Yes, Yes, I know! In my last articles I was talking about crowd funding to get enough money together to shoot ‘Dancer in the Light’.

But this post is about something else. I’ve said it before, ‘Dancer in the Light’ is going to be mentally huge. It needs a bit of money. And people who are familiar with the business know that even the £3000-£5000 I want to raise are a ridiculously small amount to shoot a film.

But this is not about huge projects. Not that big. ‘BATHROOM’ was a quite big project, but it’s gonna be tiny compared to ‘Dancer in the Light’.

Now, I’ve looked a bit through the internet and found some ebooks about independent and low budget film making.

I was a bit shocked, for example the first one I thought was talking about the movie the filmmakers produced for a few thousand Dollars, like I will with ‘Dancer in the Light’, but when I looked at the trailer I was terrified. It was a bit hard to find a link to the actual movie and there’s a reason for that. If your film hasn’t got anything interesting to it, and looks like a school pupil just-for-fun film, then you should really not write an advice book about filmmaking, no matter how cheap it was (I really don’t know what they spent the money on…).

The second ebook was talking about how to make a movie with a “very, very little budget’. When I read through the description, this guy talked about his first short films and they all cost him at least $25.000 each. He’s right in his description. This is a “very, very little budget”, compared to a Hollywood blockbuster…

You want to know what I spent on ‘BATHROOM’? As you know, I shot this movie seven years ago. I was 15 years old. I know it’s not perfect, but I’m still pretty proud of it. So, do you want to know?

I spent 100€.

And I know that the film does definitely not look cheap even though I wasn’t as much of a perfectionist back then. But you can see what is possible with nearly no budget.

‘BATHROOM’ was shot within two weeks. I love working spontaneous. I wrote the script within one week and two more later it was shot. One month later was the premier in a cinema.

Unless you have a world changing film idea, fuck finding sponsors! And even if it’s world changing think about it twice!

You will benefit from the shooting experience much more if you force yourself to be creative for you can’t just pay for the things you need.

Instead you have to find a way to get them for free. This way you make new connections, you find new friends, you learn great new techniques and train your creative thinking.

Also you don’t need to wait for some annoying sponsors to answer anymore. You can just start shooting!

A friend of a friend of mine still tries to convince her sponsors to give her the money for a documentary about Kenya. If she would have paid for the camera and the flight herself (which is by far not as much money as she wanted from the sponsors), then she would have her footage already and it would probably be much more personal.

Especially for documentaries you really don’t need expensive high resolution cameras. Damn it! Take your bloody Iphone and tell the story!

Don’t let any sponsors hold you back from bringing the idea you are passionate about to life!

Just create! Not only it will free you from being dependent from sponsors, but also your project will become much more authentic!

This documentary film maker has been waiting for her sponsors for one year. And she still waits.

Film doesn’t need an extremely high budget! All you need is creativity and knowledge. And that’s stuff that you can get completely for free these days.

Go and make your project happen! No matter what it takes! Do the best you can do and don’t let you hold back from money!

Because, I don’t have $25.000 to make a “movie for a very, very small budget”. If I would I’d either be rich or spend my time working some shit job instead of making film unless I’d like to wait for one year+ to get a sponsorship.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m planning to raise a budget for ‘Dancer in the Light’ to make it a big and more importantly a successful project. Why successful? Is it because I want the fame? is it because I want the money? Well, I’m not gonna lie to you, these things would be a great side effect, but more important to me is that people see this film because it will teach a lesson.

‘Dancer in the Light’ will make people come out of the cinema or stop the DVD player with open eyes and an open mouth. People will think “Oh shit, this is so true!”. And the more people I can get to this stage, the more people I can reach with the movie, the more people will think that it is time to change their lives for the better.

Anyway, to raise the money for the movie, I need to provide some insight for my sponsors without spoiling the story for them. And the problem is, that the most interesting part about the idea and the concept mustn’t be told.

So how can I inspire people to give me money for something that doesn’t even look half as amazing as it actually is?

I’ve been busy organizing recently. My plans are to design a preposter for the movie, that will give a hint about the story, but not tell too much. Furthermore I want to shoot one or two scenes from the script cheaply, simply to give the sponsors an idea of what the movie will look like.

