How To Make A Movie For Under $500,000 Dollars That Has The Greatest Chance For FinancialSuccessby Kean Salzercopyright 2005

Is it possible to make a movie for under a half million dollars that has theatrical legs and ancillarymarket potential? In a time when the Hollywood studios have decided to follow a model that costsover a hundred million dollars to make and distribute each of their major film projects, is it evenconceivable that for less than 1% of that amount we could hope to build a business, which is whateach film really is, that competes for the movie ticket consumers dollar?

I would argue that it is already being done. Frankly, it is not too different from many businesses inother sectors where the common knowledge is you either have to grow large or stay small, and it iswhen you are mid-sized that you get wiped out. And it is possible to stay small in the filmmakingbusiness and prosper. Granted, like in other business models, the chances of the same scope ofprosperity as those who are structured for large projects is greatly diminished, but you can build avery successful life as a filmmaker and film distribution company by knowing your low budgetfilmmaking model and tweaking it to maximize the potential in that model.

If you arent into indy films you may not know of Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire, Buena Vista SocialClub), Jim Jarmusch,(Ghost Dog, The Way of the Samurai, Mystery Train, Coffee and Cigarettes) orPaul Cox (Man of Flowers, Lonely Hearts), each of whom has built a career on low budget films.Artists like Robert Rodriquez (El Mariachi,) and Quentin Tarentino (Reservoir Dogs) used lowbudget films to break into Hollywood and establish themselves as major storytellers in less than adecade. One could argue that Woody Allen (Bananas, Sleeper, Annie Hall) has built a modelwhere his investors know in advance that they will make money because Allen always produceshis films for a set amount, which by Hollywood standards is less than 20% of the averageproduction budget, and has a thin part of the moviegoer market who is dedicated to supporting hiswork as a filmmaker. There are dozens more filmmakers, both in America, and even to a largerextent working abroad, who work within the low budget model who are profitable on every projectbecause of their understanding of how to structure a story cinematically while keeping the costs toa set amount that can be recaptured in limited theatrical distribution and ancillary markets.

While there may be many ways to examine this hypothesis, I will attempt to do so by looking atseveral films that have been made in the last decade for under a half million dollars that havesucceeded financially, and attempt to compare them to films made during the same decade for thesame budget that did not make money to see if we can chart a course that will increase the chanceof success. All of the films, regardless of their financial success, have, as a result of theirproduction budget limitations, things in common that need to be identified. Our first task is to figureout how these filmmakers were able to make their film with the quality required to compete at thetheatrical level. Our second challenge, and this is certainly the more difficult one, is to determinewhy the films that succeeded financially did so, without being subjective, instead relying on theconcepts of story structure to support our hypothesis.

This paper is designed to give Screenwriters understanding in how to structure their stories so thattheir customer, the low budget Producer, will feel he has a good shot at making a profit with hisefforts and be able to build a career using the same investor pool project after project. This paper isalso written to help potential Investors better understand the elements of the film business modelof low budget filmmaking so they can increase their chances of tapping into the high payouts of thisspeculative investment. Finally, it is written to better communicate to the potential Filmmakers ofCrosswood Film School what kind of films we plan to finance, produce and distribute as part oftheir student immersion experience. Besides developing each student in the craft of filmmaking,we will also help them grasp that film is a business and must be run to produce a profit.Crosswood also has a business plan that it believes can work very successfully given certaincomponents. Two of those components, both covered in this paper, are that the cost of the film beunder a half million dollars, and that the story be told structurally correct based on the genre,premise, and basic storytelling development.

With that in mind, lets take a look first at the production elements of eight feature films made forunder a half million dollars. While it is common knowledge that certain filmmakers will attempt togenerate buzz for their film by lying about the cost of production, both on the high and low ends, weknow these films were verifiably low budget, because they were all judged by that criteria and werenominated for the John Cassevettes Award, part of the annual Independent Spirit Awardscelebrating indy films, for the best film of the year under a half million dollars.

