Yes, we know the title says “filmmakers,” but let’s get real. If you’re even thinking about creating, say, a web series (let alone a broadcast or cable series), you’ve just put yourself square into the indie filmmaker camp. (In other words, ‘fess up: Where do you watch most of the films you see? On the web or your TV, are we right?)
by Gary Nick Dawson
Gary Hustwit is a successful documentary filmmaker. Last week Filmmaker magazine ran an article by Nick Dawson, called “Gary Huswit’s 10 Web Tips for Doc Filmmakers.” The article is drawn from a workshop run by Hustwit at the 2012 Documentary Lab, which is an initiative of the Independent Filmmaker Project in New York. And although the focus is on documentary filmmaking, many of the principles can be applied to any independent filmmaking project. =&0=& With his most recent film, Urbanized, Hustwit launched a website for the movie after he been working on the film for a year, meaning he had a lot of work already under his belt and a clear sense of where the project was going. =&1=& Three of the urban design projects featured in Urbanized came to his attention via Twitter. Hustwit reaches out to his 150,00 Twitter followers to solicit suggestions for venues in certain cities or towns that he doesn’t know or has not been to recently. =&2=& Aside from tweeting, blog a couple of times a week and send out a newsletter every one or two months when you’re still in production, and once every two weeks when your film is actually screening. When teasing your film during production, put up pictures but not footage.Read it all at Adelaide ScreenwriterThe fantasy of what your film’s going to be about is often better than the reality….