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(Guillermo) Making movies is beautiful.
Prepping them,
raising the money, selling them is horrible. Horrible.
And I think I can make movies
the rest of my life.
Selling them, you grow impatient.
You see it for what it is more and more with every year.
(Justin) 'It's been said that there are three things you should never do
'when making a film.
'Make a film about yourself, make a film about filmmaking
'or open the film with a quote.'
And... test.
Record. Yes.
OK.
Here goes.
I'm Justin McConnell and, uh...
Welcome to the documentary currently entitled, um...
See, you can tell it's a current... a working title,
because the name doesn't jump to my mind the second I have to say it,
but right now it's called Slate and Gain.
No, Slate and Game.
See? It's gonna have... It's gonna need a title change.
'I wanted to make films since I was very young,
'but not since I was a little kid.
'At first, I wanted to be a paleontologist or a criminologist,
'but eventually I realized
'I just loved Jurassic Park and Silence of the Lambs.
'I absorbed everything I could get my hands on,
'and aside from a few stop-motion experiments with toys...'
(Whirring)
'...I started seriously making my own movies at the age of 15.
'Documentaries for class at first.'
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to make a movie?
Well, in this video, I'm gonna tell you
what the roles of screenwriters and directors are,
from big to small budget, from commercials to major films.
'Then short films and even my first feature
'when I was still in high school.'
- (Cocks gun) - Open the fucking cash register!
(Justin) 'Consumer video tech was just then cheap enough
'that I could save up and buy a Handycam that wasn't great on quality,
'but served its purpose.'
Just a question here. How do you expect to get away with this?
(Justin) 'Growing up in the '90s, my generation of filmmakers
'were raised in the wake of the independent film movement.
'The working-class success story,
'the self-made kid who worked inside the system and then broke in,
'the Sundance darling, the director as a rock star.
'So I grew up dreaming of when I might get the big break,
'that moment I made a film that would break into the public consciousness
'in a way that my career would be set. The dream of making it.
'A dream worth working toward,
- 'for that one day when lightning strikes.' - (Gunshot)
'But who was I, and what chance do I really have?
'I came from a small town in Canada,
'starting with zero contacts in the business and just a dream.
'Now, it's over twenty years later since the dream was born,
'and the business is not what you dream it'll be.
'The industry is not the same as the hope,
'the reality does not match up to the dream. How could it?'
OK. Mm-hmm. Uh, OK.
'Film has always felt like the most important part of my life, my whole identity.
'My family and friends matter to me greatly,
'but for most of my life, I've had this feeling
'that if film was stripped away, I wouldn't be much of a person.
'I'd be a rudderless ship drifting in open seas
'with no hope of direction.
'But I can't deny that it's taken its toll in more ways than I can count.
'A few years ago, when I was at my lowest point,
'I began to question why I'm even trying.
'The doubt began to creep in.
'I had tragically lost my best friend and writing partner of a decade,
'the co-architect of my strategy for breaking in,
'and it hit a big reset button.
'I gained weight and hit nearly 300 pounds.
'None of the projects I was trying to get made were getting off the ground.
'I'd had a no-budget feature horror movie released around the world
'that while some people really enjoyed, enough people hated it
'that I started to really doubt my own abilities.
'I was in a slump, and the business didn't seem to be doing any better.'
I find myself second-guessing myself a lot, lately.
It sort of feels like opportunities happen for other people
way more than they happen for me, and I'm wondering...
I'm always wondering why that is.
I question it sometimes. I question my place in a business
that is tough enough to get into on its own
and even more difficult when people have written you off.
'The film business that existed when I was growing up,
'the one that I dreamed of working on is long dead.
'It died before I had a chance to even get to the proverbial locked door,
'much less walk through it.
'In its place is a Wild West of competing ideologies,
'a greater gulf between mainstream and independent cinema than ever before,
'more product than the population can handle,
'and more new types of media entertainment
'to compete with film than the business can sustain.
'The possibility of having a career actually creating content is there,
'but the competition is fierce.
'The market's oversaturated, only the very best break through.
'But in that, there's hope, I think.
'There is a reason to keep trying,
'and there's more reason than ever before to try and become a self-made creator.
'The doors to getting your work seen are wide open now.
'The ability to make money off your work
'is what's much more difficult,
'which means, as I've learned the hard way countless of times,
'you have to be smart. You have to keep learning.
'You have to work hard enough and survive long enough to get your chance
'and know that your chance, your lightning strike moment, may never come
'and you have to be OK with that. That's a form of insanity, isn't it?
'I think it might be to be a dreamer, to live for a dream,
'but it's a form of insanity everyone trying to be a filmmaker shares
'and somehow I take comfort in that.'
I decided to make this doc,
because I've been working in the film industry now for 15 years
in an actual somewhat professional capacity,
but I also don't want to show a biased opinion of who I am,
because I'm not really anybody yet.
'I moved to Toronto in the year 2000, just a fan with a dream.
'Slowly built a career in post-production,
'made a bunch of short films and music videos,
'amassed a lot of debt, made a lot of mistakes.
'The first film I made that did any sort of real distribution,
'the documentary Working Class Rock Star,
'I made zero money on after being conned
'by a predatory producer's rep,
'having one distributor go bankrupt before I was paid out
'and another's releases get lost in the shuffle
'when their sub-distributor sold to a bigger company.
'I made a horror film called The Collapsed on basically pocket change,
'but sold to 13 territories and some sizable companies,
'and made a tidy profit.
'And then another documentary, Skull World,
'which has a few distributors on board, but was partially self-distributed,
'and not very profitable.
'Around 2009, I started trying to get a bigger feature, The Eternal, made with little luck.
'Despite having a really cool attached cast of people who I grew up watching,
'the recession and a lot of bad luck led to that one going on the shelf.
'But in 2012, that project and my client who worked for Anchor Bay
'connected me with a prolific producer, Avi Federgreen,
'who I joined forces with to continue the development of my slate
'and help his distribution company IndieCan Entertainment.
'In 2013, I started working as a film festival programmer at Toronto After Dark
'and in various capacities for a bunch of distributors.
'I am really not anybody, you've probably never even heard of me.
'I’m one of thousands of people trying to do this,
'but I do think my experiences are a good jumping-off point
'to examine the business further, to try and understand it more,
'and figure out how to keep a career building in the modern film industry.
'But there's no point in going it alone, so I’ve gradually collected the opinions
'of dozens of knowledgeable figures from across the industry
'who've graciously given their time to offer collective insight
'into such a complicated business.'
To be successful as a filmmaker, you have to be a fucking masochist.
(Laughing)
You have to be a little bit insane.
Independent film has never been something
that you go into to get rich.
I mean, I guess in a sense in the '90s,
when people were getting rich off the Sundance sales etc.,
it created this illusion
that there was this world out there that you could get rich making art.
You know, I think that was always kind of a bullshit assumption.
If you are entering this business in order to be rich and famous,
you're in the wrong place.
If you can get distribution, most of that comes after the fact
after you've made your movie.
I get so discouraged sometimes, I go, "I'm gonna quit", you know?
At least twice during the last months right before we're green-lit,
and it's so hard, and it's just not coming together,
and you get a piece, but you lose a piece, and you're... "Oh, my God."
To be honest, I don't think the situation in Japan is that great
for movies at the moment.
Compared to before,
I feel that the value of each movie is steadily decreasing.
Fewer people are going to the cinema,
and young people are used to seeing them on the internet or on YouTube.
So they're losing the desire to actually watch movies.
The problem we now have is we have a tsunami of product.
We have much more product than it is possible to watch.
(Jordan Fields) There are definitely more films made today than ever before,
completely saturated.
It just makes a job like mine a little harder,
because I have to weed through so much to find the gems.
Nobody complained when there were thousands of paintings and drawings
and comic book illustrations.
Why should anyone complain about too many movies?
The problem is there are too many great movies that nobody gets to see.
I mean, you can make a wonderful film, and it never gets seen.
That's the problem today.
I mean, that's happened to me several times, even with the studios.
I’m finding now if you're really active on social media,
getting a big following, that actually helps your chances.
It's all about money.
That's why you get the Aliens 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Terminator 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Fast and the Furious 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
(Guillermo) It's very telling,
the fact that people now use the terms "content" and "pipeline"
to describe stories.
We need a content to feed our pipeline.
That's sewage language or oil language.
It's flow.
It's only content for as long as it lasts in the pipeline
and then it moves to the ocean of forgiveness and forgetfulness,
both, you know?
It's air.
(Justin) 'At this point, I was working with Avi
'to try and get a horror film called Tripped made.
'I had just optioned the film rights to a novel called Kane
'and had a dozen or so other projects on my slate.'
I just got an email stating that an actor I really respect,
Michael Eklund,
he wants to do Tripped, which is a movie that I wrote with Kevin before he died.
It's kind of about us.
I always get excited whenever an actor that I like wants to do one of my projects,
which is great, it's always great news,
but I still have to get the bloody movie made.
I’ve been down this road before while trying to get The Eternal made.
I’ll tell you what was uncomfortable in your situation
is that you faxed me a contract.
(Justin) I faxed you an LOL...
Well, but you know, when you get to that point, it gets a little confusing.
I mean, if you really wanna know,
before you start talking about money to any actor or anybody else,
you really should wait until you actually have cash or money in the bank
or you have a production office where you have some money.
That doesn't mean the film's gonna get made.
it doesn't mean anything, but, you know, you wanna wait as long as you can
so that you can move quickly.
(Michael) We never got to a point where it was like,
"OK, here's how much money you're gonna make", and so on and so forth.
I know you were just trying to put it together,
but I thought it was an extremely well-written script.
The action was just, like, fantastic,
and if you ever had the time and money to make that movie the way it's scripted,
I think it would do very well.
(Justin) Eklund is definitely interested. He liked the script a lot.
What do you think Tripped could get
in terms of a Canada presale with Eklund attached?
Well, that was a promising call.
So, the way it's working is that we need cast attachment
to be able to go to Super Channel,
so that we can get a presale out of them and a presale out of Anchor Bay,
and go and finance the tax breaks and that puts the movie together.
But in order for that to happen,
we need to get Michael Eklund to sign a letter of intent to appear,
which is a legally non-binding document that just simply states,
"I’m interested in this." That's it.
