Film Courage: What are your five tips for getting a movie made? R.L. Scott, Filmmaker: First off be realistic don't
ask for two million dollars if you've never made a film. Chances are you're
not going to get that funded so yeah I would say firstly be realistic about
where you are about what you're doing
create a situation where an investor can't say no meaning have have a track
record of work I truthfully I truly feel like if you've never made a project you
should not be asking for funding I feel like you should do it yourself in the
beginning I think you need to produce some things yourself because you need to
to show a person why they should invest in you I think it's hard to get people
to just give you money it's like saying to someone hey I want to do heart
surgery on you I've never done it before but I just swear I'm gonna it's
gonna be the most amazing surgery you've ever had it's like it's hard to convince
someone to take that kind of risk when the you haven't shown that you're
capable of following through and I see that a lot with a lot of young
filmmakers they're asking for money right out the gate like yo 2 million
dollars my first movie and I'm just like bro you're not gonna get that no it's
gonna give you that mic so I would say bring bring bring a lot more value than
you're asking for meaning if if you have to show makers if one has say never done
a project before but he has a script and a good story and an idea and he's asking
for a million dollars and then you have another director who has done for future
films and he's asking for $100,000 the the the
chances are likelihood of the guy who's only asking for very little versus what
he's already shown and that he can accomplish there's a there's a larger
chance you're gonna get where you're asking for and so on you know in the
beginning you want to set like a more modest more realistic budget like
something that you feel an investor could part with but give them incentives
give them a reason to believe that you can actually do this thing that you're
saying you can do and a lot of that comes from making the sacrifices early
on and investing in yourself and making some things like it doesn't even have to
be features it could be shorts but just making things that you can show to
someone and say hey like I can do this like this is this is what I have to
offer and if it's if it's technically not good enough do it again do it again
like don't don't always be in such a rush to ask for funding until you feel
like you're in a position where you really have something to offer that is
worth a person parting with money even if it's 5 grand 10 grand whatever you're
asking for it may not seem like a lot but it's a lot to them you know it's a
it's a it's a risk instant investment so be realistic don't ask for the moon you
know start off very small produce a few things before you get to that point of
asking so that you have examples of your work
and also have a plan like okay you're gonna make this show what are you gonna
do with it when it's done what are your plans like how do you plan to distribute
it how do you plan to repay that investment how
you know you and there's so many avenues now with aggregation sites with sites
like iTunes I think even YouTube does this thing now where you can put your
film for sale on YouTube now and have a certain amount but but having a have a
plan like I have a not just to make the thing but how are you gonna get this
thing to the rest of the world have a solid plan so I think those would be my
my tips yeah you talked about being realistic and I like that especially
here I think that's that's something a lot of people don't always do has anyone
ever said you know you got a really high hype to sup more because I see you being
very level about everything and then you look at your work and it's amazing and
you're not here sort of bragging and I see a lot of that in this town has
anyone ever said I need you to really hype hype yourself up and and and you
just kind of want to keep it more yeah I've heard that a lot and the truth is
like I win every time because I don't you know like if it's harder to pay back
a million dollars than it is to pay back three hundred fifty thousand dollars or
whatever the case is and a lot of times to be truthful when it comes to
distribution a lot of times depending on the deal you're not getting these
massive sums of money back I mean you have to have certain situations where
like if if of course it's like if I cast Denzel Washington okay great
like I'm gonna make this amount of money but you know to me but if you can't
afford Denzel you can afford someone who's well known but maybe not as big as
that may not have as much market value or whatever the case is at the time like
a lot of distributors are not going to pay that
over a certain amount and so if you if you create things that are modest and
budget the the chances of you making back your money plus a large profit is
is very good is very high you know so I think it's sort of like the Blum House
mentality right like they make their film sort of certain amount they have
more than enough money to start playing one hundred million dollar game like but
when they look at sort of like like wow we're winning you know like we're we're
making these films for between five and you know ten thousand dollars and I'm a
million I'm sorry five or ten million dollars and we put some money in the
marketing and we're making these massive sums so why would we now want to start
pulling out our hair and like playing this 100 million dollar game where now
we have to make 200 million dollars back just to break even and you know that's
like a different game up there so in some cases it's it's a smarter to just
like not overshoot all the time it's not and I'm not saying in every case every
you know every project is different but I think that if you can set yourself up
to wind from the beginning you know to me then I think it's smart to do so like
if an investor gives me a million dollars I don't I wouldn't make one film
for a million dollars I would make three films for that million dollars you know
what I mean so I just think that uh it really depends on the mentality of the
person and how they perceived the industry like it this is how it really
is and this is how the outside world sort of sees it and yeah I've always
been a realist like I just think just never found you know I'm not the
person who cuz I like to put the money on the screen like I don't think that
having there was a something I was I heard a long time ago I think it was
from Spielberg and he was talking about what's in there what's in the frame you
know and about like this is all that matters like what's in the frame it
doesn't matter it's like two inches outside the frame there's tape running
up the walls and and you know just all this weird stuff going on around it what
what matters is what's in the frame and like that's the approach I take to
filmmaking I don't like to waste money I don't like to waste investors money so I
don't like to have just a bunch of stuff that you don't need ten trucks like full
of lobster like you know and then in the frame none of that value is there like I
like to keep the value in the frame and and not sort of be wasteful and yeah not
not spending on a bunch of like honey wagons and being overly exuberant like
outside of that frame because at the end of the day when audience sees it this is
all they have to go by they don't know what happened on the set they only know
what they see and so I don't like to throw money at things that aren't gonna
be beneficial to what's in the frame you know but some people enjoy that they
like the idea of extravagance on the set you know that doesn't mean the movies
gonna be any good but so I just take like the opposite approach
you