{"id":5073,"date":"2004-02-12T10:05:27","date_gmt":"2004-02-12T18:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/blog\/2004\/02\/12\/5073\/"},"modified":"2004-02-12T10:05:27","modified_gmt":"2004-02-12T18:05:27","slug":"image-meeting-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/?p=5073","title":{"rendered":"IMAGE meeting notes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I took notes on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imagesite.org\">IMAGE<\/a> meeting on February 11th, 02004.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>IMAGE is a society of amateur independent filmmakers from the SF peninsula.  Emphasis on &#8220;amateur.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Tonight&#8217;s topic- raising capital for indie film, speaker Dorothy Fadiman, founder of IMAGE.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Was the talk helpful?  Well, if you are making progressive documentaries or propaganda pieces, sure.  In a word, no.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.concentric.org\">Concentric Media<\/a> is the name of the Dorothy Fadiman&#8217;s production company; she has gotten the elusive &#8220;Foundation Money.&#8221;  <\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Speaker says &#8220;I&#8217;ve been doing this for decades&#8221; several times.  She teaches people about producing film and pursuing random progressive efforts.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Speaker reminds me of what Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar on &#8220;Star Trek&#8221;) would look and sound like if she was late 50s.  And a liberal New Ager.  She has a soothing yet active speaking style.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>IMAGE board member keeps mentioning the &#8220;new direction&#8221; of IMAGE- supposedly more hands-on emphasis.  Maybe that will clear out the talkers here.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Suppressing urge to kill everyone in the room.   Lots of &#8220;ho ho ho!&#8221;  I&#8217;m keeping notes to stay focussed.  So obvious barely anyone has done any production work.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Organizations exist to help clarify what project &#8220;vision&#8221; is and to acquire money for project.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Compasspoint Nonprofit Services &#8211; San Jose (408.248.9505) <\/li>\n<li>Foundation Center Office and Library &#8211; San Francisco (415.397.0902)<\/lI>\n<li>Penninsula Community Foundation &#8211; San Mateo (650.358.9392) <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>One of Dorothy&#8217;s works is called <i>Radiance<\/i> (1976)- she made a slide show of the skeleton of her movie and gathered her potential backers for it, and raised $25,000.  Her in-progress book- <i>Producing with Passion:  Making Films that Change The World<\/i><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>She also did <i>Why do these kids love school<\/i> a documentary about a school.  Gah.  Sounds really boring; I dunno.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Check that- she showed a segment.  It&#8217;s pretty sappy, and filled with 8th grade kids who love their school.  I cannot relate on any level.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>The film had a high end camera from KTEH which broke on the set.  They ended up using a VHS, for the most powerful scene.  We are shown this as an example of working within budget- she says that if she had known, she could have done it on a much smaller budget.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;People who will give you money are the people who care about that subject.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>She receives money for film about reproductive rights, from a foundation for reproductive rights (possibly NARAL?  vaguely interested but not enough to ask).  They gave her more money than she asked for because they didn&#8217;t think her budget was high enough.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p><i> When Abortion Was Illegal <\/i>, about&#8230; well, why do I even have to finish this sentence?  That one was nominated for an Academy Award and sounds like her most interesting work.  Have I mentioned most if not all of her films are documentaries? <\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Other Dorothy movies and titles:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ethiopians (starving presumably)<\/lI><br \/>\n<lI>some Indian women thing<\/li>\n<li> <i> Moment By Moment <\/i> &#8211;  spinal cord injury<\/li>\n<li> <i> Fragile Promise of Choice <\/i> &#8211; reproductive rights<\/lI>\n<\/ul>\n<p \/>\n<p>Answer the question <b>who would want to see this<\/b>.  Start from kernel and grow it.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Answer the question <b>for whom am I making this<\/b> ?<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>She tells an anecdote about a really freaky thing- since knowledge about abortions is getting scarce, self-abortion is on the rise.  Pregnant girls, unaware of their options or chased off from clinics by picketers, <b>die<\/b>.  Scary.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Actually that&#8217;s a good topic- the more general one of &#8220;who cares if we don&#8217;t teach the poor people about X.&#8221;  It could be 90 minutes of horrific spectacle!  Mwahahaha! <\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Film Arts Foundation has<\/p>\n<ul>\n<lI>budgets<\/li>\n<li>treatments<\/li>\n<p><lI>proposals<\/lI>\n<\/ul>\n<p>of other projects available for perusal.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p \/>\n<h4>Writing a proposal<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<p><lI>We will<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>shoot for X days<\/li>\n<p><lI>show at X venue<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/lI><\/p>\n<p><lI>why this<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>is a good idea<\/lI>\n<li>is relevant<\/lI>\n<li>is a better way to do it than has been done before<\/lI>\n<li>will reach people who want to see it<\/lI>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<p><lI>inflate resume<\/lI><\/p>\n<li>Distribution\n<ul>\n<lI>do research- where this film will play- e.g. &#8220;group X and group Y  want to show it&#8221;<\/lI><br \/>\n<\/uL>\n<\/li>\n<p><lI>Look at funding history of foundation- see what types of projects they have funded, and the success of each.