In the second section of this paper we will examine the same films discussing pertinent storystructure comparisons.

The Station Agent written and directed by Thomas McCarthy. Produced by Kathryn Tucker andRobert May of SenArt Films. Studio, Miramax. Released Oct. 2003. 1 hr. 28 min. Rated R forprofanity and some drug use. Genre, mixed: drama and comedy. Plot outline: A man born withdwarfism and with a passion for trains inherits a train station in rural New Jersey, where he movesin the hopes of isolating himself from lifelong ridicule, only to find relationships that challenge himto come out of his shell and love in order to heal and be healed. Starring Peter Dinklage, BobbyCarnavale, and Patricia Clarkson. 10 locations. 21 actor roles. 63 total crew.

Business: Estimated production cost: $500K. Estimated Theatrical Marketing Cost: $1 mil.Estimated Theatrical Distribution: $1 mil. Opened Oct. 2003 in 3 theaters to an average of $19Kper screen. Max screens was 198 in the US. Total US Theatrical Box Office $5.7 mil. TotalOverseas Theatrical Box Office $2.9 mil. Estimated Total DVD sales and rentals to date $8 mil.Estimated DVD marketing $550K. Estimated profit after production, exhibition, marketing anddistribution deducted: Profit $9.6 mil.

Pieces of April written and directed by Peter Hedges. Produced by John S. Lyons, Gary Winick,Tami Reiker of InDigEnt. Distributed by MGM/UA. Released Oct. 17, 2003. 1 hr. 20 min. Rated R.Genre: Drama. Plot Outline: Rebellious daughter April has moved from the suburbs to a lowereast side New York apartment, but decides to attempt to make a positive memory before hercancer stricken mother passes away by fixing her first meal, Thanksgiving dinner. When her ovenbreaks she is forced to rely on the kindness of her new neighbors to avoid another April createdfamily disaster. Starring Katie Holmes, Patricia Clarkson, Oliver Platt, Derek Luke, and SeanHayes. 10 locations. 29 actor roles. 51 total crew.

Business: Estimated Production Cost:$300K. Estimated Theatrical Marketing Cost $750K.Estimated Theatrical Distribution Cost $500K. Opened October 17, 2003 in 6 theaters to anaverage of $8K per screen. Max screens was 101 in the US. Total US Theatrical Box Office 2.5 mil.Total Overseas Box Office $750K. Estimated Total DVD Sales and Rentals to date $4.3 mil.Estimated DVD marketing $500K. Estimated profit after production, exhibition, marketing anddistribution deducted: Profit $6 mil.

Better Luck Tomorrow written by Ernesto M. Foronda. Written, Produced and Directed by JustinLin. Produced Patrice Lucien Cochet. Distributed by MTV Films/Paramount. Released April 11,2003. 99 min. Rated R. Genre: Drama. Plot Outline: A group of over achieving Asian Americansexperience a downward spiral when they decide to add extra curricular criminal activities to theirlives. Starring John Cho, Parry Shen. 20 locations. 95 actor roles. 39 total crew.

Business: Estimated Production Cost $250K. Estimated Theatrical Marketing Cost $200K.Estimated Theatrical Distribution Cost: $750K. Opened April 11, 2003 in 13 theaters to an averageof $28K per screen. Max screens was 387 in the US. Total US Theatrical Box Office $3.8 mil.Overseas Box Office: $0. Estimated Total DVD Sales and Rentals to date $14 mil. Estimated DVDmarketing $1 mil. Estimated profit after production, exhibition, marketing, and distributiondeducted: Profit $15.8 mil.

