Daniel Mooney

Wow, Richard that's insane. I guess that's the way it works. To this day I still won't watch Futurama's "Jurassic Bark", not even the beginning where I know there are bound to be great jokes and one liners. Having watched the ending recently, it's not as much of a downer as I remember - but then again I only watched the ending, not the full episode leading up to it. I suppose if the "Jurassic Bark" is thought of in terms of being a feature length film - then I, as well as several friends I know, would likely be avoiding it like the plague - which means others probably would too. Which means a loss of revenue. One more thing to throw out there tho. If it was made a subplot, would that help? Make him less of a dog and more of sidekick. Hell, I read stories of WWII dogs drinking beer and having their own helmets and medals and such. Maybe we open on a beach, a soldier, let's call him John and Rover,a dog, sharing a beer. John talks for the both of them. Rover's too preoccupied with his ball, looks up occasionanly. They two of them are fighting thru Normandy. John's trying to woo a nurse, Rover's is the wingman. Maybe John gets hit by a car, saving Rover's life. Rover sticks with the girl and protects her, knowing that's what John would want. Years later, Rover dies of old age and we end on Rover and the soldier, once again sharing a beer on the beach. Implied to be heaven, but could also be flashback. Something simple like that. It's an idea I've been kicking about since I started this thread, seeing as tho before I thought using a dog in anyone would cause my fellow film peers to lynch me :-P,

Email sent Djon.

Just wanna get back to it. Can anyone post BALLPARK figures for HPV productions they've worked on. I know there are disclosure agreements, but if you could just let me know the overall budget and the type of film (short, feature, etc) and the genre I would be very appreciated it. Once again, more research is still coming down to Person A screaming that it's absurd to to make something more then this much and Person B screaming it's absurd to think of making something for less then this much. So figures would be nice. Or maybe a website listing figures. Thanks! Look forward to reading more!

So technical stuff aside, What if someone did a animal centered movie with a bittersweet ending? Like a Rocky ending, yes he loses, but he also wins. I mean not only are you cheering for it, but you get the satisfaction of win, but also maybe a reality check? I don't know. I can watch dozens of characters die, but goddam Marley and I'm beside myself. Or the end of Homeward Pound....Shadow get out the dam pit...please.... The other day another friend told me about how Artex's death in Neverending story haunted him for years. So if you have balance depression and happy. Could that make it better? What about all these dogs patiently waiting for their deceased owners until their own deaths? Maybe you do one like that, but in the last shot you seen the reunited in the after life? Also is this really cheating? Because I was taught it was, but no one here seems to view it the same way. Perhaps maybe once again, my 15k put into film school, could have been saved if I just visited this website :-P Thanks!

Hello all, Another day, another question. I was talking to a friend the other day about the film Marley and Me. We both concluded how sad it is - I actually walked out of the movie halfway. But then I got to explaining to him about how I was taught in school that it was a "cheat" to use a dog in film. Any time a dog is in danger, one usually can't help by cry out. Kill a couple million civilians in laser blast from an Alien space ship - no problem. Have one dog running to safety, with the flames just behind him - everyone is at the edge of their seat. I know Disney uses alot of animal friendly films and some of them are in tense, the Homeward Bound Series is a prime example. War Horse is another more recent film to come to mind (altho I haven't seen it) So my question is, if this is such a cheat, why aren't their more emotional sob fest films about pets like Marley and Me? I mean you want to be evocative, give the audience real emotion and get people to go out and seat and remember, well there you go. Hell, hollywood will do anything else to get a buck. Unless your a cat person, seeing something like a loyal dog following it's owner to death (like the true stories about dogs waiting for years for their owners to return) has got to tear you up and make you talk about the film. Unless we're all just manly men and we're just gonna pretend we had something in our eyes.... :-P Thanks!

Okay, So I can narrowed to a number of choices (rather oversimplity it to hell) A) Make a HPV short film for 8k? B ) Go all in, use every resource and make a HPV(?) feature for 150k? C) Give up everything and move to New Zealand to live alone in a mud hut and raise sheep and never have to see another a movie again. Anyone want to give it a vote?

In case anyone is interested. You can see the first episode of my webseries at the bottom with links to others at the top. It has a tank and some really cool props, lot of which are orginal from the 40s. It was really fun to do, not fun to have to force people to watch. Apparently WWII is not in unless your last name is Speilberg. Guess I got that message late. :-( If anything, at least this might give YOU guys an idea of my skills. I want be a director, well really the whole "writer/producer/director" package like I guess everyone else probably wants to be. I had to do all the shots myself because DOP dropped out on day one. Luckily one of my actors turned out to also have some pretty good DOP skills, better then mine. He saved thing from being wideshot central LOL. http://www.tinmachinefilms.com/

