Antoine Allen, Filmmaker: Back then everybody was doing features, they was going to all of
these film festivals and they were making no money. I was like I’m not going to keep
making the film festivals rich. I'm going to make some money too and that's what I did.
Film Courage: Antoine, your first film cost $25,000 to make?
Antoine: Yes, Life Is Too Short.
Film Courage: And it's a feature film?
Antoine: Right yeah.
Film Courage: And you made how much from it?
Antoine: 80k [$80,000].
Film Courage: So you were able to essentially more than triple your money?
Antoine: Mm-hmm.
Film Courage: Okay, how does that happen?
Antoine: Well for me it's movie premieres, for me I did a lot of movie premieres. For Life Is
Too Short I did a lot. I went on a tour with that film. I sold merchandise at the film festivals,
I did Life Is Too Short merch, so I did a lot of festivals, I won like over 20 awards.
I sold merch at the festivals, I did a lot of premieres, and yeah it did really good for me.
Film Courage: And so these premieres they were all in the New York area?
Antoine: Yeah, New York I did some in South Carolina but mostly in New York.
Film Courage: Oh so you traveled…what's in South Carolina?
Antoine: It was a festival I was at and they
really liked it and I brought it out there and it was good.
Film Courage: Okay and so how many screenings do you think you did to make that eighty thousand?
Antoine: Probably say like 25-30.
Film Courage: Over what span of time?
Antoine: Six months.
Film Courage: Wow, so your life was just touring basically with this film?
Antoine: Yes, I won't do it again but yes.
Film Courage: Why? It was a lot of work,
calling theaters and trying to get the right rate? Did the theaters pay you back on time?
Antoine: No. So what I did was I bought it out, so I bought the theater out and then
I just took the ticket sales of food and all that yeah because I don't want to do the whole
wait for the theater or anyone to do that so I just paid them out so if I used two days,
I paid them up and I had my regular job to pay for all the stuff.
Film Courage: Okay, so then you were basically the cashier at the door?
Antoine: Yep.
Film Courage: Did you use an online ticket service?
Antoine: Yes, I used Event Ticket or I used PayPal or Eventbrite.
Film Courage: Okay yeah, great so three different ways they could
do it. The movie itself cost twenty five thousand you said?
Antoine: Mm-hmm.
Film Courage: Where did the majority of the budget go?
Antoine: House and actors, that was pretty much it because what I did was Life Is Too Short (you
can watch it on my website) I use like two-three houses that look different upstairs announces
so I knew the homeowners so I used the house, gave them a little money but really just the
locations and food and the actors is pretty much. It didn't cost me a lot.
Film Courage: Aside from the $25,000 to make the film Life Is Too Short
how much did you have to spend on top of that to then make this eighty thousand?
Antoine: Probably like another 25 Maybe they're probably another 25 so datas and everything yeah
theaters merch did you do food too yes so some places okay so I got another 25 yeah and so I'm
sorry you're so your family's making this food no some of my good families I have friends oh
all right oh I do like us like so in New York I know a lot of restaurant owners so I could get
a little money to do a Katie range for the for the thing and we do cross-promotion stuff like
that oh I see okay sometimes like if you this is the rest of the mom's a Pot restaurant they
want some want some promotion I might do like a little video film like a promo video and we
have a little trade-off with food or I give them a little money for the schools so it's all about
negotiating okay and then some of the money you because you were working at the time were
like for it so you had that you were paying for these theaters or some things okay can we break
down how much money came from the screenings versus the soundtrack versus the merchandise
um so like
so for the soundtrack I didn't even make a lot of money off the soundtrack I mean more
money off the merch and the ticket sales so the bulk of it came from ticket sales and merch so
majority of it came from if you total everything a majority came from the merch in the ticket sales
and so you you kind of do a deep dive into what you should be charging or do you always charge
like a set price I try to stay at the 20 at that time I say at the 20 Mark but now when I do my
meds I do more thirty dollars did you license the movie or sell any DVDs no it was straight
I even at the time I said let me just do trainings I wasn't thinking about that I just did I didn't
do none of that stuff nope I should have done that but I didn't do it what year was this
two thousand I would say 2005. mm-hmm 2005 Okay so what would you have done differently now nothing
everything everything I did was what I supposed to do because I was still learning I was still
learning because because Life's Too Short what I did was switching scissors was my first short I
went from a short to a feature most people don't do that but I wanted I felt confident so I did
I didn't do a whole bunch of shorts I did short feature does the movie still make money for you no
but it allows me was years ago and also what it did was it built my confidence up and I won a lot
of awards like a lot so when I pitch in I'm doing things filmmaker it sounds nice so it did a lot it
the most money it did for me was experience because it really showed me that
I don't have to wait for nobody I could literally do this like I could do this
with me and my team we could knock this out so it gave me just a lot of confidence
because everybody was doing back then everybody was doing features they were going to order film
festivals and it was making no money I was like none keep making the film festivals Rich
I'm going to make some money too and that's what I did did you ever get your Festival
a fees waived no I paid for I pay for everything okay they never waived it
so let me see if I understand the numbers then so you basically spent 25
000 to make the film and then you spend another maybe 20 to get it out there on the six month
Festival run and then you ended up making a total of eighty thousand back over six months
how does somebody do that like can can they do that over and over again or it really had to be
certain movies certain crowds certain times certain festivals yeah means a little strategy so
the strategy I had I said listen for the first few months I'm going to do festivals because Festival
take a while to get back to you so when a friend was getting back to me I was winning the wars and
everything I saw lining it up okay I'm going to do this I'm going to do that just to build the
