So, now I’m committed to creating quality films with Still Guerrilla Films and High Contrast Media just as I have with Ijaba Films.

Still from Sociopathica:

1. Purposeful Content
The first thing for filmmakers to consider is the purpose of their content. If your content has no social purpose, then why are you making it? Responsible filmmaking is entirely in your hands. Don’t get me wrong, this social purpose can be purely entertainment, have deep meaning, or both. I’m just saying filmmakers need to make sure the films you make are not hurting society, but enhancing, educating, and/or entertaining it.

Examples of responsible filmmaking:
The Color Purple, Nuts, Bin Jip, A Tale of Two Sisters, The Signal, American History X,The Accused

Examples of irresponsible filmmaking:
300, Birth, Training Day, Halloween (2007), Bastard Out of Carolina, The Professional, Tropic Thunder

2. The Money Crisis
This is by far the fall of the art of filmmaking. When filmmaking went from being a grassroots art to big business … I take that back, when filmmaking became about big budgets and box office sales is when we began to see the incredible decline in filmmakers’ abilities to tell good stories on film. It’s funny, when filmmakers first started using more CGI in films, they always claimed it significantly brought down the cost of making films. That wasn’t all it brought down. It brought down the quality as well. Also, while this may have been true initially, why is it the cost of making films have reached such astronomical numbers? Compare the cost of the movie Aliens to any major box office sci-fi movie since 1996 and you will find an astronomical increase in production costs. When we decide to perfect the art of making great films with less money, only then will filmmaking resurface as a true art.

3. Gear Rip Off Madness
Ahhhh the great gear rip-off. This is the insanity where manufacturers and sellers of film gear convince filmmakers that great films can’t be made unless they own the latest and greatest equipment that they make and/or sell. But here is where your critical thinking has to kick in. Were great films being made prior to this new and improved “must-have” gear? And even more importantly, did you enjoy these films made prior to this new and improved gear? Of Course! So it’s important to realize when you are being brainwashed for the sake of profit. Folks can argue you down about gear and format quality but none of that matters if the film itself is of poor quality or exceptional quality. I enjoy movies on film, I enjoy them on VHS, I enjoy them on DVD and I will enjoy them on whatever else they make them on. Likewise, for what they were created with.

4. Reclaiming the filmmaking community
The sooner the filmmaking community gets rid of elitism the better. Film snobs have no place in art. Nothing ruins a film community faster than the seeds of negativity and arrogance. Either you are in it to create something fantastic or you need to walk away. You won’t find a painter needing his ego stroked by his brushes will you? How many film projects have fallen apart because of egos and attitudes? How many have gone to ruin because of directors, cast and crew, who thought they were too good to listen to a good idea or creative criticism? You’ve all seen it, felt it, heard it. Solution: When you find these people, drop them. Let them go create by themselves like the little kid in school who couldn’t get along with others. Cast, crew or talent think they are too good to show up when scheduled or on time? Drop ‘em. What about the contract? Add attendance and attitude clauses. This may sound harsh but we are talking about an art that takes collaboration from entire groups of people. The last thing this art needs are internal knives when there are many external ones every step of the filmmaking process.

She’d written about this emerging business model where on and offline companies, including broadcast and cable networks are essentially paying filmmakers less than what they deserve for creating digital content. In addition to paying less, they are also offering less supportive services to these filmmakers as well such as covering licensing fees and insurance, etc. She mentioned that the end result will be that it becomes the norm that filmmakers make little if any money from creating films and digital media and even worse; we come to accept this.

One only has to take a look at the book publishing industry to see what the true end result of this can and will be if we allow it to continue. Publishers, particularly vanity publishers, have been robbing authors in this same fashion for decades. They have taken it a step further, requiring authors to actually pay them to publish their work. So filmmakers should beware and take this very seriously. The next step is being asked to pay to give some company world rights and total ownership of our footage.

