Filmmaker Q&A - 6/23/25

Last night we had a 90 minute Q&A where I got to answer rapid fire questions addressing Filmmaker's most pressing questions. From how to get financing, to the future of AI in film.

Watch the full replay below and use CONTROL F (for PC) COMMAND F (on Mac) to search for anything in the transcription provided under the video.

💸 The Four Indie Film Financing Levels

Most filmmakers are stuck behind a funding wall. Here’s how to scale it—step by step:

1. Sub $10K Film = Proof of Execution

• Funded via savings, credit cards, cost-sharing, or small coordinated crowdfunding campaigns (read: not a half-baked Kickstarter).

• Goal: Show you can finish a feature and tell a story. This is your “calling card.”

2. $10K–$100K = Proof of Viability

• You’ll need: a solid script, a pitch deck, line-item budget, locked locations, attached actors.

• Fund through friends, small investors, and phone contacts.

• Do NOT swing big here if you haven’t done a lower-budget feature—it’s how bridges get burned.

3. $100K–$1M = Proof of Audience + ROI Potential

• Everything from Level 2, plus festival wins, YouTube views, previous distribution deals.

• Add: a sales rep, tax incentives (e.g. Louisiana = 40% return), brand sponsors, and past investors.

• This is where a legit sales plan comes in—reps, pitch docs, and soft money strategies.

4. $1M–$5M = Proof of Access + Scale

• Only reachable if you’ve already won trust.

• Requires seed money for casting directors ($15K–$30K) to get LOIs from A-listers.

• Combine equity, pre-sales, tax incentives, and big brand sponsorships.

📜 Getting Your Script Read (Without Begging)

The real answer?

Stop asking people to read your script. Show them your movie.

Proof Projects (like Go Crazy Go Mad) open doors that blind script submissions never will. The industry is stacked against spec writers with no finished work. Be the exception.

🧰 Key Tools + Tactics Shared

• Actors Access & Casting Networks: Where you find serious actors hungry for lead roles.

• Breakdown Express: Industry-standard casting portal.

• FilmFreeway.com: For festival submissions.

• ShareGrid.com: For cheap camera gear rentals.

• Facebook Groups: Still the best place to find crew—especially those needing a first credit.

🔥 Top Career Strategies Covered

• “Signal Boosters”: Share your film with folks one step above you (festivals, podcasts, industry insiders). You’re proving competency and voice.

• Build Your Own Hollywood: Reference Brit Marling and Mark Duplass. The industry rewards filmmakers who create their own work—especially at the $1K–$50K level.

• Use Features, Not Shorts: A $1K feature is more valuable than a $25K short.

• Don’t Underestimate Small Towns: Shoot outside LA. Permits are easier. People are excited to help. It’s how we secured 4 locations in one night—including a bar, post office, and police station.

🧠 AJ’s Micro-Budget Mindset

“Most filmmakers aren’t underfunded. They’re overreaching.”

Make something now—with what you have. Don’t wait to raise $50K. Build a team. Prove you can lead. Let that win unlock the next level.

📌 Must-Watch Films at Each Budget Level

Sub $10K

• Go Crazy Go Mad – $1K (watch free on YouTube)

• Following – Christopher Nolan ($6K)

• El Mariachi – Robert Rodriguez ($7K)

$50K–$100K

• End Trip – AJ’s second film

• Absentia – Mike Flanagan ($70K)

$250K–$500K

• Blue Ruin – Jeremy Saulnier ($500K via Kickstarter)

💬 Final Thoughts

Whether it’s casting, budgeting, or distribution—every answer begins with this: make a film, however small. Then use it to show—not tell—the industry who you are.

✅ Quick Recap – Bullet Point Takeaways

Fundraising

• Don’t skip levels. Each film should earn the right to fund the next.

• Use proof projects to build trust and credibility.

Casting

• Use Breakdown Express and Actors Access.

• Cast actors looking for their first lead role—offer opportunity, not money.

Script Sales

• 50,000 scripts are registered each year. Only 50–100 sell.

• Sell a film, not a script.

Getting Seen

• Use genre to find niche audiences.

• Podcast outreach = free marketing. Start with 200 shows.

Film Festival Entry

• Use FilmFreeway.com for 99% of submissions.

Protecting Your Work

• WGA registration helps, but doesn’t guarantee legal protection.

• No one will care more about your film than you—so make it first.

Using AI

• Best for sizzle reels and visual enhancements, not full features (yet).

• Still not viable for long-form narrative storytelling.

Want to be on the next Q&A?

👋 Join One Grand Filmmakers on Skool

💥 Or apply for the Proof Project Challenge and shoot your feature in 90 days—no fundraising required.

Transcript

@0:03 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

Hello. Hello, everybody. Hello.

@0:08 - iPhone

Oops, not that one.

@0:09 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

Swapping headphones. Look at everybody pouring in here. This is awesome. Thank you, everybody, for jumping in. We'll give everybody a second.

Scott, hello. Marcus, Thomas, Milton. Hey, Milton, how are you? Eric, Charles, Tim, Robert, Tom. Admit all.

@0:39 - iPhone

Admit all.

@0:45 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

While you guys are filtering in, if you want to use that chat. Hi, Savon. Use that chat to throw in questions that you'd love to see answered.

and that asked a similar question, you can just hit the little thumbs up. To sort of back up that question.

If I can't make it to all of them, I'll try and prioritize the ones that have the most thumbs ups by the end.

have a little list of people that had submitted some questions before the call, so I'll go through those first.

But first of all, hi everybody. Welcome to One Grand Film. My name is AJ Rome. I've been in the film industry for 20 years as of this year as an actor, writer, director, and producer.

I just finished writing and directing two feature films at the $250,000 level. Prior to that, did a $50,000 film, and prior to that, did a $1,000 film.

So you've probably seen some of my stuff about starting a film career with a $1,000 film. That is the highest leverage thing you can do, in my opinion.

And so yeah, let's get into it. Still got some people filtering in. 35. Thanks again, everybody, for being here.

Let me open my chat. Let me get organized. Show chat previews. There we go. Perfect. Okay. We got raising money to start a film.

Hi, Curtis. Hey, Curtis. Baltimore, Maryland. How do you make the most out of the $1,000 film once you've finished it?

Brilliant question. I will definitely get to that one. All right. Let's just jump in. Okay, so the first question I've got here is, what is the best way to get your script read or in the hands of the right person?

Listen, this is a tricky one. Most of the industry that you've probably come across This is sort of a lottery system where you submit your project along with, you know, 10,000 other applicants for some sort of submission fee.

And the company that is holding the event makes all the money and, you know, the prize goes down to like one person.

That person generally gets some sort of meeting. Maybe they get representation. I've had friends that have won these things.

I've had friends that are – I've got friends that are represented by Gersh, you know, big giant agencies, and are still not produced writers.

I've had friends win the Nichols Fellowship. That was eight years ago. They read the script on stage with a bunch of A-list actors and they still are not produced writers.

So that part is really tough. My answer to getting your stuff read and looked at is by having something prior, something that I like to call proof, proof project, something that…

It is produced. So rather than giving somebody a script and saying, read my script, which we all know doesn't happen very often, it's much easier to send a link to something that you have finished.

So the best way to get a script read in the hands of the right person is to have something previously produced.

And I understand the catch-22 of how do I get something produced when I don't have anything produced. Again, that's where like a $1,000 feature comes in, making something with what you already have access to.

Beyond that, it really depends on the levels, the levels that you're trying to get it in the hands of.

You know, some actors and filmmakers will have their personal email up on something like IMDb Pro, or you could go to Instagram and see if they have an email option there.

That's a good way to do it. So hopefully that answers that question. Best way to get script Script read, and really read by the right person, yeah, is the kind of key there.

Provide an example of an investor deck in order to get cash. I'm going to run through something really quickly that I did, that I just threw in the school community today.

If you are not part of this, maybe Marcus can put a link in the chat for everybody. This is a community that I run for filmmakers.

It's got courses and a bunch of other filmmakers in it that are like-minded, like you, all trying to get their projects done.

SCREEN SHARING: Aj started screen sharing - WATCH

I'm going to share my screen so you can follow along with me. But right here, okay, so this is going to answer the question for hopefully a lot of you, because most people are stuck behind the funding, what I like to call the funding lulls.

