If you’ve ever wanted to make a film don’t listen to anyone that says you need all this experience. You don’t need experience to make one. If you want to direct or produce then you can start there right away.

The film industry is not one of those traditional industries where there’s a step by step way up the corporate ladder. There really isn’t a pathway to becoming a director for example except actually making the films. Actually doing the thing.

It, of course, can help being on set so you learn from others beforehand. Iff you’re familiar with acting that helps too. That’s why there’s former actors that are great directors right away because they know how to do one of the most important things for directors, if not the most important. Which is communicating with actors.

This all helps and can definitely speed up your learning process, but nothing will do more than actually doing the thing. So if you want to produce or direct a movie, which I’ll call making a movie the rest of this video, then this is how I would start with no experience:

First

I want to mention that I’d never made a movie and had never really been on set. Yes I had 10 years of managing actors which definitely helped, but very different than making a film.

I knew I wanted to do it and it turns out that my skillsets are pretty well suited to it because it essentially felt like starting a company that was only going to last for a certain amount of time. It had all the same elements.

Hiring people, selling your idea, and managing the whole process while keeping your eye on the end goal. If you’ve ever ran a business then you’ll be well suited for this.

Even if you haven’t you will learn quick as the great thing is that there’s many ways to make a film and many ways to lead the process depending on your personality.

The first and most important thing is finding or writing a script. If you’re writing it then you’re set on this part, but if you are doing that make sure to get feedback and make the script as good as possible before sending it to anyone.

If you don’t have a script then you need to find one and that was the case for me as well.

Luckily there’s a lot of places and ways to do that. One way is the Blacklist which is a site that has scripts on there that are all scored by reviewers and readers. You can sort by genre and everything, that’s where I found the script I’m currently working on producing.

You can also go on Coverfly which is also a good one. If you don’t use those you could also use Facebook. There are many screenwriter groups on Facebook and actually some very good writers. Just type in screenwriters and you’ll see all the groups that you can join. Then you can post that you are looking for a script and you can add parameters like genre, locations, number of cast, anything you would like.

You’ll be surprised how many people will reach out. I did this once and it was overwhelming. There must’ve been over a 100 that emailed me their logliines, decks, scripts, etc.

If you find a script you like then you’ll need to have the rights to it which means negotiating an option for the script which gives you the right to attach actors, director, and to make it.

This is very easy and I’ll post a template on my website you can use and what that looks like.

I would highly recommend not paying anything up front unless you really want to because at this point you don’t have money yet. You should negotiate a percentage of the budget which I recommend around 2.5 or 3 percent. This is pretty standard for a writer that isn’t in the WGA and doesn’t have many credits.

This means that you will only pay the writer when there is a budget and a percentage of it. Very risk-free for you which is what you need.

Second

Ok let’s say you have the script then you will need to get attachments next.

It’s very hard to raise financing with no attachments especially if you’re new or inexperienced.

You can choose who you want to attach first, if you don’t have a director I’d recommend that. Again name directors will be hard with no financing but you can find directors with experience that will be interested.

What I would do for this is get on both Slated and IMDB.

Slated is almost like a marketplace for film. You pay to have your script evaluated which gets scored there and gets detailed notes which is great for improving and it’s also listed on there. On that website every type of person in film is on there. DP’s, Directors, producers, crew. All of them.

If you’re looking for directors you could write every director you’re interested in on there and tell them about your script and see if they want to read it.

You can also do this on IMDB which you can go to similar projects as yours, ideally indie films, and find the director on there. There’s a good amount of directors that have their contact info on IMDB pro who you can then email the same pitch.

If they have reps then it’ll be more difficult but still possible. Worst case you can again go through Facebook groups but likely you won’t get very experienced directors but you might get some that have done an indie feature or two.

Once you have that you’d want to attach at least one actor ideally. You can use the same process as I just mentioned but if you don’t find anyone you really love then hold off and start on financing as it’s easier to get actors once there’s financing in place.

For name actors you’ll need to go through their agent or manager on IMDB which will be listed there. Keep in mind that it’s harder for reps to take it seriously if there’s no financing yet. But you can make offers that are for attachments and only pay them if the movie gets made.

If someone loves the story this is definitely possible. Again, this is a longer process because every time you make an offer you have to wait to hear back before moving on. You can’t just send an offer to multiple of the same role and see who says yes before deciding as this will be very unprofessional and will make them not want to work with you in the future.

If you’ve done all this you’re already in great spot and have done more than most do, so congrats.

Now the hardest part starts, raising the financing. I’ll go deeper into this in another video as it’s a topic by itself.

The ways to do it are equity financing, debt financing, loans, pre sales, tax credits, partnerships with production companies. All of these or combination of all of them can get this part done for you. This is normally the longest part and the part most people will stall at.

If you’ve done that you’ve basically did it. You’re going to make a movie.

If you have the financing then you’ve done, in my opinion, the hardest part. The more fun part is actually making the film.

I already have one video that I talk about the steps with pre production, production and post production so you can watch that and I’ll make an updated video on that in the future.

This is a wide overview of how to do it and hope it helps. Again best thing to do is not to overthink and just get going. Like most things if you think how hard it’s going to be it will be hard. It’s better to be more delusional and just start making it.

You can also get more info on my website, I also offer consultations.