FILM BOOK REVIEW | The Guerilla Film Makers Pocketbook

A long time ago, on an island just off the west coast of France, a trio of road-weary yet wise cineastes — Chris Jones, Andrew Zinnes, and Genevieve Jolliffe — cracked open a warm bottle of bargain bubbly, unbagged a loaf of day-old Wonder Bread, and twisted the cap off a jar of crunchy peanut butter. It was truly a momentous occasion for a feast; for they would soon be signing the founding charter of their new independent filmmaking collective. They would dub themselves Guerilla Film Makers.

Their responsibilities to each other would be simple: if one of them made it Big Time, all would make it. If one were to taste success, all would taste it together. The key was to do things as a team. Safety in DIWO (doing-it-with-others).

On that day they vowed to go where none of their British cinema-loving peers went before: to Hollywood. Not even a missing “r” in their name would stand in their way. ;-)

So our Guerillas went on to shoot three commercially-viable pictures in a nation where independent film makers routinely sought UK Film Council alms.

They made The Runner. Followed it up with White Angel. And then came Urban Ghost Story. Yep. Three brave, beautiful, and brazen films that brought them closer to the Big Show. The antithesis of the yawn-inducing stuff which currently passed for Continental European fare. Three universal stories which finally had a chance to earn back their budgets and which could be wildly popular on both sides of the Pond. Fancy that! And The heresy!

When the French and Germans heard about what our Guerillas were up to, they nearly had a fit…

Soon, our gang became known across the indie-sphere, and it changed their mission.

Convening once again in their Holy Conclave, the Guerillas uncorked a bottle of upmarket vino this time and amended their founding charter thusly: they would strive to reach out to all film makers in the world and help cure them of the disease which afflicted us all: the compulsive need to make films. Until Hollywood came a-callin’.

Mission accomplished for the Guerillas? Almost. Hear me out.

Fresh off the roller-coaster ride of his nearly Oscar-nominated multiple festival-winning short Gone Fishing, Chris was now deeply in development on his feature, Rocketboy, with writing partner Judy Goldberg. Meanwhile, he’d continue to host seminars and hone his craft.

Genevieve and Andrew? The couple were now happily living in Los Angeles taking pitch meetings for their duo of features in the pipeline.

Our Guerillas were operating.

They were firmly in the game.

And they were examples for their fans and admirers to emulate.

But this all didn’t happen in a flash. T’was a grueling harrowing process indeed. Like a bucking bronco busting out of the gates our Guerillas held firm. How did they manage to get there? What were their steps? What could we learn from their journey? Was it their iron-willed desire to tell great stories and win awards? Was it their connections, their standing on the shoulders of giants? Or was it plain old luck?

Well, it was all of these, and more.

Sadly, most of us who have a desire to make flicks won’t break through the clutter, even though we have the ability to. Any artist can brandish a good HD camera to shoot a fine script, but not make any headway in the industry.

According to Chris Jones, the most common mistake he sees amongst first-time directors is this: too big, too much, too fast. They try to do too much without the required experience and get burned by the established players and the system. Then they give up.

The Guerillas knew from personal experience that filmmaking was one hard taskmaster. New film makers would get clobbered. “The business” would pummel them. Sales agents would take massive bites out of them. The system would work to crush them and dash their dreams. Unless they could help prevent this from happening. So the Guerillas had an idea…

Sure enough, experts (like themselves) in the field were armed with answers. There were blogs, books, and expensive training seminars, yet none could guarantee success and nothing was in one place. It was all so confusing. So damn chaotic.

The Guerillas observed how most film books usually chronicled a film makers’ unique journey. Sure, books like that were inspiring as hell, yet hardly helpful. What the indie community needed was a single resource that gave advice from every conceivable quarter. Every departmental angle: sound, lighting, production design, costume, insurance and legal, all the way to a film’s sales and marketing.

They got in touch with a few of their friends to help compile a step-by-step pocketbook which would act as both guide and daily source of inspiration that would get film makers over the hump. Here’s what emerged:

Isn’t this just another one of those “must-have” filmmaking how-to books?

Short answer: sort of.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll already have covered more DIY-filmmaking books than you can shake a stick at. Some good, some miserable, yet all basically sharing a common theme: hey! you too can shoot and sell your very own movies because [insert now-famous film maker's name] did it and I was once like you — a Hollywood nobody! So just get out there and do it, they encourage.

Sounds so damn easy…

Reality is that film makers were already getting out there and doing it, but most were failing to sell what they were shooting and going heavily into debt in the process. Not only were they not flogging what they were making, but they were dropping out like flies.

Those rah-rah books usually glossed over the critical steps in the filmmaking process. The kind of stuff which usually threatened to capsize even the most stalwart film maker’s efforts at inception.

What sort of things exactly?

