The Movie Business

There's a reason most people don't make their own movies -- it's hard.

But this is definitely the era of the independent film. And with digital technology, it's never been easier for individuals to make their own movies outside of major Hollywood studios.

Movies like "The Blair Witch Project," "Pi," "Clerks," and "Napoleon Dynamite" (just to name a few) show that even with a small budget, if you have a quality product, you can compete with studio motion pictures that have a budget 100 times the size of yours -- or more.

For Suicide Squad, we're trying to shoot the whole thing for $50,000, which will consist of private investment (mostly from friends and family), a few creative revenue-generating schemes, our own $$, and to the least extent possible - debt.

Unlike a few other notable truly independent films, we are using working actors who are all either current members of SAG or SAG eligible, which means regardless of their good intentions, we have to pay them SAG minimum of $100/day.

When you add up actors' salaries, camera, lights, sound, craft services, insurance, prop rentals and other miscellaneous expenses, production is going to run over $2,000/day, so the faster we shoot this, the better.

I think "Napoleon Dynamite" was shot in like 22 days. We have the production benefit of shooting the whole movie in a single location (a barn, which we will rent for the period of production), so we're hoping to get primary shooting done in under two weeks. We still have to get the shot list from the director (more on him later) to figure out our shooting schedule.

While we're working on the pre-production creative process, we're also trying to get the business angles worked out -- accounting, developing LLC's for the production company and for the movie itself, contracts for the cast, director, investors, etc., and scouting locations -- all the while, trying to get the best deals on everything we can find.

But with each step, our dream is coming closer to becoming a reality.

I bought my plane ticket to LA last night. I'll be heading out there to meet the director and cast for the first time next month when we do a table read of the script.

More later,
Glenn