So here are the four different ways- ...of fundraising or the four distinct financing lanes. Level one, these all stack on each other too.

So you'll see you need the first one to get to the next one to get to the next one.

It's very, very difficult to do it without the previous proof in place. Sorry, I've got a couple more people funneling in.

Okay. So the first level, the sub $10,000 film. This one is not, you're not aiming for some big box office.

You're making this for proof to prove that you can finish a project. You can bring a group of people together.

You can direct actors. You can tell a long form story. How it's funded. My $1,000 film was funded on a $2,000 credit card, and then we made about $1,000 worth of returns.

That's where we got the $1,000 budget from. That primarily went to food and data storage. So by keeping your team really lean, you can cut as many costs as possible, find people that need those first opportunities and work with them rather than trying to find people who are already established filmmakers that make big day rates and trying to get them to come onto your project for free.

It's a good way to piss off people who actually make money doing this. Personal savings, friends, family loans, co-sharing between producers or cost sharing between producers.

if you've got another person that also wants to make your film with you, this is how you make this first $10,000 film.

This is the one that you use to start the flywheel. And maybe a highly coordinated crowdfunding campaign. This is not like, hey, I threw my thing on Kickstarter and I recorded a 30-second video of myself and now go like fundraise, you know, give me $35,000.

I see that all the time. It's the fastest way to fail. I've included an article here on how. What a hack Kickstarter.

It's a really wonderful article by an author named Tim Ferriss who tells you exactly step-by-step how to get the most out of a Kickstarter campaign.

Pro tip, it's all in the prep. If you aren't about two-thirds funded by the end of your first day, you likely will not get funded.

So that is just kind of a teaser to show you how to do that most effectively. Level two. So once you've sort of passed this first level, and I really think you should make a feature film sub 10K before you go up, there's no reason to take a big swing on a $50,000 to $100,000 or $200,000 film without having made a film before.

It's a great way to burn bridges with investors and potentially blow your only shot at making a film on something you've never done before.

So thing. that's thing. that's thing. So So this is for filmmakers who have made a short, a kick- short.

This would be something that potentially won a festival or two or three or five or a proof project under their belt.

The thing you will need for that, you will need a script. You will need a pitch deck, a full pitch deck.

You will need a line item budget. Your locations should be locked already so you know where you're shooting. This should not be something that you do after the fact.

Attached actors. You should know who you're working with prior to going out and finding investors. You would find this through angel investors, small business owners, or people in your phone book.

I know most people have a few hundred, if not a few thousand contacts. If you go through one by one and look at the people who could potentially invest in your film, you're talking about small investments.

So five to ten, maybe up to $50,000 per investor. So with Small Ticket Equity Investors. Sorry. Still got people flooding in.

Awesome. Level three, moving up. This is the $100,000 to $1 million range. This is what I call kind of the proof to scale.

So you've already proved that you can do it through your first two films. So you got two films in the can.

They're out in the world. And now you want to make your $100 to $1 million film. So, again, this is filmmakers with past wins or audience traction.

It's really, really difficult to do these things without this stuff in place. So you will need everything from level two.

So all of this stuff, script, pitch, decline item, locked actors and budget, locations, all of this stuff. And then on top of that, you'll want to add any proof.

So this is Laurel's Festival Wins Awards. Big press, views if you release something for free on YouTube, but it's been seen 15 million times, all of these things should be used as proof.

Next, you'll want a sales rep. This is somebody who can take your poster, your logline, your deck, and go out to film markets and potentially pre-sale or get interest on your film before it is ever shot.

You'll also want to include something like soft money. So this is like Louisiana, Georgia, New Mexico. These are tax incentives.

I just got 40% back on both of the films that I did it because I did them in Louisiana.

I shot them outside of New Orleans, so I qualified for an extra 5%. This is just an easy guarantee that your investors will get some of their money back, so it makes it a lot less risky for them to know that it is state-backed.

You could get, you know, $40,000 back on every... $100,000 spent, which is pretty interesting, and it's why all the big studios have moved to these states.

On top of that, small niche brand sponsors. So it's a mix of equity, tax incentives, brand sponsors, and repeat investors.

So the people that happily invested in your previous film that made their money back are super excited to help you make your next film.

And then that's finally what will lead you up into the $1,000,000 to $5,000,000 or maybe $10,000,000 range. Everything beyond that usually has some sort of bigger studio or big giant producer attached to it.

I left it at $5,000,000 because this is kind of what's achievable on the indie level without being repped by like CAA.

So this is for filmmakers with undeniable proof and network access, but you gain all of these things by making previous projects.

So you'll need everything from level two and level three plus development capital. So the way that these films work, the way that I've seen them work, is by getting seed money, which you'll need proof to find somebody that's going to dole up $50,000 $100,000 in seed money up front, some of that goes to a casting director, $15,000 to $30,000 can go straight to a casting director, that is the person who will put the script in the hands of the agent and the A-list actor.

It is very, very difficult for somebody like us in our position to go straight to an A-list actor. That's why they have agents and managers and publicists and lawyers to create barriers because everybody wants access to them.

The fastest way to them is to pay the casting directors that have access to them. So you could go on IMDb, find your favorite actor, look at the last movie they were in, find the main casting director that cast them in the most recent role.

They were in, and you bring them a check. For $30,000 to $80,000 that says you'll sign this LOI agreeing to shoot on these dates for X amount of dollars.

So a couple years ago I did a movie with Morgan Freeman. Morgan Freeman was paid two out of the $5 million of the total budget.

It might have been about $7 million, but he got paid $2 million for two days of work. So he would have gotten a check for $50,000 to sign an LOI.

That's basically proof that you attach to your budget that you get to take two investors and say, hey, look, Morgan Freeman is doing my movie.

All we need is $7 million to do it. But then you've got the proof saying we get to go out into the world with a Morgan Freeman movie.

That's how these movies are made. Very, very, very commonly. Next would be foreign pre-sales. So this is, again, having a sales rep that can take your poster, take your LOI for Morgan Freeman to all the film markets.

So this is the thing. You need a network of people and you need time. That's why this is so difficult.

That's why people spend years and years and years chasing around 20 to $100 million projects and will never, ever get them made.

It's because there's a laundry list of things that need to happen before these films actually get made. Large brand sponsors.

So it's, you know, equity, soft money, pre-sales, brands, reinvestors. This is kind of the process to getting a film made this way.

So you don't need millions of dollars to make a million dollar decisions. Most filmmakers aren't underfunded. They're overreaching. So pick your level, play by that level's rules and level up after the win.

If this is helpful for you at all. If you got something out of that little chunk, leave me a little thumbs up in the chat or ask additional questions if you, if that didn't answer it, but hopefully that covers the basis for most.

of the fundraising questions. Get my list back. All right. Somebody said, how can I get started from scratch with no startup cost?

That doesn't work. No startup cost. There's always going to be some cost up front. But they said, is it a good idea to start a production company with an EIN so that I have my own company to back me?

When it is time for investors to invest in your film, you do need an LLC in place. You'll generally start an LLC for every project you make.

So you might have an LLC that's your production company that owns the LLC that the project is contained in.

But the reason for that is if you have two, if you have two different projects and two different LLCs and one of them is really successful and the other one.

inclusion group It's flopped, and it keeps investors from going after the successful one, so it just helps you, it helps to protect you as the filmmaker, so you do want an LLC that houses each project, and it is required by the distribution companies that your script is owned by the LLC.

Let's see, see, this person is saying, I'm not having any writing roadblocks, it's connections I lack. My screenplays are complete and written with final draft, they're ready for presentation and sale.

That's the thing, there are statistically, let me pull this, let me pull this statistic up really quickly. So I did some research recently on how many films get made per year, so I actually have this answer for you.

This is... This is the odds of getting a script made. There are essentially 50,000 screenplays registered to the WGA every year.

50,000. The order of 50 to 100 spec scripts, original scripts written on spec, are sold to Hollywood in that same period.

So, like, I don't know math. What is that math, Marcus? 0.1% of scripts that are submitted to the WGA actually get made.

So, the important thing is, and the thing that everybody should be focusing on, everybody has a big script idea.

Everybody has something that they want to sell. But the problem is that without that proof that you've made something before, that your writing is viable, it is incredibly difficult to get your script looked at in general.

