What makes an indie film

Make sure you give out your email address publicly so that anybody can email you and ask for favors, such as putting them in touch with Janet Pierson or Sundance. You might even get an email from a student filmmaker inviting you to answer 20 questions for their class assignment!

To get emails from composers with a link to their awesome film score tracks. A good idea is to use the music from the first composer who emails you their SoundCloud page. To get an amazing distribution deal.

There are hundreds of indie distributors who pay top dollars for premium indie product. None of these indie distributors prey off desperate indie filmmakers, offering them zero money, publicity or advertising. This which would result in an industry of middlemen, where the only people making a living are the distributors and aggregators. We definitely do.

To make quick cash. Believe the hype. Indie film success is easy. But by this time, the independent Filmmakers had already inspired several other future filmmakers to follow their suit. Indies had arrived! But making an Indie film today is not like what it used to be earlier. Many directors who started as Indie filmmakers are now backed by the biggest studios.

And even the big studios have started financing many small time filmmakers across the world. The face of indie filmmaking is rapidly changing. But one major difference between a commercial big budget studio film and an indie is its look and treatment of the subject. So is Indie a relevant term anymore?

With more and more indie films finding their ways into multiplex chains, the line between a true indie film and a faux one produced and distributed by a big studio is constantly blurring. Thankfully, in India the difference is still quite detectable. Indie films in India can be distinguished by their story and actors. Almost all of the Indian indie filmmakers prefer not to cast popular Bollywood stars. Instead, they go with the requirement of the script and find the best actor suited to their characters and budget.

In the past couple of years, India has seen a steady rise in the number of good indie films. Some of the Indies have been gaining traction at home too. The Lunchbox was a surprise hit that gave Indian Indie filmmakers a ray of hope.

Similarly, more and more filmmakers are coming to realize that being independent now means not to compromise with the vision of your film. Indie films now represent a category of cinema with a new approach towards filmmaking.

These films conform less to the demands of mainstream movies and focus more on issues and stories that the filmmakers want to tell. One offer was to have songs in the film, but for me as a director, they would not have worked.

Shonali is not the only filmmaker who faced hardship. Photo credit 2. Fund your project Professional film production is very expensive. These are some methods that you can try out: Crowdfunding: Kickstarter, GoFundme — their both crowdfunding sites that have launched thousands of successful projects. Angel investors: Do you know some rich friends? Maybe they can be convinced to fund your project?

Said another way, angel investors look at projects a little more like buying an expensive piece of art that will hang on their wall. For example, Canada hands out film grants at both the national and the provincial level with different production company requirements for each.

Hunting around and filling out a lot of forms, may pay you some dividends. States regularly compete with each other to beat each other in tax credits.

While this may sound particularly enticing, be-warned, most government tax credit programs target higher budget productions. Decide Union or Non-Union One big decision to make for a low budget indie is to decide if it makes sense to hire unionized professionals or not. If you decide to go union, be ready to pay everyone according to labor rules as employees purchase production insurance and workers compensation become a union signatory and contact them to initiate the process well before you ever start shooting at least 2 months in advance of shooting.

SAG actually requires you to use a payroll company. A word of warning: While you may be tempted to try to pay your cast and crew as contractors to avoid paying employer taxes, we would strongly advise you against it. Naysawn Naji. Share this: Tweet. Add a Comment Cancel reply Your email address will not be published.

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