Mean Creek written and directed by Jacob Aaron Estes. Produced by Rick Rosenthal, SusanJohnson and Hagai Shaham. Distributed by Paramount Classics. Released August 20, 2004. 89min. Rated R. Genre: Drama/Revenge. Plot Outline: A group of friends plan revenge on a schoolyard bully who has beaten up Sam. When their plan goes too far they have to decide whether tohide their act or confess and face the consequences. Starring rory Culkin. 10 locations. 16 totalactor roles. 43 total crew.

Business: Estimated Production Cost $500K. Estimated Theatrical Marketing Cost $200K.Estimated Theatrical Distribution Cost: $200K. Opened April 11, 2003 in 13 theaters to an averageof $7K per screen. Max screens was 49 in the US. Total US Theatrical Box Office $604K.Overseas Box Office: $ Still running. Estimated DVD Sales and Rentals to date $1.8 mil.Estimated Total DVD Sales and Rentals when fully penetrated $4 mil. Estimated DVD marketing$500K. Estimated profit after production, exhibition, marketing, and distribution deducted: Profit$2.6 mil.

Anne B. Real written Antonio Macia and Lisa France. Directed by Lisa France. Produced byJosselyn Herman, Luis Moro, and Jeanine Ruhn. Not distributed except for qualifying short runs inNew York and LA to qualify for Cassevettes Award. Opened in New York October 8, 2003.Premiered on video November 4, 2003. Rated PG-13. 91 minutes. Genre: Drama/Coming of Age.Plot Outline: A young female rapper find her imagination stirred by reading the diary of Anne Frank.Starring JYNCE. 24 Total cast. 27 total crew.

Business: Estimated Production Cost $100K. Estimated Theatrical: Breakeven (four walled LAand NY for award qualification only). Estimated DVD marketing and production cost $20K.Estimated DVD sales and rental to date $20K. Estimated profit or loss: Loss of $100K.

Virgil Bliss written and directed by Joe Maggio. Produced by John Maggio. Distributed by First RunFeatures. Opened June 14, 2002 in 1 theater to qualify for Cassevettes Award. Max screens 1.

Rated R. 94 minutes. Genre: Drama. Plot Outline: A man released after 10 years in prisonattempts to rebuild his life while struggling with a violent temper and a lack of social skills. StarringUnknowns. Total cast 19. Total crew 6.

Business: Production Cost: $5K. Estimated theatrical Distribution costs (convert DV to film forexhibition) $50K. Estimated Theatrical marketing costs $5K. Total US Box Office $2K. Sold toSundance Cable channel for estimated $2K profit. DVD sales and rentals $5K. Estimated profit orloss: Loss of $60K.

Jackpot written and produced by Mark and Michael Polish, directed by Michael Polish. R rated. 100minutes. Genre: drama. Plot Outline: An aging singer abandons his wife and baby to partner witha manager to try to break into showbiz by traveling a remote Karaoke circuit. Starring Jon Gries,Garrett Morris, Adam Baldwin, Crystal Bernard, Mac Davis, Anthony Edwards, Daryl Hannah, PeggyLipton and Rick Overton. 28 total cast. 62 total crew.

Business: Estimated Production Cost $400K. Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. Opened July27, 2001 in 6 theaters at an average of $1300 per screen for a total first weekend of $8,000.Closed 10 weeks later on October 5 with a gross theatrical of $44,000. DVD sales and rentalsunknown. Estimated profit or loss: Estimated loss of $400K.

Napoleon Dynamite written by Jared and Jerusha Hess. Directed by Jared Hess. ProducedJeremy Coon and Jory Weitz. Distributed by Fox Searchlight/MTV Films. Released June 11, 2004.95 min. Rated PG. Genre: Comedy. Plot Outline: A loner decides to help his friend becomeStudent Body President against the mean girl who rejected him. Starring Jon Gries, Jon Heder,and Haylie Duff. 40 locations. 40 actor roles. 40 total crew.