Just script format. Now, there are other tools. People are making AI short films and sizzle reels and that sort of thing.

But if you look at filmmakers like Sean Baker, for instance, who just swept the Oscars, he started his film career on a $3,000 film.

He put himself on the map with a $100,000 film called Tangerine. And then four films later, he swept the Oscars.

This is the type of way that we need to be thinking because going straight at Hollywood is like bringing a bow and arrow to World War III and hoping to do some damage.

It is set up that there are so many barriers to entry that the people who get through are the people who create something that didn't exist before.

This is Robert Rodriguez's $7,000 with El Mariachi and now he's a multi-billion dollar director. Christopher Nolan, $6,000 with His first film, and that was just the cost of the film stock.

That's, you know, multi-billion dollar Oscar winner director started his film career on a $6,000 film. So take the resources that you have access to right now and just make whatever you can.

The most important part of it is that it's a viable, commercially viable film so you can put it out to an audience and an audience will come and find it.

And that it's got you, your DNA of your artistic vision, your artistic thumbprint is in that. So it's your unique voice.

So don't go out there and copy Tarantino. There's already a Tarantino. There's already all these other filmmakers, but there's no you out there yet.

So you making your thing, doesn't matter what the budget is, as long as it really encompasses who you are as an artist, that is the most important part.

So casting and budget. So we went through budget. We kind of went through casting. The biggest things for casting, if you're trying

If to find lower level actors, we're not talking A-listers with crazy agency barriers, but you're talking just really good actors for your films.

If you're not on casting networks or actors access, BreakdownExpress.com, you want to create an account with Breakdown Express. It's where all of the viable actors are, it's where all of the repped roles are, and it's where all of the biggest breakdowns for all the big films are.

So it's where you're going to find the most experienced actors, but you're looking for people that need opportunities. So all you have to do is create an opportunity that's interesting for an actor, and you can find actors that will work on your projects for next to nothing, because actors want to act.

And they very, very rarely get an opportunity where somebody says, I want to build a feature film around you as my lead.

More often than not, actors are getting auditions for things that they don't even really fit for, trying to shoehorn themselves into this tiny little box that will eventually just go to the person.

That actually just fit that role perfectly, if that makes sense. So Actors Access Casting Networks, those are the two big ones.

If you're looking to cast, those are the two big sites I'd recommend to everybody. That is where all of your viable actors are that are actually putting in the work.

They're getting their headshots. They're getting their demo reels. They're taking acting classes. That's where you're going to find your actors.

Find your hidden talent. Find the people that are amazing, that haven't had that chance yet. Write something amazing around them.

And, you know, I think a lot of, like, one big thing that I could hand down to everybody that I think is one of the most powerful tools you can have in your arsenal for every filmmaker here.

Just because you are constrained by budget doesn't mean you are in a weak position. More often than not, I see filmmakers saying, I don't have any money to pay actors.

I can't... Fine crew because I don't have money. You're short-selling yourself and you're forgetting the position of there are very few opportunities for filmmakers when they're first getting started.

So for you to be the opportunity creator, to be the person spearheading the project that these people will get their first opportunities from, that's what every filmmaker needs to get started.

So by saying, I'm looking for an actor who is dying for their first lead role, or I'm looking for a cinematographer who's only done short films, they've got their own gear, but they're dying to put that feature film on tape, like that is how you approach people and find the value that you need regardless of the budget.

The next part about that, do not ask them for a month of their time, make sure your shoot is like five to ten days tops, that way you're not asking somebody to give away their livelihood to be a part of your project.

What do we got? What is the best way to get your writing noticed? Answer that. Budget, casting, got that.

How do you attempt to approach filmmakers about a project? Just answer that. How to get funding? Answer that. Can a movie be filmed in one location?

Yes, a movie can definitely be filmed in one location, but don't make the mistake of thinking because it's in one location, it's going to be cheap.

There are movies like Buried, Lock, and Phone Booth that are all one location movies that they spent millions of dollars on.

The real way to save money isn't necessarily fewer locations. Definitely try and stay under like five. It's really in lighting setups.

Over complexing complexity, adding too much complexity to the filmmaking process is what makes your budget go up. You need a camera, you need actors, you need sound, and you need a good story.

Fundamentally, those are the four things that make a good movie. So if you can do those things, strip out everything else that makes everything slow and complex, and you can get a movie shot for cheap.

What do you need to know to be taken seriously? This is kind of why I challenge everybody to make a feature film, regardless of how much experience they have.

Because eventually, that's where everybody sort of wants to be. I don't think anybody necessarily wants to have a career in making short films, because there's just no financial benefit to that.

There's no way to really monetize short films. There are a bunch of websites that are graveyards for short films.

But the money's in features, you know? And so even if your first money is hot garbage by the time you're done with it, like Quentin Tarantino didn't even release his first film.

He spent three years on it, but he says it's the best thing he ever did. Yeah. Because it taught him the process.

And without having made that film, Reservoir Dogs wouldn't have been a thing. So the thing that you need to know to be taken seriously in the industry, in my opinion, is having made a feature film.

You'll learn everything in that process and you'll start to gain relationships that you need to get your next one made and your next one made and your next one made.

So making features will give you the knowledge that you need. To be taken seriously. Do you need an agent to show your work or present ideas for a show or movie?

Yeah, a lot of people want to pitch. You know, I see this a lot that people have their big idea.

It's $50 million. It's $100 million. I just need to show it to Netflix. You and everyone else, you know, everybody has that expensive idea.

The best way here, I'll give you a little story. So there was a filmmaker, this... Beautiful blonde filmmaker, and she was booking all these horror film kind of bimbo-y dumb girl roles, and she was not dumb, and she knew she wasn't dumb, so she sort of removed herself from the acting side and went and learned how to write.

Her and her writing partner wrote two feature films. One of them was $100,000 budget. The other one might have been a little bit more than that.

They submitted both of them to Sundance. Sundance. They both got in in the same year, and one of them actually won.

It's the first time it had ever happened. So this actor, frustrated with what she was doing, went and learned how to write, actually made the movies, key here, making the movies, won Sundance, and got a Netflix deal making shows for Netflix.

The actor's name is Brit Marling. She made the show called The OA, and then she made a follow-up called The End of the World, or Murder at the End of the World.

And her advice to filmmakers is, you know, there's this big castle on the top of a hill, and everybody's trying to get into that castle.

And so if you climb up most of the hill, and you start building your own village next to the castle, eventually they'll notice, and eventually they'll open the doors.

But the key is, you don't just go in when they ask you to go in. You run in, you grab everything you can, and you take it back to your own village.

Build your own Hollywood, build your own network. It's the only way to actually have control over your own career.

If you haven't seen Mark Duplass' The Cavalry Isn't Coming from South by Southwest in 2015, it is one of the most inspirational talks I've ever seen, and it led to this whole thing.

The whole reason any of us are here right now is because of that talk, and Mark Duplass saying, go make a film for $1,000 and watch what happens, and that's what I did.

And honestly, that's why we're all here right now. All right. I finished the pre-questions. Let's jump into the ones from the chat.

Okay. Sorry, I'm falling behind on the chat. I'm going to catch up. Scroll to the top. All right. Where are we at?

Hardest thing to do is raise money to start a film. Hopefully, I got that, Gary. Hopefully, I covered that for you.

I will send in the email. I'm going to send right after this. I'll send the recording of this so you can go back through it or watch again if you would like.

Curtis McNeil from Baltimore. What's up, Baltimore? How do you make the most of your 1K film once you've finished it?

This is a great question. So your first film is not supposed to be some giant box office success. The only reason we know about Christopher Nolan's following is because his next films were so successful.

It's not that following went and made. $10 million or $100 million. The films like Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity are complete outliers and that should not be what you're aiming for.

You need to get it to signal boosters. So this is anybody in the industry that is one or two steps above you that you would like to connect with.

So as a for instance, I went to South by Southwest in 2016. I had not made a film yet.

Well, I think I had made Go Crazy, Go Mad, but I hadn't, I didn't submit it to, or I didn't get in to South by Southwest, but I went anyway.

At that festival, I got to watch the movie Hush, which was made by Mike Flanagan. It instantly put Mike Flanagan on my radar.