buzz up and yeah it's all about the strategy of how to do it because what happens is when
you submit to the festivals they don't get back to like six four months later they don't get back to
you and I I so when it would start getting back to me because a lot of the times I submitted to
the festivals that was from January to like around summertime so once they start getting
back to me back to back I use that momentum to start the tour because now it's winning
wars and everything I'm a winning filmmaker so it's all about lying and timing up have you ever
thought about writing a book actually my book comes out next year at Christmas it called stop
asking for prevention and it's basically about a lot of times you wait for someone about this
it's going to stop asking for permission so I have 25 steps that's going to yes I'm excited
very nice yeah how many pages is the book this is sure it's like 40 pages
you just sell it on your own site or you're going to go through I might go to Amazon depends on the
numbers because I don't know how the numbers look like on Amazon so I'm going to see how
the numbers look but I will sell all copies on my site too much and then you can also do speaking
engagement style yeah I'm actually going to do a short film that's attached to the book called Lost
Child and talk about my childhood how I was lost and I found myself so when I do the book signings
I'm going to have a short film and part of it to get the watch you short film that's another
thing about the business side so I'm doing a book with a short film once covet that's all
I'm doing next year I could do movie theaters with my short film in the book what did selling
your first movie teach you about the business that when people tell you you can't do nothing
you showed them like they really like it really gave me so much confidence because when I was
doing the film I kept hearing oh if it's not a big network it's not going to go nowhere you
don't have no stars in your film who's going to buy it you keep hearing this industry talk because
that's all they know that's the information you're going to give you guys so they know so
once I realized no I came from the music business there's no different it's just a different product
and that's you guys that's why this industry or any industry don't believe what they tell you
write your own book because they would tell you stuff that make you feel like you little you
belittle you can't do this you can't do that you could do a lot if you just create your own world
create your own structure and it will work out for you you just have to trust yourself did you ever
get advice from people that were well-meaning they weren't trying to tell you no but that
it just it just wasn't the answer you wanted to hear I grew other times but I have to realize
once again I remember my answer was your vision I'm pretty sure a lot of people told them well
you should do this you do that because that's what they know and a lot of times they project and they
fear on you so I don't really like yeah unless you actually doing something that I feel like I don't
I really listen to most people because I realize you know I keep people around me and swallowing me
they always update me and stuff because usually if you swipe us in the room you're not going to learn
nothing so always keep people around there's no way more than me and I know a lot too but
but yeah you get that all the times it's just people sometimes you're trying their
best they don't know they're just telling you answers you should do this but at the
end of the day you have to trust yourself man how can you tell when they're actually
they have your best interest in mind versus they're trying to stop you somehow and and they're
negative I don't yeah I'm at this point they just talk I don't I might listen to them it depends
how it comes to me it depends on the energy how they presented me and that's what I know
so it's all about Holiday Station it comes to me okay so it's not really what they say it's
kind of PlayStation is how they say it was your first feature film a success yes it was
how confident were you that you could duplicate that success I was very confident because I did
it in the film the music business and I knew with anything if I did this one time I could
do it again and I was I was confident I won a whole bunch of awards I remember when my film
likes you short got to the film festival in Spain I never been Spain in my life
I went out there and I seen that crowd it was packed and I was like how like how and it's just
it's the confidence one day in my film festivals it really builds your confidence and that would
it did for me that it's a zillion people in this world a lot of times we focus on industry people
it's a zillion people in this world he's got to find your market and find your tribe
yeah because I was you know there's been a lot of debate about film festivals and whether they're
worth it or not and is it just for the laurels but I like what you're saying right here so it's
not just that it's not just to put laurels on a website it's that it builds your confidence yeah
it builds my confidence up now is it worth it but when I was doing it it would build my confidence
up because you go into all the different cities and state you meet no people so they build my
confidence up I use it as a tool that's professor too you have to use these as a tool it's not there
forever so it's like a two box you're going to use your hammer for the nails you're going to use
your wrench for something else so festivals is a tool don't get don't get stuck and caught up in it
why not now because 2020 oh okay so if if things were open and oh yeah it'd be it'd be still good
but covet because now they have festivals online that don't make no sense they charging fees
don't it's just the dumbest thing I had a film festival for four years called validate yourself
I ended because of covet because I did not I don't feel comfortable charging filmmakers a
fee to watch it online that don't make no sense to me especially if you look at all the movies
out right now that's on Netflix on the big or the big scratch but another one got in film festivals
no one said you know what because this film festival I want to watch this movie
you never hear that so now it doesn't have the same power like it used to
I mean it's tough I mean there's great films that you can watch online but at the same time part of
being at a festival is just hearing the audience yeah it's a different experience right right you
can't you can't beat that online stuff so with the films that do it I don't I shut my festival
down because I didn't feel right doing paying charging fees for online that made no sense.