But they're not gonna give us an LOL,
and they said, "We're really interested,
"but we don't want you to come back until it's a fully financed film
"and there's an offer to be made",
which to me is like... (Chuckles)
It's like everything else. You need to have the money first,
but then in order to get the money, you need everything else in place,
but in order to get everything else in place, you need the money,
so in order to get the money, you need to get everything else in place.
And it's just this big fucking circle of bullshit.
And it just... it's endless. It's absolutely fucking endless,
and it seems like, "How does anybody get anything made?"
I spent ten fucking years trying to figure out how this thing works.
If somebody had just been able to just walk down,
"Oh, here's how you finance a movie. You get this and then you go do this."
You know, duh.
You know, instead of just sitting there, like...
I think a lot of filmmakers, before they've gotten the experience,
think there's like... it's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
where you just get the golden ticket,
and then you're making movies, and that's not what it is.
It's this business that's pieced together
by these very defined components
and if you get an understanding of how those components work together,
and you get an understanding of how to focus your energy,
how to maximize the results from it,
then it's much easier to make a movie.
It's not a mystery, it's not a lottery,
it's sort of a formula.
(Daisy Hamilton) When I look at a project,
I analyze that as if I were investing in real estate
and I have to look at the package and what assets are in place.
Obviously, the first money in is always the hardest to find,
but it's so much easier if you have a director that believes in your project
and is willing to put his name on it
or if you have a brand that really loves it.
And there are lots of different aspects that are more approachable than others.
So maybe don't start with talent, cos that's a little scary
and you wanna have some dollar signs before you go out there,
but definitely flesh your concept out,
definitely... if it has any tie to a video game, reach out to a video game.
You know, all that you can do
to bring in more players and make it a more appealing asset.
The old way, it used to be, you had a good script, you had a good mood board,
maybe you cut together, like, a mood reel.
Like, you would take footage from other stuff,
and you would put it together saying, "It's gonna kind of feel like this."
And that used to get it done. That doesn't get it done anymore.
You have to have a really great... what people perceive as a great pitch.
I mean, it is a bit unfortunate that you kind of think,
"Oh, I could just get really good actors and it doesn't matter,
"like it'll be an amazing film."
But for people trying to select good films
and put them on a platform where everyone can see them,
it's like looking for a needle in a haystack, like, so...
It really helps to have, yeah, a cast in your film.
If you're doing this fully independently,
you're working with people who are even "recognizable",
but not necessarily valuable names,
the least amount of money for the best quality product.
(Jenn Wexler) The other thing that really draws us in is when people have lookbooks,
because just receiving a script is... It's a little bland,
and from a producing perspective it's just like,
"Oh, I have so many things to do and now, like, reading this script."
But if a script is accompanied by a lookbook,
then you're like, "Oh wow, I’m pulled in by this aesthetic, this is so cool."
Are we meeting about Tripped or are we discussing the option of a bigger film?
(Plato Fountidakis) 'We're meeting about Tripped, but could it be a bigger budget?'
Have they specifically said that they're interested in making Tripped?
'No, they're interested in making Tripped. They are totally interested in making it.'
I’m really shitty at the financial end of movies, of moviemaking, you know?
I’ve been fortunate that most of the work I’ve done
has either been network or studio or... you know, things.
Even my original stuff has been done
within a system that funds itself.
I have done some independent film work, and I'm...
It's... I think it's more difficult than ever
to find funding if you're not doing something entirely on your own
because it's so much more difficult to make a profit at this.
So getting the funding to do a film
that requires more than just homemade guerrilla filmmaking
is excruciating, and I wouldn't have a clue how to do it, you know,
other than going through production companies
or through agents or managers, things like that.
Apparently, the investors here he's talking to are actually really interested,
and they wanna raise the budget.
ls there anything dishonorable about that, cos I’m already also talking to Eric.
(Avi) 'No, because nobody has said yes to anything yet.'
OK, alright. I just... I wouldn't want Eric to get pissed,
cos I’m talking to someone else, too.
'No, no, no. He must know that you've been talking to other people before.
- 'So what's the difference?' - Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
It's the game, right? It's the way it's played.
- 'Exactly.' - Alright.
'And if he doesn't get on board, and misses out because of it, that's his fault.'
Yeah, exactly.
Alright. Uh... OK, then.
Well, still seems promising on either end.
(Mike Mendez) It's always an adventure when it comes to financing, you know?
A, how you're gonna finance the movie is always a different thing.
Currently, I’m in a project that was supposed to shoot six, seven months ago,
well, honestly three years ago.
But lately, we were supposed to do it seven months ago, and it...
You know, the money wasn't closed when we were on set, and it had to collapse.
I’m supposed to leave at the end of next week.
I don't know if I'm going.
I never feel good when someone says, "We almost have the money."
"Next week, the money should be closing."
I have never had a good experience.
That is never followed by something positive.
It's tough enough to find money,
but to certainly find money that's not gonna weigh you down,
you have 16 producers.
I mean, look at movies, certainly at film festivals now,
there's usually a whole list of credits of producers.
12 different executive producers.
And that's where money starts to get expensive.
It's like, well, for every one of those people, they have their own needs,
they want to pump up the budget, but with that comes their perk package,
and with it comes their wife that needs to be in the movie.
I mean, it's a really... it can be a complicated process.
My strategy is, get a job, work, save your money,
get a nice little, like, nest egg of cash, and then produce your movie yourself.
Keep it simple, keep your movie small, get your own budget,
and just keep it...
The more insular you can keep your production, I think, the better.
I’m supposed to do the entire movie, initially based on plan for $275,000,
which is really low for how many effects and how big a movie it is.
And luckily, these guys, they're more talking like 1 to 1.5 million.
And I’ve never seen Tripped as a big film.
I have to choose the right partners
and I have to make sure, like,
they're not gonna sign it and then immediately replace me as director,
which is not what I want.
Or, you know, no matter what I need to be...
I need to have some creative control on the project
and if that means that I do it for cheaper, then so be it.
Don't go into it going, "Here's the movie I wanna make.
Here's the movie I wanna make."
The first question should be, "What are the movies you're looking for?"
You know? And ask that question to as many people as possible
who are in a position to release movies, finance movies,
you know, fellow producers.
Just listen and get a sense of what type of material works for them.
It's tough, right?
You're building yourself, building your name, and building who you are,
and you don't really have a lot of bargaining power at this point in your career.
This is the hardest business, all aspects of this,
and it's not good enough to just be one thing anymore.
I’m a writer, I’m a director, I’m a producer.
No, not good enough. I need you to be more than that.
I need you to be all of those things,
and I need you to have legal skills,
I need you to understand what legal jargon means,
you need to know how to use QuickBooks, how to file your taxes properly.
You cannot just say, "Well, I’m a director." Fuck you!
I think this is a year where I start to grow the fuck up.
A time for me to realize that I might not know as much as I think I do
and that's the first step towards learning the things I need to know,
to really survive in this business.
I’m not as effective a producer as I think I want... I am.
I mean, I'm still pretty green in a lot of ways.
I’ve always kind of done it myself, everything...
a lot of the jobs myself, a lot of the work.
I put on multiple hats just to save money,
but I need to learn how to work with a team.
I’m currently working on the script for Kane,
which Serena Whitney and I are co-writing.
'Around the same time I met Avi, I also met Serena Whitney,
'a writer who was working for Dread Central at the time,
'but quickly displayed a real talent for screenwriting.
'We became friends and started working together on a couple of projects.'
Kane was something I d:9 ��n I was 12 years old.
it was on my mom's bookshelf, and I decided to read it one night,
and I actually read it an entire night, because it was terrifying.
I told myself, "By 30 I would try to get the rights to it."
And that's when we got the rights to the film.
(Justin) Having a female writing partner's pretty cool, because... (Chuckles)
I’ve been criticized in the past for not writing great female characters,
and I’ll be the first to admit
that was the case for The Collapsed, for sure.
Hey, Dad?
- Yes, Rebecca. - Can I head off for a bit?
I, uh... need some privacy.
(Justin) 'Yeah...
'I’m distinctly aware of how stupid this scene is during the apocalypse.'
In this case, we've got this really tough task of taking this big-ass book
and turning it into a movie that's tight and still is true to the book
and people will like.
The press went out last week first
that we optioned that book Kane by Douglas Borton.
You know, we released the press,
and obviously they talk about the team's last projects,
and I guess my last one was The Collapsed,
which was about 50/50 split.
Half the people hated it, half the people liked it,
But immediately, as soon as the new press comes out,
you've got people commenting and saying things like, "The Collapsed sucked."
I always hate going into a project
with a feeling like I have to win back the public or win back the audience,
when the difference between a movie that costs $40,000 to make
that we wrote in three weeks
and the difference between a movie that's probably gonna cost 1 million, 1.5 million,
that's based on a book that was written 25 years ago,
that is a solid fucking book
is night and day.
(Steve) I love reading the Amazon reviews for Manborg,
because one of them... a guy actually says,
"This director should quit filmmaking, never make a movie again."
The fact that any movie ever gets made is a miracle.
So even, like, whatever piece of garbage movie
you think is, like, the worst piece of shit you've ever seen in your life,
that was somebody's life for, like, many years,
and they worked really hard to make it.
And it was really hard just to get it in front of you,
and so I find that there's
a certain amount of respect for the filmmaker that you can afford them
that's just finding something good about it.
(Steve) Reading stuff like that makes me feel really horrible,
but at the same time it makes you wanna work hard and do a better job.
If you get discouraged when people tell you that something isn't up to snuff
or they don't believe in you or support you early out, then... (Chuckles)
...you might as well just give up, cos there's no point in living a life
where you always feel like you're less than worthy.
All of us suck.
(Chuckling) You know, like, we're all bad,
and the minute you think you're good, you should quit.
You know what I mean? I'm sure Spielberg sits there
and he's like, "I suck! I could be better. I can make better."
You need that doubt so you can hopefully improve on the next project.
And some of it's just fun to laugh at, too, cos, like,
seriously internet commenters are just ridiculous.
(David) It's definitely more of a "it's awesome or it's shit" world now.
It's definitely more of a star-rating world now than it used to be.
But it's definitely more democratized as well.
I mean, everybody can have an opinion and influence the way people see movies,
influence the movies that people want to see, I should say.
Take it with a grain of salt, cos people are nasty.
It's one of the reasons why I don't like social media.
They will, you know, they're just hiding behind their keyboards,
so they're gonna say whatever they wanna say.
