#I need to watch a green vod because I haven’t been paying as much attention to etoiles stream nfjgj but there hasn’t really been green names

[zeb-z]

green team winning by a whole 10% above the next team, all it took is them minding their damn business

[taharai]

Steps to Film Financing Movie Deal Come To Fruition

Every independent filmmaker I have ever met has started out with a script, that is, after the idea, the book, or short story has been running through their heads for months, sometimes years. But after premiering the movie and it’s short-lived film fest tour, the indie movie is usually shelved. That’s what everybody thinks happened to my movie, Spyderwoman now Hybrid, the series and what has happened to most Indies.  But in my case, my movie is not finished, I’m adding a scene in the far future and making it into a series.  Transformation is part of the beauty of writing. However, I don’t want to repeat the same mistake.  Next time, I’m just going to do it the right way.

What makes a film get a movie deal?

Make sure the story is attractive, that you have an attached actor with at least a B rate attached to the movie, you’ve checked the SAG Producer’s agreement for your budget, and you have a letter of intent from a distributor.  Don’t forget to create a business and marketing plan, that includes business reports, analytics reports, budget, and promotion strategy.  All of it is part of a good pitch. That one summary and logline that just kills it.

Spend some time sharpening your presentation skills and start looking for venture capitalists, angel investors, film funding venture capitalists advisors, and strategize your capital raising campaign.  If your efforts fail, make improvements on your package and try again.  Make a different package.

Step 1. The film screenplay, or script, is the intellectual property where it all begins. Make sure it shines.

Indie scripts usually are not well formatted by industry standards even using Final Draft software; it may lack strict visualization in the action lines, too much irrelevant description, not enough succinctness, telling instead of showing, passive voice, longer than 4 lines of dialogue in some cases, and what is worse, it may lack a good setup. That’s to be expected of indies who haven’t got the practice or the CW/FILM MFA.  We indies realize Hollywood doesn’t always follow the guidelines. But with superb editing and special effects,  “do it in post” is becoming the norm. So why should indies have to follow the rules?

Hollywood may produce movies with two pages of monologue, plot holes, sexist ethnic stereotyping, (all kinds of stereotyping), rehash the same storyline a million different ways (Cinderella)  and still manga to sell millions of tickets at the Box Office.

The Indies World is Revolutionizing

The time has come for Indies. The world is paying attention to new and exciting topics of interest. People can relate to different ways of looking at things, people, and places can appreciate less stereotyping, and more inclusiveness in “film.”  Enough of us can appreciate different cultures to make a difference in the lives of indie filmmakers.

Recently, we’ve seen how new age and more diverse movies have made it to the top as in the case of Moonlight, the film that caused an uproar at the Academy Awards when it garnered the Oscar for best feature of the year in 2017.   Here’s my advice when it comes to polishing a script and making it into a tool for attracting funding from venture capitalists:

Follow screenplay writing guidelines and rules unless there is a compelling reason not to.

If audiences paid attention to every big budget or Blockbuster movie plot instead of being hypnotized by the sound and images, they would often see all the above-mentioned sins of scriptwriting as taught by Screenwriting schools in the US. I’ve only attended two and have a total screenplay writing MFA for film, but that has only made me open my eyes to “Story.”

Even when Hollywood does put out bad movie plots, oversimplistic, or senseless.  I bet at least four out of ten times, the story plot will be good enough, and sometimes even superb and subtle. There’s talent too in high places, not just after effects, tech skills and lots of marketing $$$.

What makes a good film?

“Story” is what really defines a good film, at least in my opinion.  I can’t stand vapid shootings, fist fights, explosions, or car chases that lack real gumption.  However, the face of a highly paid actor like Robert Deniro in one such scene will make us look twice and give some credibility to the splurge of high-level special effects spent to attract the action/adventure male audience between 25 and 45.

If we look into the plot, we’ll realize it’s just another mafia movie that stereotypes everyone.  But people are hypnotized by it and don’t care to make any sense of it.

