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Published by Michael Wiese Productions 12400 Ventura Blvd. #1111 Studio City, CA 91604 tel.. 81 tel 818.379 8.379.879 .8799 9 ax 818.986.3408
[email protected] www.mwp.com Cover desi Cover design gn:: Johnny Ink www www.john .johnnyink.com nyink.com Book Boo k interior design: Gina Manseld Design Editor: Gary Sunshine Printed by McNaughton & Gunn, Inc., Saline, Michigan Manuactured Manuactur ed in the United United States Sta tes o America 2013 by John T. Trigonis All rights reserved. No part o this book may be reproduced in any orm or by any means without permission in writing rom the publisher, except or the inclusion o brie quotations in a review. ©
Librar Lib rary y o Congress Cataloging-in-Pu Cataloging-in- Publicati blication on Data
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Contents Acknowledgments Preface Introduction:: The What of Crowdfunding? Introduction PART 1 FILM FINANCING: A BRIEF HISTORY
Chapter One The Traditional Hollywood Model o Film Financing Chapter Two The DIY Revolution Chapter Chapt er Three Crowdunding and Filmmaking: Yin Meets Its Yang PART 2 CROWDFUNDING BASICS
Chapter Four Tao: Begin with the Basics o Fundraising Chapter Five Decide I Crow Crowd dundin unding g Is Right or Your Film Fil m Project Chapter Six Build Your Team Chapter Chapt er Seven Decide How Much Fundi Funding ng You Need Chapter Eight Choose Your Plat Platorm orm Chapter Chapt er Nine Home In on Your Tar Target get Audience Chapter Ten Create (and Mainta Maintain) in) Your Campaign Stra Strategy tegy Chapter Eleven Give Your oursel sel Enough E nough Time vi
PART 3 CAMPAIGN CAMP AIGN PERSONALIZATION
Chapter Twelve Te : Integrity is the Tao to (Ka-)Ching ! Chapter Chapt er Thirteen You ourr Pitch Pitch Vid ideo: eo: Mak Makee It Ab Abou outY tYou ourr Proj Project ect and Yoursel Chapter Fourteen Perk erks: s: Make Them About Your Project and Your Contr Contributor ibutorss Chapter Chapt er Fifteen Promotion: Promot ion: Make It Your Whole W hole World World (and Everyone Else’s, Too!) Chapter Chapt er Sixteen “I’m Not Only the Director, I’m Also a Contributor!” Chapter Chapt er Seventeen “Be Water… ” — Transparency Is Clear and Cool Chapter Chapt er Eighteen A Practical Guide to Crowdunder Etiquette PART 4 COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Chapter Chapt er Nineteen Le t Your Communit Comm unity y Help Help Pu: Let Carve Car ve Your Uncar Uncarved ved Block Chapter Twenty The Golden Rule: “Don’t Solicit, Elicit” Chapter Twenty-O Twenty-One ne The Importa Im portance nce o Keeping Your Contribut Contr ibutors ors Upd Updated ated Chapter Twenty-Two Avoid “The Flood” Chapter Twenty-Three “I’ve Got No Money, But I Can Give ______!” Chapter Twenty-Four Don’t Panic! — Handling “The Lull” Between Contributions vii
Chapter Twenty-Five Build Relationsh elationships, ips, Not Tran Transactions sactions PART 5 THE TAO OF TWITTER, FACEBOOK, AND THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Chapter Twenty-Si wenty-Six x Wei Wu Wei “Doing Without (Over)Doing” Chapter Twenty-Se wenty-Seven ven Twitter Tips or Crowdunders Chapter Twenty-E wenty-Eight ight From Facebook Pages to “Friend Fawning” Chapter Twenty-Nin wenty-Nine e Sleep Strikes, Tweetathons, and Other Last-Minute Strategies Chapter Chapt er Thirty A Few Should Nots o Crowdunding PART 6 ADVANCED CROWDFUNDING
Chapter Chapt er Thirty-One Thirty-On e From Lao Tzu to Sun Tzu: Waging the War o Art Chapter Thirty-Two $30,000+ Budgets – How Do They Raise It? Chapter ThirtyT hirty-Three Three IndieGoGo vs. Kickstarter Chapter Thirty-Four Fiscal Sponsorship and the JOBS Act - Added Incentives Incentiv es or Contributors Chapter Thirty-Five Enhan En hanci cing ng Your Team Chapter Chapt er Thirty-Six Bringing Bring ing Your Campaign Campaig n Ofine Chapter Chapt er Thirty-Seven Consecutivee Campaigni Consecutiv Cam paigning,T ng,Tran ransmedia, smedia, and Bey Beyond ond viii