Mrs. Bernard’s article made me give more thought to the entire process of not only being paid for footage but also thinking about the worth of the work I do. For instance, there are many such websites out there offering a mere $100 or less for video you create and edit. In addition to that, they own all the rights to the video footage. So if you think about it in terms of labor, they are paying you $100 or less for a completed video that will take at least a few days for you to finish. To break it down even further, you may spend on average 6 hours a day on the video getting it finished. And based on what I know about artistic filmmakers, the real number of hours one would spend on the video would be closer to 10-12 hours a day.

Let’s take a closer look at this. let’s go with the very least amount of hours you would spend on it; 6 hours. Then let’s say it takes you 2 days to complete the video. If you are being paid $100 for the finished video, you are being paid $8.33 /per hour. That kind of hourly rate may be fine if you are working at McDonald’s but that is not OK at all when you are making any type of film or video. The amount is even more ridiculous if you spend longer hours and/or more days to finish the video. Imagine having to add a voice over or motion graphics to it as well…

$100 is actually being pretty generous from the sites I’ve visited. Many only offer $50 or less per video. If you upload some clips on free sites, you still own the clip. So there is a difference. You can upload your work for free and then do whatever else you want with it; including create your own DVDs to sell. Trust me, you would make more money selling your own DVDs than you would giving your footage away for peanuts to these companies. They need to pay according to licensing. If they want world rights, they need to pay for world rights. It is unethical to pay filmmakers $50-100 for world rights for any footage. Period.

Why so many business models that resemble that of the plantation, slave master and slaves relationship? Why are executives being paid obscene amounts of money relative to those who create the content? Their business and organizational skills are irrelevant if they have nothing to organize. Like any group being taken advantage of, we have to assess our collective self esteem and our egos as well. We can’t be so hell bent on seeing our work on TV that we give away the rights to it for less than what should be paid for those rights; thus making it impossible to make a living as a filmmaker and to get it to the audience for which it was intended. This is exactly what happens to authors; hence the term “vanity press” is used to describe publishing services that mainly attract authors who are more hell bent on seeing their work in print than they are with effectively managing a writing career.

We also have to watch out for deception as well. As with Current.com, it clearly states on their website that compensation for videos selected to air on TV range from $2,500 to $60K. So why was I only offered $500 to put something together with cutdowns from my documentary for TV? I’m glad that I found Mrs. Bernard’s article because after having read it, did more research and given things more thought, I decided not to go the route of being paid for content unless what I am being paid is fair for the license use requested. Seriously, I used to be annoyed by what I thought were insane licensing fees charged by photographers for a single image. But I’m thinking filmmakers need to learn from them and begin to reassess our worth and the value of our art.

If you would like a general idea of what you should be charging for your time and work, please visit this reference article at NJ Creatives Network.

Shooting my first documentary was pretty straight forward. However, it wasn’t until I went to Ireland to film a documentary about Lesbian relationships that I realized the enormous personal and social responsibilities involved with filmmaking. It wasn’t some profound revelation; just a simple acknowledgment. The women were very afraid to be in the film. I had to understand their fear. I couldn’t let my own thoughts about how free they should be overshadow the fact that they weren’t. That was their reality and the film did not get done. But I had a wonderful, welcoming time there and enjoyed conversations I had with the women a great deal.

Not long after my trip to Ireland, I began planning my two new documentaries, Our Side of Joy and Charise: A Portrait of an African American with Albinism with a new appreciation for filming the lives of others. In order to film Charise: A Portrait of an African American with Albinism, I had to think about the feelings of my best friend Charise. I had to be sure she was ready and willing to tell her story and to what extent. Whatever she was ready to reveal, I would have to work with. I also had to consider if I was going to reveal, by interviewing myself, what she wouldn’t and how I would go about doing so in a productive manner.

Having known Charise for over 15 years, it is easier to talk to her about her concerns and expectations as well as mine. However, because I haven’t known identical twins, Marlene and Michelle Tamayo as long or as well as Charise, I had to put far more effort into my filmmaking process. For instance, I have to consider the feelings of the entire Tamayo family (over 30 people). I have to think about how this film will impact all of their lives.