To do these things I don’t have too much time as I’d like to shoot another project in Austria in the near future (I will tell you about this soon) and well, ‘Dancer in the Light’ is gonna be a story being shot in London. So I am very limited and I hope a lot of planning will help me getting the best value for my audience to convince a few people that ‘Dancer in the Light’ is definitely worth a sponsoring.

Big plans and limited time. I hope I’m gonna do it anyway. Fingers crossed.

Last night I’ve been lying awake for hours. Why? Well, I usually lay awake for ages, but I usually think about personal problems. This time one of these problems has disappeared and BAAAAAAAAAMMMMM! Thousand film ideas and new clues for the ‘Dancer in the Light’ script crashed into my head.

The first time - in the beginning of February - I started thinking about the idea of a movie in which the sun disappears over night, I had no clue that this project would become so enormous. I thought it would be a short movie. And now it keeps growing and growing.

At first I tried to resist the feature film pressure, but after more and more ideas started entering my tiny head, I just decided to go with the flow and start evolving the original idea and brainstorm everything together.

Damaging my sleeping pattern, most of my best ideas an brainstorm moments happen at night time.

Last night my movie got a completely new character that doesn’t really stand in relation with any of the other. He’ll live his own story. Still, this character rounds up the entire concept.

I’ll have to change a few scenes in the bit of script I’ve written already even though the character hasn’t even been introduced at this point.

And I know that I will change the script a lot again and again. Simply because the more ideas I get the rounder the whole story and concept gets. I’ll keep adding and cutting scenes and characters as long as this script is absolutely perfect. I’ve said it in another post: This movie will have the ability to change lives.

What I want to say is: Don’t rush your script writing because you want to get shooting finally. The writing phase is the most important part of the entire film making process.

Without a brilliant story and concept, your project will only be ‘another independent film’.

We don’t want that, right? I mean, we write our stories to show it to as many people as possible. We need to inspire these people to watch the film over and over again. We have to inspire them to show the movie to their friends to make them new fans.

Word of mouth is our best advert!

It’s always been like this: If you don’t have shit loads of money to advertise your product, then you’ll have to give people something that makes them talk about it. That’s either a great Guerrilla campaign or an outstanding product.

If you can’t provide either of this, then you and your project are basically screwed if you don’t have the money to bring your trailer to millions of people.

I personally prefer to provide the best value I can if I want to bring my message to a huge audience.

Of course all other stages of making a film are just as important. But the script writing phase is the birth of your project.

And a baby without arms or legs will always have problems to climb a ladder. 

Over the last two weeks I started realising that ‘Dancer in the Light’ will be a bigger project than expected. I might even have to wait until next Winter to shoot it. I don’t like that idea, cause I love to shoot spontaneously, but the story happens in December, so there’s not much of a way around if I want to do this properly.

So far I kept saying that I will shoot it on my Flipcam in the worst case. I want to tell a story with the pictures I take, so the quality isn’t as important to me usually. But ‘Dancer in the Light’ will be more than just a story. It will have a very important lesson to it. This movie is supposed to change lives.

And so I come more and more to the point where I see that I need some professional equipment. But how do I get it? I’m just starting over again with my films, so there is no budget at all.

I’d like to shoot the film with a Canon 6D and take the sound with a boom. Also a simple camera stabilizer will be necessary. I still want to go with the original lighting on set though. This became kinda important to me.

The equipment in combination with some important plane tickets I will have to come up with at least £3000.

I never really thought about getting sponsors. Simply because sponsors tend to change your script if they don’t like something about it. And so far you should know that I want to do exactly my thing. I appreciate critics, but I only change things if it sounds good to me. It’s my project after all.

But the rules of the game have changed since I’ve left the independent film business two years ago. And again: The internet made it possible!

The idea of crowd funding appeals much more to me for it goes perfectly with my idea of finding an audience. During my research to update my knowledge about changes in the business, I stumbled upon pages like Indiegogo and Crowdfunder. They provide exactly this service.

You explain your project as well as possible and present it as exciting as possible to share it with other people. If these people like your project they can donate their choice of an amount to you. If they can’t afford it, they can also share it with their friends to help you. Anyway, the money will only be taken from their bank account if the donation goal has been raised. So the donators can’t lose anything if the goal hasn’t been reached.

This is an absolutely amazing concept! So I’m considering making use of this service soon. Therefore I need to grow my audience a bit though (if you like what I write, please share Independent-Filmer.com with your friends and colleagues).