PART 7 CROWD STUDIES
Trignosis #1 At Home Away From Home: Tilt the Town Trignosis #2 How Do You Dir Direc ectt [A Gary Gar y King Ki ng Musical] Musica l] – Build Your Brand Trignosis #3 “I Supported Cerise and What I Go Gott Was an Acrostic Poem!” Trignosis #4 Synced Up with Details and Nostalgia Trignosis #5 Stuck Like Chuck, Too: The Indie Sequel That Couldn’t and Why
Conclusion: The You o Crowdunding Appendix Some Memorable Pitch Videos Additional Resources or Crowdunders Bibliography About the Author Index
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Preface WelCome
to the
Future
oF
Film Funding
Crowdfunding for Filmmakers: The Way to a Successful Film Campaign is a book geared toward the everyday dreamer who has always wanted to pick up a camer cameraa and and make m ake a motion motion picture. pict ure. It’s It’s or the Do-ItDo-It-Y Your our-seler who’ who’s used to saving up $500 $ 500 and gathering ga thering up a tribe tr ibe o riends riends to shoot a YouT ouTube ube video v ideo and and who now wants want s to tak take video production to the next level. It’s or the independent lmmaker who’s made documentaries or narrative short and eature-length lms through grants or investors and who now wants to stay on the cutting edge o not only lmmaking, but lm nancing as well. This book even goes ar beyo beyond nd the lmmaking ront ront and can help visual artist ar tists, s, musicians, dancers, theater directors and playwrights, business startups, inventors, and many others raise the unds they need to bring their projects proj ects or products to the world. world.
But let’s get back to lmmakers. Today, we don’t have to be Hollywood studio executives to make lms that look, sound, and eel like Hollywood blockbusters. The prime dierence is money. The more we have, the more we can aord the talent and skills to make a masterpiec ter piecee. Thankully Thankul ly,, the dawn d awn o crowdfunding is upon us –– reaching out to the crowd or the unds we need to make the movies we want to make and they want to watch. That said, this book caters to that community o indie lmmakers and moviegoers which seeks alternatives to the traditional, and crowdunding has quickly become the preerred alternative to submitting scripts to studios, writing grant proposals, or nding investors who may only be concerned with a return on their investment. Crowdunding levels the playing eld between each o these extremes and allows the everyday Joe Joe and Jane the opportunity to bring their creative projects to ruition.
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And perhaps the best part is that you don’t have to be a tech guru or marketin ma rketing g maven maven when it i t comes comes to crowdund c rowdunding. ing. You don’ don’t have to have a degree in business, either, and you certainly won’t get sued i you y ou crow crowdun dund d (thoug (though h you you may want want to check check with with your your acco accoununtant when April rolls around so you can keep Uncle Sam at bay.) What you do need is a deep-rooted passion or your lm project and an uncompromising drive to move it rom rst page to scrolling credits. In terms term s o technology technology,, all yo you u really need is an email address, a Facebook prole, and a Twitter account, since these are the main methods by which you you will wi ll obtain your your unding –– through rigo r igorous rous online promotion. promotion. Other Other than that, all al l you need is a pinch o personper sonalization and Crowdfunding for Filmmakers by your side, and you’ll be on your way to cooking up a successul lm campaign.
