Suzanne Lyons Producer Workshop

The last 10 days have been a complete whirlwind for me. After I spent a week in Ireland visiting friends, I headed straight to California to meet Kevin for Suzanne Lyons' independent producer's workshop. Now, sitting here adjusting to my third time zone in three days, I've got a sleepless night to reflect on how valuable the workshop really was.

Kevin and I were turned on to Suzanne Lyons' workshop through Stacey Parks' website, Film Specific. While Stacey's expertise lies in foreign sales and distribution, Kevin and I were looking for an independent producer to walk us through the proper steps of producing a film under the SAG Ultra-Low Budget Agreement.

Kevin and I were both drawn to the class due to the invaluable resources Suzanne's workshop offered, such as the $15,000 worth of contracts we can later amend for our own use. While it's easy to go out and buy an indie filmmaking book full of generic contracts, nothing can compare to spending two days with an experienced producer, breaking down contracts and having our questions and concerns answered.

By learning from Suzanne's experiences (and costly mistakes), we'll be better prepared to deal with similar situations when they arise during our own production. By acquiring a wealth of information from Suzanne and Stacey, we now have a deep knowledge base we can quickly refer to, when need be. While it's impossible to regurgitate every bit of information we learned throughout the weekend, we will be sure to share what we've learned and how we are applying Suzanne's techniques to our own film, when we cross those bridges.

Another important aspect of the workshop was learning exactly what a producer's role is and what our responsibilities are. For our last film, the answer was simple, everything! This was a big misconception that Suzanne shattered for us; while a producer does have to wear 100 hats, he is not responsible for everything. By delegating responsibility to a trusted line producer, some sanity may actually be retained on our end

Finally, as I've said before, it's very easy to talk about making a film, however, talking doesn't cause a film to materialize, action does. And this is what Suzanne's workshop did for us; it made our project feel a bit more real. By investing in ourselves, we are ultimately investing the first dollars into the film itself.

By attending this workshop, it proves that Kevin and I are both committed to getting this film made. For anyone who knows us, knows we wouldn't throw away $1,200 on a workshop, if we had no intention of making this film. We hate spending money recklessly, both in our personal lives and on the screen, which is ultimately why we took this class; to stretch our dollars as far as we can.

- Mike