(Dave) People do not act in a civil or polite manner often
if it's in a virtual world.
There's no reason to act like that.
You wouldn't act like that if we were sitting in a room having a conversation,
so why the fuck do you think it's OK that you can act like that online?
(Zack) Criticism is, um... It's part of the business.
No matter what, it'll happen.
I think you have to have a thick skin.
A film critic/reviewer is gonna look at a film the way that they're gonna look at it,
and I think the best thing we can do is just sort of let it go.
In some cases I got savage reviews,
but there was always good ones intermixed with it,
but it all changes.
It's strange how, um...
...a decade or two makes the difference of how people see your work,
and stuff that was...
(Sighs)...like a film like Frankenhooker was,
"Oh my God, it's just tits and ass.
"I mean, there's nothing there. It's not a horror film, just tits and ass."
Now, I read these reviews that say, "Oh my God, it was so ahead of its time."
Well, which is right? Which review was right?
The contemporary review or the review today?
I mean, the answer is, "None of it."
(Justin) Last week, we had a meeting for getting Tripped made.
they said they'd have a contract to us on Monday.
Nothing came on Monday, nothing came on Tuesday,
it's Friday now, so I enquired to Plato, "What's up?"
And it sounds like they don't want to proceed.
(TV) 'Now I’ve laid out our mission.
'I expect you to fall in line.'
- (Ringtone) - (Justin) Hey, Plato.
(Plato) 'And then I basically told them that I'd still want you to be onboard
'as a creative producer on it regardless. Right?'
Right.
'And I don't think they were happy with that.
'So, they said we're just going to go with someone else.'
(Chuckles) So it did come down to me.
You know, I’ve only ever produced at the bare minimum of a budget, like ever.
Ever.
Except that one Video Fact video,
but mostly everything I’ve ever done was really, really, really little budget
and it's part of the reason, you know, I don't have footage that looks like Scorsese.
Today, you can take a camera
and go out and shoot, make a movie for no money.
Now, it may suck, it may not be a good movie,
but you can actually look at it and project it,
and it looks pretty damn good in HD quality,
and you can manufacture a disc, and put a little wrap on it,
and look, "Hey, I got a movie."
And that works until people have to sit and watch it.
Then that plan usually falls apart.
There's lots of people more talented than me,
and there's lots of people less talented than me,
and I’ve seen less talented get more successful,
and I’ve seen more talented get successful,
and they all get there for different reasons,
and they all get their finance together for different reasons,
but at the end of the day,
I have just as much chance as anyone else, I believe.
There are millions of footnotes in the history of Hollywood
of projects that someone said,
"You know, I would rather put this in a drawer than, say, sell it."
But at the same time, when you think about it, if someone...
You know, you hear these stories about someone saying,
"Oh, they offered me all this money if I walked away as the director."
And I think if that were a client,
or even if I were that writer or that filmmaker,
I would think, "If somebody's willing to offer me money to walk away,
"I can find somebody to offer me money to stay as well.
"If I’m getting this kind of interest in the material, now I know.
"Right? Now, the material's being validated.
"This story that I want to tell is being validated."
(Guillermo) The only way that you do it is,
you try to stay faithful to yourself
and do movies that really need to be made.
That really you think... for whatever reason.
It doesn't matter if it's an intimate little story
or giant robots and giant monsters.
A part of you needs that story told.
You know, my ten-year-old with my Godzilla in one hand
and my Iron Giant and my Iron Man on the other are clashing.
That's the guy that does Pacific Rim.
The super-lonely melancholic kid does Pan's Labyrinth,
but it's both equally me.
So, that's the only thing. It just tells you...
You wanna fight for the stuff that is a lost cause.
You know what I’m saying?
A lost cause is the only one worth fighting.
It's cool, because we're in the Frontières Market.
- Oh my God, oh my God. - (Justin) It's coming.
- Oh, no! - (Cork popping)
- Yay! (Laughing) - (Justin) Look at that. Look at that.
Around the world, over 100 projects are submitted,
and usually they're all pretty legitimate projects,
because Frontières is not just...
You can enter, anyone can enter, but, um...
You really gotta have your shit together to even have a hope,
and we were among the twenty chosen, so that's awesome.
'We set out on a marathon of work
'getting a draft of the Kane script ready
'to show in less than a month at the upcoming Market
'with the help of our consulting producer George Mihalka.'
(Serena) It's exciting, because I’ve never done something like this,
I’ve never been a part of a film market, it's kinda cool to be on the other side.
This is where I’ve always wanted to be,
not just reviewing films, but to have my film reviewed,
which is what you should want.
So, yeah, I’m really excited.
I feel like it's like a lifelong dream coming true.
(Justin) I know that Serena's really excited and she's very optimistic.
I’ve been down this road before where I thought things were coming together
and that the movie was gonna get made, and I was ready to almost celebrate,
and then it didn't happen.
And I am somewhat concerned that it's gonna...
Development's gonna take a long time,
that's why you take the rights for four years.
The best thing you can hope for is for some investors to buy,
but that is not the primary reason why I wanna go.
It's to make the connections, learn more about film markets,
and hopefully have something to show for it at the end of the day.
Oh wow!
Look at it. It's real.
(Justin) I think we're ready.
I feel like we're ready.
We put a lot of effort into the package, into...
We've got a package, then a lookbook, then a printed lookbook,
then flyers and the posters, some concept art.
We got the script to the point where we were really happy with it.
I guess we're ready.
(Ross) I think film markets are great. I think a big part of the job
is to meet people that share similar interests, but are from all over the world.
It gives you an idea of what your peers are doing and what's coming up,
and, you know, just kind of keeps you fresh and keeps it competitive.
(Justin) 'If you were in our shoes and doing these meetings,
'how would you... how would you approach them?
'Like from a creative perspective? What would they rather hear?
'Do they wanna hear about the money they're gonna make,
'or do they want to hear about this great vision we've got?'
(Avi) 'They know how to do their job.
'They wanna know on the creative side what it looks, what it feels like,
'what would you compare it to?
'Because then once they hear all those things,
'they wrap their heads around that and go,
"'OK, yeah, so I remember how successful that movie was.
"'If this is gonna be like that, then we can make X amount of money,
"'and we can market it in an X sort of way, and all that kind of stuff."'
- (Justin) 'Yeah, alright ' - (Avi) 'Talk soon, guys.'
- (Justin) 'Take care. OK' - (Avi) 'Bye.'
(Stephanie) Over the years, we saw how the community aspect of Fantasia
was really important and was actually getting new films made.
Filmmakers would meet.
Creating the market at Fantasia was an extension of that,
but making it real, making it serious,
and it went from 220 to 280, to 350 participants straight away,
and people from top production companies, sales agencies...
(Lindsay) In contrast to some of the larger markets,
we know that one of the key qualities of Frontières
is the fact that we create a relatively small intimate atmosphere
that actually allows people to get to know each other.
(Peter Kuplowsky) I think after going through a co-production market
or any kind of production sort of marketplace,
you're able to better assess the movie you're making.
So, I’ve had a project, which after going through meetings at a co-production market,
I’ve then realized maybe this isn't the right project for this marketplace,
because I’ve spoken to distributors and exhibitors and producers,
and I’ve realized this isn't the kind of movie that people are making right now,
and so maybe this is movie 2, not movie 1 for this particular filmmaker.
(Annick) Having all these people together in one room for four days is really amazing,
because you get all these ideas of how they would do the things off...
or maybe you might meet someone who has a project but does not, you know...
he lacks funds and someone will say,
"Well, this is great, you know, I can help you with the fundings"
or someone, you know, could help with post-production.
(Julian Richards) You know, they give you the opportunity to talk to people
in a relaxed, informal kind of environment
and that's really what this kind of event is all about.
Otherwise, when you're back out in the big bad world,
you need your lawyers, and your managers, and your agents to open those doors for you.
(Justin) We currently have thirty meetings definitely on the books,
but there could be more, there should be more,
and hopefully we get some traction with Mark of Kane.
I’m cautiously optimistic.
I think it's important to attend if you're interested in kind of going for that world
and to be aware of who all the players are,
and what each company is, like, really there to do, you know?
Are you talking to a financing production company,
or are you talking to, you know, this distributor,
and a lot of it is just communication, following up,
and figuring out how to match your project with the best collaborators
that's gonna really get you what you want.
When you look at an artist, you're like,
"Can I be making movies with this person for the next 15, 20 years?"
It's just too much effort to just do a one-off.
It's too much effort if this is that person's one story
and once they're done with that, they might just be done with film.
I need someone who's going to be a director that needs me just as much as a producer
and we're gonna spend our career making films with each other
and that's what you look for in someone you wanna collaborate with, you see a future.
(Bryan Brucks) The biggest first-time filmmaker mistake
is someone trashing that uh... executive producer's movies.
You know, the first thing you should do is look on the wall, see the movies they produced,
and, you know, don't shit on 'em.
(Mette-Marie) If you're talking about being a filmmaker...
deciding which producer or financier or sales agent to work with,
I mean, I'd say meet with them, see what your chemistry is,
and then do some due diligence. Ask around.
Do you know anybody that's done business with them?
Do you know anybody that has any experiences with these people?
If they've been around, chances are people will have worked with them,
and they'll have opinions.
(Serena) I think it... I think it really went well, the Market.
I think we were all really prepared,
and that was one of the notes that we received,
that we were really prepared,
and that was a good feeling to know that we could have stood out.
We met with people that I never thought I'd get a meeting with
at this stage of the game.
The producers of Drive and Only God Forgives, the Weinsteins.
'I know, I know, but nobody was talking about that particular scandal when I recorded this.'
I’ve got a lot of hope at this point. I hope that's the... I'm gonna knock on wood.
- (Knocking) - Knocking on wood big time,
cos you never know... you never know till you know,
but holy fucking shit!
'The fallout from the Market ended up being good in terms of building a network,
'learning some new things, and meeting potential future collaborators,
'but the response to Mark of Kane wasn't as immediate as we'd hoped,
'so development continued.
'I filled my fall that year with client work
'and shot a zero-budget comedy short for fun called Damned Selfie,
'but something was weighing on me.
'Despite some added interest that hadn't paid off,
'I started to realize I've been hitting a brick wall trying to get Tripped made.
'The decision was made to put it on the back burner
'and focus on a lower-budget project
'that has more chance of getting to camera sooner.'