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introduction the W hat hat oF CroWdFunding? It’s hard work making a movie. It’s even harder securing the unds necessary to make one, especially at the independent level. Due to advancements in digital technology, just about anyone can aord a camera, be it a DSLR or a smart phone, and shoot a movie. Most Do-It-Yoursel oursel lmmakers lm makers learn lear n their moviemaking moviemaki ng skil skills ls through experience, wearing many dierent hats throughout the production process. The same goes or me. I’ve produced, written, directed, and edited eight o my own short lms. Seven o those eight have been nanced using my own money. No rich aunts, no lucky lottery numbers, just little amounts o money set aside here and there and lots o patience pat ience.. But or or one o my shor shor ts, I decided to try tr y something a little dierent, giving mysel yet another title –– crowdfunder . Crowdunding, Crowdundi ng, one o the most mos t popular alter a lternatives natives to conventional conventional methods o nancing a lm, is a orm o online undraising, in which a person sets up a project page, uploads a pitch video, oers some rewards, and reaches out directly to the audience through email and the social networks, networks, as well as the more more traditional modes o undrai undraising sing like word word o mouth. In February Februar y o 20 201 10, I launched a crowdunding campaign or my short lm Cerise . During the campaign, my team and I raised $6,300 in three months. That amount was $1,300 over our initial goal o $5,000, which we raised in two months by reaching out to the public through social networking via Facebook Fac ebook and Twitter, Twitter, a s well as a s by using usi ng the many ma ny tools tools aorded a orded us by our crowdunding platorm o choice, Indiegogo. A ew months ater my success crowdunding Cerise , I wrote a trio o very popular blog posts under the umbrella o The Tao Tao of CrowdCrow d fundi fun ding ng . My rst post, “Three Ps or a Successul Film Campaign,”
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received receiv ed an inspiring in spiring write-up on Indiewire.com, which helped it gar ga rner 1, 1,600 views in i n only on ly one month. It’s It’s now up u p to ov over er 3,200 views and counting. “A Practical Guide to Crowdunder Etiquette,” my second post, did equally as well, but it was my third post, “Twitter Tips or Crowdunders,” which was eatured on independent lm producer and guru Ted Hope’s blog Hope or Film, that made me realize that I’ve got the kind o practical knowledge o crowdunding that can help point other lmmak lm makers ers to toward ward the kind o success I had with Cerise . Why “the Tao” o crowdunding? Taoism is an ancient Chinese philosophy developed by Lao Tzu. In his immortal work the T ao Te “venerable enerable master” ma ster” expo expounds unds on the importa im portance nce o always Ching , the “v keeping the universe and a nd onesel in i n proper balance, o o going with the fow fo w and not challenging chal lenging it, and o embracing simplicity and gentleness above all else. In the Tao Te Ching , comprised o eighty-one short verses, Lao Tzu also reveals to his readers the main tenets o Taoism: Tao (the Way), Te (Integrity), Pu (the Uncarved Block), and the principle o wu wei (non-action). So how does Taoism Taoism relate to crowd crowdunding? unding? Through my rsthand r sthand experience as a crowdunder, as well as a consultant and campaign analyst, I’ve ound that when a campaigner remains true to the basics elements o undraising undrai sing — pitch, pitch, perks, perks, and promotion — and enhances each o o them with the the ourth ourth P — personalization personalization — the the chances o achieving over one’s initial crowdunding goal increase Filmmakers: The The Way Way to a SucSuc signi sig nican cantly tly.. Thereore, Thereore, Crowdfunding for Filmmakers: cessful Film Campaign centers itsel around the oering o practical inormation, tips, and tactics about how to launch and maintain a lucrative lm campaign simply by going with the fow o traditional undraising models and augmenting them with an added personal touch. The book examines various ways to meet and exceed one’s crowdunding goal through chapters that home in on team building, crowdunder etiquette, and audience outreach, primarily through social media and other means mean s o online promotion promotion.. You ou’l ’lll also a lso nd xv
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chapters containing case ca se studies rom success successul ul and not-so-successul not-so-successul campaignss alik campaign alikee. With lots o sound advice, solid examples, and the occasional tidbit o sagely insight in sight rom Taoist teacher Lao Tzu, Crowdfunding for Filmmakers Filmmakers will prove as enjoyable as it is inormative and ully acclimate you to the brave new world o crowdunding or independent lm.
