This is the fifth and last of a series of articles about relocating to Hollywood or New York to follow dreams in the entertainment industry.
Here’s my first (and perhaps only) Vlog. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think and please check out the other blogs on this site. Can you tell I’m nervous? I don’t know how many takes it took, but as you can tell by the annotations I included, I still missed stuff.
Additional thoughts are that a bunch of new Online Film Festivals for directors and producers to get their films into. If you haven’t taken advantage of these, you should consider it.
For years, directors and film producers made their films independently then sent them to festivals across the country hoping to get accepted. If they got accepted, they might get viewed by a couple hundred people at the fest–unless it was a real hit. Today, you can get a couple hundred people to view your movie online without even trying. With cheaper bandwidth has come better video sites and more people are beginning to view movies on their computers–even Netflix offers movies via download.
There is a foreseeable future, and may already be here, where independent film makers will be able to enjoy a decent living from their films without ever having to come to Hollywood at all. Imagine digitally uploading your film directly to theaters.
In the meantime, check out what I learned in interviews for my book with directors and producers here in Hollywood is the best way for young filmmakers to break into the business now.
Thanks for stopping by. Please leave your comments and/or questions. And don’t forget to let me know what you think about the video.
Good Luck,
TRL
Tags: Directing, director, Film Festivals, film producer, moving to Hollywood, producer, YouTube
T.R. Thanks for the info! So glad you did the VLOG for those of us who are visual learners
All the best with the book!
Thanks for checking out the vlog, Ashera. Hadn’t thought about the visual learning aspect. Good point. I thought a vlog would be easier–it’s not at all. At least not the first one. We’ll see if I keep them going.
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That’s some good information, TR, I’m a have to check that book out this weekend. You might have just saved me a lot of money.
Appreciate that. Glad to help, man. Thanks for the comment.
There are many online film festivals that you didn’t mention. There are also more professional sites than YouTube that cater specifically to the higher quality films that serious filmmakers put out. On top of that, there are now online film fests that run along with the major fests for people who cannot attend. Often you can view and vote on films in the actual festival. Good article.
Btw, here’s a vid of Robert Redford at the Sundance site basically agreeing with what you said about doing things independently and getting it in front of audiences.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid28367621001?bclid=7335115001&bctid=6748554001
@Damon–Thanks for the heads up and the info. Great vid of Redford. And thanks for the link for Sundance.
This is the link to the main site:
http://festival.sundance.org/2010/film_events/
Sundance takes only 200 films of 9000 submissions, so filmmakers better be looking at other routes. Again, good vlog.
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Hello T.R.,
Love the blog, and your book. Thanks for looking out for all the “dreamers” out there who may not understand what goes on on the business side of creative industries!
Your advise has definitely left me more sober then before. Though I still plan on coming out to LA, I will do so with a more realistic viewpoint!
Thanks bro!
@Will–That most definitely is my goal–to encourage folk to pursue it realistically. I’m glad I can help. Thanks for reading; I appreciate your comments. Looking forward to hearing great things from you.