Low Budget/High Concept & the AFM Aftermath

Well, the AFM happened folks! It was an astounding success for us. But for some people, they might not see what I see. I made some great new friends, and got some great ideas & direction for our future. That's what I expected, and that's what I wanted. But I've known lots of people who have wished for and even expected a sale on their very FIRST VISIT. Which I find to be absolutely ridiculous. I've even seen the people who go to AFM without a finished film, which is probably the majority of filmmaker attendees, expect this. That's probably because they didn't do their research, or because they are being unrealistic about their product.

 

Let me give you a clue. The market doesn't care nearly as much about your product as you do. But what they can start to care about is you. YOU, the filmmaker. YOU, the human being. So, appeal to them on that level first. That's the first step. The next step is to learn how to sell or to find a sales producer to team up with. That's step two.

Well, that's what we did, and that's what we got. We met some amazing people. One of them lives close by, and we are now teaming up with him. His name is Terry Hopkins of Firestrike Productions, and he really impressed us. But there were also a handful of other friends we made from around the world. The guys from Badlands, Sean from Callumny Films, Travis from Cobalt, the team at Thriller, and to many more! Thank you to all of you I met with and to those who advised us on our films, and making better films for the market.

One thing I learned is that 'high concept' can be a good but also a bad thing. It's good to start with high concept, but never settle on it. We can do the best work as we never give up to what I call "the entropy of the high concept", but if we continue, instead, to fight for the greater complexity of characterization and the greater sophistication of plot and themes... in two words, we need "groundbreaking storytelling". Its true that Low Budget/High Concept is good. It makes selling to a market like AFM possible, but it's not by any means the end-all of storytelling.

 

So, to you, the reader, the fan, I have some great news! Liberty No. 5 Pictures has teamed up with Firestrike Productions to bring product to the AFM next year! So, that's our goal! More specifically, to have one or more projects in each stage of development by next year. A project being developed or written, a project in pre-production, a project in post-production, and a finished project seeking distribution. So, at least four projects that have great teams, and are building up to a great sale (or a few great sales) at AFM 2018. Here's what we are working on now.

1. Development on horror film, "The Demon's Head" in the Tampa Bay area.
2. Developing a Faith-based Musical inspired by the Biblical story of Job (with writer Preston Walden).
3. Developing a Halloween themed family thriller called "Let's Get Scary." Being developed with director/writer Nick Canning.
4. Developing a shark thriller film with director/producer Ryan Justice.
5. Developing a horror/thriller about the urban myth called Black Eyed Children, with producer John Borland.
6. Developing an action film about bounty-hunters with Joe Sanchez.
7. Developing a faith-based film with director Matthew Glover.
8. Developing an action comedy with Joel Wynkoop called "Battlesuit".

And now my personal projects...
9. My coming of age drama 'Floridiana' about skaters, abuse, & homelessness is in pre-production.
10. I am writing & developing a drama comedy set during Thanksgiving, and a fantasy adventure inspired by "A Pilgrim's Progress".
11. I am working to bring my short script "Something to Lose" to the screen.

I can't discuss too many specifics about most of these projects for good reason, but the ones that are personal projects are free game. Development can be a fragile time for teams. We don't want to expect too much at first. And we don't want to squelch the creativity too much by demanding a lot or thinking we know what the film is about too early on.

Knowing what a story is truly about is essential to bringing it to life effectively. And development is really about finding that out, and getting the pieces put together before we rush down a path that could actually dead end once we get to production, or get to post-production, or to market. It can get sidelined at any one of these steps if we don't really know our limits, and if we don't know if we can execute this with our limited resources.

We need more projects closer to post or to sale. But that's just where we are now. As soon as we get more successes we can start asking for funding in various places and know that we can get somewhere without having to self-fund or crowd-fund everything.



Low Budget/High Concept image by Mongrels, © Mongrels 2015 all rights reserved.