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FILM PART FINANCING 1
A B R I E F H I S T O R Y
1
Chapter One • • •
the traditional hollywood model of Fil ilm m Financing MAKING MOVIES IS SERIOUS BUSINESS. The bulk o all that I know about Hollywood and how motion pictures are made comes rom the silver screen. In classics like Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard and Nicholas Ray’s In a Lonely Place, audiences are given a romanticized glimpse into the hustle-and-bustle, deadline-driven liestyles o screenwriters. Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels takes the audience through an intense ride as a drama director who wh o has struck a losing streak tries to regain his mojo and ultimately discovers an appreciation or comedy. And in The Barefoot Contessa , Humphrey Bogart and company take us on a tour o how directors, producers, and casting agents go about discovering new talent and casting movies. What these classics don’t show the general public is how these movies actually get made nancially. That’s the part that makes the movies Knight such serious serious business. business. Block Blockbusters busters lik likee Prometheus an and d The Dark Knight Rises aren’t made with pocket change. It takes a lot o unds or Hollywood to put out the movies that it does. These movies are made by big studios like Paramount, MGM, and Warner Bros. using big money in the hopes o making that money back and earning a prot on this investment once the lm is released theatrically to the public. Today, the average movie can cost anywhere rom $50 million to upward o $250 million. That’s a ar cry rom back in the 1930s when a studio could produce a Hollywood picture or under $14 million. The 1939 classic Gone with the Wind , or instance, was made or between $3. $3.9 and $4 $4.25 .25 mill million, ion, according according to Sheldon S heldon Hall Hall and Stephen 3
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Neale’s book Epics, Spectacles, and Blockbusters: A Hollywood History . Cecil B. DeMille’s classic The Ten Commandments, with its amazing special eects or the time, was made or $13.5 million, according to Tony Shaw’s book Holly Hollywo wood od’’s Cold War . Today, Hollywood produces motion-picture spectacles laden with computer compu ter generation generation and top billing, bill ing, all at costs cost s that tip t ip over over into the hundreds o millions. The rst Superman lm starring Christopher Reeve was made or around $55 million in 1978; twenty-eight years later Superman Returns was made or $209 million. At one time, costs were limited to lights, camera, lm stock, the acquisition o rights i the lm was an adaptation, ad aptation, and above-th above-the-line e-line exp expenses enses co covering vering the director, writer, and actors. Studios still have to manage these costs nowadays, plus the costs o visual eects artists or lms like Pirates of the Caribbe Caribbean an, which have budgets that can soar to near $300 million per picture. picture. And these numbers just refect the cost o production and do not include i nclude the costs cost s o distr distributio ibution, n, marketing, marketing, and promo promotion tion.. Again, making mak ing movies is serious business, busines s, and it’s it’s this kind o seriousser iousness that has aorded the Hollywood studio system a powerul monopoly nopo ly over over not only the mo movie vie industr indu stry y in the United States, but also the international entertainment industry. While I was at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011, I was stunned to see Johnny Depp’s latest $250 million pirate escapade headlining alongside more artistic and less expensive lms like The Artis Artist t ($12 million), which won the Academy Award or Best Picture that year, and Midnight in Paris ($17 million), a major contender or the same Oscar. The independent lm industry arose because o pioneers like Edward Burns, whose rst lm, The Brothers McMullen, cost an estimated $28,000 to shoot and launched an impressive and orward-thinking career ca reer or the New York nat native ive.. But The Brothers McMullen McMullen was not the rst independently produced lm; arguably, Star Wars was produced in traditional indie ashion, meaning there was no studio backing or the lm. l m. Thi This, s, o course, was beore the term ter m “independ “independent” ent” or “indie “indie” ”
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t he t raditional h ollyWood m odel
oF
F il m F inanCing
went rom simply meaning an alternative method o producing lms to becoming its own lm genre. Ater a slew o successul independently produced lms had broken standard Hollywood tradition, studios like Sony, Fox, and NBCUniversal decided to subtly conquer this neutral territory by creating indie lm companies like Sony Pictures Classics, Fox Searchlight, and Focus Features, respectively. Ater that, “independent” suddenly wasn’t so indie anymore. Thinking back to the days o Sunset Boulevard and Sullivan’s Travels , it seems that i one wanted to be a screenwriter, a director, or even an actor, he or she would have to pick up and leave town or the neon lights o Los Angeles to nurture that dream into a reality. Flash orward to now, to a time when the all-powerul camera companies like Panasonic and Canon looked out and saw thousands o people all over the world who wanted to make movies, but because o Hollywood’s iron st on the entertainment industry, with all its beauties o ame and ortune, as well as its beasts o nepotism and cronyism, those dreamers didn’t stand a chance at slipping a oot in the door. These camera companies ushered into the world the Dawn o the Digital Camera, and by doing so, so, gave gave rise r ise to a new breed breed o truly tr uly independent lmmakers who all shout shouted ed in unison “Let “Let there be lights! light s! Camera! Indepen Independence!” dence!”