Maybe I suffer from having too much of a split focus,
but I find that when one thing stalls,
it's good to have something else to do.
Every day, I am trying to move the pieces on my board forward, you know?
It's an eternal chess game
and so I have a few knights, a couple of bishops,
and many pawns,
and occasionally a pawn can become a queen.
(Andrew) I am obsessed with doing work and, um...
I love family, I love my personal time when I'm not working,
but, you know, I’ve always been somebody who has felt the need to do my own thing,
so I don't work a nine-to-five.
I always say working for yourself is like working 24/7,
because your hours are basically what dictate your output
and what you end up accomplishing.
You push as many things forward as you can,
and, well, as they say, you throw as much mud at the wall and see what sticks.
I’ve been trying to figure out an idea for a low-budget feature,
something I could do for Collapsed money or cheaper.
50 grand would be ideal.
So I had this idea a while back I was gonna call Shifter,
and it was just gonna be basically, uh...
Vaguely, it was about a shapeshifter, someone who takes on a new face
every little bit of time.
And they are the same character,
but someone else is playing the character throughout the movie.
Now, I’m making a much more simple idea.
I’m gonna call it Lifechanger instead of Shifter,
cos Shifter has been taken a ton of times.
'I would worry that this movie wouldn't make its money back
'because even with the gore and the tension,
'if it's not going to stick to a concept, it's going to be so unclear.
'And no matter what you do to try and clarify it,
'it won't be clear until you have a setup that works.'
(Justin) Are there character flaws that I have that you could point out,
things that might have pulled me back or things that I’ve had to overcome?
If you had an idea in your head, it was right,
you wouldn't take criticism very well.
- 'He could just go find somebody else.' - Nope.
The rule, the basic rules of the transformation is,
it can't use its power, it can't transform until it starts deteriorating.
If we thought maybe it was something else or something you could do better,
you really sort of got mad about it, you know?
That's just the way you were... or are.
- You probably are the same way right now. - (Justin chuckling) I know!
But, yeah, you have to take criticism, you have to. Only way to learn.
(Justin) 'My parents are right.
'I need to learn how to take criticism better,
'something to work on.'
So that's why it's able to touch people, like, normally when it's...
'That feels like...
'What you just said to me feels like it's a contrivance to help your story,
'but I don't think it makes sense.'
If you are established, a successful writer,
yeah, you have, you know, justification to kind of push back.
But if you're just starting out, I mean, be open, hear out, you know?
Think about it, mull it over,
because the last thing you want to have happen
is basically the movie gets made as is, your vision,
and then you just read in the reviews all the notes.
Suck up your ego for a second and understand that, like, generally...
all somebody's trying to do is help you.
You don't ever have to agree with whatever anybody is saying,
but it's very important, I think, to pay that person proper respect
in terms of listening to it.
In terms of applying those notes to the movie,
I mean it just depends on who they're coming from.
(Justin) I really have to start drafting Lifechanger.
I’ve got to start writing that script.
Title page is laid out.
So now, here's the first location.
(Mick Garris) The script is by far the most important thing.
I would rather see a well-written, well-acted story about interesting characters
that looked shitty or cheap or undistinguished
than a big extravaganza with special effects and beautiful shots
that was empty and nothing.
You can make it look gorgeous,
you can get it acted brilliantly,
you can get really cool shots,
but if it's just a weak story or it's boring, like...
it's hard to fix that.
I need to write.
I need to turn around the first draft of Lifechanger
if I hope to hit the plan that I wanna hit
of shooting by March, early April at the latest kind of thing.
If you don't have a deadline, you tend to go on forever.
I know I certainly do.
So in a lot of ways having a deadline is an extremely useful thing,
because creativity, I mean...
the kind of mystery of where creativity comes from is a...
you know, I can't answer that question.
And in terms of feeling inspired when you're under pressure,
I find there's a lot more pressure that comes out of not having a deadline.
The hard and fast rule is... I don't know who came up with this.
Where I saw it was on Warren P. Sonoda's Facebook wall.
When I’m writing and when I’m trying to come up with stories,
I have a saying that I keep trying to hammer home,
"Don't get it right, get it written. Get it right in the rewrites."
Which makes total sense to me.
You get it down and then you...
I’ve got scripts that I’m on my eighth or ninth draft.
You know, the first draft is the easy one.
I used to think, "Boy, wouldn't my work be great
"if it took me six months to write a script?"
No, it would be labored and shitty is what I discovered.
So, I would much rather just sit down and write a script
then outline it, and pitch it, and do all those things, and go through...
That to me is agonizing.
The writing process is exhilarating and exciting and fun to me.
Yesterday, I finished the first draft of Lifechanger,
which is a pretty good accomplishment.
I worked my butt off on it over the holidays.
I used to look at life where I would think, "This is the year for me.
"This is the year it's gonna hit,
"This is the year where I’m gonna break out and my career's gonna explode",
and you know all this.
And I’ve stopped looking at life that way.
I’m now looking at it more like,
"This is another year where I’m gonna put more bricks on the wall
"that will support my career" or you know, lame...
Whatever metaphor you wanna use, you know,
"plant the seeds", you know, whatever - "climb the ladder", you know?
I now look at it as a process as opposed to, like, a big bang.
Here's to next year.
It's incredibly important to fail in one's business.
People that have had very little failure in their lives, I don't trust them.
I just made an update to the Facebook page of The Eternal
and The Eternal official site
basically stating that the film is officially shelved.
At a certain point, I just started to realize
that, you know, this thing is not getting made,
and it's not getting made with me as the director,
and I think the main reason is that I haven't really proved myself yet.
At least not to the point where people are taking a risk on a larger budget for me.
I never used to have backlog of scripts, but now, I finally do,
and it's very sad, they sit there saying, "What's wrong with me?"
And then, I’ve also tried for many filmmakers to get their movies made,
and though we do have a roster of films, I have a whole, uh...
It's a graveyard of sad, beautiful movies that lived in my mind
and that we over drinks would be like, "This one's gonna be great."
So it's really a tiny percent gets made. It's one of the great tragedies.
If you're a shoemaker, you make the frickin' shoes,
if you're a filmmaker, you dream about the shoes.
It's just a sad state of affairs, really.
I always thought I was a reasonably smart person,
and I’m good at figuring out how things work,
and I’ve been making films for almost 30 years,
and I still don't know how they get made.
I mean, you know... by fate.
(Paul Schrader) I wouldn't want to do it all over again,
because I don't think I would get as lucky a second time.
(Chuckles) You know? And then luck
has played a large part in this.
You know, obviously life only happens to the prepared,
but you can be prepared and not lucky.
And so, you have to have some fortuitous things happen.
(Justin) I applied to the Producers Network at Cannes, which is essentially...
Each year they select or they allow in 300 producers from around the world.
They cap it at 300.
Um... I got in.
I decided, like a couple of months ago, I was gonna go to Brussels
for the Frontières Market there, because we were in last summer's one.
They have one in Brussels, one in Montréal each year,
where I’m allowed to go to the Brussels one and get free accreditation and take meetings.
These two trips are gonna cost me a fair bit,
but I found online accommodation, I booked all my flights,
and I’m good to go.
(Indistinct chatter)
(Annick) What Frontières achieved, really,
is the fact that you have this gathering of professionals of the industry
who concentrate on genre film, and who know what they're talking about,
and who constantly have to try to find new ways of financing genre film,
because it's really not something that is easy,
it's not easy in the US, it's not easy in Canada,
and it's not easy in Europe.
I’m alone in a canal boat in Amsterdam right now.
Baked out of my mind after being at this coffee shop called "BABA".
It's been an amazing trip.
And I think it was the absolute right choice for a lot of different reasons.
And I met lots of people that are potentially gonna be allies
in the path to getting these movies made, people that can make 'em happen.
So, we'll see what happens.
I’ve never been to the Cannes Film Festival before
or the Marché Du Film, the Cannes market,
which is why I’m going.
It's a flea market of film at the end of the day.
It's a bunch of little booths.
You go booth to booth, to booth, to booth,
and buyers can walk around and see what the new product is,
and just make deals right on the spot. A whole bunch of deals get made.
(Avi) This is the biggest game in town.
There is nothing bigger than Cannes.
Sales world is EFM, Berlinale and Cannes,
and Cannes is most where the sales agents...
50% of their global business is made there.
What you can get done in a day in Cannes,
would take you two years to get done in Toronto.
(Corey Moosa) It's a place for sales agents
to basically try and sell Pre-sales on their film
and to gauge interest from different foreign territories.
(Brian Yuzna) When I first saw the first film market,
my eyes opened and I thought,
"Oh, so you make the movie,
"you take it to the market, you have a little stand,
"and then people come from other countries, and they buy it from you,
"and you end up with more money than you start..."
The whole thing made sense then.
You're in one place that the entire industry collects for basically ten days
to help you realize possibilities.
There is so much content right now
that at these film markets, it's insane.
And so it's like, yeah, the film markets work for some people,
but it's like there's just more stuff at these markets now
than there is room for.
(Avi) It's clear that without having a sales agent come on as early as possible,
the opportunities for you to sell your film are less and less.
(Graham) It's just a whole different side of stuff,
cos if you're an artist, you're sitting in your dream world
and you're just writing your ideal movie.
The business aspect is its whole own art form.
(Keith Leopard) You have to have an art and a commerce hat on,
and I would just say to the guys, like, take the time to learn the business side of it,
so that you can make an intelligent decision,
because there may come a time when there aren't gonna be
a ton of sales companies that can help you
and you might be out there on your own going,
"I gotta figure this out."
(Justin) ls this your first time at Cannes, or...
- How many people have been here before? - (Chuckling)
- Yeah. - (Laughing)
- Yeah, come on. - And counting and counting.
No, it's my 21st year in a row.
- (Justin) 21 years? - Yeah.
- I got some news, guys. - Yeah.
I just got off the phone, alright?
You guys got Sony.
- Sony? - (Michelangelo) Sony.
- It's a Sony. Yo, bro. (Chuckling) - Yeah.
(Justin) This week's been crazy.
The opportunities that have arisen,
the possibilities for real deals that, like, may happen.
I had meeting after meeting, after meeting, after meeting, after meeting, after meeting,
and many of them were really promising
to the point where if any one of them happens, that's huge.
You know, I sat in a meeting today
with a guy who just wants to do the whole slate,
all eight to ten movies,
which... (Chuckles)
Hell, if I can get The Eternal off the ground, that'd be fucking incredible,
cos I’ve been working so hard.