On the other hand, a poorly formatted script can be polished to become a phenomenal script when the story has grit.  Not that indies shouldn’t have to learn the skill of standard formatting, but if the story is sound, the script can be polished to have a perfect setup, an inciting incident, and follow a plot arc along with the key characters’ arc that will take the viewer straight to the summit after three turning points before closing with a golden brooch. “Story” makes the difference. Whether it’s a comedy, romance, sci-fi, or all three at once.

An Indie Destiny

What is sad to watch is that after making a tremendous sacrifice of time, money and even family,  after the premiere we start wondering who is going to purchase the film and where it can be shown.  We start searching for ways to get a return on our investment (ROI), create a buzz, or raise the money to promote.

For many filmmakers, the end of the movie comes right after the film festival is over, even if you got first prize.  Unless it’s Sundance, (my favorite because Paul Newman is my childhood favorite actor) or the Berlin Film Festival, to name just a few of the top ten film fests in the world, your film won’t land a movie deal. Why? It’s not because it’s no good.  It’s because you didn’t follow the right steps.

Step 2. THE FILM BUSINESS PLAN

The Breakdown of a Script

Every indie learns to “breakdown” a film screenplay on their own.  Breaking down a script is all about organizing like things, a skill learned in kindergarten.  Of course, if you get fancy and use highlighters it’s even better. You can assign categories for each one of the scripts elements and when you think about what to do with it a bit you will figure out that getting things done by location saves time and effort and money.

Of course, there are expensive software programs like Entertainment Partner’s Movie Magic Budgeting & Scheduling.  If you learn to use these tools, your presentation will look much better.

The guerilla filmmaking way is to start calling all your friends and have them donate some of the things you need.  Get your team together and come up with locations that won’t cost you any money.  Call the locations, vendors, equipment rental places, go shopping for wardrobe, invest in makeup and applicators.  Get a first aid kit, tons of cases of water, and make sure you label everything with your production company’s name.

Figure the number of days and hours shot at each location, the cost per location and voilà, you have a budget.  If you want to take advantage of tax incentives keep all your receipts and present them to the State to get your rebate.

The budget shown to venture capital investors, angel investors, banks, and philanthropists needs to be based on comparisons between similar films.

The Film Marketing Plan

Target a specific audience on social media, TV, Radio, send out press releases, run ad campaigns, use Search Engine Marketing to keep the film in the public’s eye tied to keywords, actors, and storyline.

What’s the distribution plan? VOD? Theatrical? National and international marketing and distribution.

How will you maximize exposure and sell more movie tickets? Include marketing film merchandise such as action figure toys, video games, fashion lines, artwork, and soundtracks.

What organizations, national and international will your film be aligned with, environmentalist, religious, new age, liberal, LGBT community, or conservative, or liberal?

Step 3. SHOW YOUR TEAMWORK SKILLS

Who are your team members?

Include bios, pictures, reels, trailers, portfolios, and interviews.

Include actors and public figures that support the movie.

STEP 4. The EXECUTIVE SUMMARY – Frist Impressions Count

A film’s executive summary is an overview of all the film’s creative and business endeavors. It’s actually the first document presented to investors.  If they don’t like it, if you are not convincing enough, if the overall plan doesn’t make business sense, if it doesn’t prove its return on investment capabilities, and is not persuasive, no one will read the rest of the plan.

Pitching includes the logline, plot summary, and the business overview.  Especially crafted, the front page says it all in a nutshell. Use your words carefully, be enthusiastic, give value, solve a problem.

Success is not the work of chance alone, it’s being prepared when chance calls and turning the light green. Don’t just shoot blanks out in the dark. Target your capital investor by type and history. Have a plan, start following these steps and let’s talk about distribution next time. Stay tuned.  BTW, I’m looking for a cinematographer, director and editor to come onboard. Students and hobbyists are welcome.  To apply,  just join my email list or message me on social media. I’m Angela Terga pretty much everywhere.

Thanks for reading.

      Take the Mystery Out of the Film Financing Landscape Steps to Film Financing Movie Deal Come To Fruition Every independent filmmaker I have ever met has started out with a script, that is, after the idea, the book, or short story has been running through their heads for months, sometimes years.

