Closing the Old LLC

I'm filing the papers tomorrow to close the LLC we had opened for the production of our previous film. Luckily, it appears to be a pretty simple procedure: file a form, cut the state a check for $100, and you're done.

It's somewhat of a bittersweet experience. We opened the LLC in September of 2005 with no idea what we were doing. By November 2005, we were shooting. We kept the LLC open this long in hopes of collecting some or all of the foreign distribution revenues we were owed (long story). Luckily, we were able to collect some of those revenues this past summer. That said, it's expensive to keep the LLC open every year, and a pain in the ass to file the yearly tax returns, so it's time to quit while we're ahead, say "lesson learned" and move on to bigger and better things.

I also want to close the LLC before 2010 because we are planning on opening a new one for Nitecrawlers, the process of which I will detail in this blog when the time comes. All this business stuff gives me a headache...I just want to get the cameras rolling again, but it's a serious and necessary part of being an independent filmmaker.

- K

Thinking Beyond the Film

I came across this great article last week (although for the life of me I can't remember where) on the Truly Free Film blog and I thought it definitely deserved a place here, if for no other reason than to allow me to access it multiple times over:

Truly Free Film: The Twenty New Rules

Ted Hope has some great insight about what the independent film producer needs to do just to sell a film these days, and let me tell you, it's a lot more complicated than just making a film.

It all comes down to PRE-PLANNING. I won't summarize the article here, but Ted's point is that "making a film" is so much more than making a film these days. I think especially now, when spending on indies by distros has been dropping steadily, self-distribution may be the only viable option for many indie films to recoup their budgets, making Ted's "rules" all the more relevant.

A couple that I hope to do with Nitecrawlers:

• Collect 5000 fans prior to seeking financing. - Since Mike and I paid for our first movie ourselves, Nitecrawlers will be our first time attempting to raise outside funding. An independent film is a TOUGH sell, no matter how you slice it (Filmmaker: "We've got a 99.99% chance of not getting a distribution deal." Investor: "Great, where do I sign?") When I put myself in an investor's shoes, seeing a pre-established fanbase makes the carrot much more appealing.

• Create enough additional content to keep your audience involved throughout the process and later to bridge them to your next work. - One of my biggest regrets on the first film! Behind-the-scenes video, stills, interviews, a blog (check!), all this stuff should be a no-brainer, and I won't forget it this time.

• Determine & manufacture at least five additional products you will sell other than DVDs. - So important this time around. Even if you get traditional distribution, let me tell you: once you get your advance, you ain't seeing another cent from DVD sales, no matter what kind of backend deal you think you have in place. I've got some cool merchandising ideas brewing for Nitecrawlers that I think will be rewarding for the fans who get on the bandwagon early on.

• Study at least five similar films in terms of what their release strategy & audience engagement strategy was and how you can improve upon them. - I literally spend hours scouring the web and sites like DVXUser.com for films similar in scope to Nitecrawlers (horror-esque genre, sub-$500k budget). Even so, it's hard to ever get the particulars of a distribution deal, which makes it tough to know if a film was able to recoup its budget or not. If anyone has a film like this, or knows of one, and would like to chat about it, reach out to us here! I'd love to trade stories.

'Til next time...

- K

The "Nitecrawlers" Logo

It's so important these days for independent filmmakers to create a "brand" around their film right from the outset.

That's why, even with the script still in the violent throes of a second draft, we asked our good friend Ed Adams to design us a logo to help us brand the new film. I gave him only a few vague themes and plot points to work off of, and he came up with the pretty logo you now see at the top of the page. The logo will be a key visual element in all our investor materials.

Here's Ed's design (you can also see it up in the header of the blog:



I wanted the logo to recall the shared aesthetic from a lot of popular 80's horror/adventure/comic movies. Two film logos in particular stood out to me as being excellent brand markers of their properties. When you see these logos (or even the typeface), you immediately can recall the film or films of their origin.

Here they are:

"Goonies" Logo:


"The Warriors" Logo:


I think Ed did a really great job of capturing the same essence and timelessness of the above logos with his work on the Nitecrawlers logo. What do you think? I'm going to try to get some commentary from Ed himself and post it here so that he can describe the creative process that went into the logo's creation.