Even The Eternal is a possibility now again, cos of this.
So, basically, I should be able to walk out of this and be set for life.
That's what it seems like.
It seems like that's what I’ve just done for myself.
So, you know, there's hope out there.
You just gotta work your balls off, and it'll pay off.
I believe it'll pay off. I think it's gonna pay off.
I hope it does,
cos if I got this, and that catalogue of 1,000 companies in there,
and I can't make that work for me,
then I don't belong in this business.
I’m a little on edge right now for a few different reasons.
I mean, this is the week where I've been waiting
for a lot of answers to come back
on Mark of Kane and Lifechanger and all this stuff.
I’m gonna hear from MPI today or tomorrow, apparently,
about if they're coming on board for Lifechanger,
so that could be big news or it could be bad news.
Earlier today, I got a rejection or a pass, you know, from MPI.
They're passing on Lifechanger
after evaluating the project for about five weeks after Cannes,
and then shortly after that, like a couple hours later,
I got an email from the investors that Avi and I met with two weeks ago
and we put Lifechanger to, and it was another pass.
Constant rollercoaster, just ups and downs, and ups and downs.
(Avi) 'They couldn't quite get into the character, the way it was laid out.'
Phew! Every fucking bit of blood from the stone, man,
every bit of blood from the stone.
When you're dealing with a low-budget movie,
you have to be able to roll with some punches.
(Serena) I think it would be even better this year.
I think last year, we were very new to the...
well, at least, to the Frontières film market.
I know I was new to the film market world.
It felt more like speed dating,
whereas now you've already had that date,
and now you can actually make good contacts
and be more confident in the meetings.
We're still promoting Mark of Kane quite intensely.
But I brought an entire slate,
so right now, what I’m doing is putting together a slate document,
which is basically a small binder of all of the projects and films
that I currently have in some stage of, uh... development.
(Avi) We've got a lot of projects in development. I mean, I think...
You know, the slate is so long, we could actually...
If you strung it out, we'd probably reach the Arctic Pole with it.
We'll see how it plays out. We'll see...
We will see how our meetings go,
and hopefully, we get some results out of them.
But long story short, I’m trying to be as prepared as possible.
♪ Step up, step... ♪
(Justin) When you've been to enough genre festivals,
you start to realize karaoke is kind of a secret handshake with this crowd,
so you better work on your chops.
There is a certain subculture, strangely,
and I think it's accidental.
I mean, we started doing it in 2007,
and it just turned out that so many people were closet karaoke fiends.
It's a fun time for people to relax and unwind.
I think a lot of people that are on the festival junket
have seen a lot of films, maybe they're here more to socialize.
(Gigi) Maybe that's how filmmakers really connect.
- You know, I thought it was just... - With Josie Man?
I thought it was just with beer and drinks, but Karaoke really...
(Shane) That's how writers connect.
(Gigi) Karaoke seems to be what brings their true inner filmmaker out of people
and be like, "I wanna see your films.
"You sing good. You must make good films."
We did a couple of dozen meetings, and it was all very promising.
Everybody we wanted to take meetings with absolutely took the meeting.
Everyone's gonna look at our material. We'll see what happens.
So, I just got the phone call from Avi, and Telefilm called Avi,
so they've greenlit twelve films in this latest round of applications
and Lifechanger was not one of them.
I put a lot of work into that application.
It's not happening with them,
so that means I’m probably not shooting in November at all.
So, um... shit!
It's not that I was overly optimistic that we were gonna get it,
because it was a long shot to begin with
being how weird and risky and different the project is.
But once they called us in and had us present them with additional materials
and told us, "If you did this, we'll consider it more,"
definitely, I started to get my hopes up,
because they were actually taking it seriously.
Of course, those hopes were dashed.
The big issue is that, um... (Sniffles)
I’m just unsure of myself these days.
'I needed to clear my head, so I decided to take a trip to Fantastic Fest.
'As far as genre festivals go,
'it's one of the top destinations in North America,
'and having wanted to go for over a decade at that point,
'I thought maybe the trip would inspire me.'
(Cork pops, cheering)
'I flew home from that with a sole desire to produce something of quality
'as soon as possible.'
I’m gonna drop a bunch of money
and make a short film on November 21st and 22nd,
mostly cos I haven't been behind a camera in a long time,
and I need to get the juices flowing,
but also because I feel like we're going into these meetings
and we've got all this very strong creative material,
but we don't have, like, a combined proof of concept
that both Serena and I worked on that says, "Here's what we can do."
Everybody, if you have the opportunity to do it without breaking the bank,
shoot an actual couple minutes, you know?
An original proof of concept that says, "Here's what it is,"
cos you can then sit down with these people
and they're still aware of the obstacles and things,
But if you sit down and say, "I wanna make this",
and you've actually got a piece of it,
and they can look at it and say,
"Well, that's kind of awesome. How do we help?"
So, I’m gonna put in not a ton of money,
I mean, like, five grand, which is still a fair bit,
and make a ten-minute short.
You can leap and do a feature straight away,
but obviously it's much better to do a short first,
because one, it's cheaper,
it takes less time to do,
and it's a good way to get a lot of learning
in terms of screenwriting, in terms of Pre-production,
in terms of production,
but also learning in terms of the film industry.
The reality is, most short film makers are taking a loss
when they make a short film,
because they're investing time and money on a project
that is not gonna see any substantial box-office return.
The best thing to do is to try and make something
that's a statement of yourself as a filmmaker
that can get you the next project, that can get you the paying... the paid gig.
Be it a music video, be it a feature film, be it a commercial.
(Justin) 'I’ve been running a monthly short film festival called "Little Terrors" since 2011,
'and one thing I’ve learned from playing over 600 short films
'is they tend to be very wise first steps toward getting feature films made.
'I’ve lost count of the number of people who made notable feature films
'in the years following me playing their shorts.'
If you can do it, just do it, you know,
because even if you do something over the weekend you know,
and you do it for no money, and it's not gonna get you anywhere,
at least you have something that people could look at
to say, "OK, I see the way this person works, what their vision is."
(Kevin) If you've done stuff before and you've finished projects,
if you've done projects, and you've actually got them completed, and out there, and...
Yep.
...and you did it all on your own or with no budget or no money,
then they go, like, "OK, if I give this guy a budget and some money,
"like, he's gonna finish a product."
The most important thing about a short film
is that you're making it with the idea that you're gonna use this as sort of a calling card
to steer you into making your first feature,
and you can use those
and tell them when you're going to apply for production money,
like, to see a sample of your previous work.
So if you've done two or three short films,
they're gonna ask to see those short films
when you submit your application for production financing,
so they can see, do you have the chops
to direct actors and make a good quality film.
- That should be a close-up, right? - Of what?
Of when he... when you see the aftermath of it.
Yeah. Yeah, well, it'll probably be, like,
you wanna be able to see Steve, like, move and the blood to spray,
- so it's gonna be, like, medium close-up. - Medium close-up.
So he heads that way.
- And... - The killer isn't there, is he?
No, the killer's in the bathroom, this way.
- In the bathroom and comes suddenly. - Yeah.
(Justin) It's been stressful.
This has been one of the more stressful Pre-production processes I’ve done.
Because I’m putting in all that kind of money, I’d rather not rush a product
and then just dump it online.
I think it's probably better if we take the time,
make it the best short film it can be in editing and post,
then release it as a proper festival short,
get the proper festival sort of traction,
and then release it online down the road,
cos there's no point in just "blah" and then it's out there.
So we're seeing him coming from downstairs there.
(Man) Yeah. We're gonna shoot that afterwards.
Ready for action?
- I’m ready for action. - Action!
Get back! Get back!
- Get back, Jessica! Get back! - (Grunting)
Jessica!
That's great. It's enough. We'll cut it.
Now let it drop.
- (Grunting) - (Justin) Oh, shit.
- Whoa! - (Justin) Oh, dude, that's it.
- That was way too much. - (Justin) Well, how did that happen?
- Holy shit. - (Jovanka) You know, how gore gags are.
They always take longer than, you know, anyone plans for them,
but that's why you have to be patient with them.
(Mick) You have to budget enough time to do it right.
If you're doing a decapitation or something,
you know, some sort of body horror thing,
it's gonna go wrong.
Chances are nine out of ten
that you're going to need to do it more than once.
(Steve) All everybody talks about are practical effects.
"We gotta have, like, a creature or a gag in our movie."
And then they expect you to show up,
and basically, like, walk on, the thing happens,
like you come out like a magician like, "Oh, look at this cool thing. Bye."
And you walk off and everything's perfect.
But the problem with practical effects that people don't realize,
is that, like, they don't work 90% of the time.
(Paul Jones) A camera has been prototyped and tested and worked,
and everything's fantastic.
You plug it in, you switch it on, you move the lights around.
It's gonna work every single time.
The severed hand gag or the disemboweling gag
that's been created for your movie was built once,
hasn't really been tested that well,
and God knows what it's gonna do on camera.
So, the best advice I can give to anybody starting...
like, who wants to incorporate prosthetics into their production
is A, insist on camera tests,
like, have somebody film it working before they bring it to set.
Be careful that you have a good stunt coordinator.
The thing about stunts is, you can get hurt.
One of my, like, tricks that I at least try
is to have a second unit that I trust
that takes care of special make-up effects,
takes care of stunts,
takes care of any sort of practical special effects
just cos it's, uh... you know, my AD calls it a "time vampire".
These things are time vampires
and time is the most precious commodity that we have.
(Paul Jones) John Landis once said to me, he said, you know,
"A director's job is to listen to everybody's opinion
"and then make yours."
So, if you're gonna hire any prosthetics guy,
make sure... especially somebody more experienced like myself,
listen to what they have to say.
Don't come in with, "Well, I need this from you and that's it."
I think the consideration is largely overlooked,
because if you're sitting in a trailer, you're doing a make-up on somebody,
and an AD or an assistant comes in...
"How long is it gonna take?"
You say, "Half an hour",
and then they come in five minutes later, "How..."
"I told you, you know, half an hour. It's gonna take a h..."
And they keep coming in, trying to get you to the set.
So, if you hire me two days before you start shooting,
I only get 48 hours to build something.
I know it seems obvious,
but I’m finding with more and more projects, regardless of the budget,
that the preparation part is being cut shorter and shorter and shorter.