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Chapter Chapt er Three • • •
Crowdfunding
and
Filmmaking:
yin meets its yan ang g FILMMAKING HAS BEEN CAUGHT in a state o fux over the last la st ten years. The dawn o the digital dig ital camera camera has ha s spawned a new breed breed o truly independent, DIY lmmaker rooted in the ideals o guerilla lmmaking. The advent o HD and 3D technology has given rise to a “Do “Do It Yours oursel el Revolution,” gr grant anting ing these inn innovativ ovativee moviemakmoviema kers the same image quality and versatility that Hollywood Stevens Spielberg Spielber g and Soderbergh achieve achieve in their big-budget blockbusters. blockbusters. So it’ss only natural it’ natur al to think that t hat i these lmma lmmak kers wer weree granted granted even the the smallest raction o a studio-sized budget, they might be able to create quality indie lms at Hollywood caliber, but not at Hollywood costs. Enter crowdunding, a phenomenon that’s been around since the 1990s, which serves as an alternative method o raising capital or creative projects. The concept is airly simple: by launching a campaign on one o the many crowdunding platorms like Indiegogo, Kickstarter, and the more than 200 others sprawled throughout the Internet, lmmakers can now go directly to the crowd or the money they need to make their lms, and with a ew clicks o a mouse, anyone can contribute money to those lm projects with ease. Crowdunding is Crowdunding i s modeled ater a ter the “rewar “reward ds system.” system.” Campaigns wil willl include a pitch video, which usually inorms the crowd about the lmmaker and the nature o his or her particular project, and provides a list o perks extended to potential contributors in exchange or giving money. The crowdunding platorms serve as intermediaries that help out with this kind o online undraising by oering important eatures like like easy ea sy payment options through PayP PayPal al or Amazon and the
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integration o social networking, making it easy or lmmakers and their supporters to promote their lm projects to their riends and other prospective contributors. Despite reaching a critical mass o sorts in the late 2000s, the concept o crowdunding can be traced back as ar as the 1700s, its origins rooted in the earliest orms o micronancing. The rst time I ever heard about crowdunding was when documentary lmmaker Gregory Bayne crowdunded the money he needed to nish his eature-length documentary J ha rd work Jens ens Pulv Pulver: er: Drive Driven n. With a lot o hard and constant social networking, he raised $27,210 on Kickstarter. This impressive victory made waves in the indie lm community because Gregory was also able to generate such a staggering amount o unding in less than one month rom 410 backers –– mostly ellow lmmakers and everyday people who had an interest in movies and mixed martial arts, the target audience or the lm. Since Gregory’s triumph with J Jens ens Pul Pulve ver: r: Driv Driven en, many other DIY lmmakers have ollowed in his ootsteps. Some successully crowdunded projects include: • Phil Holbrook Holbrook’’s feature-le feature-lengt ngth h thr thril iller ler Tilt ($15,606 o $15,000 on Kickstarter) • Brendon Fo Fogle gle’’s short lm Sync ($3,405 o $3,000 on Indiegogo) • John Paul Paul Rice’ Rice’s social issue i ssue feature Mother’s Red Dress ($20,678 o $20,000 on Kickstarter) • Sam Plat Platizky’ izky’ss zombie comedy Red Scare ($7,645 o $7,500 on Indiegogo)
($5,90 ,907 7 o $5 $5,000 on Kicksta Kickstarrter) • Tim Attewell’ Attewell’ss sci- short shor t Gateway ($5 • Damien Cullen’ Cullen’s short comedy Clowning Around ($8,900 o $7,500 on Indiegogo) • Joke Joke and Biagio Biagio’’s feature-leng feature-length th documentar documentary y Dying to Do Letterman ($55,140 o $37,000 on Kickstarter) 12
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• Charles Charles Simon Simon’’s web web series Duhmfownd ($1,600 o $1,300 on Indiegogo) • Jocelyn Towne owne’’s feat featureure-leng length th lm I Am I ($111,965 o $100,000 on Kickstarter)
