How do I not let other people discourage me out of my goal?

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Okay thanks, but I feel like I can't afford to keep making shorts, and I can't just keep making them waiting for someone to give me the thumbs up with funding.

It's just a matter of money and time, and I feel like I am getting old and finally want to do something I want in my life to make money. If I had more money and more time I would make more shorts seeing if I could get funding from someone else down the line, but I feel not having enough money both several shorts and a feature is causing me to have to make a decision to go to the feature sooner.

But people act like I am short cutting out of laziness or something. I feel like I am working my ass off, it's just that there is not a lot of money and resources for me to do it with, and I feel I have to make the best with what I have. This is why I wanted to fund a feature film myself, if I have to, and hope to sell that movie, rather than spending the money all on shorts. I was told that features are more successful than shorts anyway, if I could only afford to make one from the money I have left.

I'm not in the industry.. but it seems that people are giving you tried, tested, and true industry advice and you're ignoring it to potentially your own peril.

What's the probability of your feature being sold? (I don't know.) Let's say it's 20%. So you'd have an 80% chance of losing all your money. That wouldn't be good. That's part of why people make features with OPM (Other Peoples' Money) vs. their own. And they're given OPM to do it with because someone has faith they can pull it off based on the success of their shorts. If you haven't had a wildly successful short yet - film fest awards, gone viral etc, then the thing to do is keep making shorts until you do.

As for your age.. you're 34. You still have 40+ YEARS to make movies - maybe more. Most people who have great success in business and finance achieve their success AFTER age 40, not before. To think that 34 is getting too old and so you have to make a quick decision to just go for it is ill informed. 34 is juuuuust getting started.. finally you have enough industry and life experience to know what to do, now you just need to keep doing it until the right opportunities present themselves based on the merits & success of the work you keep doing.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

Well it's just that all the other filmmakers I know have already made their first features at younger ages so I feel like I am starting out late.

Plus, it's not that I mean to ignore it, it's just I don't have enough money to make like say 20 short films and then a feature after. I really do want to make the feature and see how it does, but do not have enough money to do it all.

When you say the right opportunity presents itself, what do you mean? If I want something done, I'm going to have to take the opportunity myself. How is the opportunity to make a feature just going to fall in my lap down the road?

One thing I was told by other filmmakers and also told in film school, was that you can't just keep waiting for the opportunity to make your first feature to fall into your lap, and you have to do it yourself though. But if that is not true, where do these opportunities come from?

Plus every filmmaker I know personally, or read about said they all had to make their first features themselves to get started and that's normal. So why didn't they wait for others to drop it in their laps if that is the better thing to do?

Do you have enough money to do it yourself? (You say that you do not. So you have no choice but to persist until someone else is willing to pay for it, IMO.)

IF you can make a feature with the money you have, are you ok with spending it all, making your feature, having it crash, burn, and fail horrifically - i.e. No One likes it, no one will buy it, it will never be screened anywhere, not in a theatre, direct to DVD, movie channel, late night filler material, online streaming service.. and when you upload it to YouTube to try to give it away for free it gets exactly Zero views.. are you ok with that?

IF your goal is to make this movie come hell or high water and you don't care one bit if it fails completely and you lose all of your money because you'd rather have $0 & downgrade yourself to sweeping up the studio than not make this movie.. well then, maybe you just need to make the movie, hope for the best, and accept the worst if it happens. IF you are okay with being flat broke/bankrupt and starting over from zero again.

IF you're not prepared for that, or you don't believe in yourself or your movie enough to gamble absolutely everything you have, then just carry on until either an opportunity presents itself for you to work on a feature, or you build up enough money of your own as well as improve your movie concept and confidence and then go for it.

And by opportunity presenting itself I mean exactly that. It could come in many forms. You might bump into someone in the business while shooting, at a film fest, or at a coffee shop etc anywhere, any time, and you pitch your idea, they love it (because they are a business person and think they can make money with it) and want to be a part of making it happen, and then work with you on bringing it to reality.

Maybe you should try actively pitching your movie idea to various studios to see if they'd be interested in paying to bring it to life? You might be able to get someone to pay you to make it vs. take all the risk on yourself. And if you pitch it to all the studios you think might do it, and they all say no, each time, ask them why & pay attention to their feedback. If they tell you the story is weak, work on that. If they tell you you don't have enough of a track record of success yet, then work on that. If you're not sure what else they want from you in order to push them over to a "Yes, let's make this movie," then ask them - let them know you're willing to do whatever it takes to do this, even if it means working hard for another few years before you return to pitch them again.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

Well I was told by others that I should make it for a much cheaper budget, like around 10k, which I could do. I can see about pitching it as well.