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND 8/24/18 – The Happytime Murders, A-X-L and More

Over the 17 years I’ve been writing about box office, we always get to the 2ndhalf of August, and I feel the need to mention something called “The Dog Days of Summer.” This year, it’s quite literal with movies like Dog Days, Alpha, next week’s Pick of the Litter (a great doc!) and this week’s A-X-L, which is basically a robot dog movie. If nothing else, the summer will end with a Melissa McCarthy comedy, just like it started with a Melissa McCarthy comedy, and maybe this one will avoid the late August curse… or not.

THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS (STXfilms)

First up is McCarthy’s latest comedy which pairs her with Brian Henson of The Henson Company (of Muppets fame) in the type of raunchy R-rated comedy in which she thrives, but which is fairly new territory for the Hensons. It’s a buddy cop comedy where McCarthy is paired with the world’s first (and apparently worst) puppet policeman as they’re trying to find out who is killing the fabled TV personalities, the Happytime Gang.

While McCarthy is the featured human, the movie also stars Elizabeth Banks, Maya Rudolph and Joel McHale, all of whom have done their fair share of comedies, plus it has an obligatory appearance by MADtv’s Michael McDonald who seems to in every one of McCarthy’s movies. But really, the movie is mostly about the puppet characters who do drugs, have sex and swear a lot.

The Red Band trailer for The Happytime Murders has done fairly well online, so awareness of the movie should be in pretty good shape, but the primary audience for the movie will be the older high school and college-age guys who generally wouldn’t pay much interest to McCarthy or her films.

The two recent Muppets movies released by Disney aren’t great barometers for this film due to its R-rating. Maybe Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s Sausage Party from August 2012 might be a better comparison since that similarly twisted animation into a far-dirtier and more adult realm, although that movie’s $34.2 million opening was probably helped by the Sony marketing and how well its done with other films by Rogen/Goldberg. It doesn’t feel like Happytime Murders can open that well.

There’s also still the problem with STX deciding that the 2ndto last week of August is a good time to release a movie like this, and maybe there’s no good week to release it, because it’s so different. Because of this, I don’t expect reviews to be that great either. You can find them herewhenever they go live.

It just doesn’t seem likely that the movie will get enough traction to beat Crazy Rich Asians this weekend, so I’d expect it to end up somewhere in the $12 to 14 million range in second place.

Mini-Review: There’s something to be said about a comedy that barely gets snickers let alone full-on laughs, although you have to give Brian Henson, son of the late, great Jim Henson, credit for finding a fairly clever way into the buddy cop comedy we’ve seen so many times before. Detective Phil Phillips was the first puppet police officer on the force, but when he failed to save his partner Edwards (Melissa McCarthy) while she was being held by a puppet perp, he loses his badge. Going into practice as a private detective, he’s on a case, when he discovers that his actor brother and the cast of the kids’ show “The Happytime Gang” are being systematically murdered. Reteaming with Edwards, Phillips must find the killer who also has framed him for the murders, so that he’s being chased by the FBI (in the guise of Joel McHale, once again playing a jerk).

Where to begin with this movie that tries to put a more adult twist on the Muppets movies, except that it’s generally entertaining, if not particularly memorable or recommendable to everyone. In other words, it’s no Sausage Party.  Henson isn’t the best director in terms of getting the most out of the movie in terms of production value, but fortunately he has human stars like McCarthy, Rashida Jones and Elizabeth Banks who are able to bring more to a relatively flat script. The language and jokes are absolutely filthy, usually involving puppet sex and drugs, but it often feels like it’s constantly going for the lowest-hanging fruit for laugh.

Overall, The Happytime Murdersis an okay movie, although I doubt it will ever be considered a cult hit. I’m just glad more people who look like Kermit the Frog are finally being represented in Hollywood movies. Rating: 6.5/10

A-X-L (Global Road)

(No, that’s not an image from the movie above. Just thought you’d be interested to see what Axl Rose from Guns ‘n’ Roses looks like.)

