The No Film School Podcast

In this episode of Indie Film Weekly, No Film School co-hosts Liz Nord and Erik Luers and discuss whether independent filmmakers ultimately pay the price in the ongoing war between Netflix and the Cannes Film Festival. We also preview the Tribeca Film Festival, which we will be covering in depth over the next two weeks, and say a sad goodbye to influential film director Milos Forman, who passed away last Friday. Charles Haine joins us for gear and tech news, wherein he recaps the best new filmmaking toys and tools that our team discovered over four days at America’s biggest broadcasting expo. Charles also answers an Ask No Film School question about how to put together a showreel for sound design. As always, we also bring you the latest gear news, upcoming grant and festival deadlines, new indie film releases, weekly words of industry wisdom, and other notable things you might have missed while you were busy making films. You can see all the links from this show in this week’s podcast post at www.nofilmschool.com   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of our step-by-step podcast on how to get your first feature made, we dive into the pitching and financing processes on Ryan Koo's Netflix Film AMATEUR. This episode covers his experiences pitching Amateur eighty (!) times and eventually getting it to Netflix, including the following points: Making a pitch into a back-and-forth conversation as early as possible; What goes into a pitch packet other than the script, including a rip-o-matic/multimedia lookbook; Using CRM software to track producers and financiers (Ryan used Streak); How rejection can be a development process unto itself; Why "producer" is an amorphous term and how to identify producers with complementary skill sets; Who his producers were (Jason Michael Berman, Chip Hourihan, and Mark Moran) and what their roles were; and finally, How he got the film to Netflix. Watch Amateur on Netflix, available now worldwide at netflix.com/amateur. You can find all other episodes of The First Feature at nofilmschool.com/firstfeature. This episode of The First Feature is sponsored by Music Bed. Get 20% off you next on-site license with coupon code "FirstFeature20." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The landscape for short films is changing quickly. One might say we're entering a "Golden Age," where content is being taken seriously and you can even make money off of a five-minute video...if you get the right eyes on it. Traditionally, getting those views used to be all about submitting your project onto the festival circuit. This also came with the stipulation that you couldn't exhibit your project online or anywhere else if you wanted to make it in. That's not the case anymore.  Many aspiring filmmakers may not know just how valuable a Vimeo Staff Pick can be to your career. The distinction, which celebrated its tenth anniversary at SXSW this year, can lead not only to massive exposure but gigs from brands, producers and even music companies. You can really make a name for yourself if you're one of the 3-4 projects selected every day. Case and point, Jon Fusco's guests on today's show who have a combined 19 video staff picks between them: DANIELS, of Swiss Army Man fame, and Kirsten Lepore who's animated shorts in the style of Hi, Stranger led to jobs like creating an episode of Adventure Time, which later went on to win an Emmy. Together they join Vimeo's Head of Curation Sam Morrill to discuss how to get a Vimeo Staff Pick, what that Staff Pick can do for your career and how to best position yourself for a successful career after creating a short. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this special episode of Indie Film Weekly, Charles Haine, Andy Zou, and Jon Fusco broadcast live from the historic Plaza Hotel in downtown Las Vegas. The trio of No Film School editors come together to discuss their first couple of days of non-stop coverage at the annual NAB Show. And man, did this year's convention come through in a big way. While we've seen less of the sexy lenses and cameras that were abundant earlier in the decade, certain pieces of gear (including major products in the lighting department) signal that we could very well be on our way to a new era of filmmaking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of our step-by-step podcast on how to get your first feature made, we dive into the screenwriting process on No Film School founder Ryan Koo's Netflix Film Amateur (out now!). This episode covers many screenwriting tips and tricks, including: Tracking your hours to ensure you prioritize screenwriting in your life; Brainstorming out loud and recording yourself so you don't forget a lightbulb moment; Writing your first draft by hand to ensure you finish it and you can't go back and edit; Spending >50% of your time NOT in screenwriting software — researching, outlining, breaking the story; Why applying for grants can be helpful even if you don't win them; The Sundance Screenwriters Lab (which we did an entire podcast on at Sundance); Doing entire drafts from the perspective of supporting characters; Apps like Workflowy, Final Draft, and WriterDuet; and Workshopping your script with actors at table reads. Watch Amateur on Netflix, available now worldwide. You can find all other episodes of The First Feature at nofilmschool.com/firstfeature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What would you do if you were tasked with building an entire universe on an infinitesimally small budget? Where would you even start? This is probably the biggest problem that any independent filmmaker with a science fiction project must solve. Co-Directors Zeek Earl and Christopher Caldwell have found a solution. To put it plainly, you can't separate the money from the creativity. For Earl, Caldwell and producer Brice Budke, this meant that every creative decision was tied with a producing decision. Perhaps the most important of these decisions was to rent a warehouse in Seattle, fill it up with thirty different artists (from bike-makers to carpenters), and go through seven months of pre-production, building the universe of their debut feature "Prospect" as practically and detailed as they could. Their efforts garnered them the Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award after their premiere at SXSW. This singled out their film as the best in the Visions category. NFS Producer Jon Fusco sits down with Zeek, Christopher and Brice to discuss their old-school, unorthodox methods and what it takes to build a Utopia in pre-production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Indie Film Weekly, No Film School co-hosts Liz Nord and Jon Fusco discuss a new finding on the average length of Oscar-winning short films and what it means for you, which digital companies may be replacing the Hollywood studio system once and for all, and why some audiences in Asia may be missing out on the most popular indie films. In tech and gear news we get in the mood for NAB with some filmmaker-friendly updates from Adobe and more. Filmmaker and editor Josh Granger joins us to answer an Ask No Film School question about using multiple nested timelines in Premiere Pro. As always, we also bring you the latest gear news, upcoming grant and festival deadlines, new indie film releases, weekly words of industry wisdom, and other notable things you might have missed while you were busy making films. You can see all the links from this show in this week’s podcast post at nofilmschool.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here's Episode Two of our new podcast series The First Feature. This is a step-by-step guide on how to get your first feature made, using Ryan Koo's new Netflix Original Film AMATEUR as a case study. In this episode, we get into: Whether or not your short should be a proof-of-concept for a feature, how to make production manageable and cost-effective for a short film, auditioning, casting, and finding crew for a short without a lot of personal connections, production prep, how much money you need to make your short, and how to distribute it once its done. AMATEUR will premiere on Netflix on April 6, 2018. You can find all episodes of The First Feature at nofilmschool.com/firstfeature Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Director/Writer Olivia Newman, DP Ashley Connor, Editor Tamara Meem, and producers Chanelle Elaine and Bryan Unkeless of ‘First Match’ join No Film School’s Liz Nord to discuss how they took their film from short to Netflix Original feature, how they made a sports movie inside a personal narrative instead of the other way around, and the strategies they used to stretch a limited production budget into creating a very polished final product. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Indie Film Weekly, No Film School co-hosts Liz Nord, Jon Fusco, and Erik Luers discuss the MoviePass effect on indie films and a whole bunch of ways the industry is throwing shade on Netflix—including promising young upstart Steven Spielberg. Charles Haine joins us for gear news, including Canon’s entry into the Full Frame Cinema market with the C700 FF. Charles also answers an Ask No Film School question about recording pro-res. As always, we also bring you the latest gear news, upcoming grant and festival deadlines, new indie film releases, weekly words of industry wisdom, and other notable things you might have missed while you were busy making films. You can see all the links from this show in this week’s podcast post at nofilmschool.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices