You don’t need an economic justification to make a movie

Make art because it matters to you and because it might make the world a more beautiful place

Filmmakers get a lot of advice shoved down their throats about marketability, knowing the audience, targeting, distribution and making money from their films.  As an MBA who had a career in business and market research before becoming an actor and filmmaker, I’m here to tell you that none of that matters. You should make a film because you feel like it, because it’s important to you and because your movie may reach someone somewhere, and leave them uplifted or affected somehow.

People spend more on a restaurant meal than you need to spend to make a small film. What would you rather have: a meal that is down the toilet a day later or a film that lives on? It’s an individual choice, and you should feel free to make that choice in favor of making a film. With careful design, planning, and a bunch of good friends, you can even make a feature film for less than people spend on a used car or a cruise vacation. Again, are you willing to forgo the car or the vacation in favor of leaving behind a real achievement like a feature film? If so, go for it!

Notice that nobody says “How will I make my money back from this cruise vacation, or this meal?” Yet people feel free to heap economic expectations on artistic projects like films. Why is that? I suspect it is part of a societal bias that sees art as being a frivolous activity, unlike, say, making and buying plastic junk that the world doesn’t need.  The fact is, the world needs more art, more beauty and more thought.  So let’s take the economics out of the equation, first by looking at some likely truths:

1. Your films won’t make money. Unless you have an amazing promotion and distribution budget, the market for your film will be your friends, family, cast and crew, and those wonderful 8 people who see every film at smaller film festivals. Of these, you and your Mom will actually pay for a download at $1.49. So forget making money from the film itself.
2. You will spend money making your films, on cast, crew, food, gear, post-production and festival fees. These costs can be minimized by developing the skills to do a lot of the work yourself, and by the help of an understanding cast and crew who believe in the project and empathize with your desire to make art. Don’t think of this as losing money, think of it as an investment: in art, in beauty and in creating a lasting artifact that lives on.
3. Your film won’t likely go viral, make you famous, get bought by a studio or any of the other things we might dream of. Buy a couple of lottery tickets instead. There is an endless amount of free material out there that competes for attention, eyeballs, money and investment. If you put your film out there, a few people will see it, and a few will enjoy it and be touched. That’s as good as it gets, almost all the time.

So let’s bake those truths into our filmmaking cake. So why continue? Well, it’s all upside from here: once you see making your film as being like buying an experience like a cruise vacation, the rest is all fun! A wise and successful director once told me: “Make the film you want, with the money you have in your pocket.” I took her words to heart. If you can afford $50, make a micro short film using your phone and submit it to free festivals. Then put it up on Vimeo and YouTube for the world to see. Promote it on social media. Share it with the world.

If you can muster up $5,000 or even $10,000, and want to make a feature film, then go for it! Set a tight budget and control it mercilessly. Write for simplicity and filmability: a small number of cast and locations, no fancy stuff. Constraint breeds ingenuity, and you will find a low-cost way of getting your most important story elements across. Can’t afford to film a car crash that is pivotal to your story? Have an actor react to a heard but unseen car crash and be describing it to someone on their cell phone; insert a free sound effect for the crash later. See where I’m going? You will find a way.

We need to make art because it matters, because it is beautiful, because it can reach people, uplift them and make them think. Your film need only make you and the few people who see it happy. Maybe you will reach more people than you planned, and maybe your message will change society. But the motivation needn’t be and shouldn’t be making money. If you want to make money, do market research, define your target market, figure out what that market wants and is willing to pay for, and make that, then spend tons more money making the market aware of your product. But then you are an order-taker, not an artist, and that isn’t likely what moves you and makes your heart sing. Make your films because they matter, and share them with a world hungry for art and beauty. Forget making money, make art instead!

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