Filmmaking, Festivals & Fans

Filmmaking, Festivals & Fans written by independent filmmaker P. Edward Claypoole, is a series of interviews conducted over the course of a year with other independent filmmakers, festival coordinators and film enthusiasts. It offers insights for novice filmmakers from those who have experience within the industry. Interviews include: "Find out what you have to say and focus on what you can give people. If you don't know why you are telling your story, it's not going to resonate with people." - Carrie Brennan, Director of "Block" "Filmmaking in general is figuring out how to overcome a series of endless obstacles. It's all of the cliché things you always hear but the most important thing is to never give up. If you believe in it, you have to see it through." - Don Argott, Director of "Rock School" "Without a doubt, the screenplay is the most critical part of the process. So even though film is a visual medium, I would say to anyone, you need to read your script as if you don't know what is going to happen. You have to hear the lines in your head as if a person is actually going to say them believably, and you have to be very tough on your writing. If the script is good enough, the process of making the movie and gluing it all together can be very forgiving." - Stuart Connelly, Director of "The Suspect" "If there is anything else in the world that you would rather do, go do that instead. For filmmaking specifically, you must be prepared to sacrifice everything you have to fulfill your vision; that could be relationships with family and friends or even your integrity." - Demian Lichtenstein, Director of "3000 Miles to Graceland" "With nonfiction you better love your story because you're going to live with it forever. You're going to know those people. They are always going to be a part of your life. You're going to hold enormous responsibility, because its nonfiction, to all the people that you document, and it's going to take longer than you expected it to." - Nancy Schwartzman, Director of "Roll Red Roll" "Getting to see what people can do with limited funds is extremely interesting and being able to discover these independent films has been a joy for me for many years." - Dr. Chris Woodward, Associate Director of The Reading Film Festival "The first thing I would say is don't wait for permission from somebody else to make something; the only permission you need is from yourself. The second thing is it doesn't have to look like a big budget movie if its done well." - Matt Croyle, Founder and Festival Director of the Oil Valley Film Festival "You don't need as much as you think you need; you can do it for less. You can produce a minimal viable product, something that is way less than your ideal perfectly executed production. If you want to make a film and you have a camera that can record, you can make a movie." - Taila Howe, Executive Producer of The Chicago Underground Film Festival, CUFF