Author: Etta Devine

I got a lovely email today. It was another “oops, I didn’t fill out my survey” email from a Kickstarter backer. From a project I did in 2011. I say lovely because this one was for a digital reward and the person was super nice. AND they helped me to make a book that I never could have put out without them so emails from backers about almost everything are lovely. But here’s the thing, if it was from a backer in Australia who got the two book and a robot deal (now approximately $65 to ship) I would still…

Being a filmmaker is expensive. Something I’ve learned from attending festivals as a filmmaker is that running a festival is also expensive. Most festivals and filmmakers use the Amazon owned Withoutabox for their submission process. I used it for my film “The Selling” and we had an amazing festival run. Withoutabox boasts over 5,000 festivals across six Continents, a standardized submission form and digital upload options. There is also a video player that makes it easy for the festival screeners to watch and judge films all in one place. It’s also got a clunky and unreliable interface that hasn’t changed…

Anyone who has worked in production knows there is a wide variety of food types on a film set. Everyone has horror stories of the dreaded mayo drenched “sandwich platter” and on the other end the delicious surprise omelet truck. When you are trapped for 14+ hours doing heavy labor or anxiously waiting for your crying scene all day sometimes food is your only comfort. When I’m on someone else’s set I always bring my own snacks just in case. I was once on a movie where I literally ate macaroni and cheese out of a tortilla with a bunch…

Writing a riveting movie that all takes place in one room is every second time filmmakers dream. No company moves, no travel worries and no lighting changes eliminate three of the biggest filmmaking headaches. Unfortunately this holy grail of filmmaking is extremely rare and so using cool locations instead of none is often necessary. How do you find cool locations? Well, basically you just drive around after you do some Internet research and ask everyone you know where they think is neat. See a cool street? Drive down it. Let’s assume you’re in southern California and your budget is limited.…

Making a movie or a web series is expensive. Making a no budget movie or web series is still expensive but unfortunately they often look cheap. Here are 5 ways to up the production value of your bare bones project without spending extra. 1. Choose locations that are already dressed. Art direction is a very important part of any production. It’s a hard job that really shapes the whole feel of a film. Unfortunately it isn’t always in the budget to hire a whole department of people and pay for prop rentals to dress the set like you’d like to.…

You got your project into a film festival! Amazing. Congratulations. You did it. Now what? If you’re doing a top tier festival then there is a lot of good advice already out there for you. Your representation and publicist (if you have them) are hopefully getting you party invites and meetings. You’ve read Chris Gore’s Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide and you’ve made fancy hats and chocolate bars with your movie’s name on them. But more likely than not, you aren’t doing a top tier festival and you probably don’t have money for publicists or fancy hats because you spent your…

A lack of diversity in casting is a problem. Stories with women, different types of women, people of color and people with disabilities are totally underrepresented in media. There are many reasons for this. You can look to the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media to see how some of these ratios of women to men play out. You can blame writers and producers for consistently misrepresenting the ratios of women to men in the world. There was a great article in Salon about how casting notices contribute to sexism by asking for very different character qualities in men…

Click bait. It works! You know this already but it’s always good to be reminded what works when you’re trying to make something happen. And how did I come up with this oh, so rare and insightful observation? By making respected theatre actors drop trou for fundraising and having it work. http://youtu.be/gX7UWqHXQgE The problem of how to keep afloat in a “business” where ticket sales barely pay for the software to sell tickets is one that has plagued theatres forever. We can’t go to the Queen anymore (thanks, George Washington) and as I’ve said many times crowdfunding is wonderful but…

I just failed at procrastinating. I went to Facebook instead of writing this article and started answering crowdfunding questions for an old day job friend who just launched her own Kickstarter for eco friendly basic infant clothing made in the US. Little did I know I was actually writing this article all the time. My Kickstarter for Diani And Devine Meet The Apocalypse was successful on Nov 22 and it was the hardest campaign ever. We raised $101,145 with 1,041 beautiful backers. It’s now Dec 2 and we’ve almost caught up on sleep as we dive headfirst into preproduction. My…

So I’ve been blabbing about Kickstarter advice here, in person, on podcasts, on Quora, and at Kickstarter sponsored events invited by Kickstarter since my campaign for Replacing the “N-word” with “Robot” in Huck Finn went viral. I totally know what I’m talking about! But the Internet is a swiftly changing jerk, and things that were true just a year ago when I did my last campaign are not true now. So while my current campaign that we worked on for 5 solid months and shot over 35 videos for isn’t totally sunk it’s not progressing like all our prior experience…

If you’re trying to crowdfund more than five or ten thousand dollars you are going to need people you don’t know to back your campaign. You need a signal boost. 1. GOTTA GET A GIMMICK. Other than organic and begged shares, having an article in a popular blog written about your campaign is the best way to get the attention of people you don’t know. Unfortunately the very fact that you have a campaign is no longer news. Just like Gypsy Rose Lee you gotta get a gimmick. For my campaign for Diani & Devine Meet The Apocalypse we are…

As a follow up to my article 5 Things you can do to be useful to producers I’d like to add 5 jobs. 5 really important, totally hard and full careers in their own right that can make you valuable to producers. If your response is “but acting (or) writing IS my job” then please send my stuff to your agent.  If you’ve realized that being one of a bazillion creatives in the business isn’t enough to get you hired then consider some schooling, whether it be by yourself with YouTube or in a classroom. Here’s what producers need and…

Ever wonder why every breakdown says “Names only”?  It’s more common on a breakdown than “nudity required.” It’s a scarlet letter on casting notices all over town like a big stop sign saying: “I don’t care if you’re perfect for the part. I’d rather hire someone who sucks and will ruin my movie.” Well that person who may or may not suck brings publicity. Projects get funded based on names. Projects get sold based on names. People only search YouTube for names. Reviewers only go see names. Festivals want names. Foreign sales agents can only sell names.  The trades only…

So you made a movie! Yay! Now what. Well, lots. That’s what. First off, the type of movie you made determines your course of action. Did you make a short? You can build momentum by doing as many festivals as you can get into. Maybe you’ll get into a top festival or maybe someone from a top festival will see your film at a festival they attend and they’ll invite you to show at theirs. Great. Attend as many of the festivals you’re in as you can and meet as many filmmakers as possible. This is our industry conference. Meet…