By Christopher Sakr
4.9
1313 ratings
The podcast currently has 16 episodes available.
We’ve reached the finale of Make This Movie, Season 1.
Thank you so much for coming along on the ride to making Counterintelligence. Many lessons were learned throughout the process, most of which were covered throughout the season’s 12 episodes.
To highlight the ones that were and insert a few that weren’t, in this episode Chris will go down the list of 12 lessons learned while making this movie—one lesson for each episode.
You’ll hear a few statements to back up these lessons from a couple familiar voices, David Pennington, Andréa Tolbert, Michael Hall, Mike Elliott, and Tim Kahn. And you’ll be brought back to Chris’ audio diary.
You’ll even hear Chris’ personal theory on the two types of people in the world: Spielberg people, and Scorsese people.
Counterintelligence is nearly complete now, and due out in the fall of 2018. Not all lessons have been learned or even digested yet, but we hope the ones that have been mean something to you and your filmmaking.
We’ll see you next year for Season 2 of Make This Movie. Thanks for making Season 1 a joy!
For exclusive access to documents, guides, and detailed breakdowns, expanding on this and other episodes, sign up and ShoHawk.com/makethismovie!
This episode’s guide includes a transcription of the lessons covered within the episode, as well as 5 BONUS lessons!
EPISODE OUTLINE
Season 1 of Make This Movie is nearing its end, but the season wouldn’t be complete without distribution.
Distribution is the place where your film meets its audience; it’s where your baby ventures out on its own and overnight belongs to the world at large. And as with sending a child off on its own, the distribution process is replete with hard lessons and separation anxiety.
In this episode, Chris covers the basics: from the heartbreak of the modern festival circuit, through different forms of distribution, finding an audience, and hatching a marketing strategy.
He does this with the help of Jason Brubaker, founder of Filmmaking Stuff.
Through excerpts from the Filmmaking Stuff Podcast, Jason shares insights into the new media landscape and how to harness niche markets to help your film find its fans, among other varied topics.
They key to ethical and productive distribution and indie film marketing is honing in on an audience that is tailored to your film without spamming or hard-selling those who wouldn’t be interested in the first place.
That’s the focus of this episode: showing filmmakers the possibilities available for pulling this off and remaining in control all the way through.
You’ll even learn a bit about Counterintelligence’s plans and strategies that are yet untested. Let the marketplace be the final judge!
For exclusive access to documents, guides, and detailed breakdowns, expanding on this and other episodes, sign up and ShoHawk.com/makethismovie!
This episode’s Tool Kit is a comprehensive guide to distribution with tools, further reading and listening, and everything you need to get your film to market whenever it’s ready.
Click here to view post on ShoHawk.com!
EPISODE OUTLINE
In this Between The Frames segment, Chris discusses some specific post-production topics including:
He covers some best practices to get the most out of each.
He also recommends a list of tools and apps that serve the post-production process, from organization to time management and communication. Here they are:
For the full post production workflow and tool list, check out our in-depth Post-Production Tool Kit by signing up at shohawk.com/makethismovie. It includes not only the tools, but essential tutorials to get you through the extended post process!
Having locked the cut of Counterintelligence, there’s still a whole world of post that needs completion, even at the time of this episode.
On the docket: scoring, color correcting, some minor visual effects, sound design, and sound mixing.
Our score was composed by the great Noah Simons. Sound was mixed by Mike Elliott, who you’ll recall was also our Director of Photography. Everything else was done by me, and that’s where it got murky.
As you’ll hear in the episode, the extended post tasks like coloring and VFX require a great deal of attention, organization, planning, and most of all accountability.
Without these factors at play, post can drag on forever. On Counterintelligence, it certainly feels like it has.
The finishing touches of post can get completely underrated in pre-production. They are where the film truly becomes a film, and as important to the filmmaking process as anything else. They deserve a filmmaker’s full attention.
In this episode you’ll briefly hear from Noam Kroll, host of the fantastic Show Don’t Tell podcast on filmmaking efficiency. You’ll also hear from composer Noah Simons on creating the score, and sound mixer Mike Elliott on how that process worked—or didn’t—and how we made lemonade, Beyonce style.
Most of all, you’ll hear why things like plans and strict deadlines are crucial, especially when working for yourself.