Up until the time I arrived in Florida, the twins’ father was very concerned about the questions I was going to ask him. I had several phone conferences with the twins during pre-production to find out more about their lives and to discover what my story would be. During those conversations I was informed about a few subjects that would really upset their father. Their father would not participate if I was going to ask questions about those subjects because quite simply, they would upset him too much. So I agreed not to ask him anything about it. He did continue to worry that I would. He had every right to worry. It is so common place for filmmakers to ask hurtful or difficult questions after gaining a subject’s confidence that interviewees are justified in being concerned.

When I was done interviewing him and his wife (joint interview), I could see how relieved he was. He was so happy. I was very happy as well but sad that this is what non-fiction filmmaking has come to, where people think they will be hit over the head when they least expect it because of predatory filmmakers.

It would have been predatory for me to have decided that because I wanted to film the truth I was going to ask him about subjects I already knew would upset him. What I filmed was the truth. It was the “despite that” truth. Think about that.

I was also going to speak with a woman in Florida about doing a documentary on her life. She was in the Korean war and fled the country to save herself. When I got there, she was too afraid to do the film. Family left behind in Korea were lead to believe she was dead. If I were a predatory filmmaker I would tried to convince her of how the world really needed to hear her story even though I was already told by her children that she suffers from post traumatic stress and even watching a few minutes of footage about the war sends her into a near-catatonic state.

There are so many different things a filmmaker has to think about when dealing with the lives of others. I’ll share some examples of predatory filmmaking and a few examples of responsible filmmaking.

One example of predatory filmmaking involves a scene from the documentary, Children Underground. While overall, I found this film very riveting; there was a scene where 14 year old Violeta ‘Macarena’ Rosu was being beaten by a stranger because he didn’t like that she was crying. She was crying because she was so hungry she didn’t know what to do. So while sitting on the ground, the stranger came over to her and started kicking her and trying to stomp on her head with his foot. I was disturbed that this grown ass man would beat on a 14 yo girl instead of help and I was just as disturbed that the filmmakers did nothing but stand there filming it. It took a 16 year old to get him to stop, while other adults in the station just watched or walked by. Why would the filmmakers just stand there filming this girl being kicked and stomped by a grown man? For realism? So we can see just how brutal their lives are? Well, you know what? We don’t have to have them being beaten on film to know that being a homeless child is probably beyond hellish. And why did a 16 yo have to wedge her body between the beaten girl and the abuser while grown ass people just watched and filmed? I found the filming of this girl being beaten to be predatory. I’m sure they thought they were getting good stuff for their film all in the name of realism no doubt. It would have been effective, and in my opinion more real, if they would have intervened and added a voice over that went something like “An man, angry at Macarena’s cries of hunger, tried to beat her and we had to intervene” and add something about it being a part of the hardships of being a homeless child and how more times than not, there is no one there to help.

I also felt I needed to speak on this issue because of the new filmmakers out there who are 100% predatory. The way they approach their art is about taking away from someone, what they feel they can feed to the audience and profit from regardless of what it may do to others and they do so in such diabolical ways (i.e. Borat). I’ve seen filmmakers become damn near orgasmic upon capturing something horrible or emotionally upsetting on film.

Now consider this example of responsible filmmaking. Six year old Danny Lloyd who played “Danny” in The Shining had absolutely no idea he was in a horror movie until years after the film was released. This was because Stanley Kubrick went through great lengths to make sure he was protected from a subject matter he knew would be harmful to the child at his age. It wasn’t until years later that his mother showed him the film. Stanely Kubrick took responsibility for his filmmaking. As did the makers of Taxi Driver, making sure Jodie Foster had counseling about the part she would play in the film and using her adult sister in the racy scenes. However this wasn’t the case in the films she was in after Taxi Driver (see also Movie Review: The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane). I mean, as cute as they wanted Bugsy Malone to be, it was still children acting out a very adult story.

