Most Expensive Mistakes
Whenever I attend some friend’s film’s premier or visit some film festival I often find that there are films which has huge budgets and yet they perform poorly at the box office or at the film festival. Well this post doesn’t focused to student filmmakers but well established filmmakers also, sometimes who also make these mistakes and every mistake costs you a fortune. What I have learned in my life and I understood that the following are the top five most expensive mistakes filmmakers make
1) Wrong Script
This is one of the most expensive mistakes filmmakers often make. This is the first step to the film and if this step is wrong your project is ruined no matter what resources you have. Movie needs a screenplay and screenplay needs a script, but if you choose wrong script you cannot make the project successful. Script selection is a pre production stage and you don’t have to invest any actual money in that. But once you select wrong script you have to invest a ton of money in it which will eventually flush to toilet.
2) Ignoring your investors
When you make a movie you need a lot of money and for that money you need investors. In most of the cases once investor invests his money in the project filmmakers forget him. You should treat your investors like a rock star. Your project is about get over some day and you will need money for another project also. So once you ignore investors then they will ignore you in future. Once in a while invite them to sets and inform them about the progress of the project. Thats it,its simple isn’t it?This is one of the most expensive mistakes most of the filmmakers make.
3) Wrong Budget
I have seen many films at film festivals which have ridiculously wrong budgets. If you are making a sci fi then you need decent amount of budget for good VFX, and you can make a simple drama in low budget. I have seen movies where for a birthday party someone booked a five star club to shoot or showing car crash by actually blowing couple of cars. Is that necessary? Save your money and invest in better story, screenplay and artists than just blowing cars.
4) Lack Of Marketing Plan
This is one of the most expensive mistakes, you can make great movies but if those movies cannot reach the targeted audience then you film is like a paper weight. I know i know distributors sale movies, but then if you have an active marketing strategy it will be very easy for you to convince the distributor so that your film can reach to the people.
5) Lack Of Festivals Strategy
You should always send your movie to film festivals. Film festival is a place where sales agents and distributors meet. If they like your film they will instantly buy rights. Some years back I sent my short film to a festival in Germany. I didn’t have the money to personally attend the festival but my film was there. The day my film was screened my inbox got full of sales agents mails inquiring about the film rights. Always send your movies to film festivals.
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