I went and found his first film, $70,000 film called Absentia, which is what started his career. So he made a $70,000 film, was able to take all of the successes around that film and take that to a production company called Intrepid Pictures, which agreed to split the cost of his first movie, Oculus.

with Jason Blum from Blumhouse. So he essentially took his $70,000 proof project to a bigger company. They could see the proof of his voice as a filmmaker.

They could see competency. I think that's the only real thing we're trying to prove right now. We don't have the luxury of having an A-list actor to sell our movies on the cover of the movie.

So the first thing that you need to do, especially in the age of TikTok, the first five minutes of your film need to be incredible.

They need to hook the audience. They need to keep them there. And you need to prove to the people watching that you are a competent filmmaker, that you understand basic storytelling, that you know how to not cross the 180 line.

You know, just fundamental things like this. Beyond that, it's just proof of new voice, something that feels different than what's out there.

That's why it's really important to just like stick with what you know and the interesting stories that are in your own mind and kind of stay out of the influence of...

Outside opinions, especially in the beginning. But you want to take your film. So continuing the story. So I made, right after I made Go Crazy, Go Mad, I made End Trip.

So this was my $56,000 film. That film got distribution. It went to festivals. I won awards. It went to some bigger streamers, which was awesome.

But it wasn't really until I made another web series, short form web series, specifically to compete in the Emmys.

So there was a loophole a few years ago that you could actually win an Emmy based off a short form series that was on the internet.

So like nobody was taking advantage of it. So me and a couple of friends put a super cheap project together.

I think from the day we started writing to the day we finished shooting and submitted was like six weeks.

But what it did was it allowed us to go to the Emmys. Amy's FYC events. So we got to go see all of the big shows that were campaigning for Emmys, which put me in a room with Mike Flanagan.

Because I had built the proof, again, I wasn't just trying to run up to him with a script or sell him an idea, but I actually made a $50,000 film similar to his first film, Absentia, similar in that it was a horror movie.

Mike gave me the best advice ever. He said, make a film about whatever you want it, wrap it in a genre, make sure it stays true to that genre, take that film, take the accolades, go to a bigger production company, and get your next film made.

So it was like $50,000 film, $250,000 film, $1 million film. So that's kind of the steps he laid out.

Now I just made a $250,000 film with one of the stars of one of Mike's Netflix shows. So now I have a direct line to Mike Flanagan.

Flanagan. But this happened over the course of a few years and me continually making things. So it's not just having the contact, but it's knowing how to talk to the contact when you're there and how to use the thing that you made to prove that you're not just another person saying, hey, pick me, pick me.

From the $1,000 film, you don't need to go that much higher. You really just need to prove that you can make something close to like the $20,000 to $50,000 range.

And there are a wealth of films out there in this budget range that have had outlying success, that have gotten, you know, bigger film careers started.

Definitely use ChatGPT to find a list of those, but super, super helpful in getting bigger films made. Am I open to a co-production?

Right now I'm in post-production on two films and gearing up to do another one this year. I don't really have the bandwidth to take on any additional projects.

right now. Thank you. What is the best way to move forward with a third-party sponsorship? There are companies out there that do this.

One I know of off the top of my head is called Brand In Entertainment. Rolf something runs it. I'm actually working with him on the two films I'm working on now.

It is not that easy. It's not like, hey, Pepsi, pay me a million dollars and I'll hold a Pepsi in my movie.

You have to provide an insane amount of proof. You have to write all of the brands into the movie and give them examples of exactly how their product will be depicted within your movie.

It is an immense amount of time to go through brand for brand and figure out which ones. And they also have to know that there's an A-list actor attached and that you've directed a million-dollar film before.

Like you have to... The job's through some crazy hoops to get that to happen. You can find smaller vendors, know, local vendors.

For instance, on one of the last films we did, there was a guy with a THC drink brand who had his Cybertruck wrapped in his brand, and he was like, I'll throw you 10 grand to just put the truck in there so it's, you know, you could find something on that level.

But if you're looking for bigger ones, you kind of have to have bigger movies getting made with A-list actors, otherwise the brands aren't even interested.

How do you find a trustworthy cameraman? I'm directing it, but it's hard when you're in the scenes, also struggling with anxiety.

Wow, three very different things, but I've been there for all of those. So first, trustworthy cameraman. Trustworthy as in, Tal, are you here?

Trustworthy as in is going to show up when they say they will, or they know what they're doing with their camera in their hand.

at We're of it's working at If you're looking to find people who will shoot narrative stuff cheaply, find documentary or, sorry, reality camera operators.

They're usually miserable, but they make decent money because most camera operators want to get into narrative stuff and they find reality as a nice side job but then get stuck on the hamster wheel.

This is the exact two guys that I had on my second film and trip. They were just like dying to do narrative.

They never had the opportunity to do a feature before, but they were good with their cameras. They owned their own gear and they were willing to come on for like a hundred bucks a day.

So that's a great way to find a trustworthy person and then searching beyond that. I searched for years to find my DP that I work with now.

You're directing, but it's hard when you're in the scenes struggling with anxiety. Yeah, that's... that's... Just something that comes with practice.

It's also tough when you're an actor and you're dealing with the two sides of, when you have to come out of being an actor to be the director, that's just something that comes with a ton of practice.

But it's doable. It's doable. I did it on my first two films. Emily, who is in here somewhere, she did it.

She wrote, directed, produced, and starred in her own film. There's Emily down there. She is about finished with hers, which is, yeah, amazing.

She's amazing. Do you let them know in an email that you've been produced? I'm guessing you're talking about a writer?

Mario, are you in here? Can you elaborate on this one? How do you protect your work?

@38:49 - Mario Zermeno

I'll wait for Mario to respond.

@38:51 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

I'm here.

@38:52 - Mario Zermeno

Oh, yeah.

@38:52 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

Yeah. Yeah, so sorry.

@38:54 - Mario Zermeno

That was kind of vague. Yeah, so I've been produced, and I want to know when I'm reaching. Looking out to, and whether it's, you know, potential investors or even actors, if you go ahead and start out with, I've been produced, this is the film, and this is the accolades it got, all that kind of stuff.

Sometimes it seems people don't want to hear that right off, I guess.

@39:24 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

I don't know. No, I think that's a great point. I think the most important thing you can do is talk about your legitimacy right up front.

Because that's the first question that's going to swirl in any person that has some value attached to their name.

That's the first thing that's going to swirl through their head is like, is this person legit? That's the first question they're going to ask before they go through any other hoops.

So if you can say, I've had my film produced, it was released here, it's in this tone, and then kind of sell them on why they're perfect for what you're doing now, it shows that you've done your research, and it shows that you know the value.

the things that you've done before. So if I were to reach out to somebody, yes, I would 100% say, you know, like for my next film, this is my fifth feature.

My last four did XYZ. They were released here. I won these awards for them. It's all just things to make them feel a little bit more comfortable with talking to a complete stranger.

@40:21 - Mario Zermeno

So the more you can legitimize yourself, the faster, the better. Okay, great. Thanks.

@40:26 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

Absolutely. How do you protect your work? Trademark WGA website. Yeah. I've got two very different answers on this. The first is I've had a huge project stolen and produced and turned into a really, really successful movie.

So I know how bad that hurts. I had that trademarked. I had it WGA registered. At the end of the day, it didn't matter.

Um, what my entertainment attorney told me was unless I had a word for. The version of the script that was predated when the movie was released, that was really the only leg that I had to stand on.

He said, best case scenario, they'll pay you to go away. They'll give you like 50 grand to go away.

Worst case scenario, they'll actually take on the lawsuit and you'll spend the rest of your life paying legal fees to try and find a massive company.

So that's kind of option one is like you can protect yourself to a point. Um, this person had an immense amount of access to get this film made that I didn't have at the time.

So I made the mistake of talking to somebody who had a ton of access and it was just a good idea.

Um, the other answer to this is if you've made a film before, you know, the tremendous amount of energy and care that you have to put into it to get it made.

And it is wildly unlikely that anybody is going to care about your idea more than you do. Um, mine was like a super.

Supernatural kind of superhero box office, like big budget thing. So I think it was a fairly easy thing to do.

But for most people, your stories are so intimate and so only yours that nobody else is going to go run off and do all the work, raise the money, and do all that stuff to get your project made with their name on it.