I could cover thousands of movies that were made by predatory filmmakers and thousands that were not, however I simply wanted to point out there are some things one should consider while filmmaking:

1. Be humble. No one owes you anything. This means you aren’t entitled to tell any story you feel like just because you decided to pick up a camera.

2. The philosophies of Journalism are wrong. The world does not need every story by any means necessary, no matter who gets destroyed in the process.

3. Think about how you can tell the story you want without information you felt you really needed. If you can’t choose another subject for your film. Don’t be so emotionally attached to what you want to film that you are willing to do it at cost to other people. In the end, it will never be worth it.

4. Don’t put people in compromising positions, especially children and young adults. There is no excuse for doing so in any fictional film. If you are shooting non-fiction and need to expose some evil corporation or business owner or something, fine, just know who to shoot and when. Don’t make other people pay for the actions of your evil subject.

The art of filmmaking shouldn’t be 100% about the audience or business. It should be a nice balance between your enjoyment of the art, sharing it with others, and being concerned about the business end just enough for a little financial sweetness.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru-FTo1o8hI

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKEuiAk_nYw

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sul0c3gzodY

I will write from the perspective that you want to make films because you love visual storytelling and because you love having a bit of fun (well a lot of fun).  This fun I speak of is also the reason why I personally enjoy really bad “b” movies. I always watch them and think “Man I bet they had fun making that!”

So let’s get down to business. Basically there is none! guerrilla filmmaking can be structured or completely on the fly. It’s up to you. One of the things I find important when making films guerrilla style is to work with other people who feel similar to how you feel about making films. Nothing puts a damper on making a film guerrilla style than someone in the cast or crew dying to go to the Oscars. Don’t spend too much time with them. There are plenty of other film projects they can work on.

When you get your fun loving crew together (or you decide to go solo by personal choice or you don’t live near fun loving people), then decide what you are going to film and FILM IT. This is what guerrilla filmmaking is all about to me. Make a decision on a subject and film it. The key is to choose something you can afford or decide how you are going to fund-raise in a reasonable amount of time so that your work isn’t put on the “shelf” because you are spending too much time begging for money. Keep in mind, you can beg for money during various stages of production so you don’t really have to beg for all the money you think you will need before filming. I will write later about how I structure my finances so that I can make movies and live at the same time.

So when you’ve decided to make a film, spend no more than a week or two brainstorming on how to make your film happen. The FREE program I would higly recommend for planning your film from start to finish is Celtx. You just can’t get any better than this program and it’s FREE. So you can’t beat that. You can literally just plan the whole film in this program in a short period of time (if you care to plan at all. Guerrilla filmmaking doesn’t really require planning).

Another fantastic resource for guerrilla filmmakers is Simply Scripts. This is a website that offers FREE unproduced scripts for you to pick and choose from. I’ll tell you a short story. Being able to write creatively is one of the gifts I was born with so I thought I shouldn’t have any problem writing a screenplay. I didn’t have a problem writing it, I just didn’t like it. I’d written a screenplay for a film I wanted to do when I got my new DVX100b. We’ll call it a “screentest” if you will. And I tell you, it was quite time consuming for someone who just wants to start shooting. After that experience, I said from now on I’ll first look for scripts that have already been written first before I decide to write my own script again, unless I really have a story I want to tell that hasn’t already been written. So I decided to do a few shorts and stumbled upon Simply Scripts. I immediately found two FANTASTIC screenplays I wanted to do. I contacted the filmmakers and they were very enthusiastic about having me film their scripts. They were also willing to do rewrites when needed. Who could ask for more?

Don’t forget to use sites like Craigslist for cast and crew. There are always plenty of people willing to work on the same terms you are … FREE or for experience. Paying cast and crew isn’t bad either when making guerrilla films, just be sure to work out terms that are fair to everyone and you will build lasting relationships. Pay when you say you will, treat ALL of your cast and crew with respect and they will enjoy working with you again. This seems to be something filmmakers overlook. If you get cast or crew that are hard to work with, it is in the best interest of the film to let them go. It doesn’t matter what skill they have or how good they are. Don’t be a film whore. It’s your art, don’t let someone dictate it. Keep in mind there are billions of humans on the planet. Trust me, you can find someone else. Again, make sure you are being fair so always do a self-check first.