For exclusive access to documents, guides, and detailed breakdowns, expanding on this and other episodes, sign up and ShoHawk.com/makethismovie!
The guide for this episode includes hours of tutorials on specific post production tasks, so don’t miss it. It’s like a masterclass!
EPISODE OUTLINE
We’ve arrived at post production. More specifically, editing Counterintelligence.
The editing process was multi-layered, from cutting scenes throughout production as they were shot, all the way up to merging those scenes into a rough cut, and refining into locked picture.
Editing is where the film gets made: the final vision takes shape at this almost final step in the process.
It’s said that three different films are made throughout the filmmaking process: one on the page, another in production, and a third and final film in post.
This episode explores that process of sculpting the final vision through refining fragments, trimming fat, shaping pace and tone, and reviewing in stages with the braintrust through screenings for notes and input.
Editing can be all-consuming, demanding a fine balance between finely tuned focus and the freedom to experiment.
In this episode you’ll hear from Noam Kroll, host of the fantastic Show Don’t Tell podcast on editing efficiency. I also bring back Rachel and Marc from my braintrust to discuss their notes on early screenings, and co-producer/art director Dre Tolbert on those notes and balancing work and relationships.
This episode is primarily geared toward those producing and directing filmmakers who choose to edit their own work, but it carries over to anyone responsible for editing feature films.
For exclusive access to documents, guides, and detailed breakdowns, expanding on this and other episodes, sign up and ShoHawk.com/makethismovie!
Click here to see this post on ShoHawk.com
EPISODE OUTLINE
In this Between The Frames segment, Chris discusses some specific production topics including:
He covers their importance and some best practices to get the most out of each.
He also recommends a list of tools and resources in the form of books, apps, and podcasts that serve the pre-production process, from organization to time management and communication. Here they are:
Click here to visit this info on ShoHawk.com!
In Part 2 of our production episodes, we'll cover shoot days 4-7. These days included a return to the apartment location, a series of offices, a ranch outside of Portland, and more. It also consisted of the biggest blocking challenge on the production, a tense moment, and a lot of laughs. It ended over drinks, food, and general merryment.
For exclusive access to documents, guides, and detailed breakdowns, expanding on this and other episodes, sign up and ShoHawk.com/makethismovie!
Click here to visit this episode's post on ShoHawk.
Camera speeds… Sound speeds… Aaaaaand… Action! Counterintelligence has made it to production. All the work we’ve done so far has lead to this point. Production was so extensive we broke it into two episodes. In Part 1, we'll cover shoot days 1-3 of 7. The first two days took place at my apartment and the second was a night shoot outside a brewery in one of Portland’s industrial districts.
For exclusive access to documents, guides, and detailed breakdowns, expanding on this and other episodes, sign up and ShoHawk.com/makethismovie!
Click here to visit this episode and it's post on ShoHawk.
Between the Frames is a set of sub-episodes wherein Chris probes far deeper into specific facets of each filmmaking stage covered thus far. He explores some important practices, disciplines, philosophies and skills that may have been previously glossed over, under discussed, or all together undiscussed.
In this inaugural Between The Frames, Chris discusses some specific pre-production topics including:
He covers their importance and some best practices to get the most out of each.
He also recommends a long list of tools and resources in the form of books, apps, and podcasts that serve the pre-production process, from organization to time management and communication. Here they are:
Click here to visit this post on ShoHawk!
Click here to sign up for the additional tools and resources for your micro budget feature at ShoHawk.com/makethismovie!
We’ve almost made it through Pre-Production, and the hardest work is yet to come. Micro-budget independent filmmaking hurdles emerged here that taught me lasting lessons.
Sometimes, filmmaking isn’t as much a creative endeavor as it is a logistical one. It can be gruelling to plot the minutia in advance and fill out mounds of paperwork, but you feel the benefits once you, the cast, and the crew set foot on set.
In Part 2, we'll look at the SAG-AFTRA process, SAG Indie, Production Insurance, Payroll Services, Tactical Planning, Scheduling, and Call Sheets.
Check out links and further info at http://shohawk.com/ep6-pre-produce-pt-2/ For exclusive access to guides and documents relating to this and other episodes, sign up and ShoHawk.com/makethismovie!The podcast currently has 16 episodes available.