Kind of my two, the two, I know they sort of contradict each other, but I feel a lot safer talking about my projects these days because I know that I'm more likely to get them made before anybody else.

That said, Quentin Tarantino has been sued twice by Fred Williamson for stealing his movies and remaking them and won both times and didn't change anything.

So he made a million bucks off of each lawsuit, but that was about it. Let's see, let's how can I make a film under $50,000?

So Nicky, um, this is easy. This is really, really easy. Uh, the cost really comes from, I think, you know, when you look at the BTS footage of big movies, you see 40 people running around with, you know, huge drip trucks and tons of locations and A-list actors, and it's really easy to think that you need to make a movie like that, or your set should look like that.

In reality, um, you can go out with a camera and, like, three or four crew and three or four actors and do something on the weekends that costs a grand or two, you know, and so I would really start thinking, like, how can you boil down your most valuable assets to only what you need to make a movie?

Fundamentally, there are four things that make a good movie. That's a good story, good performances, and sound and picture.

So, figure out the- Bare necessities that you need for those four things, and you can make a film, you can make a film via Zoom, you you could literally use your web camera and a decent script and two people talking back and forth.

As long as the story's compelling, you can do anything for really any amount of money. My advice for pitch deck development for a documentary versus a screenplay the same, similar, or vastly different?

I think fundraising for a documentary is a lot different. Just because it's so much easier to find people who might be interested in sponsoring a documentary, because you can find topics that institutions do education around and that sort of thing.

So I would gear a pitch deck for a documentary more for corporate sponsors than I would for equity investors or traditional investors.

So definitely two different things. I haven't made a documentary yet, but I'm working on a scripted reality show that has some of that element to it.

So you're just pitching it to a different person rather than like a private equity investor you're pitching to corporate sponsors.

So you're basically promising them how you can lend a voice to something that is important to them. I know I'm keeping it rather vague, but that's kind of the high-level overview.

Hi, I'm Deanna. based out of Baton Rouge. I just shot two movies in Bazeera, Louisiana. Hi, Deanna. I want to use the Louisiana Film Tax Incentives.

You also have a 501c3 nonprofit as a fiscal sponsor. Your 501c3 coincides with your production company, which is veteran-owned.

Is there a difference in the way you pitch to an investor? I don't know the answer to this, honestly.

I know 501c3 is not... Profit, right? So I don't know how that works in terms of not being able to make money on, I don't know.

I don't know the answer to this one, unfortunately. If you just make the movie in its own LLC, it might be protected outside of the 501c3, but if the 501c3 owns the film, I'm not sure.

I'm sorry, I can't answer that one. Nikki, based out of Texas. You have a script about your life, the only way an Indian woman in the US military, three deployments under your belt.

You've gone through quite a lot. I'd love to start. You have your original guys with you and your squad.

That's amazing. It sounds like you've got the beginnings of putting that together. So if you're trying to make a movie, I would think about the most intimate, small version of that you can pull off by yourself just to prove the cost.

Concept. And then once you can show that that works and that you can, and you can tell that story, that's when you can start to develop bigger, bigger projects.

And the great thing about making things with your friends is it's a bonding experience. I mean, every filmmaker that I've worked with in the past are the first people I reach out to when I'm working on something new.

Links to $10,000 films. Christopher Nolan's Following, $6,000 film, comes in at like 65 minutes. It's barely even a feature.

Robert Rodriguez, $7,000 film, El Mariachi. Primer was made for $7,000. The Puffy Chair, Mark Duplass, the Duplass Brothers, that was $15,000.

Nights and Weekends, Greta Gerwig and Joe Swanberg, that was $15,000. Joe Swanberg, if you're not familiar, he's made... Probably 20 to 25 features in the under $50,000 range.

He built his whole career on it. Thank you, Jared. Sorry, I'm just coming through. Thumbs ups. Awesome. Okay. No such thing as a no budget film.

This is true. There is always equity. There is always experience that goes into it. I'm specifically talking about the actual amount of dollars that goes into making a film.

How can we get a copy of the list I just presented? I will attach it, Tyson. I'll attach it in the email with the replay from this after this is over.

My next, is there a link to my next level up classes that are more in depth? Scott, you and I have a call, I believe, later this week, and we will go through it there.

I'll take you all the way through.

@48:55 - supertounge

I'll show you everything. Sorry I'm late.

@48:58 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

No, no worries. Thanks for being here. being Welcome Okay. How can you meet with a Kickstarter, advisor, or consultant?

LinkedIn. I would just type that into LinkedIn. There are so many. As soon as you post anything on any sort of crowdfunding campaign these days, you'll get just a deluge of people coming in and saying, I know how to make this super successful.

So I they're out there. LinkedIn is probably the best place to do that. I would literally just type in Kickstarter, advisor, or crowdfunding consultant and just look for people with lots of people reviews.

If they've got reviews, they've probably done it before. If they're just saying they do it, probably run for the hills.

Probably because I think WHA...

@49:42 - supertounge

Excuse me, I'm trying to interrupt you. How do we question?

@49:46 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

Do we have to type it in or can I just... Yeah, yeah, go ahead and throw it in the chat.

I'm going through the ones that have been typed in here, but I'm trying to fly through them.

@49:54 - supertounge

got 10 minutes left to see as many as I can. I got a quick question. How feasible is... Fathom AI movies, because they're not 100% really easy to make, but what do you think?

Is there a good program I can use?

@50:11 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

Yeah, I'm going to throw that one down to the end, just since you jumped in now.

@50:14 - supertounge

I've got some other ones to answer. I love that question, and I want to try and get to it, though, okay?

Okay.

@50:19 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

Okay, awesome. Let's see. Start with a feature, or you can roll with your series. Here's the thing with series.

If you can make the entire series, and it's at least a half-hour show, and you've got at least six to eight episodes, that is a super viable way of getting it discovered right now.

If you are trying to just make a pilot episode of something, and assuming a big network is going to buy it, I would definitely try and make a feature instead.

Instead, you can use a feature as a proof of concept for a TV series, but it's so nearly impossible to get a pilot episode bought, and even if they do, they're going to reshoot it, they're going to recast everybody, and they're going to put a different showrunner in place.

that knows how to get something done. It's very, very unlikely that series, uh, that pilots get picked up on their own.

So either make a feature as a proof of concept or make the entire series if you can. That would be my answer to you, Magic Myron.

Yes, Tangerine is, was filmed on an iPhone 5C. Uh, if you, that's exactly why we shouldn't have any excuses.

You can go out and make a movie like this, like, or with this, like Sean Baker did. The new 28 years later that's coming out was also shot on an iPhone.

Granted, he had a multi-million dollar budget behind it, but iPhone can make good movie. Yes, Nikki, you can make a film on your iPhone Pro Max.

Absolutely. How do you get that first film out to the public so it can be seen? So this one, this one's interesting.

Um, I love this question. Getting your first film out there, this is why I think genre is super important.

You don't have millions of dollars like a studio does. don't millions like to aim for. The widest audience available.

So you want to find the narrowest audience available. So if you can find single moms that are starting businesses and make your movie around somebody like that, it makes it much easier to find things like podcasts or blogs that can feature you as the filmmaker.

So you can find your audience through other people who already have audiences built. So this is finding shared audiences and shared borrowed authority.

So if you make a horror film, and it is your first film, and it's a $5,000 film, and you know it's good, maybe you get into a festival or two, go scrape leads, and there are tons of lead scraping apps out there.

You want to find podcasts that interview horror directors or talk about horror, and you want to send out as many emails as you can.

I would start with 200. 200. And you want to get on as many podcasts as possible. And you want to talk about your films.

As much as possible. This is free advertising. Yes, it takes some legwork for you to get on the shows, but horror fans watch everything.

They just don't know everything exists or why they should watch it. So if they get to hear you talk about it, they're likely to go find it.

This is a great way to get your film out to the public, even if it's just on YouTube or Vimeo.

It does not need to be on a big platform to get seen. Breakdown services. Breakdown expresses for background. That is not true.

I use it all the time. Yeah, and don't be scared to use union actors, 100%. There is a SAG micro-budget agreement that allows SAG actors to work on anything under $20,000.

It is a same-day approval process. It's super pretty easy to find on their website. So yes, you can use SAG actors on deferred pay, no budget.

