The Grand Plan: I’m Gonna Tell Ya How to Make Your Own Movie and Get Distribution
Ahh, you’ve been successfully suckered in to my small corner of the internet. Apologies and, also, you’re welcome.
I’m a film producer and financier, and in my spare time, I’ve been offering free advice to filmmakers on Tiktok, Instagram and across social media for the last few years, primarily in an effort to dispel some of the incorrect advice available. So much of what you’ll find on Youtube, Reddit, social media or via Google is just poor advice. Even when it’s offered in earnest, it’s often wrong.
As the tools required to make a movie have become cheaper and more accessible, cottage industries have emerged around filmmaking. Screenwriting gurus who can’t write a lick. Experts on indie filmmaking who’ve never made a feature-length movie. Wizards of film finance webinars who’ve never gotten anything financed. Even some film schools seem to be discouraging more filmmakers than they mint. All of this has resulted in the proliferation of incorrect and outdated information about how to actually get a movie made, financed and distributed.
This problem is personal for me. I’m the complete opposite of a nepo baby. Before I started my career in film, I’d never met anyone who’d worked in the film industry. No producers, no directors, no actors. Not even an extra. The only information available to me was in books and on DVD extras, and all of that info was becoming more outdated with every passing day. Today, filmmakers have the opposite problem. They are deluged by advice on podcasts, Youtube and scammy social media accounts regurgitating dubious info gurgling around in the bowels of Reddit. Much of it is untrustworthy.
It’s no exaggeration to say that I wasted years of my professional career simply because I did not have accurate information. And keep in mind, this was while I was working in the film industry. Those of you who don’t currently work in film, you might be surprised to learn that many people on set don’t always have the right info. Even crew currently working alongside the greatest filmmakers of their generation have major blindspots. You may have a first-class skillset in one area of filmmaking, but still have gaps in your knowledge of how the film industry works and how to get your own movies made.
So, here’s what I’m doing about it.
Here’s my “grand plan” to save you years of time, effort and frustration.
All of that energy is better spent on the creative needs of your film.
Bit by bit, I’m going to put all the missing info and resources you need to make your own movie on micahhaley.com. The goal is to make all of the necessary info available to you so that you can take action on your own, without needing a producer like me. You may not need everything I’m going to share with you, so feel free to pick and choose what you need along your journey.
The first three courses are already available. This is what I make for every movie. This is what you need to get your first movie moving. By following the advice in them, you’ll save yourself years of beating your head against the wall, all the while feeling like there’s some glass ceiling you can’t get past. Often, your strategy is just wrong, and it would be better to course-correct and head in a fresh direction.
COURSE 1 - HOW TO GET YOUR FIRST MOVIE MADE
You may have heard the advice, “Just make something.” Well, do you know how many things I’ve seen made that haven’t gone anywhere? How many screenplays never get produced? How many already-made movies don’t get distribution?
The truth is that just making something isn’t enough. That advice may have worked in the 1970s, but that was back when just buying film stock and getting your hands on a camera was the major barrier to entry. Now, there is no barrier to entry. We ALL have a camera. We all wake up with a phone in our pockets.
Some projects simply have a much better chance of getting made. And those are the types of projects you should focus on early in your career. This course dispels all the common outdated myths about film career strategy. There are rules to the game, but most of them are not well known. Along the road towards getting your movie in front of an audience, there are many mines waiting to explode. And often, you’re carrying those bombs with you in your script. As a veteran producer, I have an unfair advantage over you. I can read a screenplay and foresee the many obstacles to come. In this course, I share with you all big things that producers, financiers and distributors are actually looking for. And what they avoid.
Whether you are planning to write, produce and direct a zero budget iPhone movie, or want to seek traditional film financing and distribution through industry channels, this is where it all begins. With a holistic strategy to make a great movie that can actually be produced and distributed.
COURSE 2 - HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR MOVIE VIA COLD EMAIL
There is no way to find film success alone. You need to connect with other people in the industry. Building your film industry network is a part of every career. The best strategy is to work in the film industry in some capacity, meeting people along the way. But even then, you won’t learn everything - or meet everyone.
This course is a producer’s guide to cold submissions. This isn’t an empty cold-query method for throwing spaghetti at the walls of every agent’s office. This is how producers actually send their projects out in the world so we can get them made. And when it comes to building your film industry network, this is the best way to do it: to reach out with a project in hand. An opportunity to do business together. It may not ultimately be the right project to work together on, but by then, the conversation has already started. You’ve made a new contact in the industry and have a better understanding of what they are looking for.
Professional outreach is an art form, and in this course, I show you examples of all the wrong ways people reach out to me as a financier at Intercut Capital. Many of these emails don’t even warrant a courtesy response. I show you what agency submission and production company submissions look like. I also show you the exact email format and method I use as a producer - the same way you should do it. Just communicating in this way will open doors.
COURSE 3 - HOW TO MAKE A FILM PITCH DECK
The best way to submit your movie to producers, financiers, investors and distributors is with a first-class film pitch deck. While this isn’t essential, it is a major point of leverage. I get packages submitted to me at Intercut Capital all the time. And most of the pitch decks are truly awful. They not only poorly represent the movie, but they also misunderstand what the purpose of a pitch deck is altogether. If your pitch deck is bad, the assumption is your movie is also probably bad.
In a world of terrible film pitch decks, what if yours is actually great? Then, the chances it will be reviewed by a decision maker are much higher. When you submit a project with a script alone, a decision maker might read your title and logline, but then they pass the script off to a jr. executive or agent for coverage. The real decision makers can’t invest two hours into every script. But they will spend 3 minutes to look at a great film pitch deck.
Together, a great script and a great pitch deck are everything you need to make progress. Then, just start submitting your project and making connections.
WHAT’S NEXT
Let’s skip to the end. Distribution. How can you sell your movie and get distribution that matters?
There are two big obstacles at the end of the process that frequently jam up movies - even movies that have already been made. It’s legal delivery and physical delivery. This is what frequently stops producers like me, with access to distribution and financing, from helping smaller movies. It’s the prospect of having to figure out all of the issues related to these steps at the end of the process. Because there are almost always major issues that must be resolved. And they frequently require a great deal of time and money to fix. Or, sometimes they are just not fixable.
But these don’t have to be major issues if you plan for them from the beginning. I am working on two resources that will give you everything you need for legal and physical delivery at the beginning of the process. They are both substantial undertakings, so it may take me time to get them together. I can’t promise when I’ll have time to get them finished. Stay tuned for more.
If you’d like to get an email each time a new resource drops, then make sure to hop on my email list here.
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