The connectedness we have, thanks to the internet, has blown open doors for outlets one only could have dreamed about in years past. This has allowed the most creative among us to bypass who were once gatekeepers for most media the public consumed.
While independent film has existed for decades, the need for major studios has moved out of the way in a fashion we’ve never seen previously. Now, how can a newcomer take advantage of this in 2022? Thankfully there’s plenty of ways to use this to your advantage and here’s some of the best.
Remember What’s The Same
This might be your first foray into film or maybe it’s your attempt to go at things without a major studio backing you. In either case, you’ll still be best off retaining a few of the standards you’d find on a Hollywood set. The most important among those are the treatment of staff and actors.
You’ll still want to follow guidelines for lunches and breaks, as well as making sure actors are safe if any action sequences are part of your production. Also, never forget how the rules change when it comes to child actors. You’ll always want to keep a close eye on the time because they aren’t legally allowed to put the hours into work like their adult counterparts can.
The Script
This is going to be key here. You might purely be directing or writing, but with indies you’ll likely have your hands in some parts of both. Often, there’s a lower production budget without the financial backing of a studio. Because of that, you’ll have to focus more on having the tightest story imaginable since going for the explosions of summer blockbuster might not be in the cards.
Everything needs to be air-tight with writing, sounds obvious but rewrites can be quite common throughout a production and also outrageously expensive. If you are going the indie route, money is going to be tight and there’s not going to be room for the time that’s going to get added with rewrites because that means everyone on set getting paid for each extra hour and for each day that goes by, that’s more days you are renting your sets.
Always Have Festivals In Mind
Never forget that your film is going to need a home and don’t wait until production is wrapped to start thinking about it. Shop around before, and during production, to make sure you’ve got the best possible home for your work of art.
Some festivals are going to be bigger than others and it’s okay if you can’t land the biggest one because as long as your film resonates in the audiences’ minds like you were hoping, the buzz is going to spread quickly around the right circles.
Once online spaces are talking all your film meant to them, as the viewer, distributors are going vying to be the ones bringing your work into the homes of millions through any of the widely popular streaming services we have today.