- (Justin) Are we ready? - (Man) OK, you ready, Justin?
(Justin) I’m ready, I’m here. Action!
(Screaming)
- (Justin) Oh! - (Woman giggling)
(Justin) We finished the sound mix and the final mix
on Do You See What I See?, our short film,
Serena and my short film, yesterday.
So now, what we're doing is, we're emailing it as a Christmas card
to every single producer, agent, studio person,
festival person, financer, etc. that we met in the last two years.
It's really just a proof of concept for us as a team
and just a way for people to see that we're not just talkers,
we're not just there taking meetings, we're actually making things.
Filmmakers today really have to do the hustle.
They have to get out there, they gotta pound the pavement,
they gotta hit the internet, they have to really canvas the markets,
and get to know the festival programmers.
It's so key, because there's such a glut of product out there now.
It's tough to get noticed, so you really have to put a lot of effort into it.
(Dean Cundey) There was quite a bit of hustle on my first films,
because, you know, you need to make yourself desirable.
But one of the things I always tried to do was,
on those low budget films,
give them quality whether they wanted it or not,
providing the producer, whoever, with a quality product,
something that, you know, fulfills their expectations or exceeds them.
(Justin) So how does it feel to have a finished short film?
Good. Well, I’ll feel better once we know the reactions to it.
Um... but I feel good.
I’m realizing that, you know, 2015 was a really banner year
in terms of making things happen
and, you know, traveling to a lot of these markets and festivals for the first time.
I have a really good feeling about 2016.
I took an arrow to the head from a guy standing like five feet away from me
and it wasn't the arrow that hurt me, but it hit the mask
and then drove the mask into my forehead, so I have a gash.
This is Freddy. How's it going?
I adopted this guy. Hey, buddy.
We're here for the world premiere of Do You See What I See?,
the short film we shot just before Christmas.
- So you're nervous? - A little bit.
But, you know, it's a short, so we'll see. We'll see.
I don't think anyone's gonna boo.
(Host) Justin and Serena,
was the idea initially to subvert and make a mess of a Christmas movie?
I don't think the Christmas thing came up first.
(Graham) There's nothing like sitting in an audience with people,
and hearing the sound booming around you,
and seeing this beautiful image up on the screen
looking the way that you intended it to look.
Young emerging filmmakers should see their films with an audience
and see how the audience is reacting.
You know, flaws become really apparent
when you're seeing them with a crowd.
I think when you're looking at it on a monitor and you're with it,
you're too close to it, you can't see them,
but when jokes aren't working
or if tension doesn't build right or if it's too slow,
you'll see that, because people aren't reacting like you think they should.
I did feel the premiere was frustrating, and I was pissed off that it...
The short had a lesser impact than I was hoping it would
because of the tech issues.
And there is other stuff, too. I mean, I know some people...
Some people don't get the ending that clearly.
They see it as a They Live thing and that the people at the party are demons,
as opposed to the opposite.
It's an augmented reality game
where the game replaces living people as visual representations of demons
to make it easier to kill them.
You're not gonna sell your short.
I mean you may, but don't plan this.
But if it's good, it's gonna do the festival circuit.
If it does the festival circuit, then it gives you an opportunity
to travel through the festival circuit, to meet festival programmers,
to make friends around,
to build that community that you're really gonna need
when you do your feature film.
Film festivals are hugely important to filmmakers,
mainly because it's a chance to develop the audience,
it lets distributors and salespeople know that there is an audience for your film,
and it's basically a way of getting publicity and interest in your film,
it is another way for an independent filmmaker
to have that sort of audience building
and just to see whether your film's actually working.
You have to kinda get the lay of the land
and kinda figure out, well, what film festivals are valuable for what it is...
what film you're doing, and what it is you want your film to do.
If you wanna sell your film,
then there are certain film festivals you should be pursuing.
If you want to get critical acclaim, there's other film festivals.
If you wanna just have a good time and meet people and, you know, party,
then there's another set of film festivals.
(Carolyn) You shouldn't just cast a wide net.
just kind of focus on film festivals
and make sure you read the film festival mandate,
because that will tell you what the film festival's looking for.
A film festival, the buzz that comes out of it is, well, free for one.
It's free publicity. How else are you gonna do that?
Build buzz on a bad movie,
like, without film festivals, what are you gonna do?
So, um...
Yeah, I mean film festivals, you have to...
It's absolutely critical if your movie's good.
All I can say is, continue to make films.
I mean, there's one producer that I've been dealing with for ten years.
He's been submitting films for ten years,
and finally in 2013, he had a film that worked,
and I selected it.
And it was great. Like, it was a great feeling
and I’m so glad that he kept on persevering.
I mean, his films went and played other festivals,
but people thinking that TIFF or Cannes or Sundance
is the be-all and end-all, that's the wrong way to do it.
You know, more and more now,
I’m seeing these situations where a film will get one festival date.
Then, a day or two later, you hear an acquisition announcement,
which is always exciting,
and then, two days after that, you see a VOD date,
and it's like, "Whoa! You've just strangled it in the womb."
Like, "Why in the world?"
You know, there is so many titles that are being made now
and they're being rushed to marketplace quicker and quicker.
(Exhales)
I still... I don't feel artistically fulfilled.
Every step of the career so far
has been planting seeds and hoping they bear fruit,
and sometimes they do, and sometimes they...
I don't even know.
I don't know what the root structure looks like yet.
I just haven't seen the fruit there.
Alright. OK, talk to you later.
Bye.
(Exhales)
We... looks like we have a green light for Lifechanger.
These investors out west.
I have to now call Raven Banner
and make sure they'll take the presale deal for it to offer international rights
like they agreed to before,
but if they take the deal, according to the terms the investors want,
we have a film.
I’m now looking at the final co-producer agreement for Lifechanger.
It looks like at this point set...
you know, if the other producers are legit
and the money is actually there, which they say it is, Lifechanger 's a go.
'At that point, if Lifechanger was going to camera that year,
'it wouldn't be for many months.
'So I planned and shot micro-budget, single-take-style film called Red Mile,
'in order to have something new to put into the market
'and build the track record further.'
(Tom Holland) If there's a mistake to be made, I’ve made it.
You have to keep producing constantly.
You know, get out your four-minute shorts,
get out your two-minute you know... you know, blackout curtain things.
You see, you cannot... you cannot ever stop.
So, this is the best advice really for a young filmmaker.
Look around you. You are a storyteller.
Write a story that you can make a movie
with the means which are around you,
and just go ahead and make it.
And even if the first one is not the biggest success,
go and make the next one.
(Frank) I’m very happy working with as few people as possible.
I really enjoy it. I mean, when I'm shooting something on the streets,
I never have permission, and that's fine,
because nobody pays attention to it.
They assume it's a news crew or something.
So, nobody gives me any interference whatsoever.
It's what I prefer.
So, I’ve got a really busy few days ahead of me
if I wanna have a cut of Red Mile ready to view as a screener for Cannes.
It's not gonna be a finished version of the movie.
I love the editing. Editing is similar to writing.
When you're editing, you're really rewriting the picture visually,
and tightening,
and suddenly you realize you don't need this scene
or the material in this scene is repetitive.
(Mick) Knowing how to edit, you know, and to be concise,
because there is a sure sign of amateurism
when you're masturbating with a camera.
To feel that every moment of your grand epic is worth capturing
and feeling the pain.
You have to be ruthless when you're finally making your film.
I’d rather see a great, brisk 80-minute movie that covers all the bases
than 120 minutes of navel-gazing.
(Justin) I showed the film last night to the cast and crew, and they all seem to love it.
I know that a lot more work needs to be done on post.
I’m still gonna bring this version to Cannes
and try and get early talks going.
I leave for Cannes tomorrow.
I’m still a little nervous about the heightened police state
that Cannes is gonna be under and the threats
that, you know, beaches in Europe are under right now, but... (Exhales)
If something like that happens and I am taken out of this world,
I feel like I've still lived as a good human.
This time last year, I sat on this exact balcony
and I did a self-interview.
But I remember talking and saying that I felt like I was finally ready for this business.
I see a change coming, and I hope it's a big one.
I hope that all the work and all the groundwork and everything,
all the effort that has been put in over the years pays off.
The good news is that it looks like Lifechanger 's greenlit.
I just have to... it has to be the best it can possibly be,
cos that's what's gonna elevate me to that next step,
is making a quality film that people enjoy,
and putting enough thought into it, and time and effort to do it right.
We actually struck out twice.
Once with the traditional funding and then once with the private funding.
It's a few hours after I got the emaiI
that the investors were pulling out of Lifechanger.
This was gonna be my first movie
where somebody actually invested in me and my work,
where, you know, aside from my parents or myself.
Still hasn't happened. (Sighs)
I don't know what that means. (Sniffles)
I know the business is tough, but it isn't that tough.
There's shit being made all the time, so am I shit?
ls the stuff I do shit, or is it just...
Yeah, it's a ladder and a rung just broke.
'As much as the business feels difficult for me to navigate,
'I’ll fully admit, I have no idea how difficult it must be
'for people who are even more marginalized than myself to break in.
'Even coming from nowhere and working my way in bit by bit,
'I’m still a white male in a business dominated by the same
'and I’m not facing the same systemic bias that others are.'
The toughest job right now for women in the industry
is being a director,
because a woman's vision is not the same as a man's vision,
and we need to work so much harder
to convince buyers and distributors that it's worth it.
Lloyd Kaufman recently called it the "blood ceiling"
in the horror genre, you know.
He actually said it was despicable how few opportunities there are for women.
The stories are just... you wanna scream.
I have to prove myself lot harder.
I’m also very bubbly,
and so at times, like, "You make horror films?
"You sure? You're wearing pink right now", you know?
It's like, you don't get... I’m not taken seriously right away.
Part of what makes the world and narrative and the stories that we tell
is that we have the voice of everyone,
that we have the voices of men, and female, transgender,
all races, all colors.
That's why I have a very interest as a producer
to do cross-cultural projects,
because, again, looking at the specifics of cultures that are not necessarily mine,
there is a universal quality that brings us all together.
(Jovanka) Look at the average film-goers, you know,
more than half of them are women.
We know this is a fact, we know this to be true,
and yet, the numbers are staggeringly low.
The numbers of women directing films, producing films
are staggeringly low.
(Carolyn) I don't think powers that be have a lot of faith still
in having marginalized people starring in their own film.
