just the latest Marvel Movies in Hall H.
There is the comic con 4-day film school. The comic con independent film festival, plus panels on costumes, film composing, found footage films, writing and directing.
https://youtu.be/lAHgf-v-sL0?is=dKXUhwH-o0a1bJV7
Life After Life is a six episode short form series that I shot. It did get on the first round of the Emmy ballot for short form content but it did not get on the final ballot.
In 2011, my short film, "Solo" won Best Short Film at the World's Largest Action Sports Film Festival, X-Dance. It was a huge honor, especially since I was still in film school at the time, but I was especially stoked that my film beat out two branded short films that were funded by and made about the founders of the surf clothing brand Quicksilver.
The Quicksilver films were shot using multiple RED One cameras, in water housings, operated by experienced underwater camera operators. They also shot from helicopters using stabilized mounts................in Tahiti. I estimated each film cost AT LEAST $75,000 to make.
I made my film with a $500 budget, trade-out work from my AC, key grip and gaffer, and a free location. I even had to borrow gas money from my gaffer to make it out to the location on the Gila River reservation for one of my shoot days.
The Quicksilver films were very well made and impressive, but my film brought something new to action sports filmmaking. I combined cinematic bmx footage shot on a combination of 16mm double perf film, HD with a 35mm lens adaptor and Nikon lenses, and a DSLR. Everything was shot either in time lapse or overcranked. And I told a story. "Solo" combined elements of music video, core action sports video, experimental filmmaking and narrative filmmaking to produce something that had never been seen before. Not only did it win Best Short Film at X-Dance, it was picked up for distribution in the Australia/New Zealand region by a distributor that was attending the festival.
I see the current phenomenon of indie films generating humongous ROI as similar to my "Solo" experience:
- Obsession $750K budget: grossed over $340M
- Undertone $500K budget: grossed over $21M
- Iron Lung $2.9M budget: grossed over $51M
- Backrooms $10M budget: grossed over $118M
Hollywood can make incredible imagery with their funding and systems but audiences will respond to original films.