Also I need to find out if either Indiegogo or Crowdfunder suit me better. Crowdfunder has a co.uk domain, so I suppose it might be more interesting to me as I’m gonna shoot in London. Do you know more about this? Which one should I choose?

Anyway, I’m planning to set up a page with a video of me talking about the project and a transcript of this video.

Oh dear, so much effort. I’ve never put so much financial effort in any of my projects. Why do I do it this time?

Because ‘Dancer in the Light’ is going to be AMAZING. I can’t explain it without spoiling the story yet, but I’m serious when I say that it will be able to change lives.

Watch the full movie for free here!

Even though there were a few attempts before it: My very first long movie was ‘BATHROOM’. Over the years my style has changed a lot, still I’d like to go back to the roots as I still think that ‘BATHROOM’ was the most artistic and poetic movie I’ve made so far.

The movie starts off in a small bathroom, filled with four sleeping teenagers. A siren outside breaks the silence. Conversations an confrontations between the young people bring us back to what happened the days before. Also we get to know a bit more about the background of every single person.

We shot ‘BATHROOM’ within two weekends. 2/3 of the movie are inside the small bathroom. The rest is either in the other parts of the flat, a hospital or on the streets of Vienna.

Especially the scenes in the bathroom were a challenge, as the room has about four square meters - including the bath tub - and we had to fit in the four actors a camera man and sound person as well as two spots that heated the situation up extremely, especially at the scenes with the closed door.

Most of the time I spent sitting in an rather uncomfortable bathtub. For the shots from the other direction, I got rid of the bathroom door.

It was great fun to shoot ‘BATHROOM’ and that’s what it was all about. We were professional, but we had fun as well. 

After ‘BATHROOM’ my movies changed and became more and more commercial. And even though we still had a laugh, I noticed how the fun I once had faded. I tried to live up to the expectations of an audience that didn’t understand my first movie. People who felt slightly uncomfortable because they saw something unusual.

I know my film making has grown, even in the time that I didn’t work, but I still think ‘BATHROOM’ is one of the best movies I’ve made and I want to go back to the point where I don’t really care what my audience thinks. Instead I want the Audience that loves my work as it is to come to me.

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After seven years I finally got around to upload my first movie to the internet, including English subtitles. I hope you enjoy it! Click here to watch the movie!

Over the last two years I stayed out of the independent film scene because I tried to focus on other things in my life. Now that I’ve come back, I try to watch as many short movies as possible to catch up with the latest trents and how techniques have evolved.

I got the impression that the focus has moved away from Star Wars imitations and that a lot of independent filmmakers have gone back to the old zombie and splatter genre.

Luckily I also found some really amazing shorts that focus on an actual story and that try to bring a point and strong emotions across. A good example therefore is ‘Flowers’ by Jack Tew.

I have to admit that I’m not a big fan of zombie movies in most cases. That doesn’t matter though because they have a big audience anyway.

But to me film is about telling stories and I’m very sorry to say that, but most independent zombie films don’t have much of a story. They usually don’t tell us much about the people that are involved.

It’s all about surviving. And that’s good. After all that’s what this genre is all about. But besides running, shooting and hiding the main characters often don’t have much of a personality. Sometimes there is a small love story going on, but that’s usually it.

I am not planning to make a zombie movie anytime soon, but as some of you have seen in my recent post, I am working on an apocalypse script as well.

I just finished writing a few more scenes and I see how hard it is to not focus on the main problem - in my case the unexplainable disappearance of the Sun - too much.

In my film human kind doesn’t have to run away from a terrible disease - we are in a race against time to find a solution to keep our race alive.

The problem is, that I don’t want to focus on the catastrophe too much. In my opinion a film should show a personal development in it’s characters and not only how they try to survive.

As much as I like shooting spontaneous films, the script is one of the most important parts of the process and we should absolutely not save time when we write it. Every single text line should be well thought through. Every change in our characters must make an important impact.

Make zombie movies. Please, I am the last one to tell you not to do it if you are crazy about it! I always say that you should do your thing. Make it exactly like you want it to be!

But if your film is just another zombie movie, it will just drown within this sea of splatters that are available already!

What makes your film special? What makes your story special? Why should people watch YOUR zombie movie?

Be yourself, but be special and show the world why you are the best zombie filmmaker!