Business: Estimated Production Cost $400K. . Estimated Theatrical Marketing Cost $500K.Estimated Theatrical Distribution Cost: $750K. Opened June 11, 2004 in 6 theaters to an averageof $19K per screen for a first weekend take of $117 thousand. Max screens was 1236 in the US.Total US Theatrical Box Office $45 mil. Overseas Box Office: $2 mil. Estimated Total DVD Salesand Rentals to date $44 mil. Estimated DVD marketing $5 mil. Estimated profit after production,exhibition, marketing, and distribution deducted: Profit $60 mil.

These eight films were all nominated as best feature film made for under a half million dollars, andrun the gamut from first time efforts to celebrity director vehicles and from never being distributed tocareer building financial successes that actually changed the Hollywood industry.

OverviewIts important to realize that even the most experienced Hollywood executive cannot make a scienceout of predicting which screenplay will become a financial success. But there are ways ofcomparing these eight low budget films to increase our chances of success as we build the filmschool that will train students by immersing them in a series of low budget marketplace featurefilms designed to be distributed theatrically and in all ancillary markets in order to instruct them inthe profitability of filmmaking as well as the craft of their track.

We will look at Cast, Locations, Crew, Genre, Market, Story Structure and Production Value to see ifwe can identify common elements that are shared by those who made money and those who failedcommercially. The films that made money are in descending order: Napoleon Dynamite ($60 mil),

Better Luck Tomorrow ($16 mil), The Station Agent ($10 mil), Pieces of April ($6 mil), and MeanCreek (est. $2 mil). Those films that lost money in descending order are Jackpot ($400K), Anne B.Real ($100K) and Virgil Bliss ($60K).

Cast: One of the first things to notice is that name stars will participate in low budget feature films.Of the 5 films in our study that made money the number one, three and four most profitable films, orsixty percent, had name stars. Of the three films in our list that lost money only one, or 33 percent,Jackpot had name stars. Some, like Jon Gries and Patricia Clarkson, appear in more than one onthis list of eight films. Both of these stars move between big budget and low budget films in acalendar year without affecting their careers and seem to relish roles that challenge them as leadactors. Others, like Katie Holmes and Sean Hayes, seem to use these indy film roles to changetheir image that was formed on television series. Others, like Oliver Plat, Daryl Hannah, CrystalBernard, Garret Morris and Peggy Lipton, appear to value keeping their work in front of the publicand building their filmography.

Another aspect to casting low budget films is the chance for celebrity. Jon Heder has become oneof the top young celebrities even though his role as Napoleon Dynamite was so unlikeable andquirky. Haylie Duff found a nice recurring role, and genuine celebrity for her generation, on the CBStelevision drama, Joan of Arcadia, because of the visibility of her antagonist role in the NapoleonDynamite film.

Two of the films that lost money, Virgil Bliss and Anne B. Real, had zero celebrity cast. On the otherhand, Jackpot also lost money and had the largest number of celebrities. So while celebritycasting isnt a guarantee for success, it is possible to anticipate a greater chance for marketabilitybased on this factor. We want to cast name actors in every one of our films, and assume that ourStory Development in regards to Story Structure and our association with John Truby and otherprofessional development executives will create screenplays that will appeal to name actors.

For the most part these films have a very limited cast roster. There are almost always 3 or 4 maincharacters with a supporting cast of speaking roles between 4 and 15 additional. Limiting thenumber of actors is critical for a number of reasons besides obvious salary costs. More actors in ascene means greater set up time for lighting and sound not to mention trailer and make uprequirements. Again, the two most profitable films in the list had the most speaking castmembers, but they had only one name actor between the two of them.

Locations: None of these eight films we are using for our study appears to use a single soundstage location. The easiest way to reduce production costs is to have a single location for themajority of the film. Mean Creek and Pieces of April do this by putting most of the cast in a boat or acar and making them take a trip. Pieces of April and Virgil Bliss do this by using a single residencefor many of the scenes, although Pieces of April uses a building while Virgil Bliss uses a run downapartment. One can clearly argue that the two most profitable films had the most locations withboth using high school campuses, both interiors and exteriors.