No budget movies. I wouldn't worry about permits to close streets at this level. you're running around with iPhones or prosumer cameras, just don't put sticks on the ground.

Don't do stupid stuff. Don't be running around in traffic. But I just shot two movies at $250,000 apiece with not one permit.

So it obviously is different if you're in LA. You're going to get chased out of everywhere. So if you can find a smaller town nearby, highly recommend.

People that are not used to filming are usually really happy to have film crews come in. We had news stories following us around because this town had never had films shot there.

So I would not try and waste your money on permits. Most cops will just say leave. They won't say show me your permit.

But don't do that in LA because you could get dinged.

@54:56 - Marcus A

A.J., real quick.

@54:57 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

Yeah.

@54:58 - Marcus A

It's market. Is it okay if we make a couple? A couple of quick announcements.

@55:01 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

We're getting to the top of the hour, so... Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

@55:04 - Marcus A

I think some people are going to have to hop off, and we could get to the rest of the questions if you have some time.

But I just wanted to make sure that people were aware, in case you haven't already joined One Grand Filmmakers, it's AJ's community.

And by the way, I'm Marcus, I'm AJ's assistant, so I'm just helping him out with some of the admin stuff.

But we have One Grand Filmmakers, and basically, I know some people are going to have to hop off in a few minutes because it's top of the hour.

But we wanted to make sure that all your questions are answered. So I'm just going to drop a link in the chat right now, and feel free to join that community and ask your questions.

And one more thing is we have a Proof Project Challenge coming up as well, and I'll go ahead and drop a link to that calendar.

So, yeah, so, Johnny, I just dropped the link in there, and feel free to check out the group. And then this is a rare opportunity with AJ's calendar because he's usually completely...

Booked up. But we have a proof project challenge coming up in the next week. And AJ, if you want to talk a little bit about that as well.

But I'm going to drop a link to the calendar that you'll have an opportunity to speak. And one thing is that our calendar slots are almost completely booked up.

So yeah, I'm just going to drop a link in there. If you have issues with booking a call, then just feel free to reach out to us in the group.

@56:23 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So for everybody here, the proof project challenge, I'm basically taking 10 filmmakers through the process of making a feature film in 90 days that does not require fundraising.

So I walk from the ideation process all the way through the writing process. It's very hands-on. It's two calls per week.

It's one-on-one calls with me, interspersed. And my goal is to help you write, develop, sorry, write, prep, and shoot the whole thing in 90 days.

So you'll actually have a feature film in hand in 90 days going into the editing process. You get nine months of additional support beyond that.

So I've got eight people in right now, or week seven, and I think six out of the eight of them are at the point where they're registering their scripts and locking down their crew and getting ready to shoot in seven weeks.

So this is totally possible. I've done it before. I've helped a lot of other filmmakers do this. Emily is my starter student.

Raise your hand, Emily. She's almost finished with her film. She's amazing. And yeah, so I've got a few spots left to open there.

So if you're interested in getting that film made, but you'd like the guidance and the camaraderie of doing it with a bunch of other filmmakers, that's a proof project challenge.

Super short pitch. Okay. Was that good, Marcus? Would you add anything to that?

@57:47 - Marcus A

Or should I continue? Yeah, that was really good. And then just one note for the school community, there's also some courses in there too that you can check out.

@57:57 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

So we have the community, we have the weekly Q&As, and then also... So some courses that AJ has put together.

Yes.

@58:03 - Marcus A

Yep.

@58:04 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

Yep. Lots of courses in there also. So you'll see a classroom tab up at the top and there's just a bunch of courses in there.

So depending on what you're looking to do, there's stuff for actors, writers, and filmmakers in there. Okay. Union actors, permits, examples of films at the one, two, and three levels.

Yeah, this is great. Yes, and this is being transcribed, Will. Um, so let's, let me share my screen one more time and get into the, the, the budget levels again, especially for anybody who missed that part.

SCREEN SHARING: Aj started screen sharing - WATCH

Sorry, trying to organize my screen. Okay. Examples of the films at budget levels. Okay. So, so, so this would be, be, be, um, so,

Yeah, El Mariachi, or Following, or Go Crazy, Go Mad, my film was $1,000. That film is free. If anybody wants to watch it, just type Go Crazy, Go Mad, full movie into YouTube.

You can watch it for free there. Um, two, so the $100,000 budget, my second film, End Trip, falls in there.

Um, Mike Flanagan's Absentia falls in there. Uh, that's the one that he got, uh, a million dollar budget for his next film, Oculus, off of the back of Absentia.

Again, he was able to use signal boosters to get that film up there. And then, level three, this, uh, Blue Ruin, Jeremy Saulnier, is the perfect example.

So, Jeremy Saulnier, um, if you're not familiar with him, he's a fantastic indie director. He has done, uh, uh, he just did Rebel Ridge for Netflix, which was one of their top streamed movies this past year.

He did a couple. He did a $250,000 movie called Murder Party that built a little bit of a cult following, but overall was not a success.

He then went on to do a $500,000 film. You can actually still find the Kickstarter for it called Blue Ruin.

If you haven't seen Blue Ruin, it's again, we're talking about competence and just showing that you understand the filmmaking process.

Blue Ruin is a fantastic example of a $500,000 movie where you don't see the constraints. He could have spent $10 million on the exact same movie and got the exact same output, but he didn't need to.

He understood his resources. He shot it on a $2,000 camera. It's a Canon C200 with like old Canon photography lenses, but he knows.

How to use the cameras. His actors are incredible. He scheduled the shoot right. He put the, you know, his resources into special effects makeup that are insanely, insanely effective.

And it blew up his career. You know, he had studios knocking on his door and his next film was a $5 million film called Green Room.

So that is how these level up kind of naturally. And so just to kind of go back over this really quickly one more time, if you don't have the thing, if you don't have the trust to go out and find, you know, $50,000 to $100,000 as development money to get, you know, to lock in your casting director or to lock in the LOI for your A-list actor, it's because you haven't done the stuff before it or you're not closely attached to a producer who has.

So that's. Why? You develop these relationships through making projects. It's the only way to really build the trust there.

People can talk all day long about the things that they can do for you. But at the end of the day, you're going to have to do a lot of this yourself.

so the faster you get started, the faster you actually start to see some of the success on the other side.

@1:02:19 - supertounge

Real quick, I got to throw this out there before we end. Right now, I hear Netflix and streaming services like that are actually going to start doing what Amp, on what Blockbuster used to do back in the day.

Because they're running out of content, so they're looking for more stuff to fill their platforms. Back in the day, I knew a guy that made a living making really cheesy, bad movies for Blockbuster, you know, to have the fillers.

I don't know if you remember Blockbuster back in the day. You would rent a movie that was...

@1:02:48 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

Oh, yeah. Everybody here remembers Blockbuster.

@1:02:50 - supertounge

Living off of that. And the movies were terrible, but he was doing it. He was doing it through them.

And now Netflix and those streaming services, need to fill their... Many, so they're looking for low-budget films.

@1:03:03 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

They are and they aren't. They aren't looking for, I mean, that's kind of what Tubi is. You know, Tubi is sort of the place where just sort of any film can go to live.

I can tell you from experience, Netflix still does have really high standard quality standards and some level of name recognition is necessary for Netflix.

However, they are starting to, it's much easier for them to, you know, buy a hundred films at $500,000 a piece and, you know, stock their library and have their couple successes in that group than it is for them to just fork out $50 million of film like they've been doing.

So they are changing their business model, but they're not just going to go buy a bunch of like crappy indie movies.

Um, okay. Are there any genre or genres that are hotter than others right now? Everything. Anything fluctuates. I wouldn't ever chase the right now.

The cool thing about film is it's eternal and genres come and go. So make what's always interesting, make something that could be classic 20 years from now, because by the time you finish making your pickleball movie, there's going to be 30 other pickleball movies.

Yours is going to get lost and pickleball is going to become a thing no one cares about. So just think about the things that hold true forever and try and make those things.

At what point should writers pursue an agent, WGA, etc.? When they pursue you, that is the answer. Generally, you need a tremendous amount of success before they will even look at you.

So that would be the answer to that. Work on getting things produced. Make good stuff. Get it out there, find that proof, and then you can take that proof to an agent, provided they're

They're not already reaching out to you, but generally agents will reach out to you once you've built enough of an audience around what you do.