I have mentioned it before: I am writing a new script and even though I was hoping to make it a short, my friend Claire convinced me that this concept needs a feature movie. Or at least more than just 15 minutes…

‘Dancer in the Light’ - working title, that could still change. Please tell me your opinion - is probably going to be the most artistic and poetic movie I’ve ever made.

The script starts with a night shot of Big Ben, ringing three o’clock. The camera turns then and shows a digital clock that reveals that it’s actually 3pm. A closer look at the date explains that the story is based in a time that many people fear: the 23rd of December 2012.

Two days ago the sun has disappeared over night without any explanation. The world is freezing and the only people who seem to be kind of happy have stopped talking.

While everybody reacts differently - from giving up to coming up with absolutely desperate ideas to escape from the planet - the siblings, Amy and David meet a busking singer who is one of the people who have stopped taking.

This fateful meeting intrigues especially the young David who starts seeing the artist more often until he finds out that not everything is the way it seems to be and turns his entire life upside down.

Obviously I don’t want to give away too much, but the movie will have an unexpected twist that will show the 2012 panic in a completely different light.

Whilst I’m aware of the fact that light is a very important part of the concept I intend to shoot the movie mainly without any spots and use what’s given on the set.

This and only handheld camera will give the movie a slight documentary style that’s supposed to drag the audience even deeper into a cold, hopeless London.

I am a big fan of strong images that are shot without faking any light sources. I have discovered a secret love for filming ‘unprofessionally’ and focussing on the emotions of the actors and creative and strong shots with everything the set can give me without manipulation.

Especially this movie will need strong actors so finding the cast will probably be not too easy but I already have some people in mind.

I’m really looking forward to shoot this movie. I have to be careful tho to not write the script too quickly. It will involve some really strong text parts that need to be well thought out.

If you’d like to get involved in any way just send me an email :)

Review: Cali Slang - Blackout Problems

I thought it would be appropriate to show you some of the films and videos I have done in the past to give you a picture of what I am or was capable of. I will start with the last bigger thing I made and go back in time with every post. Criticizing myself after all these years will be interesting.

We start with a music video I made two years ago. The band - the Blackout Problems - are Austrian friends of mine and as you can see in the background it was shot in the alps.

We only had one day to get every shot done, which included the band scenes by day and by night and the story sequences in between. If you’ve ever made a music video, you know how long this can take and how exhausting it can become if you have to work under pressure.

We were quite unlucky, as the video was meant to look like it was shot on an incredibly hot Summer day. Well, it was Summer, but in the very first scene, that we shot right after the band playing by daylight, you can clearly see the first small raindrops being soaked up by the drummers trousers when he sends the text message.

From that moment on it’s been raining nearly the entire day long, what should explain some of the not so nice running sequences.
The Summery look came from my colour correction skills in Final Cut.

Also in the first scene there was this short moment, when you could see me mirrored in the singer’s sunglasses. I retouched that in Adobe After Effects. It took me a couple of hours and looking at it now I think I could have done much better but I also had a lot of time pressure for the editing.

Another small thing I have retouched was the ‘California’ sign in the background of the café scene. The sign originally said ‘Reisebüro’. I thought it would simply look better and make a connection to the song title.

I guess the setting sun is the most obvious effect and definitely something I’m not proud of.

I’ve mentioned before that it was a Summer day? Well, it was a really cold Summer day. 5°C, to be precise. See the scene at the swimming pool? It was one take. I found it brave yet crazy enough to do it ONE TIME. It worked well and I was a bit annoyed that nobody had him some fresh clothes ready. I can’t think of everything :P

The mirror behind the band was not exactly easy to handle as it can get complicated to avoid filming yourself in it. A college actually said I was crazy for letting the band play there. But I like my small limitations and I have to say that I’m very happy about it at the night scenes as it makes the crowd look bigger.

Finally I love the last scene when the singer closes the door. I had the idea with the wine bottle spontaneously and I think Mario did a pretty good acting job.

About the equipment. I believe we were working with a JVC GY-DV5100U 3CCD at the time, I’m afraid I can’t remember which model. We also had only two spots, so I had to be quite creative with the lighting.

It was a short timed project and I think with more time we could have done much better, but I think it’s still a good video and worth showing :)

I was three years old when I started noticing my passion for film making. My first language is German, as I am originally from Austria. So it was given that I didn’t understand the actual meaning of the English word ‘independent’ for quite a while.

