J. Horton, Filmmaker/Youtuber/Podcaster: I would be working a doing a shoot and
we'd finish at three or four in the morning
and then about six in the morning I'd be at Starbucks “You want foam on your latte?”
Film Courage: J. we had this comment come in on our Film Courage Youtube channel the other day
and I wanted to read it for you and please you're welcome to jump in at any time.
It goes “I made my first and only 16-millimeter feature film in 1997 that cost me around $50,000
that I paid for out of my own pocket, used credit cards and borrowed money from my parents.
However, unlike [Robert] Rodriguez and [Kevin] Smith my film was a complete and total failure.
I wasn't accepted into any film festivals and wasn't able to get any sort of distribution.
This cost me financially including my future in having a career as a filmmaker
and 25 years later I’m still dealing with the debt and financial instability from it.
$50,000 is a lot of money for most people let alone 5 million for a film. The reality
for myself and I know there are other aspiring filmmakers who've gone down the same path like I
did that you’ve only have got one shot and if you fail both financially and commercially, no one is
going to invest in you or another film because why would they? No one invests in failed filmmakers.
J.: So here's what I’ll say to that and I don't like…I know where he's coming from
but he's also coming from a completely different time. 1997 shooting on film
yes yeah that probably did cost a minimum of 50 grand to get something in the can but today it
doesn't like it doesn't cost that much to make it doesn't have to cost that much to make a feature
film and it when when we set ourselves up that hey I got one shot and it's this and it's over
like it almost is never gonna work out in in my experience like filmmaking is a numbers game the
people that that break out like get discovered and like take off on their first films the rodriguez
and the tarantino's and spike lee and all them they're lottery winners like like that that is
not the norm most filmmakers that I know I know very few that did well in their first movie like
almost almost none I like I can't I can't name any I didn't actually on the movies that I produced it
took me maybe four films before I was making like a profit but again I wasn't spending 50 000 today
you just you just got to set a smaller scale for what you're shooting but you you can shoot
a feature film for twenty thousand dollars you can shoot a feature film for ten thousand dollars
if you're smart if you pull in favors you have gear you can you can do these things
we have our we have I have a phone in my pocket that has a better camera on it than the cinema
cameras that I did my first like two or three movies on so today I I just I think that that
I think that one of the biggest problems with indie filmmakers they're still looking at the
filmmaking landscape like it was 97 like it was 2005 and it's not it's a completely different time
there has never been a a point in history where it's so easy to make movies it can be so cheap
to make movies and it's easy to get them out there like on professional platforms now on the downside
of that is everybody can make movies and there's a lot of content and we can get into that later but
I I I I don't think it's an all or no it should never be an all or nothing like i'm all in on
this and that's it for for me if that's the path someone chooses to take more power to them but
I personally think it's a numbers thing if you make five movies two are gonna fail
one or two are gonna break even and that fifth one is going to make enough to cover the other
four excellent and and there's more of this comment and I appreciate this person for being
candid enough to oh totally and I think you do too and I feel like this is probably unfortunately a
common story and i've heard from people that have spent actually double that oh yeah for their first
film and yeah and we're in debt and so yeah it's I appreciate them for for leaving this the fact
is movies cost money and they're a team effort and no one working on a film should work for free even
though you can now shoot a movie on an iPhone the fact is not everyone can afford an iPhone people
like this guy and the commenter is referring to some more interviewing like to talk about how
easy it is nowadays and use what you have access to but not everyone has access to the things
people take for granted I certainly don't have the money to make another film heck I wouldn't even
edit anything on my 15 year old computer which i'm still using because I can't afford anything newer
people with money or access to money have no idea what it's like when you're living
paycheck to paycheck which is most filmmakers these days who are not already established
so I yeah I have a lot of empathy for that statement and I I do and I also with everything
I just said I want to make known that I do realize my my privilege I did not come for
money I we we come from minimum wage I've paid for everything myself but I’m a healthy white male,
I've had a fairly easy go of it comparatively but that said when I made my first movie
this was 2003 that we shot at summer 2003 and I was working at Starbucks so I was making I don't
know five minimum wage whatever it was and some tips I worked 35 hours a week and I was
paying for college I was still able like in that situation to save a little bit of money myself and
get a little bit on a credit card and I think that first movie we made for about four thousand
dollars and it was me and a couple other friends and we kind of came together on it and put it
together and I know there are people that are in a position where they can't even like do that
with their you know people that start families early or somebody that's disabled or somebody
that has other responsibilities I was a young single white guy and I didn't I had nothing to do
but save up my money and pay for my college so but all that said it doesn't take that I think people
set up roadblocks for themselves when it comes to making movies because it's a scary thing
and I think sometimes people it's easier just to say hey like it's too hard i'm not gonna
do it then to like buckle down and do it and I like buckled down and then and after that movie
and that movie didn't make much money and I was still broke and I was driving a 91 ford explorer
and Katrina happened and I loaded up my explorer and with what I had left and I drove across
country to Los Angeles and I surfed on a friend's couch for about six months and I couldn't get a
job I started working at Starbucks again and the entire I worked at Starbucks through my first
one two three four for my first five movies so like I would I would work I would save up
a little bit money I would shoot and then I'd save up a little bit more money and I would shoot again
I would be working a doing a shoot and we'd finish at three or four in the morning
and then about six in the morning I'd be at Starbucks you want foam on your latte but but like
those are the kind of things if you want to do it if you are healthy and you don't have you know
four kids you can make it work if you choose to make it work I believe in general and
so you were living in Louisiana at the time that you were you were paying for college working at
Starbucks there yes and you managed to do that and then once Katrina hit you moved here you drove and
would you ever run into people that you were working with on set while you were at Starbucks oh
yeah yeah it's so like yeah so that I would be I remember I was on my first movie and the the first
weekend we shot we had a really big day it was kind of a apocalyptic zombie movie so we had this
sequence set up in a self-storage facility and we had like oh man something like 40 extras I mean it
looked big and we were all in college so we had a lot of college friends come and help so we had a
fairly like impressive looking crew and there was all these people here it looked like a big deal
and then one and one of the one of the zombies I was talking to and then like the next day
and I say nothing about working at Starbucks like oh yeah I’m a big time filmmaker
and then the very next day they right in the drive-through and they kind of look
they did a double take and they didn't say nothing but it it was yeah yeah and I had that happen many
times sure sure that was in Louisiana or here that was in Louisiana okay in LA it honestly
I can't think of a situation where it happened because I when I when I moved to LA I was
working at Starbucks in downtown Burbank and I was shooting in Hawthorne [California] or
Hollywood and I just I just didn't I don't remember running to anybody there but I may have.