An issue-oriented brief film is one that has a style of social significance at it's core. Drug abuse, poverty, the environment, homelessness ... these are all examples of a short movie with a socially appropriate style. This is substantial as it is A LOT EASIER to obtain donations of time, devices and materials when there is a "cause" behind the movie.
In the mid 90's I was able to get a 12 minute 35mm movie produced for under a thousand dollars, a definitely unusual amount. Catering, places, film stock and processing, misc supplies, devices - almost every little thing was covered with generous donations due to the fact that the film had two significant social concerns as the primary themes - kid abuse and it's resultant connection to substance abuse later on in life.
The strategy? Undergo production directories and cold call until you cannot talk anymore. A typical pitch went like this: "we're working on a film that takes care of some beautiful intense social issues and we're asking yourself if there's someone we can speak to about making a donation of ..." It takes a lot of calls, but it works.
Getting donations is in one sense quite easy as many production business are willing to contribute. The difficulty that originates from this option to short movie funding is in the additional coordination efforts required, for you'll should adapt your schedule to the benefactors. An example of this is that we needed to cancel a film shoot two weekends in a row because the 35mm camera that was being contributed to us became unavailable as it was booked out on a paid shoot (a reality that has to be accepted taking this method). But as quickly as the rental business's schedule cleared, the camera was ours and we were able to shoot, conserving hundreds of dollars in rental fees.
An additional concern with taking this path is producer sychronisation. It's better if you have a distinct manufacturer dealing with acquiring contributions as it's a full time task in and of itself. It's best to have one producer to handle shooting logistics and another to handle donations. In the end, while our group had the ability to achieve a lot with hardly any funds, the movie suffered due to the fact that the director/producer (myself) was exhausted with managing logistics and had less time to spend on innovative shots, acting, etc. Having a distinct producer to manage contributions will fix that issue!
In the mid 90's I was able to get a 12 minute 35mm movie produced for under a thousand dollars, a definitely unusual amount. Catering, places, film stock and processing, misc supplies, devices - almost every little thing was covered with generous donations due to the fact that the film had two significant social concerns as the primary themes - kid abuse and it's resultant connection to substance abuse later on in life.
The strategy? Undergo production directories and cold call until you cannot talk anymore. A typical pitch went like this: "we're working on a film that takes care of some beautiful intense social issues and we're asking yourself if there's someone we can speak to about making a donation of ..." It takes a lot of calls, but it works.
Getting donations is in one sense quite easy as many production business are willing to contribute. The difficulty that originates from this option to short movie funding is in the additional coordination efforts required, for you'll should adapt your schedule to the benefactors. An example of this is that we needed to cancel a film shoot two weekends in a row because the 35mm camera that was being contributed to us became unavailable as it was booked out on a paid shoot (a reality that has to be accepted taking this method). But as quickly as the rental business's schedule cleared, the camera was ours and we were able to shoot, conserving hundreds of dollars in rental fees.
An additional concern with taking this path is producer sychronisation. It's better if you have a distinct manufacturer dealing with acquiring contributions as it's a full time task in and of itself. It's best to have one producer to handle shooting logistics and another to handle donations. In the end, while our group had the ability to achieve a lot with hardly any funds, the movie suffered due to the fact that the director/producer (myself) was exhausted with managing logistics and had less time to spend on innovative shots, acting, etc. Having a distinct producer to manage contributions will fix that issue!
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