In honor of my feature film “Home Sweet Home” releasing this month in the US from Image Entertainment, I thought it would be appropriate to share our experience making a movie in true indie style.
First I must give all props to the team that made this movie, I always say “you don’t need a lot of people, you just need the right people.” “Home Sweet Home” is the perfect example of this.
After my husband and business partner John KD Graham and I had finished making a web series and a bunch of short films together, we thought it was time to take the plunge and make a feature film. The process seemed daunting as we had never tackled such a huge endeavor, but little by little we pieced together the puzzle, and never gave up, with an outcome being a fantastic indie thriller. Each day we tackled something new, and the key to our success was never looking too far into the future, or we would have been so overwhelmed, we would have given up on day one! We just took it one day at a time, which is really all you can do anyway.
Our first question was what did we want the story to be, which led us to SETTING- where could we film the movie with no budget to actually pay for a location. So once we had the location we then wrote a script around that property. We had asked John KD Graham’s parents if we could shoot the movie at their house, which lays on 18 acres of land out in La Luz, New Mexico. They agreed, and we worked with our screenwriter, my brother Andrew Boylan, using all the nooks and crannies of the property to weave into the story line. The house already had some fantastic features that added high production design to the film without having to spend a penny. We utilized the entire property, and again went against the grain of a horror movie, and instead of being in the woods, we trap the victim in the desert with nowhere to run or hide. Aware of the fact we were working with no real budget, we decided to film the majority of the movie in broad daylight. The location is pitch dark when the sun goes down, and we knew we couldn’t afford the lights it would take to shoot night scenes. But in the end it was another awesome aspect of taking a genre and flipping it on its head.
This became the best decision we could have ever made, to successfully attempt such a huge endeavor. John and I were driving to Arizona to shoot a video for a ranch when we brainstormed many different thriller ideas that could all take place in one house. With all the news articles about squatters, we got excited about making a home invasion film -in reverse- “what if you came home to your house, to discover you were the invader?”
Researching how to raise money for a low budget film led us to Kickstarter, where we set up an account and asked friends and family to contribute to our film. John and I spent days online reaching out to everyone we knew asking them to help us make this movie, and in turn we offered rewards to the backers. Our campaign was a success and we moved forward with the finances we had raised. In fact our Kickstarter page is still present on their website if you would like to view what we put together for our campaign.
Next we went into Pre-production, securing actors who were dear friends and willing to come to the middle of nowhere to shoot an indie. John and I didn’t have any money to offer people, but one thing we did promise was that we would finish and complete the movie, no matter what, even if it was just to show our friends and family. We offered travel, food, and beds/sleeping bags, and the amazing cast and crew came on board, all for the sheer love of the game.
Since we all lived on location while filming, literally sleeping on the floor or in trailers next to each other, we had to have a group of people that could all get along well.
Our crew had all been working together for years. They all come from working on Big Budget New Mexico films like Thor, Avengers, True Grit, Cowboys and Aliens, so we had the best of the best! Our team had already made many short films together, so the flow and ease of shooting was effortless. . John’s mother cooked meals for us, and would do runs into town for props we needed.
The group pitched in with equipment, and all the locations we found were donated to us from the community, including a convenience store that allowed us to shoot a robbery scene through the night after hours.
After 28 days of shooting a couple trips down to La Luz for pick up shots with an even smaller crew than we started with, we wrapped principle photography. In fact there was a week of filming where it was just myself, the director John, and our Cinematographer Richard Galli on set. We had to rig the boom up on a stand after pre-mixing the audio sounds. The director ran outside to perform a shadow gag, while the DP pressed record on the sound equipment and the camera, which he was operating. I was crying in character while slating for camera. It was a true labor of Love.
NOW on to post- production, where we learned we were only 20 percent done with the movie the day we wrapped shooting. Here came the hard part, staying dedicated to having a completed movie. John, single handedly, edited “Home Sweet Home”, and I continue to marvel at his talent. Most directors have a hard time seeing outside their project, but he was able to piece together a stellar movie. After he cut the film, I sat down with him, and together we went through the movie with what John likes to call “the iron fist” and started cutting everything and anything that wasn’t absolutely needed for the story. We called up some dear friends and asked them to come over and watch the first edit and give us HONEST notes. Once the film was in a solid place we hired a sound designer and finally got to pass the film off to someone else, and breathe for a minute.
Through a miraculous turn of events I attended a Woman in Film luncheon where I met Bridget Jurgens and Jen Sparks from Dog and Pony Creative, a fabulous poster company. These women have now become my dear friends, mentors, and creators of our AWARD winning posters for “Home Sweet Home”. Bridget took precious time out of her schedule, spending hours with me going over the importance of marketing for a movie, and putting her advice into action, I wrote press releases to horror website to gain exposure for the film.
We flew the DP out to LA, and the director and DP sat down in our dining room (converted into an office space) with a program they had access to and color corrected the film themselves. Once sound design was finished. We submitted to over 15 festivals, and premiered at the Albuquerque Film Festival, where we took home Audience choice award and best Horror Film. Being so well received by the audience, our confidence grew and we knew that we did in fact have something special here.
The press releases brought phone calls from Sales Reps, and this began the process of sending out screeners to secure our rep. It was very important for John and me to find an agent that we really connected with, and who truly believed in our movie. After speaking with Ryan Keller and Jonny Look from Instrum Intertantional, we felt we had met our guys. They were honest and genuine, and after meeting them in person we signed contracts to team up and bring “Home Sweet Home” to the public. And that’s exactly what they did! This business partnership has evolved into a friendship, and they are now developing our next movie with us. The film industry really is all about relationships that you must nurture and protect with your life. All who are a part of “Home Sweet Home” truly ARE friends and family.
AFM was just a few months away, and with suggestions from Instrum, we made some tweaks to the film. John continued to fine tune it and prepare it for Market.
With dedicated sales reps, a killer Poster Art, and a beautifully shot, skillfully acted, suspense driven film, we SOLD to Image Entertainment for US Distribution.
“Home Sweet Home” is available in
TARGET
WALMART
AMAZON
ITUNES
BEST BUY
NETFLIX
So to wrap it all up “JUST DO IT”!!!!
And please enjoy the MOVIE!
Cheers,
Alexandra Boylan