I’m not sure I have very much to say about this movie, which is essentially a low-budget Transformers with a robot dog that also changes itself into a motorcycle. The movie is from Oliver Daly who previously has done a short, and it stars Thomas Jane, although he appears nowhere in the trailer that I remember. It also stars Ted McGinley and Lou Taylor Pucci, but we’re still not getting to a point where this would be anything more than a VOD release. The star of the film is Alex Neustaedter, who appeared on Colony and lots of other movies I haven’t seen. I just don’t see what the draw of this film is when it’s going up against other stronger family films. Opening in 1,695 theaters, A-X-L will probably end up somewhere in the $3 to 5 million range at the bottom of the top 10. (It certainly seems like Global Road may be facing bankruptcy soon, so this might be the final feature from another distributor that tried its best to make a difference.)

Basically, Crazy Rich Asians should be #1, and we should have a slight shake-up after that as last week’s #3 movie, Mark Wahlberg’s Mile 22, is likely to have a bigger drop-off than the well-received Alpha.

This week’s top 10 should look something like this…

1. Crazy Rich Asians  (New Line) - $17.5 million -30% 2. The Happytime Murders (STXfilms) - $12.4 million N/A 3. The Meg  (Warner Bros.) - $19.5 million -52% 4. Alpha (Sony) - $6.5 million -37% 5. Mile 22  (STXfilms) - $6.2 million -55% 6. Mission: Impossible – Fallout  (Paramount) - $6.0 millon -44% 7. Christopher Robin  (Disney) - $5.4 million -40% 8. BlacKkKlansman  (Focus Features) - $4.8 million -35% 9. A-X-L (Global Road) - $3.3 million N/A 10. Slender Man  (Screen Gems) - $2.1 million -56%

LIMITED RELEASES

There are lots and lots of specialty releases this weekend, bu tI want to give special attention to a thriller called SEARCHING (Screen Gems), which opens in limited release this weekend and will expand nationwide next week over Labor Day. It’s the feature film directorial debut of Aneesh Chaganty, and it stars John Cho (Star Trek) as a father whose daughter has disappeared, and like Unfriended: Dark Web, the entire story is told on a laptop screen, but this one is really good and one of my favorites from Sundance. I hope that people check this one out when it opens because I think it’s an amazing star turn for Cho, who actually has been great in everything he’s done going back to Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, and it’s interesting to see how Chaganty uses technology to tell this story. (Mark my words, he will be a filmmaker to keep an eye on in the future.)

Another film worth noting is SUPPORT THE GIRLS (Magnolia), the new film from Computer Chess director Andrew Bujalski, this one starring Regina Hall as Lisa Conroy, the manager of a sports bar called Double Whammies, who is trying to balance all of the drama between the mostly female staff and mostly male customers, as things build up to a big boxing match that will only air if they can get the cable fixed. This is another fun film from Bujalski, definitely more modern and even more accessible than some of his previous films. Hall is terrific in the film and there are a lot of fun characters who interact as the film goes on. I was particularly impressed with Haley Lu Richardson (Split) who was almost unrecognizable as the restaurant’s bubbly star server. After premiering at the SXSW Film Festival in March, Bujalski’s latest is opening in a lot of theaters across the country including a number of Alamo Drafthouse theaters, so check out where it will play on the official site.

Another movie that is finally being released almost a year after it debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is Michael Noer’s remake of PAPILLON (Bleecker Street), based on the books by Parisian safecracker Henri Charrière, as played by Charlie Hunnam, as he’s framed for murder and jailed on Devil’s Island. There, he forms an alliance with counterfeiter, Louis Dega, as played by Rami Malek of Mr. Robot, as the two plot an escape. (And MoviePass users, Bleecker Street has partnered with MoviePass so you can use it to see Papillon all weekend!)

Sam Rockwell and Ben Schwartz star in Hadi Hajaig’s BLUE IGUANA (Screen Media Films)as small-time New York crooks who are hired by a cute London lawyer (Phoebe Fox from Black Mirror) to fly to England and steal a rare jewel that another gangster wants for himself. New York, L.A. and a bunch of other theaters plus On Demand.

Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson and Bill Nighy star in Isabel (Elegy, Learning to Drive) Coixet’s new movie THE BOOKSHOP (Greenwich). Set in 1959 England, Mortimer plays Florence Green, who is opening a book store in a small coastal town, getting the support from a reclusive widower (Nighy) while facing the local grand Dame (Clarkson). After sneaking into a few film festivals (like Berlin), The Bookshop will open in New York at the Landmark 57 (which takes MoviePass!) and Angelika Film Center as well as in L.A., plus it will be in more theaters on August 31.

