I’m 47 years old. I have three teenagers. I host an early morning radio show. I have no money. Sure, I can pay my bills and find ways to pay for my kids’ extracurriculars. I started a business in 2018 and threw myself in a little more debt, because I’ve always dreamed of owning my own business. Although I am super busy and financially bipolar, I decided that now was the time to make a feature comedy about two guys half my age doing things I’d now be too tired to do. My story is not unique, because I have a friend named Steve Miller and he was in a similar boat. He boarded the boat a few years before me, having turned the big five-oh in December, 2019.
Not everyone experiences a mid-life crisis. Typically, guys our age are looking to buy those expensive toys to help them recapture their youth. I’ve seen dudes my age tooling around in a new sports car or dropping a brand new speed boat into Irondequoit Bay. Hunting trips, golf trips, buddy trips to Daytona, Bristol or even the Super Bowl, if they have the scratch. Steve and I? Nah. Let’s make a feature film – yeah! No problem! This road started in 2016 and we’re almost at the finish line.
Is it Too Late for Us?
The movie industry is changing, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed. Movie theatre ticket sales are threatened by the streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video and Disney Plus. The major studios are getting into the game too; better late than never! The old distribution model is also on its way out for us indie filmmakers. That is an entirely different post and more info about the industry trends can be found at IndieFilmHustle
You have a script, you get a famous person attached, you find an investor, you make your movie, you sell your movie to a distributor, you have a big premiere at a theatre and walk the red carpet. EASY PEASY! Nice try, but that only works in the movies. I’ve been listening to podcasts about people (presumably like me) who went from being a nobody with nothing to a Hollywood Player. But when you get down into the real details of their stories, you find out there was a rich aunt or they have a relative in the business or SOMETHING that gives them a leg up. Sure, there are rags to riches stories, but the protagonists in those stories are usually young. They live in their car and eat ramen for a year before their first gig, etc. I’ve heard plenty of those stories. Not a whole lot of those stories involve anyone over the age of 40.
Making a movie is hard. If anyone tells you that making a movie is easy, they are either delusional or they suffered a major head trauma. People who make movies for a living do just that: make movies for a living. They don’t have day jobs and there is a reason for that. Making a movie is a full time project. At first you can do things in your spare time, absolutely. You can write the script on nights and weekends and things like that, but once you need to start making it, everything changes. There is a reason that the credits at the end of your favorite movie is a mile long, ten miles if it is an action film or animation.
Making a movie takes money. Filmmaking is one of, if not the most expensive of art forms. When someone tells you they need ONLY $250,000 to make their movie, trust me, that’s a bargain. As you well know, not everyone has a couple hundred grand kicking around to INVEST in a film…and that’s on the very low end. The ones that do have that kind of scratch kicking around don’t typically invest in two unknown middle-aged dudes with a script and a dream. It just doesn’t happen. So, in a lot of ways, Steve and I had already missed our opportunity to make a film.
Thank you, Technology?
Cameras are small, cheap(ish) and digital. It’s no longer huge film cameras with expensive film stock (sorry Kodak). That means that old guys like us have access to the quality stuff. That also means that EVERYONE has access to that gear! So there is a lot of noise now. Tons of people are vying for their 15 million views. Kids want to be YouTube Stars and Instagram Influencers. Who doesn’t? I’d love for someone to pay me $10K just to post about how much I love their hemorrhoid cream (I’m taking meetings). So all of this means it is that much harder to stand out from the crowd. But maybe instead of trying to stand out from the world’s crowd, what if we just tried to stand out from our local crowd?
Home Town Heros?
We are not interested in “getting out of here” and making it in Hollyweird. I know, to some people that’s just crazy talk. But what if you could make a smaller, more localized movie and just stand out from the local crowd? This is what we want to do. But wait, there’s more! We’d not only love to create a local filmmaking business model that affords us the opportunity to crank out quality visual content, but we’d love to train more people to learn how. That too is a blog post for another day. We just want to tell visual stories as a day job. We don’t have to be big movie moguls, we just want to make our movies and help people follow their dreams, NBD.