And I don't know what that is, because you know,
I mean, everybody knows Jordan Peele sold millions of dollars,
and broke records, and Black Panther, and the whole nine yards.
So, that still hasn't really, I feel like, settled in.
(Olivia) I can point the finger as much as I want,
but how can I take responsibility for my career.
And if you're not doing the work and you have nothing to show,
- then... - You're part of the problem.
You're part of the problem. So...
Like, my whole mentality now, it's just like,
"OK, then I’m gonna write something that no one can refuse."
People say you can't tell new stories.
I don't think that's entirely true,
because I think there's a lot of stories out there
that haven't had the voice in the past.
So, it's exciting that we're starting to get to see those stories.
(Justin) 'With Lifechanger stalled again,
'I at least had the festivals and the release of Red Mile to focus on.
'We premiered in December at the Whistler Film Festival,
'and I managed to secure distribution,
'which influenced the title change to Broken Mile.
'We played another sizable fest in Toronto, and a couple in the US,
'and the film was released in early summer 2017 in a rather limited capacity,
'which is to be expected for a micro-budget film like this.
'The reviews were mixed but skewed positive, and the film did alright,
'but didn't exactly set the world on fire.
'Like before, I kept focusing on what was coming next,
'the next rung on the ladder.
'In addition to the constant client work,
'I keep filling my days with little and big steps forward in developing my slate,
'three projects in particular, Mark of Kane,
'the feature-length version of our short Do You See What I See?
'and of course Lifechanger are the current priority.
'Between all the meetings, markets,
'conference calls, email chains, and rewrites,
'they're all proving development is more of a marathon than a sprint.
'Time keeps passing and hope keeps going up and down like a roller coaster.'
(Serena) Oh, no.
(Laughing)
What I’ve learned so far, in the past couple of years
of trying to get this picture off the ground
is that you really need people to believe in your project.
You can't really take everything you hear from people that can help you seriously
until the contracts are signed or deals are made.
I’m hoping this year is a year that we at least know that it's going somewhere,
it's gonna be in Pre-production by the end of the year.
I have a good feeling about that.
I met Justin a few years ago at Cannes, and he told me about the project.
I was really excited to have a read of the novel,
and then after doing that,
it was a case of just seeing what we could put together
to be able to finance it and make it happen.
At this point, we've built up a really solid project.
We've got Serhat who's a fantastic director on board,
we've got several major investors,
and we're just waiting on the final piece to kind of kick in
to cover our post-production.
Fingers crossed, we should be shooting within the next 12 months.
I’m in a nice restaurant right now, and I’m marking this moment,
because we just sat with Keith at Uncork'd
and I might have a green light for Lifechanger.
Uh, yeah.
I remember the steak was excellent that night. (Chuckling)
And so was the wine.
Took a lot of work, but we might be here.
Let's see.
We basically, at the end of that whole conversation,
before the main course arrived actually,
we had solidified the agreement, verbally.
What the structure is looking like is,
Raven Banner coming on board for part of the finance
and selling international sales rights,
Uncork'd in the US coming on board for more than half of the budget.
I got a very busy fall ahead of me.
I gotta shoot Lifechanger, and I've got tons of client work,
and then we have to get Mark of Kane fully together and packaged,
and hopefully start shooting that in January.
So, what we did is, we hired a casting director named Ashley Hallihan,
who went out and got self-tapes from tons of different people.
We're talking like dozens, and dozens, and dozens of people.
You know, the minute that a casting director is hired,
it translates to the agents and the managers
that there's money, the project's moving forward,
that the production is going to be working in a professional manner.
I’ve been going through these self-tapes
and then tomorrow, I’m going to the Carlton to do one-on-one meetings with the finalists,
I guess you could put it.
I’m doing 15-minute meetings.
Every 15 minutes, I meet with a new person
just to get a feel for who they are as people.
There's many actors for one role,
but there's only the one actor that's the best for the role.
And then simultaneously, I’ve been working with Sasha, the DOP,
to, you know, talk through the script and figure out the shot list
and all that sort of thing.
I’m excited about it, I’m happy about it.
I mean, this is what I've been working towards,
having something where I can actually pull off something on a... like, with a budget.
Hell, I’ve got David Scott working on this movie
who's like one of the best effects people in Toronto for, like, prosthetics
and we're doing an animatronic.
These are things I dream of, and I'm finally gonna get to do.
I’m looking now at our full cast list minus one tiny role um, for Lifechanger,
and we've got all the roles filled,
so we can now start setting up table reads and start rehearsing.
Like, we're five weeks away from shooting now.
It's really soon.
So, what I wanna get out of this meeting today is,
put everything on the table, anything you're concerned about.
You know, there are 148 scenes in the film, and a countless number of shots.
And it's just... This is gonna be the biggest thing I think I've ever done.
- 136, 137, and 138 are all kind of, uh... - (Justin) They're all together, so...
Together and continuous.
Yep, so we can shoot the bathroom stuff first, for sure.
I’m a little stressed out right now,
largely because we shoot in less than two weeks for Lifechanger,
and there's still a lot to do.
And we've got the fight choreography going,
I’m gonna go look at the make-up tests on Thursday...
We're getting as much rehearsal as we can done,
which I wish it was more, I mean, I always wish it was more.
The acting process is so important in my way of making films
that I would invest a lot of energy and time
rehearsing and work-shopping the script and the characters with my actors.
Everything I’ve been working toward for the past couple decades in film,
since I was about 15, you know,
all those dreams and everything kind of cumulate with this.
All these people are working right now alongside me as a team
to recognize one vision that came out of here a couple years ago.
I’m doing this.
This is a big move for me.
And action!
(Barbara Crampton) Film and telling a story reminds us who we are
and that's never going away.
Even the cavemen were painting in their caves.
We've always loved to tell stories
and always loved to tell stories with images.
I think that's why we created film, so we could make the images move.
Film is storytelling, and we love a good story.
I’ve got like a full effects body in this trunk of my parents' car right now
that we're trying to cover up
in case somebody sees it from a distance and thinks it's real.
So, it's almost like hiding a real dead body. (Chuckling)
Cos you don't want someone to get the wrong idea and call the police,
and be like, "There's a body in the back of that car in that garage."
Thank you.
We've done three full days of production now.
It's weird, I still get this surreal pang when I'm looking at the slate,
clapping for the shots that actually says Lifechanger.
That the movie's actually being made right now and I’m actually shooting it.
It's, uh... I guess it's a win.
Just today, for example, I got to shoot an animatronic melt head.
I’ve never worked with animatronics before.
It's kind of a childhood dream, and I got to do it.
The first phase is always that, um...
you're pushing this project, and pushing it, and pushing it,
and you'd give your life or your soul for the thing to happen,
you would sacrifice your firstborn or do anything to close that deal
and get the movie to the screen.
And then, yeah, phase 2, if you're lucky,
is the point where the project actually starts to move,
and you'll find that suddenly you're no longer having to push it, and push it, and push it,
and the thing is actually moving along under its own momentum,
and you're having to run to keep up with it.
Action!
Shake, tooth.
- Scream. - (Screaming)
First.
- Second. - (Grunting)
When it comes to feature films, and you're on set,
and you're doing this scene and you say to yourself,
"I’ve seen this scene 100 times", don't do it.
Do something different.
Find a way to take that scene, because you can't just throw it out,
and do something different with it.
We have a few really, really complicated days,
which I’m sure we'll get, but holy crap, man.
(Jenn) From a filmmaking perspective, it's important to be loose enough
that you can adapt to the things that happen through every stage of production
and that you're prepared enough,
but you also have an eye out for happy coincidences.
(Don) It's an organic thing, filmmaking,
and you can't hold on to your original plan too tightly,
because I think that will fuck you over in a whole other way.
So, it just gives it this combination of planning it out to a tee,
but being open to other people suggesting,
"Well, maybe I have a better idea."
We've just, as of last night,
wrapped our 11th day of production on Lifechanger.
It's gone by really quick, yet at the same time...
You know, each day it doesn't feel like it's quick.
You're always racing the clock to try and get your shots in your day,
and hope that you've had enough time to make the performance work,
which, looking at the dailies, I’ve got some editing challenges ahead of me.
No matter how much in love with the project you are,
phase 3 always arrives,
which is the point on the project when you'll do anything,
when you will give up your life, your soul, your firstborn
just to have nothing more to do with it,
to not have to get up in the morning and deal with it.
It's only the director, maybe the producer also,
which are responsible
for the fact that everything we are making, anything we are making now
will end up as a movie, as a story, as a comprehensive idea.
And that is a consuming process.
It all starts with the concept, the script,
and putting in the right amount of Pre-production work,
and the right casting and all that. All that's the backbone of the movie,
but then you get into production and, you know, you have to deal with people.
Lots and lots of people.
And in this case, we're talking like 25 cast, 20 crew, a whole bunch of extras.
Every single one of them's a personality.
You have to make sure when you're hiring crew
that you get crew that are not only the best that you can
for the budget you're working within,
but that those specific department heads and the people within those departments
all work well together and with those certain types of personalities.
(Chris) You know, I had three kids before I made my first movie.
So, I knew how to navigate personalities,
I knew how to damage control a lot of insane situations
that would crush lesser mortals, I think.
The director is not just a person who picks camera angles or locations,
the director has to know how to juggle many different personalities and egos,
and know how to work with them, and not bully them,
and get the best out of them, and make them wanna do their best.
They all have needs, they all have wants,
they all have quirks, they all have flaws, they all have strengths.
If you have enough confidence to hire somebody,
then you should have the confidence to know that they know what they're doing.
Whether it's Jim Cameron or Billy Friedkin or Michael Bay
or Quentin Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez,
these are people who have a lot of confidence in themselves,
and when they have confidence in themselves,
they're much more likely to listen to your suggestions
and think about it, "ls this gonna make my film better?"
I think the directors with the most confidence,
which are usually the ones that are the most successful,
are the ones that are most likely to listen to ideas...
- Collaborate with actors. - ...and collaborate with actors
and change things in their movie to make the movie better.
They can identify a suggestion,
whether it comes from me or a prop guy
or it comes from an actress or anybody,
"Oh, that's gonna make my movie better. Do it."
I think the only thing you need to do to survive telling stories is to be yourself.
That's the one thing. I mean how you lead a group of people...
Everybody... Some of them are hard, some of them are nice,
some of them make a family, some of them make an army,
some of them like to be generals, some of them like...
but the only thing that people will respond to is if it's you leading.