Crew: It is possible to fully crew a feature film with a 28-person crew. Most of these need to haveprofessional experience. For a small indy film the normal time given to field production rangesfrom 18 to 35 shooting days. These are full production days of 12 hours, with many of the crewdoing additional preparation work before and after the shoot. This crew will attempt to average a 25shots per day schedule. While many books do a good job of identifying job descriptions on a

feature film set, the book From Reel To Deal by Dov Siemens does the best job of breaking downthe crew roster, duties, and salary requirements.

Genre: All of the films we are studying are Drama or mix genre with a Drama emphasis except forthe lone droll Coming Of Age Comedy, Napoleon Dynamite. Each genre has its own set of beatsand organizing elements that distinguishes it from other genres, but drama is one of the easiestgenres to appease an audience. For a comedy it is either funny or its not. A drama has a latitudeof impact that can allow for people to enjoy a film that attempts to tell a story, usually about thefilmmakers life or a version of a real story the filmmaker was captivated by. Comedy is the mostdifficult kind of script to write and is always in great demand in Hollywood. Since the mostsuccessful film of our list was comedy, it is likely that this would be a strong area in which todevelop material. Each of the successful films used comedy as a strong part of their story. Thethings that the three unsuccessful films had in common is that very little of the material wascomedic. We feel that each film we attempt must include comedic material of some kind, showingquirky or clever dialogue and situations that are outright funny.

Market: Three of the five films that are R rated made money, Better Luck Tomorrow, Mean Creek,and The Station Agent . Jackpot, and Virgil Bliss are R rated, and lost money. Since Better LuckTomorrow and Mean Creek are cast with either teens or youth and attempt to deal with youthfulsubjects, and with todays exhibition pressure to not allow under age viewers into screenings of Rmaterial, it is safe to guess that some business was lost to each theatrical release, butnevertheless, they both returned significant profits to the studios who distributed them. Pieces ofApril, the third most profitable and Anne B. Real, a film that could not find a theatrical distributor arerated PG-13, and are both films dealing with a teen protagonist. Napoleon Dynamite, the mostprofitable, is rated PG and is also built around a teen protagonist at odds with both teen opponentsand oppressive adult family opponents.

Each film is like its own corporation. It is actually structured like that legally. As a single entitydesigned to do business in the marketplace it needs to identify its market, mission statement andstrategy. This is a business. The Producer had to borrow money and promise to pay it back tolaunch this business/film. He will need to minimally return the investors original investment inorder to go to him in the future and get more money for other productions. As Christians it isfoundational that we structure our ROI to protect the investors original investment, and hopefully tohelp them realize a profit. Everyones hope is that one of the films will hit and millions of dollars willbe returned in order to finance other productions.

Story Structure Let me briefly identify and attempt to reveal the concept of the role of StoryStructure in the foundation of filmmaking. We feel that Story Structure is the critical element for alow budget film. The filmmaker needs to understand his structure and how to maximize his storysimpact by staying on a professional story track. Some of the elements of Story Structure afilmmaker needs to have a grasp of are Theme, Premise, Hero, Main Opponent, Plan, Desire Line,Need Line, and Self Revelation plus some understanding of an already covered topic, Genre. Muchof this Story Structure information comes from the tape series by John Truby. His work over thedecades to organize and clarify the elements of successful films is not only prolific, butassimilatable and worth your investment. His hundreds of hours of lectures obviously cover muchmore than can be boiled down to this low budget model, and this extrapolation is our interpretationand not his, which we are sure would be more valuable and clear; however, for this discussion wewill attempt to make certain assumptions that would guide us in our desire to build a model for low

budget filmmaking. For the parts where we go off on our own and dont line up with Truby weapologize to John in advance.

