When it comes to producing, no one speaks with more authority than Lloyd Kaufman, founder of the longest-running independent film studio, Troma Entertainment. He reveals the best ways to seek out investors, scout locations, hire crew and cast talent, navigate legalities, and stay within your budget. Featuring tips from some of the finest producers in the business (Mark Damon, James Gunn, Mark Harris, Tery Jones, Brad Kevoy, Stepehn Paul, and more!) , this book gives filmmakers practical tools for getting a movie shoot started, keeping it afloat and seeing it through to the end. Candid interviews, tips, tricks, and tidbits scattered throughout the book illustrate the many techniques you can employ to produce your own damn movie-Lloyd Kaufman shows you how it's really done.
This volume reveals the secrets of producing a low-budget independent film. Covering everything about production from the initial movie idea, all the way through pre-production and up to the first day of principal photography (including budgeting concerns to production-damaging acts of God), you'll get the inside track to producing your own damn movie.
Produce Your Own Damn Movie! will be your step-by-step guide on the journey to:
* Maximize production values with a minimal budget
* Scout locations
* Different producing models
* Develop business plans
* Pre-selling your movie
Hysterical in tone, filmmakers and producers won't be able to put this book down.
Produce Your Own Damn Movie! is the second volume in the Focal Press series Your Own Damn Film School. Check out the first volume in the series, Direct Your Own Damn Movie!
Introduction: Charlie Kaufman is My Doppelganger or Why I Want to Blow My Fucking Brains Out
Preamble to Chapter 1 Ask Lloyd: Penniless in Pittsburgh
Chapter 1: Producing Models and Car Models or Producing America's Next Top Tromodel
Producer Vocabulary Lesson #1: Executive Producer
Out with the Old..And in with the Who?
FIVE PRODUCING MODELS
Attempt #2 to define "Executive Producer" by Avi Lerner
Preamble to Chapter 2 Ask Lloyd: Nervous in Naples
Chapter 2: How I Got a Rabbi To Hate Jews or How I Let Oliver Stone Beat the Crap Out of Me to Hone His Producer Skills
Producer Vocabulary: Co-Executive Producer
Speaking of Yale.
But Enough About Halitosis.
Mark Harris Finds Art in the Passion, Not Necessarily the Deal
Don't Believe in the Top 100, Top 10 or Top Anything Lists
Just Like JFK and Nixon.
How Steven Paul Got Started at the Ripe Old Age of 12
Joe Dante Explains the Ideal Relationship
Back to the Big Fuss
Mick Garris Distinguishes the Masters of Horrors
Preamble to Chapter 3 Ask Lloyd: So Close in So. Cal
Chapter 3: Film School or Porno?: Taint No Difference or My Dinner with Louis Su
Producer Vocabulary: Producer
Sage Advice from Roger Corman.Also Some Oregano Advice
Screenplay Excerpt from the Ho Tse Toh Tse Restaurant starring Louis Su, Lloyd Kaufman, David Chien and Reed Morano
Ernest Dickerson Does Not Dickerson Around
The Core of More from Roger Corman
A Note from Marianne Williamson to Lloyd
In the Trent-ches with Trent Haaga
Preamble to Chapter 4 Ask Lloyd: Losing It In Las Vegas
Chapter 4: Producing Movies Inevitably Gets You Stoned (and is Really, Really Hard) or A Union Dose of Some Shirley Jackson Optimism Goes a Long Way
Producer Vocabulary: Co-Producer
A Note from My Editrix
An E-mail Exchange with John Carpenter's Assistant
The Ultimate Self-Stoning Job Or There's a Hole in My Begel Bagel, Man: A Short History of David Begelman
A Lottery Ticket with a Big "?" on the Prize
Lloyd's Assistant Matt Lawrence Explains How Shanley Gave Lloyd the Shaft.ley
Mark Harris Gets Stood Up By Oscar
You Don't Have to Be a Shithead to be a Producer
Which Way Went Blair Witch?
Getting High-up at IHOP: Lessons from Stan Lee
Terry Jones Tells Us Why His Producer Was Not the Messiah, Just A Very Naughty Boy!
