We welcome John Suits and Gabriel Cowan of New Artists Alliance (Bad Milo, Extracted, Static) to the podcast.
In this episode, we discuss how John and Gabriel grew their company from mostly micro budgeted films to larger scale projects on a consistent basis.
In this episode we cover:
- How to cast you film?
- Low budget film making tips.
- Working with the “gate-keepers” of the film business and how to get them on your side.
- Genre producing and doing market driven films.
- Understanding the role of social media.
- How to pick a distributor? and more…
On attracting talent:
You have to have the gate keepers on your side. As the agent, they don’t get paid unless their client gets paid. But, if you are doing a cool project and it will satisfy their client creatively and they know this project will make their client happy and that their client will be taken care of it changes their philosophy.
The talent value equation:
Trying to figure out how much your film is worth is a shockingly subjective thing. There are certain actors that are worth something internationally. It’s very few actors and it’s a very short list. Beyond that there are actors that you would think for sure they would have value. And one company would say “yes, they have value” and another would tell you “no, they have no value”. And it comes down to whether they’ve heard of them or not.
Picking a distributor:
It’s important when picking a distributor, you’re trying to pick the best home for your film. It’s not always the one that’s offering you the most money or the most theatres or markets. For each film it’s going to be different.
Enjoy the podcast as these guys go into depth on the film making process.
Other podcasts you may enjoy:
Indie film making tips with Richard Boddington
Maren Olson, Traction Media – the sales business
Producing with Neal Dodson & Corey Moosa (All is Lost, Margin Call)
Producing with Nicholas Tabarrok (The Art of the Steal, Defendor)