Story Structure: Theme:While any given years film roster will prove that you can spend a lot of money on films with littleeffort or understanding given to developing a Theme, we believe a successful film will attempt todeal with a Theme that has application to the individual audience viewer and ideally to the largercommunity as well. For instance, it might be said that the Individual Theme of Tootsie might be ifyou put yourself into someone elses shoes you will change the way you treat them and become abetter person for it. The Universal Theme might be How should men treat women in modernsociety? These themes are developed by revealing a weakness in the Hero who reveals a moraldilemma by using women sexually without really connecting relationally until he has to dress uplike a woman to get work and becomes the object of male lust and deceit and learns that hisprevious ways were wrong and need to be replaced. The genre that the two screenplay writers,Larry Gelbart (and Elaine May with no screen credit) used was a comedy/farce. They felt this genrehad the best structural elements and unique genre beats to reveal the theme and resolve the moraldilemma of the Hero. The Comedy/Farce genre requiring many opponents gave the movie lots ofplaces to go to reveal the theme, including the Main Opponent/Love Interest, the MisogynistDirector, the Male Love Interest who falls in love with the Heros female character, the female loveinterest, the Leading man actor, and miscellaneous men like the cab driver who wont stop for awoman but stops for a man, the cab stealer who wrongly assumes he can just overpower a femalewho has stopped a taxi and is trying to board,all of whom reveal a different part of the themesmessage.

A low budget film needs to have both a strong Individual Theme that deals with issues thatindividual viewers can relate to, but also needs to attempt to show us collectively how to live as asociety. Regardless of the genre, having a clear idea of your theme is critical to a films acceptanceby the audience thereby creating more word of mouth advertising and financial success. When youare considering a story you might ask yourself What do I care about? and if you havent spent thetime to think through that from a screenplay perspective, take a look at your ideas list or stories andsee if you can find common elements. Once you see a pattern then follow it up with anotherdevelopment question, What do I need to learn or understand or solve in my own life about thisproblem so the material can be full of depth and angst instead of reflecting only the surface ofsolutions you have already resolved. None of the films we evaluated had a strong theme, eitherindividual or universal. Each had subjects they attempted to reveal like bullying in Mean Creek,ageism and overcoming adversity in The Station Agent, following your dream in Jackpot,forgiveness in Pieces of April, and the spirit of poverty in Virgil Bliss. Napoleon Dynamite and BetterLuck Tomorrow, even though the most successful films, had subjects that were more difficult toidentify.

Story Structure: Hero/Protagonist

Its essential that every story be mainly about one person. While it is possible to have multipleprotagonists (i.e., Lord of the Rings), in a low budget film the story needs to be about one personsevolution and journey. In the movie Tootsie the story is about the Dustin Hoffman character. It ishis journey from male chauvinist to enlightened male that captivates us. In these 8 films the herois clear in every film.

Story Structure: Main Opponent

For a Hero to be seen as strong then the Opponent must be strong. The Opponent can be DarthVader to Lukes Hero, but the Opponent can also be the Jessica Lange character in Tootsie...thelove interest. The best definition of the Opponent is the one person best able to exploit the Herosneed. In Tootsie, Dustin Hoffman wanted Jessica Lange...her time...her life...as a life partner, butneeded to become sensitive and a real friend and stop being out just for sexual exploits. JessicaLange was the one who also wanted her life. Most films will have more than one Opponent, butevery film has to have a Main Opponent who wants the same thing as the Hero.In our eight films there is a Main Opponent in only Pieces of April (the mother), and Mean Creek (theoldest boy in the group). The rest fail to create a strong Opponent who has strong conflictingvalues and a strong desire for the same thing the Hero wants.

Story Structure: Ghost

The Ghost is the event in the past that created the Need of the Hero. While not essential it ispreferable to have a strong Ghost and to show it early in the film. In Finding Nemo, the death of hiswife and all but one of his children creates a fear of his world in the hero, Marlin, Nemos dad. Inthese eight films Mean Creeks Ghost is the bullying episode in the first scene. The Station AgentsGhost is a lifetime of taunts peppered on our Hero, Fin, who was born a dwarf. In Pieces of Aprilthe Ghost is the lifetime of shame verbalized on April by her disappointed mother. The rest of thefilms are unclear about their Ghost.