<\/lI><\/p>\n<p><lI>Compare their &#8220;goals&#8221;- your project will help further their goals<\/lI><\/p>\n<p><lI>Timing &#8211; this film is particularly relevant now because yadda yadda<\/lI><\/p>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Whoa-<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know anyone who&#8217;s brought in a film on schedule.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Fuck that Dorothy!  We&#8217;re matching the schedule even if it kills everyone on the crew and their families.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>She tells us that we will never break even, let alone make a profit.  She tells us that she is one of the more successful filmmakers she knows, and she has never even broke even.  Paying a distributor will be just that- putting money in that won&#8217;t come out.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Friends and family gathering- &#8220;they will be the first people to give you money&#8221; &#8211; $10 or $20 even.  At the next meeting you can say &#8220;I have ten donors already.&#8221;  then build up to Ford or Packard foundation.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;No foundation wants to be the first to give you money.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Your production needs a separate account from your personal account.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Dorothy sees implying to investors that the production will be profitable as dishonest.<br \/>\n<b>She is a 503c non-profit organization.<\/b>  Donations to production are tax-deductible.  Her investors get to see making-of clips, special screenings, and possibly crew.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>That&#8217;s probably the most valuable item this far.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Most independent productions do not get finished&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Man, fuck that!<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Organizations who do NOT give you money could also be giving you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<lI>mailing lists<\/li>\n<p><lI>hold work in progress screenings<\/li>\n<p><lI>invite to their meetings <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Applying to foundations without a track record is difficult.<br \/>\nTeam up with people with track records to make proposal \/ production more credible.<br \/>\nTheir name may bring in money.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>To be more convincing:  Match your intention with who you are trying to reach<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>crew<\/li>\n<p><lI>people giving you money<\/li>\n<li>viewers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;My premieres have had 1000 people each&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Michael Wissie ?  producer and I guess publisher<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>An interesting concept:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A film is like fresh baked bread, or cookies- arrange for a showing to launch your fresh film &#8220;while it&#8217;s still hot.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8230; that is, have a venue lined up before the end of production.  I like that.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<blockquote><p>Make sure you know who you are bringing onto your crew<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Dorothy says this as a &#8220;personal conflict&#8221; angle, but to me it really resonates more with general flakitude.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<blockquote><p>Make a realistic budget and a realistic schedule<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Dorothy has done &#8220;DVD stuff&#8221;- I wonder what that means?<\/p>\n<h4>Q &#38; A<\/h4>\n<p>Here is my paraphrasing of what she said.  Note that Dorothy is much less funny in person and sounds like she should be wearing a healing crystal.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><b>Q<\/b>:  when you do the budget, do you pay yourself?  The crew?  Where do the numbers come from?<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<b>A<\/b>:  Dorothy says she always puts in money for yourself&#8230; but she never ends up taking it.  She always spends it on the production.  It&#8217;s her wiggle-room fund.  For the crew, she negotiates their prices on a case by case basis.  She knows cameramen who cost $1000 a day, and others who will work for free, sometimes as a personal favor.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p><b>Q<\/b>: will the foundation challenge your budget?<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<b>A<\/b>: No&#8230; but your numbers have to be realistic.  note they will never take money back&#8230;<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p><b>Q<\/b>: will foundations fund narrative films?<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<b>A<\/b>:  yes&#8230; but with very few exceptions they are films with a humane purpose.  They probably won&#8217;t fund a fratboy comedy&#8230; unless the film is about them drunk driving and the ensuing tragedy, or about them giving themselves liver damage.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p><b>Q<\/b>: do you pay your interviewees?<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<b>A<\/b>: Not in general, but Dorothy was forced to bribe some interviewees in the Ethiopia film.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p \/>\n<p>I should do a recruiting speech just to beat on the audience.  I would end it like:<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<blockquote><p>So if you&#8217;re looking for a great time- piss off.  There is no place for you on my crew.  We are a well-oiled precision guerilla crew, and the cogs that don&#8217;t fit get thrown away.  We finish on schedule; we finish under budget.  This is not a charity and I won&#8217;t give you a tax break.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I took notes on the IMAGE meeting on February 11th, 02004. IMAGE is a society of amateur independent filmmakers from the SF peninsula. Emphasis on &#8220;amateur.&#8221; Tonight&#8217;s topic- raising capital for indie film, speaker Dorothy Fadiman, founder of IMAGE. Was the talk helpful? Well, if you are making progressive documentaries or propaganda pieces, sure. In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-looky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}