Steps for making a movie

Many of you coming to this site are very new to film making while others are the friends and supporters of THREE SOCKS MEDIA.  We're on a journey together telling our stories and I want to take a moment to thank two sources that taught me so much: Dov Siemens who teaches the 2-Day Film School, and John Mashni, an entertainment attorney in Lansing, Michigan.  It's important to have great resources, folks, and I plan to devote upcoming blogs to just this subject.

But back to the business at hand...
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Coming into 2018 we've gotten a bit off focus, so I want to go back to making a movie.    First of all, a few tools:

1. Learn about the film commission for your state.
2. Go online and begin meeting people who make movies.  (Knowing the film commission for your state helps with this.)
3. Get an attorney.  Yep, that's right!  From the word GO you need someone who knows the legal part of the process.  Most entertainment attorneys will meet you for a short intro for free if you tell them you're making a movie and will be needing an attorney.
4. A GREAT FREAKING SCRIPT.  Did you get that?  I was yelling at you.... A GREAT FREAKING SCRIPT.
5. Gain some background knowledge: you don't have to sign up for the UCLA film school or embark on a long journey.  If you're a storyteller like me, you want to get started.  I get that.  But take time to read a book or BETTER YET take the Dov Siemens film school.  I did it and I simply cannot say enough GREAT THINGS about this guy and what he teaches. 

Next, you need to get started on a checklist like this:

1. Create a budget.  If this is your first time, you'll want to start small, but the fact is that you'll need at least a few bucks to feed your crew at McDonalds if nothing else, so decide on a budget.
2. If the budget is bigger than your bank account, start exploring options.
3. Start chatting with your attorney.  You don't want to end up with a movie that you can't show because of some legal issue.  There will be costs, so include the attorney in your budget, but trust me when I say that you don't want to skip this step.  You may need little more than a few forms and some minimal advice, but keep the attorney in the loop.
4. Get the crew.  I've found it fairly easy to find wonderful people who are experienced and ready to work.  I tell them my budget and then they laugh hysterically....then a few good people do still step forward.  It works.  Trust me.  The film commission and websites like Stage32.com are very helpful for this.  Make sure to investigate the crew, get to know them and their work long before getting started.
5. Map out the script.  What are you shooting when and where?  That means planning a schedule and getting a place to shoot.
6. Shoot.  This can be lots of fun, but be sure to stay on schedule and on budget.  Those two items can slip away from you pretty quickly.
7. Send it to editing.  Don't scrimp on the editing.  It's important...REALLY important.
8. Plan ahead for distribution.  There are many outlets and I'll cover that more in a future blog, but for now know that this needs to be an issue on your mind from the very beginning.
9. Get your Oscar!  Okay, well, maybe not quite yet, but I believe in planning for success!!