You.
Not a character you invented that a director should be. It's you.
They see that you are high on your own supply.
I get a lot of pushback, and it's like...
Sometimes you just wanna say, "Do this."
You want a collaborative atmosphere on set,
that's the ideal scenario.
I just hate hearing "no".
Let's just fucking try it.
I don't care if you've got twenty years behind you.
There's nothing to be gained by going, "Well, that didn't work in the past"
or being like, "I’ve got all this experience, so I know this."
Well, fuck that.
Steven Spielberg, if you see E. T.,
notice that every camera angle is about this high off the ground.
That's how tall you are when you're 12 years old.
The cumulative effect of "you're one of the kids".
He made you one of the kids
simply because you're seeing from where they were seeing.
You know, keys in your face... That's what a director does.
It's not just pointing the camera at the action.
Alright?
(Justin) I’m hoping that the film does well
and that the end result of it is worth all this effort,
because it's a lot of effort
and a lot of different people working on it, putting in that effort to make it just incredible.
The only thing you really got going for you in an independent film is the acting.
- Who is it? - (Tom Holland) Good actors are everything,
because finally, for all the ego and everything,
it's about who's in front of the camera.
This is what's holding the audience, if your actors will make or break you.
Casting is everything.
I cannot underline that enough.
Directors should take acting classes to understand the actor's process,
to give clues to an actor
about where you want them to go in a particular scene.
Having people who can act, you save money.
If a guy blows a line, that's a big take.
That means that that scene's gotta be shot over again.
(Justin) Take.
Action!
I have one week left of shooting Lifechanger.
We've shot 15 days already, there's five days left to go,
one really big week ahead of us,
including the first sex scene I’ve ever shot,
a serious fight scene with breakaway glass and breakaway tables,
and a whole bunch of effects stuff, and prosthetics,
and a really big, fully prosthetic pod effect thing we're doing on Wednesday.
- Awesome. Here we go. - (Crew) And... set.
(Justin) Action!
But I think we're getting really good stuff,
and I’m proud that I’ve been able to get to this point,
and I do feel like I've got a future in this.
I’m about to start watching Lifechanger from front to back
as one complete edited film for the first time.
There's a part of it.
(Indistinct speech)
Uh... yeah, I think it's pretty good.
Tomorrow morning, I’ve booked the Carlton Cinema
to test-screen an earlier cut of Lifechanger.
I’ve got a survey for people to either fill out in person while there or online,
there's a link at the top of the sheet,
and then I’ve been collecting people associated with the projects
and close friends' opinions as well.
The testing process is agonizing for me,
even when it's just showing the film to my friends.
It's horrible, because...
First of all, all of your mistakes are there to be seen and commented on,
and then, very often what I discover
are the things that I thought were problems for people are not,
and the real slap in the face are...
There are things that I’ve never even thought twice about
that create huge problems for people.
Sometimes you see filmmakers that get really big,
and then they start making these kind of bloated movies,
and you feel that somebody stopped telling them "no",
and they don't hear the word "no" anymore,
and now they kind of go on their own whims,
and people just go with them, because they're that name.
I don't know if that's healthy.
I actually do welcome and encourage producers to give you notes.
It's nice to have a little bit of resistance,
it's nice to have someone kind of second-guess you.
When you hear something that's consistent,
like, that's the most important thing, right?
You might disagree with something somebody says,
but if you hear another person say it,
and you hear another person say it, and another person say it,
whether or not you agree with it or not,
you really need to understand
that an audience is seeing that that way, though.
That's how something is being perceived,
whether that was your intention or not.
We did a test audience, and we got back a bunch of notes from that.
I’ve got back a bunch of notes from people I trust,
and now the main core team of the film,
the producers, the distributors, they're all compiling a set of notes.
But the one thing I’ve noticed is that nobody is saying the same things.
And me as the director,
I still have to be beholden to the wishes of the team, to an extent,
because they are the team or they are the investors, you know?
They have a stake.
But I’m also... I gotta go with my gut
and, like, I already believe it's a good movie the way it is.
I’m gonna make more changes.
The problem I’ve got is, like, which changes do I make.
You have to make everybody happy.
So, find a way.
Hopefully, you know,
everyone understands the kind of film that it is
or the nature of the cast that was assembled.
And so, you know, it's uh...
You have to judge every situation uh, individually.
I’ve just picture-locked Lifechanger, and I’m proud of it.
I think it's a fucking good movie.
It feels like it's a good movie.
I found out yesterday morning
that Lifechanger's world premiere is gonna be at the Fantasia Film Festival,
which is a huge accomplishment in my mind.
I’ve wanted to play that festival forever.
Back at Fantasia.
With a film playing this time.
(Indistinct chatter)
If you think I ruined that picture, wait till you get inside.
- (Laughing) - (Cheering and applause)
So, enjoy the movie, and if I break your brain, don't sue me.
- Have a good one. - (Laughing)
(Cheering and clapping)
And movies are like children.
The birth is always absolutely frantic, and insane, and painful,
and confusing, and horrible, and um...
but then they grow up, and they go out into the world,
and as they grow up, they make their own friends.
People meet the movies who don't meet you and come to love them
on its own terms.
(Crowd applauding)
- 'Please welcome Justin McConnell...' - (Cheering)
'...from Lifechanger. '
This is fucking crazy.
(Announcer) 'Please welcome Mr. Johnson...'
I’ve never played to audiences this big or had a reception like this
or had my work programed or showcased at a festival this important.
And it feels like a really major step in my career.
- Muchas gracias. - (Cheering)
It still blows my mind, cos I’ve been coming here to see movies for...
Fuck! 2001?
So it's 17 years.
Uh, in this case, we are in one of the biggest theaters
and it sold out somehow, which is fucking awesome.
Um, just means a lot to me,
cos people actually wanna see the stuff I make,
which is part of the reason you make it.
And it's been a long road to here.
So this is a special screening.
You know, I’ve known the director of this film
for maybe more than a decade at this point.
I’ve programmed his short films.
I’ve worked together on some of his feature films.
He's made... This is not his first feature.
But this is a really, really special movie,
and I remember when he shared the script with me,
I was so excited just at the ambition and the ideas he'd packed into the script.
It was so impressively pulled off.
And to see Justin travel the world with this movie
that's played so many festivals to great acclaim.
- (Audience cheering) - And he really, really deserves all of it.
So, a big, big round of applause for my friend...
(Audience cheering and clapping)
...writer/director, Justin McConnell!
(Audience cheering and clapping)
I thank all of you for coming out.
One thing you should know about this, it was shot in Toronto.
Can you raise your hand or stand up if you were on the cast and the crew?
- There's a bunch of you in the crowd. - (Cheering and clapping)
I wanna thank all of you for coming out and doing a sold-out screening.
It's been over five years since I started making this documentary.
A lot has happened in those five years, a lot has changed.
I was going to Cannes every year since 2015, taking meetings there.
I went to my first Berlin European film market last year in February
and took some meetings there and got to see how that market was different.
I’ve been going to Frontières every summer,
and things are moving forward, but what I’ve noticed is with Lifechanger,
it has made the doors open more and more.
People are willing to approach me about possible projects
or take meetings about the stuff I’ve got on the slate.
When it actually started being distributed in the US, it did fairly well,
but then Netflix picked it up for a bunch of territories,
and we even hit number 1 trending for a short period of time with the film,
this tiny little movie.
It blows my mind.
I’ve learned most of all that the thing that I can't be is passive,
and I have to make things happen for myself and bring in the right team
to help launch that collaboratively,
just listening to people, and letting go of my ego a little bit.
The future is potentially bright
and full of lots of things that I don't know are coming yet.
I mean, anything could fall apart,
and given that the film business, the way it is,
I fully expect things to fall apart or take longer than they're going to take,
but I’m not gonna give up.
'I look at my life in sections sometimes.
'as I age, I get a tendency to reflect, compartmentalize.
'There was my life before film was my mission
'and my life after.
'That's further broken down into when I was just toying with the craft,
'learning and getting my feet wet,
'to when I got really serious about it as the thing I was going to do,
'to the marathon that's felt like the last decade or so
'when I started seriously making features.
'Tons of missteps along the way, tons of deviations from the path,
'experimenting, trying things, hoping something will stick,
'and now with Lifechanger, it feels like the start of a new section.
'And whether I continue toward my ultimate goal, whatever that is,
'or crash spectacularly or just fade away remains to be seen.
'You may hate everything I do, and that's your right,
'but it doesn't really matter, because I’m doing it,
'and I’ve been doing it for years and years now without fully realizing it.
'I’ve been chasing a dream so long, it took me ages to notice
'that I was already living it.
'I don't think there is a top to the ladder when it comes to film.
'There's just the ladder, just the climb, endlessly, rung to rung.
'If a shark stops swimming, it dies.
'As a filmmaker, swimming is all there ever is,
'forward to whatever that brings.
'You may fuck up along the way, you may never reach the top of the business,
'but as long as you keep trying, keep learning, keep striving,
'it has to be enough.
'Just survive... the rest will come.'
I always got cheated. (Chuckles)
I know I always should have gotten more money,
I should have had more time, I should...
But all in all, when you look back over 60 years,
I figure I had a ball.
I really did. I enjoyed it.
To thine own self be true,
but if you want the Oscars, and the mansion,
and the limos, and the drugs, and hookers, and all that,
I think you have to go to Los Angeles.
And if you've got any talent,
and if you're driven and obsessed by it, you probably will do all right.
And there are great people.
About one tenth of one percent of the movie industry
are the best people in the world.
The rest are scum of the Earth,
whether they're independent or whether they are in the mainstream,
they are scum of the Earth.
So if you sign a contract with them,
you have to assume in your head that the other guy...
You may agree... You may do what the contract says,
but you have to assume in the contract
that the other person isn't going to do what the contract says,
and make arrangements for the worst-case scenario,
so that you don't lose your house, and your business,
and decide to blow your fucking brains out.
Uh, that's good advice.
But if you want the golden ring,
go to the mainstream in Hollywood,
which is where the projects are greenlit.
And if you are happy
being a broken-down, old, drunken filmmaker like Uncle Lloyd here
whose probably next move career-wise
will be in a refrigerator carton under the Route 95,
with the other crack addicts,
then you become an underground filmmaker,
which is basically what I’ve always been.