• Sound: how to properly capture and record on-set sound so that even if you shoot your film on the cheap your audio/dialogue and Mix & Effects (M&E) tracks are stellar. Thanks to sound mixer Adrian Bell (p110) and sound designer Bernard O’Reilly (p172), who appear in the pocketbook, readers will gain hours’ worth of professional audio consulting just for the cost of this book. The pair basically tell you what you should and shouldn’t do in a given situation so your sound is crisp and tight.
• Make-Up & Costumes: Lights, Camera, Action? Not just yet. Not before all of your actors look absolutely fabulous with makeup designed by an experienced professional wearing costumes perfect for your budget. Kat Bardot (p136) offers up some handy money-saving tips on how to make-up your players if you’re on a shoestring. Stuff you would have never considered on your own. Shanna Knecht (p130) talks about costumes as an actor’s “skin,” essential to get right for a portrayal to be as authentic as possible. For producers on tight budgets, she shares tips on how to design cost-effective, but appropriate, costumes.
• Editing: They say a film is (re)made three times: once during the write. Once during your shoot. And a final time during your edit. Eddie Hamilton (p136), an original Guerilla Film Maker who made his recent Hollywood editing debut in the wildly-popular Kick-Ass, shares tips on keeping organized during the process so edits can be handed off to replacements in case the first editor needs to take a paying gig. Gorgeous chapter!
• Marketing: The incomparable Sheri Candler (p208) suggests ways on how to design a film’s overall marketing and sales strategy: before you put finger to keyboard. Rather than shoot just any random story, best to research which potential markets your story might appeal to in advance and craft your tale from there. Think about your film’s ultimate goal: to sell itself and get those “bums in the seats,” because, as Sheri says, filmmaking is a career, not a hobby. With that in mind she reminds us of the need to monetize our work and generate revenue. She also has tips about your film’s business plan. 50% of your budget should be devoted to marketing and distribution, hence the advent of the PMD. The problem with most film makers, she asserts, is that they run out of cash by the end of post and have none left for marketing. Big mistake! In an increasingly competitive film space, your film won’t be seen. Almost as if it never even existed.
• Distribution: Jon Reiss‘ (p244) specialty. Jon wrote an entire DIY/DIWO book about non-conventional film distribution techniques. He suggests ways for striving film makers to circumvent top-heavy hard-to-break-into studio distribution channels. Jon encourages us to think about ways of monetizing our art that don’t involve waiting for someone to magically discover us. He discusses new ways of thinking about the “theatrical” experience (not necessarily between 4-walls, in other words) and ways for, say, documentary film makers to partner up with NGOs as part of cause-based stories to help evangelize documentaries to a wider audience. Jon, director of ground-breaking docs like Bomb It!, discovered plenty of tricks during the shooting of that film, and made his fair share of mistakes. In his own book, he goes into rich detail about them so you don’t have to.
• Film Festivals: Your film just wrapped and you earned yourself a well-deserved break, eh? Yes. That is, if you had a solid film festival rollout plan in place prior to the busy festival season’s kickoff. Festival consultant Susan Cohen (p200) has tips on how to stay organized during the festival submission phase so you don’t double-submit to the same ones and possibly ruin your chances of debuting at a marquee festival, or sabotage your shot at an award (excellent for sales and distribution, those awards are!). One-click festival submission sites like Withoutabox.com are popular, yet deeply saturated. Susan suggests ways on how to leapfrog the competition, with advice on how to comport yourself once you’re already there. Hot tip: as you ascend the stage to give your acceptance speech, make sure to trip! Audiences adore it!
• Sales Agents: And if you’re ultimately successful during your festival run, you’ll likely score meetings with people like Julian Richards (p218), sales agent. These are the folks who’ll represent you to potential distributors and help leverage those festival wins, your stellar DIY marketing campaign(s), and your awesome story to gain more traction internationally and ultimately help make you money. You’ll of course be signing a contract, so Julian’s got tips on what to be on the lookout for with boilerplate and what points to fight for. After this chapter, your chances of making rookie blunders will be drastically reduced and you’ll be able to sign deals with greater confidence as well.

The pocketbook is organized into sections:

• Script.
• Planning.
• Production.
• Post-Production, and
• Festivals & Sales.

These are the key spots where film makers tend to commit the most egregious mistakes over their careers, and therefore the most intuitive arrangement. Best to break out a highlighter and pen as you read, and don’t be afraid to mark up your copy. There’s so much jammed into its 316pp that it’s a wonder it still fits in your pocket. Honestly.

Best thing about The Guerilla Film Makers Pocketbook? Nine film maker case studies that recount of the writers, producers, and directors who bared the hairy film beast’s fangs and ultimately triumphed. You might even have caught some of these before:

Colin
Ink (a personal favorite!)
Ten Dead Men
Treevenge
The Black Hole
Dead Wood
Paranormal Activity
Gone Fishing
Swinging with the Finkels

So if you’re still not convinced, why don’t you read a few sample chapters at Amazon? Believe me when I tell you the learning begins from page one. This is a source you’ll return to often.

I’d like to thank Sheri Candler for getting me to read the book. It certainly isn’t the kind of thing I’ll be keeping on a shelf. ;-)

And huge thanks to Chris, Andrew, Genevieve, Judy, and Jon — and all the collaborators at Guerilla Film — who made this review possible.

Now get out there and create something amazing!