Quoth the Draven Ever More
Why Tamar Simon Hoffs Always Makes Up Three Different Budgets for the Same Film
The MPAA Lottery
Paul Hertzberg Advises Against Falling in Love with an Un-commercial Project
Avi Lerner and Buddy Giovinazzo Say Unions Cause America's Lottery
My Perfect Night In
Making a Movie Sucks."Why Are We Doing This.We Hate Making Movies!" by Stoning Victims Trey Parker and Matt Stone
This is Fucking Depressing.Anybody Else Want to Stop Reading and Go Out For a Beer?
Preamble to Chapter 5 Ask Lloyd: Eager in Erie
Chapter 5: Is There a Business Plan? Is IMDB Ass? or Secrets of Financing and Producing from the Pickled Brain of an Elaborate Non-Pyramid Schemer
Producer Vocabulary: Line Producer
A Note from My Editrix
Line Producer, Redefined
A Few Words via E-mail from my Co-author Ashley
Compare, Contrast, Coagulate!: Lloyd's Producing and Acting Resumes on www.lloydkaufman.com and www.imdb.com
The Accidental Business Plan
Roger Corman Puts His Finger on the Money Question
Real Talk About Real Estate and "Reel" Mistakes
Avi Lerner Reminds Us That Producing is Not Just an Art, It's a Business
Simple Math is My Favorite Kind.Call It Tro-Math
Brian Yuzna Tells You How Money Has Changed Over the Years
A Little More Exploitation for the Road
Jist So This Chipter Don't Seam Two Poifect.
Intermission: Andy Deemer Production Diaries
Preamble to Chapter 6 Ask Lloyd: Starstruck in Starbucks
Chapter 6: Pre-Sell Your Flick in a Game of Five Card Stud or Go For a Straight Flush
Producer Vocabulary: Associate Producer
What Is the IFTA and Why You Mr./Ms. Producer, Ought to Give a Shit!
Just How Does the IFTA Define An "Independent Film"?
Why the Heck I Ran for IFTA Chairperson
What's so Friggin' Important About the United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. in 1948?
What are the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules?
Lloyd Pens a Note to President Barack Obama
Comedy Central Proves My Point
Brian Yuzna Gives You a Lesson on the Evolution from the Video Age to the Modern Age
What is Pre-Selling?: Lloyd Asks Paul Hertzberg
More on That Pre-Selling Thing From A Sales Agent (Who, In My Opinion, is Also a Producer): An Interview with Kathy Morgan About Her Game of Five Card Stud (Actor, Director, Producer, Script, Domestic Distribution)
But Why Would I Need a Sales Agent? I Know How to Hustle! by Jean Prewitt
Preamble to Chapter 7 Ask Lloyd: Anxious in Anchorage
Chapter 7: Fuck Me Jesus on a Pogo Stick! - WHERE am I Going to Produce My Own Damn Movie? or The Secrets of The Location Vocation
Producer Vocabulary: Location Manager and Unit Production Manager
Location Locution: Choosing a Location and Getting it in Writing and Lots More
Hanger: A Case Study and Melvina Gets Her Groove On
What State Are You In?
From Permits to Credits: Lloyd's Film Commmish Wife Pattie-Pie Gives You the Skinny on Incentives and Why the Film Commissioner of Where You Are Shooting Could Be Your Best Friend
Paul Hertzberg Gives Us a Reason to Stop Making Fun of Canadians
Bunny Hopping My Way to a Movie of the Future
My Catering Standards
Uh.How Do You Even Pay People to Begin With? - Setting Up an LLC
Whatever You Do, Get Insurance!
How Debbie Rochon Did Not Get a Hand or Can You Digit?
Brian Yuzna Also Defects North
Trent Haaga Gets Thrown in a Trent-ch on Location
Brian Yuzna Ran From the Indies to the Andes in his Undies.or at Least From Indonesia to Spain
Lloyd's Brother Charles Kaufman Does Not Have Indo-Amnesia: The Director of Mother's Day Suckles at the Breast of Producing in A Far Way Land
Preamble to Chapter 8 Ask Lloyd: Pumped Up In Peoria
Chapter 8: How To Do It Hollywood Style or Lloyd Kaufman is the Herpes of the Film Industry. He Won't Go Away.
