What is my product?
You want to shoot your movie yesterday.
I call this ITFS (itchy trigger finger syndrome), a condition that seems to universally afflict filmmakers.
Rabid enthusiasm is vital. And just like eating too much sugar can mess up your A1C, imbibing too much enthusiasm can mess up your grip on reality. Maybe the script isn’t working as well as you think it is. Maybe you haven’t found the best talent to portray your characters. Perhaps your financial resources cannot support the creative vision.
Who cares, you say! We just need to make something come hell or high water! And look, we can cut corners:
“We’ll shoot it on an iPhone!“
“We can film the entire thing in my house or apartment!”
“I’ll be the director AND the editor AND the propmaster!”
Finding creative solutions to budgetary constraints is a hallmark survival skill among indie filmmakers. But at what point does cutting corners start to impact the kind of end-product you’re working so hard to create? At what point does all that effort get sacrificed upon the altar of a badly-made movie?
Remember. Once the movie is made, it’s forever. You, the filmmaker, will have to live with your movie forever. Do you want to stare at the screen thinking “If only I took an extra couple of months to re-write the script,” or “How much more professional would this movie feel if I hadn’t rushed into production without securing more money?”
Would the world end if you stepped on the brake pedal, and took more time to prep? Would your life fall into ruin if you workshopped the script with professional writers, expanded your casting call, or went out and found proper financing? Ten years from now, you’re not going to regret taking more time to get it right. But you will regret rushing your baby through an arbitrary, self-imposed deadline.
And so ask yourself: What is my product?
Are you just itching to get into the groove of making movies, regardless of the quality? Is this an exercise? Are you a hobbyist? Or are you in the business of producing a professional motion picture that an audience is willing to buy?
If you simply want to blow the dust off your filmmaking chops, then by all means — grab your iPhone, grab your friends, and shoot a little movie in your living room. Shoot ten of them! But if you want to create a product that you can market and sell in a commercial setting, then don’t treat your project as an exercise. An exercise isn’t going to get into Sundance, and it sure as shit isn’t going to find a paying audience.
This isn’t a race. Put the brakes on that ITFS, and take the time to do it right. When you land your first distribution deal, you’ll be glad that you did.