Quitting Alcohol Is Why I’m Here!
It took me a while and a lot of transformation (and therapy) to get to where I am today and none of that would have been possible if I were still self medicating with alcohol. My stress was something I thought I should manage with vodka and beer. Learning about myself and learning better coping skills was what did the trick. I also used “This Naked Mind” by Annie Grace. It is a nice delve into the psychology of alcohol from a societal view that really enabled me to understand that I was just a victim of clever marketing and low self esteem. I thank my friends and family who came along with me to see me succeed and I am also thankful that I was able to disassociate myself with some very toxic people. Some people will hold you back and it is important for everyone to learn who those people are and to have the courage to walk away from them.
So Who Cares?
I care. Steve Cares. Our family and close friends care. It doesn’t matter if some blogger in LA cares. It doesn’t matter if a YouTube star or Influencer cares. We may be “over the hill” or something. But the point is, we didn’t listen to the people who thought we were crazy. We didn’t listen to the ones who told us we were doing it wrong. We aren’t working with the guys and girls who thought we were just a couple idiots trying to make some stupid movie. There are some people who may have refused to work with us because we didn’t have 1/2 the money in escrow or because we weren’t using an Arri camera. Those people won’t be with us when our dreams are a reality, but they will wish they were.
Thank you for reading this article! As you probably know, I am producing a comedy titled “Bottom Feeders”, originally written by Steve Miller some 20 years ago and then we tag-teamed the rewrites. It’s a silly comedy about two guys trying to hang onto their college days – living in Mom’s basement, drinking beer, being generally irresponsible. You know these guys, heck, you might have even been one of these guys! People need to laugh and this film will do it. I will admit, it does not carry some ultra-important social message about race or sexism or any topic that is popular in today’s dialogue – well, not entirely. It’s in there but you have to really extract the meaning – because these guys are not role models and it is very clear in this film. But WHY does it NEED to be made? Because it is the first step. This is the film that can show what we can do as filmmakers. We’re trying to make this film for less than $50,000.00 but we want it to look like we spend hundreds of thousands making it.
We get this film done and we get it seen by people. We make them laugh and entertain them for 90 minutes or so. What’s next? Finding funding for a film is not an easy task! If you’re friends with me you have seen firsthand the groveling and begging for money that I’ve done. In a perfect filmmaking world, as a Writer/Director I would work with a Producer who has a group of people who want to invest their money in movies. Those producers don’t work with unknown filmmakers – so that’s why we NEED to make this one first. It is a simple story with simple scenes – which is how we can keep the costs low. But when you see how good it looks and how the unknown actors really kill their parts, then you would think to yourself, “Self, imagine the kind of film these guys could make with a real budget!”.
The real budget (which in my mind is $250K and up) can hire all the crew needed, can afford A-List actors who have a box office draw and international recognition. That’s the magic formula for making movies – or at least one of the magic formulas.
I just wanted to explain this idea to you. because from the outside looking in it must be odd to see me trying so hard to make a movie when we don’t have the money. It’s a chicken and egg conundrum: you need the money to make a good film, but you cannot get the money until you make a good film. Sometimes you need the help of family and friends and some people who believe in you so you can just make it past that first speed bump. By the way, that’s the speed bump that keeps most people out of the filmmaking business.
I want this so bad I am not taking no for an answer. Here’s what we have planned for future projects: (All of these will be produced right here in Rochester and the greater Western NY region)
A Baseball film with real social/historical message.
A spirituality film centered around redemption and antisemitism.
More comedies.
We need $25,000.00 to make this film. Maybe that’s 5 people who chip in/invest $5,000.00 or one angel investor/benefactor who covers it all.