I find there are many guides out there telling you how to make films and they are usually very helpful. But the bottom line is, you have to make something and you have to do it now, not later. Even if you are just filming a 2 minute short featuring a beetle bug walking across hot asphalt. There is a lot you could do with that creatively and its a great way to learn about shooting from different angles, shooting handheld, editing, etc. Anytime you point and shoot your camera you are creating a learning opportunity for yourself.

There are three types of filmmakers:

1. Traditional
2. Independent (Hybrid)
3. Guerrilla

1. The Traditional Filmmaker – This is pretty straight forward. A Traditional filmmaker is one that makes films for major film studios.

2. Independent (Hybrid)- Independent filmmaking used to include all films created without financial assistance and distribution from major film studios. However, this is no longer the case. We see many independent filmmakers who obtain financing and/or distribution from major film studios and still consider themselves and their films independent. So its independent but not really. It’s independent with help. While in some cases you may still retain a lot of control over your project, you may still be subject to the will of those offering financing and/or distribution to some degree.

3. Guerrilla – This is my personal favorite. A Guerrilla filmmaker is one who creates visual media and/or films using ones own resources from concept to distribution and with or without large financial resources. How much better can it get? Some of the best films have come from Guerrilla filmmakers (also some of the worst but at least they are funny and still retain some entertainment value).

The Bad News:
There will be no posts on this site about how to be a Traditional or Independent filmmaker unless I turn into a Zombie and try to eat your brains or unless I suddenly become a Traditional or Independent filmmaker.

The Good News:
All of the filmmaking articles on this site are written to help you become the best Guerrilla filmmaker you can be. Some may even mistake you for a Traditional or Independent filmmaker. Fancy that!

Why I chose to be a Guerrilla Filmmaker over the other two types:
Isn’t it obvious? Complete creative control. Freedom. The chance to reach my full potential. These concepts are important in everything I do. So it is only natural that they are also important for my filmmaking. This is yet another time where one has to be self-aware. To be self-aware is to understand and make decisions about projects and career goals that reflect your personality and what works for you.

There are many processes involved in filmmaking and one of the biggest factors in being successful is time management. I’m a very “time aware” person. This is one of my personality traits. The thought of waiting on other people to make my ideas happen is out of the question for me. It is also important for me to produce visual media about subjects I can support. I refuse to participate in film projects covering subjects I don’t believe in or don’t wish to support. I really could go on and on but the bottom line about why I chose to become a Guerrilla Filmmaker is … complete freedom.

Guerrilla filmmaking requires your interaction in the filmmaking process from start to finish. It also doesn’t matter which role you decide to play. If you are going to be a Guerrilla filmmaker you may have several roles or just one. You may also have your own regular crew of any size (sometimes other guerrilla filmmakers, amateurs, and/or professionals), or choose a different crew per project. You would be involved in the following stages of the film production process:  1. Development, 2. Pre-Production, 3. Production, 4. Post-Production, and 5. Distribution.

If you are thinking, “Wow, that looks like a lot!”, think again. It really isn’t. I’ll let you in on a little secret. I’m also skilled in the art of streamlining. I will teach you this art as well. This 5 step process of filmmaking can be streamlined with great efficiecy with a high quality end result (see case study post to follow).

For home, small, and medium sized businesses this also allows you to develop a small production department for your business to create your own promotional media at little cost to you. It opens up new ways for you to reach mass audiences and potential customers.

Take some time to think about whether or not guerrilla filmmaking is for you or if you’d be best suited for Traditional or Independent filmmaking (or using professional video services for your business needs). Also keep in mind that if you do good work Guerrilla style, it could also help you become a Traditional or Independent filmmaker or give you the ability to charge others for video production services. Think about it.