Written by:
George Ohan
U.S. Army Veteran
Clovis Veterans Memorial District is committed to serving
Veterans and their families. CVMD will soon begin hosting free monthly
Entertainment Business and Independent Film production workshops for their local
community.
Memorial Day 2017
The valuable art therapy will also teach Veterans and their families how to
earn a sustainable living wage using digital technology.
CEO of the Clovis Veterans Memorial District, Mr. Lorenzo
Rios thinks that this type of education will help the entire Clovis community.
One requirement of the independent film-training program
will be for the participants to Produce a video for a local business or
non-profit. The idea behind that is, “A rising tide, lifts all ships.”
When a person learns how to tell a story using video and photography, beautiful things can happen.
Below is a guide for “indie filmmakers” to follow.
Please follow CVMD Facebook page:
2017 Memorial Day - Clovis, California
Written by: George Ohan
DISCLAIMER: There are many ways of doing many things. Below
you will read about one way of making money as an independent filmmaker.
There may be more effective ways that you like better. Please take
the time to research what works best for you.
READING is a MUST.
Independent filmmakers usually have a hard time
making money.... Why? Well, I think it’s because most of them are
actually artists, rather than business people.
So, artist.... If you no longer want to be
known as a "starving artist" please begin to develop habits that will
result in booking more paid work.
The film industry is just like any other
business when it comes to producing content. We NEED customers. We
must SEEK our target audience. People must KNOW what we do. This is
a numbers game when it comes to getting your next gig.
Keep the emotions out of the process. The
more people that you DIRECTLY ask for business, the more gigs you will book.
Vets Helping Vets - Documentary
The independent “survive & thrive” business model
is based on shooting HD video content and photography for: small businesses,
music artists, bands, events, short films, YouTube content, documentaries, and
feature length films. Everyone is a Digital Content Producer.
As an indie filmmaker, when people ask me
,"What do you do?" My response is, "I'm a producer."
That's when I notice a blank stare. -_-
After seeing this same result several times I
knew that I had to communicate more effectively about what I could do for them.
People need to know that you are the right person to help them.
U.S. Military Veteran projects:
The general public does not know that a
producer is responsible for: actors, locations, contracts, craft services,
equipment, crew, post production, and everything else it takes to PRODUCE one
project. When I explained this information to my potential clients, they
took my offer a lot more seriously.
A few of the steps that have increased my
chances of booking more work have been:
1. Set solid goals that I
want to hit. Sales, income, follow-ups, social media posts, training.
2. Gather a minimum of 3 business cards
daily (Follow up with email less than 72 hours)
3. Teach business model to all potential
partners/crew so they can book work for us too
4. Write treatments and pitch to
businesses about creating a commercial for them
5. Advertise on my personal social media TELLING people
what I do
6. Talk to 10 people that I do
NOT know daily (Build Relationships)
7. Research, Research, Research.
(Potential clients have a NEED; find it)
8. Follow-up with past customers and
gage satisfaction
Youth filmmaker / Navy Sea Cadet
9. Set a minimum of 5 appointments
per week to discuss HD content creation
10. Designate a time for
follow-ups, marketing emails, and face to face appointments
11. Search the websites on
flyers and promotional items from various places in town
12. Update all of contact information on
various websites and social media
13. Have a price list, scope of work, and
completion times readily available for clients
14. I volunteer on many
sets just to meet more people and book future gigs
15. Offer much more than just
HD content creation; help with social media too
16. Ask effective, fact finding, open-ended
questions to figure out if a person needs my service
2017 Memorial Day - CVMD
In my opinion it is every crew member's
responsibility to help book work. A producer and a director will have an
extremely hard time trying to do this on their own.
It is much more effective when an entire group
of people are working closely to book gigs.
Producer, Director, 1st AD, UPM, Gaffer, Grip,
Editor, Art Director, VFX artist, Production Designer, can all help with the
mission of booking gigs. If your team knows that the producer
can make it happen once the job is booked, you will be much more
successful.
You MUST talk to a lot of people. They
MUST know what you do. You MUST effectively communicate your objective.
Follow-ups are a MUST. Professionalism and proper presentation is a
MUST.
DISCLAIMER: There are many ways of doing many things.
Below you will read about one way of making money as an independent
filmmaker. There may be more effective ways that you like better.
Please take the time to research what works best for you.
READING is a MUST.
Written by:
George Ohan
U.S. Army Veteran
Photo by STUDENT: Cara Phagnaxay