Very good replies Gentlemen, I have half a dozen shorts and a web series under my name. But of course, what does that mean? Nothing to thump my chest about. I also have two failed features under my belt - yes I was that guy, as I said before, thinking "Ooh it's the digital age, I can just get this camera and get some local actors and make a movie and it will be golden!" Almost all of them are dramatic, WWII pieces which no one cares about. I have a real f#$%ing 70 ton German tank roaming around in the first episode of my web series and the most I get is a "neato" from close friends. Most won't even watch it. The first feature I could right a book about, everything went wrong. My van (it was a road trip movie and it was character in the movie) was totaled, one of my actors was deployed in the middle of the movie to Afghanistan for nine months, the other main actor disappeared for three weeks and when he came back refused to tell me what happened to him and shortly disappeared forever a month later, I was shooting guerilla so cops and angry land owners were always a problem Second feature collapsed and I later recycled it's footage into a completely different short. Finishing up my latest short now, but my audio engineer was a fluke - he never checked the levels, never wore his headset and I had made the mistaken of NOT doing sync sound at his his suggestion. All the audio was screwed up, ended up cutting it down to almost no dialogue - which actually makes it better, but it still needs one more scene shot and I've sort of felt it's not worth bothering with. I'm sort at a point where doing another short just seems....unnecessary. Like I'm just delaying the inevitable. Here's the other thing, if your not shelling out money, then every thing is all up in the air. Locations, actors, everything is that is begged/borrowed can be just as easily taken away. I'm goddam tired of people promising me this or that, or to help out or act - the negating and I'm stuck having a nervous breakdown the night before. I worked as PA on Transformers 2 and The Last Airbender. I see how these guys work, none of them care about the movie, being a part of it, they care about MONEY. When I see a movie come into town, I'm just as giddy as school girl. They just eye **(obscenity removed)** it and then call the IATSE agent in town to see if their bringing "out of towners" for this one and if not, if there is anything left. Hell, lot of them don't even watch movies. Most of them, you ask them their favorite movie and it's like "Gladiator" because that was probably the last movie they saw in theater. So it's kind of like, I know I can not just put on a beret and declare that I am going to make the greatest film ever while I stand on my pile poop shorts. But on the other hand, I feel if I make another short all "copy, credit, shooting in one location with two actors and alot of dialogue - with an end result of having to twists someone's arm behind their back to watch it" - then I'm gonna snap :-P LOL Hence my thought of doing an HPV film. Short or not, at least it's something different then the usual "Hey lets film in my basement and use what I can find to make a short film idea" sort of stuff. Keep it coming guys, I've gotten more education here then 15k I paid for my AD in Film ever gave me. :-) Dan

"Some of these people are shocked by the hard realities of the situation, others exhaust all they have making the first one." That's my biggest fear. I'm no idiot, I know that just making a kickstarter isn't enough. I've seen too many people do that. They put down they need ten grand. They make a video, pleading for the money. They share, every facebook group they can (which I don't understand, who in a indie filmmaker facebook group is going to give you money they can use for their own film?), they post everyday for weeks on end. You log in, 34 notifications "Welp Bob must be sharing his kickstarter again"..... Yep. Everyone knows I make movies, hell I was just talking to a guy I went to High School with about this and he said he'd throw me 50 bucks right of the back on kickstarter. Never even thought he would donated anything. I've advertisted for a very long time that I wanna make movies and while lots of people I know have dropped on their dreams, I haven't. I hope that this might lead to more people taking a chance. But when all that is said and done - I might walk away with just four grand. I grew up in a working poor neighbhorhood right outside of Philly. I'm not gonna make 100k in just donations, not when I know some people are just trying to get enough for rent this month. But they say "Never spend your own money." So that means calling favors, begging, maxing out credit cards, etc. When it's all said and done, I'm seeing alot of people do that and it goes no where. I was always told that if you worked hard and never give up, that your dreams would come true. But I know too many 45 year old guys, living with their folks, working a day job and shooting wedding videos on the weekend, thumping their chest and telling me that "one day they will become Speilberg". And they've been doing this for decades more then I have (I'm 25). Kinda scary. LOL. Thanks again for all the posts, I'm taking them all into consideration. Please continue to post, because right now this has given me more questions then answers O_0. Dan

Well, I remember a while ago looking up some of these "This giant monster versus that giant monster" sy fy films that were getting made, some of there were like 500k but some where we like 4 million....granted they were the usual "mockbuster" types. I've worked with SAG in the past, a new media agreement with a web series I created and short film agreement for my last short film. Doesn't phase me and I haven't had any bad experiences (except one actor who came up, just because he wanted the SAG notch to help get in. Never bothered with reading the script, did a terrible job, kept in apprioriately hitting on my actresses despite my warnings, making them feel uncomfortable. I spoke to my SAG agent about the possibiliy of just simply removing him entirely from the whole project but contracts are contracts) I was just discussing this with an actress friend the other day, she's swiftly moved from copy and credit to only paid work. We were discussing about how it seemed like there was no middle ground - it was like you either do something for copy and credit or you end up having to pay someone usual scale. You can't just hand some one a 50 spot for a day shooting that you might normally have made copy and credit LOL. Then again tho, I've had so many terrible actors come out for copy and credit, I feel like using SAG actors might be the only way. Nothing worse then putting a William Shatner next to Christian Bale. Richard, what would it be for a feature to get a big name? Because now you got me thinking about the feature route..... Thanks, Dan

Hello all, My next project I plan on working with a dedicated DOP. I'm moving out the whole "do everything yourself with an AC phase". What are somethings I should have for my DOP? How much, in terms of creating shots, should I expect him to do? How much should I be micromanaging? For example, I might have a handful of scenes that I have specific idea for it, like "Hey I want to have this camera angle because I am emulating this shot from a movie" but for the most part I'm story guy. Is that okay? Can I just - let me DOP plan all my shots for me? Or is that gross negligence on my part? I don't think a DOP, or a good one at least, could ever come up with a shot I didn't like - hell I'd shoot every scene as goddam medium shot if it were up to me. Not that I like medium shots, but I have no interest in the shots them selves. I'm more concerned with the action and dialogue and acting. If I write a scene, It goes like Tom enters the room, he pulls out a gun and threatens Jim. - In my mind. That's all one wide shot. But if my DOP says "Hey, were gonna have a close up of the door handle moving, and then pull back show the door opening and pan over to Jim to get his reaction as Tom walks in...yadda yadda." I can't imagine I would really pay that any mind. But then again is safe to assume he'd be doing that? I think that's part of his job criteria, but I've never worked with one/around one before so what do I know? So how far off am I? Am I going to be a DOP's nightmare because I leave every shot to him? I like to think I am extremely easy to please, so I won't be, but it seems like the workload fluctuates between films - some DOPs having more powers on certain projects then others. If it helps, I've been told I write very dialogue heavy (trying to work on that) with less action. I suppose there would need to be some creative camerawork to keep the audience interested. Thanks! Dan

Aye yes. I knew it wasn't going to be an easy choice, it seems like with Digital Revolution came some great things but also over-democracization - everybody is flooding the already flooded industry to "make a name" for themselves. Now let me throw this out there. Does having a big name in the project matter? For example I was talking to a producer friend in LA, she said a big name would want something like 3 grand a day. But some of the "big names" she gave me - I never heard of it. Most of them it seems get steady gigs on TV, but like I said not anyone you would know unless you were a fan of the show I suppose. So that's 3 grand a day for someone I don't know, I can't imagine what anyone bigger would be. Now for a feature, I can see how having a goofball D list actor can make some of them Sy Fy orginal movies go up into the millions. We joke about them working for a sandwich, but their still getting big bucks. Now that takes something that I've budgeted to shoot, and expands the budget to almost twice as much. I'm told you can get around this by shooting one of the big three Indie sellers - horror, low bro comedy and Science Fiction. But that you should still make a concentrated effort to get a "name". Is this true? How much of budget should I lot to getting this "name?"

I'm like this, liking these response. But to interject, I'm not looking to become Kevin Smith, and have a whole career launched with one movie (granted, for years thats what I thought I would do). I wanna start small - like getting a movie picked up for distribution - maybe show people I can make money for them, so they'll be more inclined to bankroll my next film. I know a guy with three films on netflix who does that, but he's kind of secretive as to how that came about, for obvious reasons. Would doing a HPV short help that? Either by doing a short based on a feature length script I have or at least getting some exposure and maybe a festival win, here or there? (I know trying not to sound like one of those dudes who thinks that everything he makes will be solid gold, but a guy can dream) Thanks Dan

Well I wanted to make a feature, but alot people have said that making an HPV short is the tried and true method of getting notice. Make something good with HPV and you'll get noticed. Yeah I know, not that easy. But we're you working from the bottom up, it's like what else is there? The arguement also is to make the short, have a feature script in hand and use the short to shop around the script to find investors. I've worked on ultra low budget films, people trying to make the next greatest whatever, for ten grand. They never seem to go anywhere. Most of the time they don't even seem to get finished. So Richard you would be for the "make 100k feature on your own" camp? That was my orginal idea, granted I haven't acquired said 100k and no idea where to get it.

It's not a secret, in order to make money, you gotta spend money. Am I right? For years I have done the copy and credit approach, with lackluster results. People drop out, people shuffle their feet, actresses who agreed to be in your romance film, suddenly tell you they don't do kissing the day of filming because they never bothered to reach the script, I was one of the millions of people, all dry humping Rob Rod's book "Rebel without a Crew" - triumphantly exclaiming they will become the next great "indie" filmmaker with their feature length film and it's budget.....of three thousand dollars. And it didn't work. Needless to say, plenty of others continue to knock themselves out at doing that. I, on the other hand, would like to try to a more professional approach. I want to be able to make something to draw interest to myself. I've been told to the key is to spend money. To hire real crew, real actors, pay for locations instead of skirting by guerilla style. My question is, if someone is doing a High Production Value short film - how much should it be? I hear anything from 7k to 100k. For a hundred 100k, I almost find myself like everyone else, quipping about how much Icould do with that. Granted, even your average crappy Syfy channel orginal film is still being made for at least a million, more if it has a big name in it I suppose. Spending 100K on a short seems extreme, especially when you factor in that selling shorts is difficult if not impossible. So what's a good number? 10k? 40k or do you really have to shell out 100k to make something that could get people interested in you? Thanks! Dan