There is also up-and-coming auteur Gary King’s movie musical How Do You You Write Write a Joe Sch Schermann ermann Song , which initially raised $31,101, then raised an additional $18,031 in a second campaign or nishing unds via Kickstarter Kickstar ter,, as well as a s the come- come-rom-behind rom-behind win o Lucas Lucas McNelly’s A Yea earr Wi Witho thou ut Ren Rent t , in which 75% o its $12,178 total was raised in the nal days and hours o his Kickstarter campaign –– a true testament to the power o the crowd as a serious alternative to traditional lm nancing. Since all o these campaigns raised rai sed ov over their initial undraising goals, it’s easy to see that crowdunding is not a passing ad, but a burgeoning revolution. In simpler, more Eastern terms, the yin o DIY lmmaking seems to have have ound its its yang in cro cr owdunding. The yin yang, or Taijitu, is the primary symbol o the ancient Chinese philosophy o Taoism and represents represent s the balance betwe bet ween en opposing or orces. ces. In this this case ca se,, those opposing orces are lmmaking and lm unding. Neither o them can exi exist st without without each each other. You can’ can’t mak make a top-qu top-quali ality ty lm with with-out some unding; at the same token, you can have all the money in the world, but i you lack the skills necessary to actually make a lm, that money will be sadly misspent. By careully examining various campaigns over the years, as well as revisiting my own experiences crowdunding my short lm Cerise , I’ve I’ve ound that some people do do it right, r ight, and others other s do not. Rather, Rather, they work harder, not smarter. I
The Taijitu is the Chinese symbol representing the concept of yin and yang, the balance and harmony in the universe.
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realized that most lmmakers don’t consider themselves crowdunders, never mind entrepreneurs, and thereore don’t take time beorehand to research other campaign strategies like I had done and instead navigate this new landscape with a blindold and a prayer. But this particular dream, in order to be realized, must always be seen with clarity throughout the duration o the journey we’re about to begin.
•
P a rt o ne
•
summary points
• During the Golden Age of Studio Films, Holly Hollywo wood od made bigbudget lms using its own in-house unds, shooting on the lot while hoping to clean up at the box oce and recoup its initial investment, plus plenty o prot.. • In the Silver Age of of Indie Film Financing, Financi ng, low-budget low-budget indie movies movies were nanced using money rom grants, private sector investors, the otentimes dicult-to-secure distribution deal, and the lmmakers’ own savings. • The Crowdf Crowdfunding unding Age of Do-ItDo-It-Y Yoursel ourselff Filmmak Film making ing is is upon us, which makes it easier or everyday lmmakers to go to the crowd and seek the unding they need to make their truly independent lms a reality.
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P a rt o ne
•
EXE RCISES
1. Think Think about some Hollywood Hollywood blockbuster blockbusterss you’ you’ve seen recently recently.. Pick three o your avorites and research how much each one cost to produce. produce. Then, do the same sa me or three independent independen t lms lms o your choice. Compare the quality, the content, and the cost o each. 2. Take a look look at at a ew movies or web ser series ies on YouT ouTube ube or Vimeo. Vimeo. How do they stack up in terms o quality, content, and especially cost, to the three indie lms you chose in exercise one? How about your three Hollywood blockbusters? 3. Based on the above above compari comparisons, sons, start star t thinking think ing about your your own own short or eature-length lm. What kind o content do you want to put out into the world? What’s What’s the qualit quality y you want to achieve? How much might it cost you to achieve it?
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