We all know that filmmaking is telling a story visually. The great thing about it is there are infinite ways do so. This is what is magic about filmmaking. You could give the script to ten different directors and each one of them would come up with their own way of telling the story.

Last week when Craig and I caught up to talk about Simple Happiness, we also talked about how his trip to Los Angeles went. He went with his better looking half, Shannon Kohli, also a local DOP/Camera Operator, went to the Cinegear Expo. They had the fortunate experience of having dinner with people like Denny Clairmont who owns Clairmount Cameras. Craig tells me that Denny had been in the biz for a very long time and his company is responsible for many great technological advances in cinematography.

Without talking too much about their experience in LA, as I understand little of what he was talking about, we conversed about ideas and concepts about making successful films. What he shared with me only confirmed what I believe filmmaking is all about. He mentioned how at one of the seminars they attended, William Fraker stated that “From the 70’s to the 80’s not one film in Hollywood lost money.” He mentioned how filmmaking used to be a directors world and now it’s a producer’s world. What does that mean to me? It’s all about money. It’s true. God bless Jerry Bruckheimer for movies like Top Gun; Days of Thunder; The Rock; Con Air; Bad Boys; Armageddon; The Pirates of the Caribbean and the list of films goes on. Point is, because of him and these blockbuster films everybody and their cat and dog these days make 30 to 100 million budget films and all they think about is how much can they make at the end of it all. Forgive me Jerry for making it seem like I’m blaming you. I’m not. I’m only stating what I see. And who am I kidding, I am a fan. I enjoy the no brainer, pump me full of adrenaline, blow things to smithereens, entertaining films that you produce. I can honestly admit that.

I say this because if it wasn’t for the big marketing machine and campaigning of this capitalist society we live in, then just maybe filmmaking would still be about the Director. And for the indie filmmaker attempting to raise money it’s not easy because essentially everyone thinks film making is a risky business.

I’m going to do a little mathematical equation for all who read this to help the indie film maker build a case. I have given this a lot of thought over the past three years since Subhuman was released, but still, it’s only a theory. Just an idea! So bear with me.

If your budget for your film is 450,000.00 and you released the movie to a theater or just to DVD at 10 a ticket or DVD. How many people would need to see it in this world for it to make the money back? Now figure out the percentage of people in this world who would need to see it by dividing the number into the amount of people on this planet. Do the same for the continent you live in, then for your country, then your province and then the closest major city.

What numbers do you get?

As Kirk Shaw of Insight Films, shared with me in a recent email;

“Remember many producers and all film financiers are numbers people. Try to build a business case that makes it economically difficult for any producer to refuse giving your script a close look. Too often writers (and directors too) fail to make the business case for their work strong enough. That’s why good scripts often get passed over while lousy scripts get made.”

I end this by stating filmmakers and producers walk hand in hand from beginning to end of a film. But what we need to remember when making a movie is to stay true to the story. Money will come and go. Some films will make large profits others will make little. But film, film lives forever. Let your story become immortal.