You can check out Ed's website here: http://www.flickertoflame.com.

- K

Getting Back on the Horse

A lot of first-time filmmakers don't realize how draining the process of making a feature film can be.

When Mike and I started to make our first feature in the Summer of 2005, we were both only 22, both fresh out of film school. We had no idea about the sheer gargantuan nature of what we were taking on. Form an LLC? Prepare early for deliverables? What? Nobody had ever taught us the business end of making a film, and I think that's a common thought that most recently graduated film students experience when they set out to do what we did.

What we didn't realize at the time was that the entire process of making our first feature (from the formation of the LLC and the writing of the script all the way through to seeing the film released in foreign countries like Russia and Japan) was nearly a 3 year process. Even to this day, some 4 years later, parts of the process still drag on. I still have to close the LLC from that film before the year's end.

It was incredibly emotionally draining for both of us. At one point during post-production, we stepped away from the edit completely for 6 weeks. We were just burned out, plain and simple. And once the film achieved distribution and we were finding it in places like Wal-Mart and Best Buy, it was easy to sit back and ride the coattails of that success for a long time.

But you can't milk the success of one film forever, and the creative juices always come rushing back. When you've made a $20,000 film, there are inevitably many things that make you say "Man, next time around, when we have more money, I'm going to do X, Y and Z so much better."

But making a new film is a great risk...financially, legally, emotionally, when you make a film, you open yourself up for a lot of hurt. Especially now, when the economy ain't that great, the pressures are amplified.

I've thought long and hard about how enticing the path of least resistance seems: hang it up after one film and walk around risk-free for the rest of my life saying, "Hey, when I was 22, I made a movie that was in Wal-Mart, that was on Netflix." But I think they call that living in the past.

And so here we are, getting back on the horse once more.

- K

Welcome to Our Journey

Welcome to the official Nitecrawlers production blog.

One of my greatest regrets while making our first feature film was that we did next to nothing to document the (nightmarishly) rewarding process we went through during its production and subsequent distribution.  I'm not going to make that mistake again.

So who are we, what is Nitecrawlers, and why is this worth reading?  Let me explain.

My name is Kevin, and I'll be writing this blog with my fellow producing partner Mike.  We're 26-year old filmmakers about to embark on our 2nd feature film.  Our first feature film (which I'll discuss in more detail in a later entry) was a little $20,000 horror movie with no stars (funded entirely out of our own pockets).  Our goal was simple, to recoup our investment and to get our film distributed direct-to-dvd.   We ended up doing that and more, with the being released nationwide on DVD by Warner-Elektra-Atlantic and worldwide in Russia, Germany, Japan and Singapore.  How well did we do financially?  Well, let's just say we did well enough that we're back for more punishment, but as any indie filmmaker can confirm, it ain't about the money.

Nitecrawlers is our long-awaited 2nd feature film.  We're billing it as a "coming-of-age horror tale," but I don't think the movie knows exactly what it wants to be just yet.  Since we shot our first feature for $20k, we're looking to make what we consider to be a sizeable jump up to a $200,000 budget.  What's more, we are hoping to use the SAG Ultra-Low Budget Agreement, which hopefully will mean access to some "names."

So what can you expect to find on this blog?  Well, in short, lots of stuff.  When Mike and I were 22-year-old newbies setting out to make our first feature on a wing and a prayer, we would have killed for an all-inclusive resource from a fellow independent filmmaker who had walked down the production and distribution path before us, and so that's what I hope to accomplish with this blog.  There are some specific things that I'd like to touch on, including:

- Script Development
- Creating Concept Art
- Soliciting Investors
- Writing Business Plans
- Forming an LLC

In short, all the trials and tribulations an independent filmmaker will have to endure.  We've done it once, and we're ready to do it again, this time on a somewhat grander scale.  Once we secure funding for the film, this blog will hopefully re-direct to our official website, where we will continue to blog from pre-production through distribution.

So hop onboard, subscribe to the blog, and follow our progress in our quest to raise $200,000 and get this film made!

- K