If you’re into the weirdest anime possible then you’re probably already familiar with Massaki Yuasa from his previous films Mind Game and Lu on the Wall). His latest film THE NIGHT IS SHORT, WALK ON GIRL (GKIDS) might be his weirdest movie yet, and Fathom Events is screening it tonight, plus it will be playing at the Metrograph for a week (or more). It takes place in the course of a night as a mysterious high school girl walks through the streets of Kyoto’s Ponto-Cho party district drinking a LOT while interacting with all sorts of strange (and perverted) men. This one is as crazy and fun as Mind Game.

As far as some of this week’s docs, there’s the self-explanatory John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection (Oscilloscope) from director Julien Faraut, opening in L.A. at four theaters including the Royal and Laemmle’s Playhouse. Narrated by Mathieu Amalric, it assembles rare 16mm footage of McEnroe as he competes at the French Open in 1984.

Opening at the IFC Center in New York is Stephen Maing’s Crime + Punishment (IFC Films / Hulu), winner of a Special Jury Prize for “Social Impact,” as the filmmaker spent years with minority cops looking at the web of injustice which is hurting communities of color. Exec-produced by Laura Poitras (CitizenFour), it will open Friday with a preview screening tonight and QnAs with Maing and the NYP12.

The Quad Cinema will premiere Gail Freedman’s Hot to Trot, which won the Audience Award at this year’s NewFest with its look at same sex ballroom dancing. (Freedman and some of the subjects will be on hand on Friday/Saturday at 7:05pm for QnAs.)

What Keeps You Alive (IFC Midnight), the new film from Colin Minihan (It Stains the Sands Red), reunites him with Brittany Allen who plays Jules, one-half of a lesbian couple (with Hannah Emily Anderson, Syfy’s The Purge TV series) celebrating their one-year anniversary at a cabin in the woods. When the latter starts showing a new dark side, Jules must fight for her life. It will open in select theaters (including the IFC Center) as well as On Demand.

Ross Boyask’s aptly-titled revenge thriller I Am Vengeance (Saban Films/Lionsgate) stars former WWE superstar Stu “Wade” Barrett as ex-soldier John Gold who sets off on a mission to discover who murdered his best friend.

Rosemarie DeWitt and Danny McBride star in Jonathan Watson’s Arizona (RLJE Films) with DeWitt playing a single mom and real estate agent trying to keep things together after the 2009 housing crisis, which gets worse when her disgruntled client (McBride) confronts her boss. Also starring Luke Wilson, Kaitlin Olson and David Alan Grier, it will open in select theaters and be available On Demand, on iTunes and then on Amazon Prime Video on August 28.

Let’s get to some retrospective stuff. The Metrograph in New York is kicking off an extensive Larry Clark Retrospective with the director of Kidsappearing in person for QnAs as well as the New York premiere of his latest film Marfa Girl 2(the sequel to Marfa Girl, if you didn’t guess). They will also be screening Sofia Bohdanowicz’s Maison du Bonheur about 77-year-old Julianne Ellam, who has lived in the same home in Montmartre, Paris telling stories and people’s horoscopes, all filmed in 16mm.

The Quad Cinema will probably top that with their all-day Planet of the Apes Marathon on Sunday. 30 bucks to see the original five movies!

IFC Center will be showing a week-long 50thanniversary edition of Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby and all weekend long, you can all see Ant-Man director Peyton Reed’s 2000 film Bring It On, starring Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Gabrielle Union and Jesse Bradford.

(Don’t worry, L.A. peeps. I’m slowly my way to the far coast to share some of the repertory offerings there. Stay tuned!)

Don’t feel like going out? Netflix will premiere the first season of The Innocents (Netflix), Simon Duric and Hania Elkington’s new series starring Sorcha Groundsell and Percelle Ascott as two teenagers who run away to be together… oh, and she’s a shape-shifter, plus it also stars Guy Pearce.