For some reason I never looked it up and it took me years - until I was about 20 years old - to figure out that independence was just another word for freedom.

So ‘independent film making’ changed it’s meaning from ‘Making films with just a small or no budget at all’ to ‘Being free to make a film exactly how you like it as you have hardly any obligations’.

That’s a quality I have lost over the years. When I was 15, I produced my first feature movie ‘BATHROOM’, which was definitely the most artistic piece I’ve made so far.

The audience in the premier cinema was mainly people who knew me. And that was the main reason why most of them were there. The knew me as a person and wanted to see what I’ve made. It was not about the movie.

And so it happened that a lot of the people in the audience didn’t understand why teenagers would talk as lyrical as my characters did. It ended up in a lot of people laughing. ‘BATHROOM’ is a psycho drama, and so I’m sure you’ll understand that I wasn’t very pleased about that.

One year later I had the next premier. ‘Kalte Tage’ (‘Cold Days’) was far less artistic. I had cut the deeper sentences out of the script and made the text as simple as possible.

Another year later I shot ‘Sylvester’, which couldn’t have been any more commercial. I never finished that one. Why? Because that was the time I was in university and lost all passion for film. Because it became more and more obvious to me that I didn’t want to make film for others and I thought that was the only way to make a living with it one day.

Now that I look back I see how much I have changed my ways just to satisfy an audience that simply wasn’t my audience.

‘BATHROOM’ was the only one of my movies that won an award at a festival. And you know why?

Because I made it for MYSELF. I made it exactly how I liked it. I didn’t try to make anybody else happy.

Writing the World Hacking Guide showed me what independence really means. Even if I want to make it big in the film business, I don’t need to live up to anybody’s expectations. It’s my job to create exactly the way I want to create.

It’s my job to create. It’s my job to find out how to find the right audience for my creation. It’s my job to bring my creation to the right audience. No matter if I charge for it or not. The right audience will be pleased to exchange my creation against money.

Putting hundred fifty random people in a cinema, showing them something that is anything else but mainstream and expecting that they will understand and like it DOES NOT WORK.

Unusual work requires an unusual audience. There is no other way of making it big.

Try to make it big for the people who do understand you and don’t try to live up to a overly commercialised business. We all dream of Hollywood, but let’s face it, as long as we don’t have a big following, Hollywood won’t dream of us.

I want to make a living doing what I love. I want to travel the world. I want to meet new, amazing people. I don’t care if I become famous in Hollywood or not. To me it matters much more to become famous to every single amazing person who loves my work exactly the way it is.

It was my third birthday when I got a camcorder in my tiny hands for the first time. From that moment it was clear to me: I was going to become a filmmaker.

Over the years my family (who always wanted the best for me) and society taught me what it takes. First I’d have to write good grades in school. Next I’d have to study and then work my way up in some film company.

And now, three years after I quit my studies right at the final tests I’ve come to realise that these things are utter bullshit.

I’ve been a filmmaker before I started going to university. I produced two independent feature movies and a couple of music videos and I loved it. And you know why? Most technical things I was taught at university I knew already. The big difference was that there were people telling me how I had to do my stuff.

I wasn’t interested in the technical stuff anymore. I’ve learned the rules, I’ve used the rules and now I wanted to break them. University stopped my artistic flow.

In fact I haven’t made film since that time except for one music video. It’s been three years. And all the time I had the feeling that I had to make it a job or live up to other people’s expectations to make a living of it one day.

In the last year I got more and more into writing my other blog, the World Hacking Guide. That made me see that it doesn’t matter how weird my writing is, there is always somebody else who is just as weird as I and who enjoys my stuff.

The internet is our window to millions of people and there must be a few who like exactly the weird stuff YOU make.

Last night I’ve come to realise that the same counts for film and my fire was back on. I’m actually writing one of the most artistic scripts I’ve ever written right now. And I will produce this short movie within the next three weeks. With an actor and singer who comes all the way from Vienna to London just to work with me.

Also I want to dedicate this blog to telling you about my experiences and growth and tutorials and ecourses for people who are new to independent film making.

I am back. Even better. I am back without any commercial thoughts. Because now I know how I can find an audience without living up to anybody’s expectations.

Cause that’s what independents means after all, right?