Producer Vocabulary: Assistant Producer
Producing, Directing and Lloyd, Oh My! By James Gunn
Working at Troma Isn't Always Toxierrific! By Caroline Baron
The Two Heads of Lloyd Kaufman
Avi Lerner: A Rambo Style Rebel In Hollywood
Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor Crank It Up
The Duplass Brothers Motto: "Make Movies, Not Meetings"
Kingpin Brad Krevoy Un-masks the Hollywood Mystery: Powerful Agents Make Powerful Films Happen in a Powerful Way and the 411 About Producing Powerful Comedies
The Way In: High Voltage Wisdom from Neveldine and Taylor While Larry Cohen Says "God Told Me To Write a Great Script"
Preamble to Chapter 9 Ask Lloyd: Frustrated in Frankfurt
Chapter 9: Face the Music: Post-Production and Distribution or Pump Up Your Production to a Higher Level
Producer Vocabulary: Internet
The Commander-in-Chief Writes Back!
Joe Lynch Likes Makin' Music (Videos)
The Duplass Brothers Say Go For the Volume (and Neveldine and Taylor Interject)
Thank You For The Music by Dennis Dreith
Editing and Post-Production: Troma Fan Daniel Archambeault-May Teaches You Everything You Need to Know About Free Software to Produce and Edit Your Own Damn Movie
Herschell Gordon Lewis Says "Distribution, Distribution, Distribution"
Doing the Distribution Dance By Mark Damon
A Late Night E-mail from My Former Assistant and Former Co-Writer Sara
Preamble to Afterword
Ask Lloyd: Frugal in Fargo
TromAfterword
A Trio of E-mail Exchanges Among Ashley, Elinor and Lloyd, and A Final Final Ending to This Book About Producing
Index
Biography
Lloyd Kaufman is one of the very few genuine auteur filmmakers. He has written, produced, and/or directed more than 25 films, including "The Toxic Avenger", "Terror Firmer", "Tromeo and Juliet", and "Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead". Kaufman is president of the world-famous Troma Entertainment, the oldest and, arguably, the longest-running truly independent film studio in history. He is also the president of the IFTA (Independent Film & Television Alliance), whose members produce more than 400 independent films and countless hours of television programming each year and generate more than $4 billion in distribution revenues annually.
Kaufman is a true original, a filmmaker who has used the freedom of low budgets and disreputable genres to express subversive political views and provide gobs of gore and gratuitous nudity. It is hard to think of another book that is simultaneously so honest and so inspiring; the fact that it is also smart, hilarious and informative makes Produce Your Own Damn Movie! a real treasure. - Jim Hemphill, American Cinematographer Magazine
"Founder of Troma Entertainment, the longest-running entertainment studio, Kaufman knows what he's talking about when it comes to producing your own indie movie. With candid interviews featuring some of the best producers working in the field, Kaufman shares funny, helpful tips on how to get your movie made." - Goldy Moldavsky, Independent Magazine
"[Kaufman is] humorous, smart, observant, educated and at times completely insane. All the workings of a long-time producer. Lloyd goes over financials, selling films, making films cheaply and reusing scenes as much as you can get away with. Now that's talent!." - HorrorNews.net
"Candid interviews, tips, tricks and tidbits scattered throughout the DVD give filmmakers practical tools for getting a movie shoot off the ground, keeping it afloat and seeing it through to the end- Lloyd Kaufman shows you how it's really done."--Horrorbid.com!
"[D]on't expect to plop this in the tray and be led from point A to point B, thinking you'll soon know exactly what to do. However, you'll still get a ton of useful advice, especially if you're a good study, and you'll probably watch certain segments multiple times as you get ready to produce your own damn movie. But even more casual movie fans (sure, I'd like to write a few screenplays some day - who wouldn't?) such as myself can find plenty of entertainment while enjoying these 'on the down low' interviews with indie movie greats. Lloyd's always got a trick up his sleeve, but here amongst the rock bottom production costs of this set is a treasure trove of information."--DVDTalk.com
"With the advent of digital cameras and affordable home editing studios, who needs film school anymore? Sure that diploma might look great on your mom's wall, but really, isn't the best film school just going out there and making your own damn movie? Lloyd Kaufman, founder of Troma, the longest-running ultra-indie film studio in America, believes so. In this third installment of his Make Your Own Damn Movie series, he (with help from other low-budget filmmakers) offers advice on how to raise money, make the most of available production values and locations, develop business plans, and pre-sell your movie, all filtered through that irrepressibly irreverent Kaufman persona Troma fans have come to love over the years. This series is better than any film school, with more real-world, "learn by doing" applications for those of us who'll never be in the director's chair for a big corporate studio. And that's OK. They'll only water down your erotic zombie thriller anyway."--Colorado Springs Independent