Sitcoms or series, I kind of talked about that. Be good on terms with local location scouts, managers, assistant managers, they know all the good locations.

So funny story, so on the movie that, one of the two movies that I just did, we walked into a bar because we needed a bar location.

And the guy sitting behind the bar owned the bar, and he was also the sheriff. And so we needed a police station, a post office, a bar, and a house.

And in one night at the bar, we were able to find all of those locations for free because we made friends with one guy who knew everybody in the town.

So that's the advantage of working with like a really small city versus going around like LA trying to shoot at, you know, on Rodeo Drive or something.

So definitely, yeah, small towns are better to shoot in. Sitcoms died, write a spec, put it out there, you know, get your chops, but don't sit and wait behind a spec script and hope that someday it'll become a thing.

Focus on something that you can get produced. Music rights. This is a good one. I wouldn't focus too much on music for super, super short or low budget things.

It was going to cost me $9,000 to put a film from a band I liked in my $50,000 film.

It just wasn't, it was really cost prohibitive. Like it didn't make sense. It wasn't going to be an ROI where I could say, my movie's great because it's got this song in it.

So just find local music, local composers, local friends that want the exposure, wouldn't mind having their song in a movie.

That's how I would approach it at this level for sure. Yes, I agree. I've used SAG before. They have special contracts.

I can do that like a non-union film, Flat Raider, Pro Bono. So, um, put a bono contract. Okay, so this is talking about the low budget SAG or micro budget.

How can I find a camera person? Okay, so we talked about that. So the best thing that I can suggest to anyone is Facebook.

The only thing Facebook is used for now is like meme sharing political garbage or groups. And the groups are still alive.

And so I would use the groups, go, you know, create a post. My film is this. It's this budget.

We're shooting these days. I'm looking for a camera operator with their own gear that can come and shoot. That will get you so many hits.

You'll be swimming in people hoping to do it. The next part about it is trying to find somebody that will work in your budget.

So I will always say, be as transparent as possible straight up front and just say, I don't have a budget for this.

I'm looking for somebody who wants the opportunity to shoot something like this. I'm looking for a collaborator to work on additional projects in the future.

That's the best way to really talk too. Filmmaker, create those relationships that you can keep working together and sort of bypass the money conversation.

It's just being super upfront right away. Have script music. It's going to be a bio-epic movie. I don't know what that means.

Oh, like a biopic? Like a biopic? So based on real life? Somebody's life? Ready? Yeah, Mandy or Production Hub have crew listed there.

Might be a little bit harder to find people that are looking for those early experiences there. Last short had 25,000 views, but died.

Lots of exposure, but nothing came off it. It's so exhausting to put in all that work. That's why I always just say go for a feature.

Features at the like $1,000 level are about the same amount of work as doing a short film at the $25,000 level.

So you might as well have that asset that can be bought and sold and marketed at film markets and that kind of thing.

There's that's It's just why film features just have so much more leverage. Or if you're going to do shorts, do like three-minute shorts, make them super, super viral.

They don't even need to have dialogue. That makes them like, you know, globally viable to not just the English-speaking markets.

David Sandberg is a great example of that. He made a short film called Lights Out. was three minutes long.

New Line approached him with a $5 million first feature film. Now he's doing DC movies. And that all came off of making little like three-minute short films with no dialogue.

So one or the other feature films were like the tiniest short films that could go super viral. How important is it to use a green screen or just go natural?

I don't, I would say natural. Go natural as much as possible. Green screens are just adding complexity. Unless you have a reason to do it, like you've got a newscaster and you need to do a green screen, I'd maybe use it for that.

But I'm not going, I'm going all natural most of my stuff. All In New Jersey, if anybody needs a DP, Gaffer, or GRIP, or PA in New Jersey, contact Matt.

Matt, you might want to put your last name on there. How to find a cameraman you trust. Right now it's you and it's one person.

Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's Facebook groups. So search your city and filmmakers, so Baton Rouge filmmakers, look for groups that have at least 10 posts a week.

Um, the higher amount of posts you get per day, the better. Um, that just means the groups are alive.

People are actually going to see what you're put, uh, putting out there. Also that they won't steal your camera.

Yeah. Find a camera operator with their own camera. That way they won't have to steal yours. Um, is it better to become background actors?

I would suggest for everybody that, uh, wants to work on movies to go do background work. It's some of the coolest stuff you can do is get.

Big sets. I did it for nine months when I first moved to LA in 2005. And getting to walk around on those big sets and see how the big things are done, hear the lingo, kind of see all of it is so cool.

Highly recommend. Not necessary to do it before you write a script, but it'll definitely sort of inform your filmmaking concepts.

They should have their own gear. Yes, they should, Sage. Sage advice. I shot a micro-budget feature. It's held up by the fact that you used a song you can't get the rights to, and now it's just, it's now crucial to the movie.

Probably the best scene you have. You have an LLC. Should you release the film? You will get sued, probably.

You probably won't get sued, Keith, but you will get shadow banned. Your film won't even play into the algorithms.

I would definitely try and find a song similar to, maybe an artist you really like can make a similar song.

And replace it, because you can't even, you can't reap the benefits of your film if it's not out there, so leaving it stuck under a song is just slowing down the time to reap the benefits.

We just did a short, we used an 80s song, was a nightmare to get the rights from Warner Brothers.

Yeah, it cost a fortune, yep, find a local band, exactly, nailed it. What's the difference between a good and a great pitch deck?

A great pitch deck is very concise, it doesn't have more than it needs to have, it's succinct, it knows the market it's aiming for, and it knows who it's talking to, and it only has the pertinent information.

Pitch decks can get way too long, I think you should get no longer than about 12 pages. You know, in, in the One Grand.

The One Filmmakers Group, I just made a pitch deck for a company or for a producer that's trying to get this $10 million film made.

What I can do is I can strip out all of the information that's on there and I can throw a template up in the One Grand Filmmakers Group and I'll just throw it in the Classroom tab.

So for anybody that's looking for a pitch deck template that they can go and edit in Canva, I will throw one in there.

And you guys can have that and use it as you wish. You don't need to have their own gear, depends on where you live and the budget.

If you was in Korea, rental houses were very affordable. That's true, rental houses are great. You do need insurance and generally somebody with a good reputation with a rental house.

That's where things can get expensive. If you're looking for cheaper options, sharegrid.com. It's like Uber for camera gear, so you can just rent people's camera gear that's right around you for real cheap.

usually. Working with someone already in the film industry, what are the working advantages? There's pros and cons to working people in the film industry.

mean, they're usually making money. so you have to figure out how to incentivize them to come and work for less money on your project when they could be working on something, making a full rate.

This is why I choose to work with people that need those first few experience. You know, experiences on their resume.

That is the best way that I've found, uh, to find good work, um, and, obviously, cutting costs. Uh, missed the pre-questions.

Apologies if this was covered already. I've made lawsuits shorts. Interested in making a micro-budget feature. I never know how to get financing.

Okay, so, Hunter, um, you, I will send this out in the, uh, uh, a follow-up email. Now, the replay.

And I go through this in the beginning of the call. Written two feature scripts, one you plan to direct, one your friend will direct, how many scripts should you have ready before you reach out to get representation?

You need to have finished films to get meaningful representation. Even after I finished my second film, I had a manager reach out to ICM.

They said they'd need to see another film from me. So that's kind of my next stage with my two films that I'm finishing right now is to get representation.

If you find representation without being produced, they're probably not going to be able to do much for you because they use what you've made to get you better jobs.

As far as casting my $1,000 film, I love my ideas of using interesting people, actors, non-actors, having them tell your story.

Once you have a few actors, you feel good about any strategies for previewing their chemistry together. Yes, yes, yes, and yes, Matt.

So chemistry reads. So this is where you will get your cast together, hopefully in person. Zoom is fine, and throw, I wouldn't throw the actual scenes from the movie at them, I would throw similar scenarios so you can save the good stuff for the day that you shoot it, but yeah, you definitely want to watch them interact with each other, throw interesting situations at them and see how they swing at those curveballs.

Oh, Matt's not even here, I'm just talking to no one, it's alright, I'll send it to Matt after. Going rate in trademarking, I don't know, I don't know the answer to that, I don't even know if I know what trademarking is.