Story Structure: Heros Need

It is essential that every Hero have a strong Need. The Need is the thing missing or broken in theHeros life that causes him to hurt others. In most cases the Hero is unaware of his Need, or if heis aware of it he is unaware of when it manifests or how to get rid of it. In our example of FindingNemo the Hero is full of fear that hurts his son by keeping him overprotected. He doesnt think heis full of fear...in his mind he is just being reasonably cautious. In Tootsie the Hero is an exploiterof women who hurts all the women in his life by deceiving them for his own desires. In our eightfilms the Heros Need is strong and clear in Pieces of April, and The Station Agent. In the otherfilms the Need is vague or shifting.

Story Structure: Desire Line

The Desire of the Hero drives the story. The Desire Line must be able to be spotted clearly by theaudience at a moment in time. It cant be vague like to be happier or more successful. In FindingNemo Marlin wants to get Nemo back. The whole film moves forward with that Desire in mind.There can be no mistaking when the Desire has been accomplished. In Tootsie the Hero wants towork as an actor. Sometimes there are delayed Desire Lines and Secondary Desire Lines, butthere needs to be a strong main Desire Line. In Tootsie we see a competing Secondary DesireLine when the Hero also wants to be the lover of the Jessica Lange character. In the first Star Warsfilm Luke Skywalker wants to rescue the Princess he sees projected out of R2D2s holographiclens.

In these eight films all the films have a reasonably strong Desire Line. The Hero of Pieces of Aprilwants to prepare Thanksgiving Dinner for her mother and demonstrate her maturity. The Station

Agent wants to live a life of complete isolation. Better Luck Tomorrow wants to add a dash ofexcitement to his overachieving student life by becoming a criminal. Anne B. Real wants to escapeher poverty by becoming a rap star. Jackpot wants to become a superstar singer. NapoleonDynamite wants to help his friend defeat the high school superstar for Student Body President.Virgil Bliss has the most unmeasureable Desire Line as he wants to build a normal life and not goback to prison. When does he achieve this and never risk his reincarceration? The Hero of MeanCreek starts our wanting revenge of his bully only to vacillate and want his bullys survival. This shiftis natural and doesnt present too much of a problem.

Story Structure: Heros Plan

The Heros Plan fills in most of the action in the middle of the film. It is the Plan that attempts tosolve the Desire Line. In Finding Nemo Marlins plan is to follow the boat back to Sydney and findhis son. The Plan must always fail and the hero must regroup and find a way to overcome thefailure of his initial attempt. Obstacles and opponents are encountered during the plan. Allies areaccumulated. Sometimes allies are really opponents. The difficulties encountered in the planmust escalate and by overcoming the obstacles the Hero also overcomes His Need. You can seethese elements clearly in Finding Nemo. Only his great love for his son forces Marlin to overcomehis fear and begin the foray into the ocean world. He encounters a Main Opponent, Dori, who hasno fear of the ocean and loves to interact with all species; an ally, The Shark, who becomes anopponent; several opponents who are dangerous like the deep-sea creature with the light as a bait;and several allies like the Turtles and allies who first appear as Opponents like the Whale and thePelican. But the whole story is driven by the Plan which gets progressively harder, and eventuallyMarlin not only achieves the Desire, Nemos rescue, he also experiences healing of The Need, hisfear of the ocean.

Only one of our eight low budget films do a decent job of developing an ever increasingly moredifficult Plan that not only solves the Desire but also the Need, and that is Pieces of April. NapoleonDynamite comes close as Napoleon learns to break dance and helps his friend get elected whilealso finding acceptance in front of his peers and escape from eternal dorkdom. The rest of thefilms string together scenes and sequences that are interesting but do not teach or reveal anygrowth in our Heroes.