Recently, I have been in a dark cloud of negativity and the cloud only cleared when I listened to the advice of those close to me. I am great at what I do! I am confident in that and I am not afraid to make that statement. Could I improve? Absolutely! I firmly believe that we are ever-learning, ever-evolving beings and once you are certain you’ve reached the top – you’re already on your way back down.
So, since I started the first purpose-built podcast studio in Rochester, NY I had some people ask to pick my brain about everything from the equipment and setup to the business model to marketing. Now, I am an open book and always try to help my fellow human – which is the problem. I forgot that some people are disingenuous and may take advantage of kindness. This happened to me quite recently. That’s why I am writing this post.
If I give someone advice about something that I do for a living, I would consider that consulting. Consulting is (usually) advice that people are paid for. Sometimes, colleagues in related fields will give professional advice as a courtesy, which I would not categorize as consulting. Though professional advice, it is still advice because there is no financial transaction taking place.
You can be nice and helpful, but be cautious.
If I went to a fellow studio owner and asked, “Which microphone do you prefer for voice recording?”, I would probably get an answer in return. Mine is on my website, so obviously I don’t care about telling the world which mic I use. Now, if I went to the same guy and asked him to draw me a schematic of how he wired his studio or his mic techniques, I would expect him to laugh at me and walk away – or at least not tell me. Does a chef give out his recipe? Some chefs do – but you have to pay them for it.
This is a very important consideration for the small business owner. You don’t want to inadvertently give someone a course in how to be your competitor. Now, I try to be as positive as possible and I almost always give people the benefit of the doubt. Helping other people out is kind and thoughtful, but in business, that can be downright dangerous.
I felt like I had to share this information with my audience because I know many of you are entrepreneurs and are also super giving and generous people. Two things you should have in your back pocket at all times are:
Man is filling in Non-Disclosure Agreement NDA.
NDA – Non-disclosure agreement. This is a legal form stating that your client cannot talk about this to anyone under penalty of lawsuit.
Non-compete agreement. This is a contract that states the person whom you are giving consulting services cannot turn around and use that information to start a business and go after your clients – for a certain amount of time or in a certain geographical region.
I am not a lawyer and am not qualified to give any legal advice, but I cannot stress enough that you must always look out for yourself and NEVER assume people have the best of intentions. Remember, they are usually looking out for their own interests and not everyone has the same moral compass.
You have a script, you get a famous person attached, you find an investor, you make your movie, you sell your movie to a distributor, you have a big premiere at a theatre and walk the red carpet. EASY PEASY! Nice try, but that only works in the movies. I’ve been listening to podcasts about people (presumably like me) who went from being a nobody with nothing to a Hollywood Player. But when you get down into the real details of their stories, you find out there was a rich aunt or they have a relative in the business or SOMETHING that gives them a leg up. Sure, there are rags to riches stories, but the protagonists in those stories are usually young. They live in their car and eat ramen for a year before their first gig, etc. I’ve heard plenty of those stories. Not a whole lot of those stories involve anyone over the age of 40. 
Kids want to be YouTube Stars and Instagram Influencers. Who doesn’t? I’d love for someone to pay me $10K just to post about how much I love their hemorrhoid cream (I’m taking meetings). So all of this means it is that much harder to stand out from the crowd. But maybe instead of trying to stand out from the world’s crowd, what if we just tried to stand out from our local crowd?
But wait, there’s more! We’d not only love to create a local filmmaking business model that affords us the opportunity to crank out quality visual content, but we’d love to train more people to learn how. That too is a blog post for another day. We just want to tell visual stories as a day job. We don’t have to be big movie moguls, we just want to make our movies and help people follow their dreams, NBD.
We aren’t working with the guys and girls who thought we were just a couple idiots trying to make some stupid movie. There are some people who may have refused to work with us because we didn’t have 1/2 the money in escrow or because we weren’t using an Arri camera. Those people won’t be with us when our dreams are a reality, but they will wish they were.