What is the process to submit a film to a film festival? FilmFreeway.com, thank you Stephen for finding that one for me.

They've got most of the major film festivals listed on there, there are a few that still require you to submit directly on their websites, but filmfreeway.com, you upload at once and you can submit to 99.

Percent of the film festivals on there with a submission fee per festival. Written, produced, and directed three stage plays.

Now you have several screenplays and I would like to sell or option. Will I still need to be referred to a production company or by an A-lister?

Yeah, the selling or optioning thing is really, really, really tough. It's what everybody's trying to do. You can go to the blacklist.

You can go to Coverfly. You can win as many awards as you possibly can. But at the end of the day, it's a lottery system.

Like the chances of you, and you have to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on coverage to get high enough scores to get looked at.

there's still no guarantee it's actually going to do anything. So this is why I always say try and get something produced that gets something produced that gets you the eyes, the visibility of a bigger production company or an A-lister.

Or find the seed money too. that. I'm good. Gage, casting director. So a microfilm, someone used their car's reversed camera as their camera.

I know I saw that too. It was really funny. Is there a model structure for offering talent and crew back-end payment if there's no budget and the project is financially successful?

Top three tips for approaching small cast and crew to work for no money. Yeah, you're just... So Scott, this one's you.

So yeah, I would try and structure it in a way where you keep about 20%, sorry, 40% or so of the overall project.

You're going to stay on the project longer than anyone else. From there, I would break it down sort of by how much value somebody is bringing to your project.

So if you've got an A-lister that's going to walk on set for a day and say a few lines, give them the other 60%.

Incentivize them, not 60% really, but give them more points than anyone else because they're bringing the most... value to your film.

So if your DP is bringing you, you know, all of their gear, give them, you know, more points than a PA who's just going to run around and get coffee for three days or whatever.

Your editor is going to work for a long time. They should get a few more points. Your composer is going to work for a long time.

But by and large, you are the only person that's going to be on it from beginning to end. You should retain most of it.

And then three tips for approaching small casting crew to work for no money. It's not working for no money.

It's working for an opportunity that they haven't had before. That is how I would always say you should position yourself in these moments.

You're creating an opportunity for them that they don't have. And you're working to make it quick. So you're, you don't need months of their time.

The first feature I ever had a lead in was supposed to be six weekends. It ended up being six months of weekends.

And I resented everything. everybody by the end of it. So try and keep your production time short. Do your planning phase up front.

Know how much you're shooting. Be realistic and transparent with your actors all the way through the process. If anybody is in New Jersey, feel free to reach out.

Logo is your podcast. You have a production company and you're a screenwriter and SAG actor. Man, good job. You've got a lot of things going on.

Um, okay, cool. Look, you guys are exchanging phone numbers and stuff. Awesome. Okay. I am going to have to call it soon.

I'm not going to make it through the other 49 messages, but let me see if I can knock out just a couple more.

How many scripts would you need to sell before WGA accept you into the union? Um, you have to be the writer of a, so your, your project has to be a WGA registered project.

Um, and then I don't remember the exact, this is something you could type in a chat GPT and get the answer for super easy.

Um, but being in the WGA does not mean you will get work easier. Uh, 60% of WGA employees, uh, reported making no income, um, in a year.

So only 40% of WGA employees are working. This is the sort of the union versus non-union argument is staying non-union for as long as possible, or at least until you're getting hit with enough, um, um, work that you can just say no to the non-union stuff.

Uh, otherwise, I would just stay non-union and keep making things until the WGA is begging to have you. Will, I see your hand up.

Yes, sir. I'm going to answer Will's question, then I'm going to come back to the AI filmmaking question, because I think that one is probably at the top of everyone's mind.

And then I'm going to cut Paulette, but guess what? We do this every Monday in the One Grand Film community.

So if you enjoyed this and you'd like to be a part of these, come join me over there. It says you're muted, Will, but I'm ready for your question whenever you want to unmute.

@1:22:15 - Wil

Yeah, I was just going to mention that you said you were going to say something about AI.

@1:22:18 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

That was it. Oh, perfect. Okay, look at that. Perfect lead in. Okay, so as of right now, the best uses for AI would be probably very, very short films or sizzle reel concepts.

As far as making a feature film, they're not viable yet. This is one of those weird subjects because it's like, I know that AI is threatening to take everybody's jobs.

It's certainly coming for the ideation side of things, the visual effects side of things. Definitely commercials are going to be the first thing to go.

Big companies realize they can hire one guy to make a commercial in a small office that they would have had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on.

Those are going to go quick. As far as telling a long-form story, I am of the belief that right now audiences show up for filmmakers.

The only reason I'm going to see a movie is because I know the director or I know the writer or I know the actors in the movie.

So until such time AI is creating avatars that have amassed their own massive audiences and people will show up for those, I don't think AI is going to be viable in feature filmmaking.

@1:23:42 - supertounge

I'm sorry to jump in. I think that would be good for like, let's say you have a small budget and let's say your character is a rock star and you can't fill a coliseum, but you can make a scene with AI where the coliseum is make a movie.

@1:23:56 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

So yes, this would be one of the use cases for sort of sort of AI used as CGI, or in place of CGI, yeah, extending backgrounds, adding small shots here and there, extending out clips, these are all viable means for AI, but as far as like using AI to generate a movie, even getting AI to do two shots that look similar back-to-back and the characters look similar is a tremendous amount of work, so.

@1:24:27 - Rocky thomas

AJ Roman, look them up on your phone.

@1:24:29 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

It's not necessarily something I would chase with reckless abandon at the moment, I am, I think I'm gonna be a trying-through, kind of made-by-humans person, I think we will see a seal of approval, a seal of this is human-made, you know, soon, because we're gonna get, I think also people are just gonna get really, really bored of AI, I already am, I see it on the internet, and I'm just like, oh my god, get it away from me, so.

So, yeah, it's definitely an interesting story, concept, and it could go in a lot of different directions.

@1:25:00 - Tom Smith

I'm interested to see where it goes myself. Hey, Jay, can you hear me?

@1:25:04 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

Yes.

@1:25:05 - Tom Smith

This is Tom Smith in San Diego. Hey, could you please send me snail mail that checklist that you put up on your screen?

Can you, like, if I gave you the address, could you snail mail, like, over to my house?

@1:25:19 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

I probably can't. If I promise to do that to you, then I'm promising to send it out to 70 people, but I will send it in an email right after this, so you'll have access to it.

@1:25:30 - Tom Smith

Okay, that should be okay. I could probably print it out, but do you have my email address?

@1:25:35 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

Yes. If you are on this call, that means you got the email from me that this was happening. So I will just email it out to all of the email addresses that I have on file for you guys.

You'll be able to watch this. And I will include a transcript as well. I might have to talk to Mark about how to do that effectively.

@1:25:57 - Tom Smith

That's pretty good.

@1:25:59 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

Yeah, but yes, I will be. at? Where Where am I at?

@1:26:02 - Tom Smith

Yeah.

@1:26:03 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

I live in Austin at the moment. But dying to get back to LA. I'll be back in LA in a year or so.

@1:26:10 - Tom Smith

Okay, super. Yeah, I need to find a directory of production companies here in San Diego. Because I wanted to think about doing something in San Diego.

It's right here in my hometown. But it's a small budget thing that could possibly happen. But I'll just look online to look for production companies in San Diego.

@1:26:32 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

Is that kind of a good idea? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, even not production companies might have to piecemeal them together through Facebook.

But that's what I use Facebook groups for. So definitely a good way to go about it. All right, guys.

I'm going about half an hour over. But thank you all for being here. I'll be back next Monday.

@1:26:52 - Rocky thomas

And I will try and pick up where I left off on the next one.

@1:26:58 - AJ Rome (rightandleftstudios.com)

Feel free if you do come into the One Grand Film Community. ...community. You can start to post your questions there.

There's a post at the top of the page saying Q&A call. You can post your questions under that Q&A call, and those will be the first ones I will try and answer next week.

@1:27:11 - nikki mehta

Thank you, AJ.

@1:27:12 - Rocky thomas

Thank you, AJ. you, AJ, everybody.

@1:27:14 - nikki mehta

Thank you, thank you, thank you, you. Thank you. All right. Thanks, AJ.-bye. Have a good night. Take care of