Story Structure: The Battle

The Battle is the climatic event in the story where the Hero and the Opponent clash and the valueseach holds dear are defended and the Hero comes out on the other side with new information orvictory for his values. While it can be a dramatic as Luke Skywalker refusing his heavy breathingOpponents plea to use the Force for the dark side it can also be more subtle. In our ongoingexample Finding Nemo the battle is between Dori and Marlin inside of a whale. Dori insists thatyou can trust other creatures and Marlin is convinced he must only trust himself and his strength.When Marlin gives in and discovers he is not only safe but brought right into Sydney harbor helearns to trust other ocean strangers who can help you and not to be so afraid of ocean life.

The Station Agent is the only one of the eight that does a good job with The Battle. When Fin isshamed and ordered off her porch he overcomes his natural inclination to withdraw from hisshame and fights his way back into Olivias life just in time to save her from a suicide attempt. In

this Battle Fin learns that he really needs people and they need him and relationships, even thoughdifficult, are essential for life.

Story Structure: Heros Self Revelation

The Heros Self Revelation is the moment in time when the Hero realizes how he has been hurtingpeople and has a new understanding of how to live. In order for there to be a Self Revelation therehas to have been a well developed Heros Need early in the film. There also has to have been astrong Desire Line and Opponent. So that when the moment of Self Revelation occurs it dawns onthe Hero how he has been hurting others and how to now live so as to stop that hurtful way. InRomantic Comedies it is normal for the Hero and Opponent love interests to each have a SelfRevelation and each move away from their polarized positions to a middle ground that is muchhealthier.

In our eight films none of the films have a great Self Revelation. Some try to force one, like MeanCreeks final scene where the Hero confesses to their deed and appears to have a Self Revelationthat truth is more important than getting away with it. But there is no Hero Need that shows hisdeceit as hurting any one early in the film. The rest range from the pathetic perseverance ofJackpots Hero to a vague fade out of The Station Agents Hero sitting on the porch joking aroundwith his two friends which is really more about the final step in the Story Structure...The NewEquilibrium.

Story Structure: The New Equilibrium

At the end of the story we should see the Hero, having learned a new way of behaving, experiencinglife differently because of his journey and enlightenment. The audience should feel as if the Herowill never go back to his old ways because of his new knowledge. No way is Dustin Hoffman goingto be a male chauvinist at the end of Tootsie. This is called The New Equilibrium. As stated, TheStation Agent shows this well. April has her first positive family memory and also has found a newway to relate to her mom and we feel they will move forward with this New Equilibrium if her momsurvives the cancer. The rest of our films struggle with this New Equilibrium. One feels NapoleonDynamite might return to his nerdy life easily. Jackpot is hopeless, and it is this lack of SelfRevelation and New Equilibrium that produced the biggest financial failure in our film group.

Overview: Production Value Is Critical As WellWe believe that a films best chance for commercial success is to look like a feature film, havesome name actors involved, have great story structure, and be made for a budget that can be easilymade back even with theatrical self distribution and DVD sales and rentals. So Production Value iscritical, and our budget model allows for 3,000 feet of 35 mm film shot per day on a schedule of fivepages a day for a total of 80,000 feet exposed or a dollar amount of $55,000 - $80,000 for film stockand lab film development/processing fees.

As everyone knows the digital video camera manufacturers are competing for the professionalconsumer dollar based on their ability to deliver a film look. Several feature films have been shotusing mini-DV cameras including excellent productions like Bamboozled and Buena Vista SocialClub. While we will preference 35 mm film we will also allow our crews to adjust their shootingstyles to reflect their artistic vision. But always we will insist that the filmmaker/artist consider the

business venture he or she is committing investors to, and create the best chance to recoup theirinvestment while telling the story.