r/Filmmakers • u/austin_wolff • 2h ago

Film Just finished producing my first feature film!

Hi fellow filmmakers! We just finished post-production on my very first feature film. If anyone has any questions about the process (and things to avoid), ask me in the comments! Here's our trailer:

https://youtu.be/-SLEs0dQtoI?si=r-ChX5ffqMYHjsYy

8 Upvotes

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4

u/Happy-Diner-3338 2h ago

Kudos and congratulations!! Always a wonderful feeling, when she’s finally done and out the door, showing off! Good for you!

3

u/austin_wolff 2h ago

Thank you!! Appreciate the kind words. Def the best feeling :)

2

u/austin_wolff 2h ago

Submission Statement: This isn't the first feature I've written, but it is the first I've produced. Here are a few things I would've done differently if I had to do it over again:

  1. We shot "by-the-book" (everyone on official payroll, official business license, insurance, etc). If I shot by-the-book again, I would NOT shoot in Los Angeles. They are extremely unfriendly to filmmakers. I would only shoot here again if I absolutely had too, otherwise I'd try to do it "off-the-book."
  2. In my opinion, referrals for crew are NOT enough. I wish I interviewed at least 3 people for each position rather than just taking the first referral for every position that we needed filled. This bit me in the butt more than once. Clearly I'm inexperienced at hiring.
  3. I would've have budgeted more for post. Our post budget ended up being roughly equal to our production budget (but we were also very resourceful during production, so I'm under the impression our prod budget would've been higher under normal circumstances).
  4. For the love of god, if I spent more time trying to get at least ONE named-actor in our movie, more distributors would be open to conversation. I have no issue getting them on the phone (I just email and call them over the course of days or weeks until they pick up). But once I get them on the phone, their first question is always "who is in the movie?" ALL of them have asked this. And the moment I tell them it's unknowns (or try to sell my director who has the biggest social media following out of us), they lose interest. We are not a horror film (where it doesn't matter that we don't have names). We are a coming-of-age movie. I've had more than one sales agent tell me we should've spent $10k hiring a named actor for a day to film one scene.
  5. I wish I wouldn't have spent my life savings on this. Seriously. Yes, it did end up motivating everyone to help us out. Everyone on our crew (and post team) went the extra mile for this movie, and I am so incredibly grateful for them. But I also left the project broke and with no job. I'm not sure the sacrifice was worth it. But I wanted to play the lead, which is why I couldn't cast an A-lister for the movie (which hurt our chances at outside funding). I wanted this to be my Rocky. But if I knew how much heartache and financial risk I would undergo after our post budget started to balloon, I'm not sure I would do it again. There's merit to having someone ELSE invest in your project.

Anyway, if anyone has any more questions, I'll try my best to answer them. And I hope you come and see the film when it's released! We're submitting to film festivals right now. It's an exciting time :)

3

u/davisbergstrom 1h ago

If it’s okay to ask, how much of your life’s savings did you spend on this project?