I don't like the idea of pitching it to studios, cause other filmmakers I know have done that but then studio says they will give you the money, but you must do this, this and this, and they impose all these conditions on you which actually make the movie more challenging to make as a result. Just my experience when working under other filmmakers who have done it.

But I can try still and see.

"He who holds the gold makes the rules."

If you make it with their money, you have to do what they want. Typically they want you to do what they think will help make them money. Often they're right, sometimes not.

If you make it with your money, you can do whatever you want, and then either reap the rewards or suffer the consequences.

If you can make it for $10K, how long would it take you to come up with the $10K? i.e. if in 6-24 months you can finances it yourself, make it your goal and then just accept sink or swim whatever the film does.

What's your goal with the film? To enter film fests? To sell it to a cinema chain for broad distribution on the big screen? There HAVE BEEN some very low budget movies that have made it to the big screen.. but you've got to ask yourself what a realistic goal is for a movie that's made on a $10K budget. If you're aiming for acceptance into film fest to hopefully have it screened and get some recognition, maybe a gig out of it if someone really likes your work.. okay, cool. If you're banking on it becoming a runaway success at the box office.. well, not likely.

Also, as my cousin put it.. no one makes money making shorts. They work their assess off at 2 or 3 jobs in order to finance their shorts in order to build their portfolio, exposure, contacts etc until they can catch a break and work on a feature because they persisted and eventually someone with money & influence sees their work and decides to extend them that opportunity.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

I got that money now. My goal is to sell it for distribution.

As for them wanting to make it the way they want, sometimes that's fine as long as the challenges they present me with don't make the tasks worse, but so for it has for the other filmmakers.

As for working 2 to 3 jobs, I tried that before, but couldn't find two more other jobs, where the job times don't all conflict with each other. So I wanted to have a plan B for the feature in case I don't get other jobs, which seems to be the case.

I'd be extremely sceptical of a film with a $10K budget being a final product that any distributor would buy, promote, and play.

It's not impossible.. but damned near.

I watched a GREAT film fest movie called Primer once that was made for less than $10K and was really rather well done for a movie shot in a storage locker, pretty much. But it didn't get sold for wide scale distribution.

One low budget horror movie my cousin worked on ended up costing somewhere between $350-500k, something like that, but apparently had the visual impact of a movie that typically costs a few Million dollars & so was rather impressive on that budget. I went to the premier screening where the writer/producers, actors, and crew were there. It was neat. The producers goal was to sell it for distribution.. afaik, it didn't sell at auction to anyone for anything and may never be screened again besides that one singular premier showing for the cast, crew, and friends. And that was for a "low budget," $350-500K.

$10K doesn't even typically pay for permits, never mind.. anything else. Then again, I have no idea what your concept is nor how you intend to shoot it, process it, and put it together as a finished project. I'm sure something like the Blair Witch Project could be shot & pieced together for $10K if someone had to.

All I'm saying with this post is that widespread distribution for a movie made for $10K is ALMOST impossible to achieve and THAT is why people are cautioning you from spending your money on it.

IF you choose to make this movie for $10K, simply assume you're spending $10K to do what you want and the simple fact of doing it is all you're expecting for your money. And then IF it is picked up by anyone and screened EVER, anywhere, even once.. well then, consider that an unexpected bonus. But don't set your sights on someone picking up a $10K movie to spend tens to hundreds of thousands, if not Millions, of dollars promoting.. it simply isn't very realistic. It is Possible, but Extremely Unlikely unless you are some sort of magical miracle maker and truly can perform some sort of film industry alchemy on a shoestring budget that's less than the catering budget of a low budget film.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

Well I was told 10k is better for me cause it's a loss that I can recover from if the film doesn't sell. But at the same time, I don't want to make it so it doesn't sell, cause I didn't spend enough on it either for sure.

I just feel like I am not going to get other people's money on board with it, without them imposing more challenging conditions like from what I have seen done to others in the past.

Like for example, one filmmaker I know got funding, but then he was forced to work with all these people that the producers chose him even though those people may not have been the best for the project, and did not have the best working relationship with him, compared to people he were to pick himself, if he were to have his own control over that.

And they wanted it shot with multiple cameras simultaneously, which means he had to shoot it in a sitcom/soap opera style with all the shots one one side of the room. So the cast and crew, and the filmmaking style and look, were all decided for him, and was a bigger challenge for him to work around as a result.

So that is the problem with relying on other people's money it seems.