Early in the development of Sins of Man I started thinking about all the work that goes into making a movie and honestly I didn't have a freakin' clue how much work actually goes into making a movie. I have said many times that I had a very basic idea of set the scene set, the camera and the sound up, yell action, shoot the scene and move on.
There were a million and one things I had no clue about and I learned on set very quickly. this blog will be about some of the struggles we faced on the set that most everyone faces on their set as well as some struggles that i don't think many people face on their set .
There were a million and one things I had no clue about and I learned on set very quickly. this blog will be about some of the struggles we faced on the set that most everyone faces on their set as well as some struggles that i don't think many people face on their set .
Many people will automatically say MONEY is the biggest struggle in any indie film project and yes if you don't have alot of money there is alot of struggle in the process of making an indie film.
I feel the biggest struggle early in the development of Sins of Man was my struggle with SELF DOUBT and my FEAR OF FAILURE. This is something that most people struggle with and I think more so when you are faced with putting your work out into the world to be watched and in turn be judged by your audience.
I know this was something I thought about all through the writing process of the first draft of Sins of Man which would be come Sins of Man : Rise of Mortis when I decided to make Sins of Man a trilogy. these thoughts followed me all through the filming process on a constant basis in the back of my head after ever take I would think to myself "was that scene good enough" ?"is the finished movie going to be good enough" . I can't be the only film maker that thinks these things ?
Just to name a few things that happened during the process we had several rewrites do to actors leaving the project, we had an actress who had already shot scenes in the movie not show up for her last day on set so an on set rewrite was done (not a fun thing to do) The after the first weekend of shooting at our primary shooting location the house on the property burnt to the ground the day after we left, we had to move the production an hour and a half further north east and I went from doing my Craven tribute cameo to being a bigger role in the movie because of this which as I tell people "I'm a director not an actor" but all in all I think I made it work as best as I could.
Another struggle I think most people encounter on set is working long hours day and night when they haven't ever done it before at one point during shooting we started at 11:00 am on a Saturday and worked til 5:00 am Sunday morning then drove 3 hours home all together I was up for 37 hours before I slept.
Long hours on set with new cast and crew, a new director can be frustrating for everyone involved and it usually works out one of two ways you either can't work together to finish the film which from what I have be told happpens more often then not or you all come together and work your asses off take care of each other in anyway needed and you finish the movie we all made the choice to do that and we released Sins of Man : Rise of Mortis on Halloween 2015 .
I feel the biggest struggle early in the development of Sins of Man was my struggle with SELF DOUBT and my FEAR OF FAILURE. This is something that most people struggle with and I think more so when you are faced with putting your work out into the world to be watched and in turn be judged by your audience.
I know this was something I thought about all through the writing process of the first draft of Sins of Man which would be come Sins of Man : Rise of Mortis when I decided to make Sins of Man a trilogy. these thoughts followed me all through the filming process on a constant basis in the back of my head after ever take I would think to myself "was that scene good enough" ?"is the finished movie going to be good enough" . I can't be the only film maker that thinks these things ?
Just to name a few things that happened during the process we had several rewrites do to actors leaving the project, we had an actress who had already shot scenes in the movie not show up for her last day on set so an on set rewrite was done (not a fun thing to do) The after the first weekend of shooting at our primary shooting location the house on the property burnt to the ground the day after we left, we had to move the production an hour and a half further north east and I went from doing my Craven tribute cameo to being a bigger role in the movie because of this which as I tell people "I'm a director not an actor" but all in all I think I made it work as best as I could.
Another struggle I think most people encounter on set is working long hours day and night when they haven't ever done it before at one point during shooting we started at 11:00 am on a Saturday and worked til 5:00 am Sunday morning then drove 3 hours home all together I was up for 37 hours before I slept.
Long hours on set with new cast and crew, a new director can be frustrating for everyone involved and it usually works out one of two ways you either can't work together to finish the film which from what I have be told happpens more often then not or you all come together and work your asses off take care of each other in anyway needed and you finish the movie we all made the choice to do that and we released Sins of Man : Rise of Mortis on Halloween 2015 .
The last struggle I want to talk about is about getting the movie out there once it's finished, packaged etc. this is a HUGE struggle for many of us, I was lucky to have bull Moose Music give us a consignment deal to sell the movie on their website www.bullmoose.com (US Residents Only) and in stores across Maine not many people have options like that they use digital downloads sell DVD's on amazon, ebay, their websites etc. you can get Sins of Man : Rise of Mortis on ebay.com and our person website sinsofmanmovie.com for worldwide horror fans who want to check out the movie.
For the most part this is how indie films are distributed unless you have a ton of money or connections in the industry to help with these things .
I know alot of film makers put their work into film festivals to try to get them picked up for distribution, I wasn't ready to do that with Sins of Man : Rise of Mortis but with all that I have learned on set and what I continue to learn about myself as a writer and film maker I think Sins of Man II : Vengeance will be the film I try to get into film festivals and try to get distribution with .
For the most part this is how indie films are distributed unless you have a ton of money or connections in the industry to help with these things .
I know alot of film makers put their work into film festivals to try to get them picked up for distribution, I wasn't ready to do that with Sins of Man : Rise of Mortis but with all that I have learned on set and what I continue to learn about myself as a writer and film maker I think Sins of Man II : Vengeance will be the film I try to get into film festivals and try to get distribution with .
In closing I would like to say that we all face struggles in this industry like any other business there is competition and I get that but imagine if we looked past the competition and helped each when ever we could, imagine how big we could build the indie film scene ?
We could show Hollyweird that we have a voice and we have the power to change the game on them like never before.
We can create amazing content in our movies, web series, short films etc and we can do it together we simply have to work together instead of against each other at every turn like the world tells us we should be doing. I tell a short little story about the need to help people when you can, Everyone has to start somewhere and everyone needs help early on, right ? My brother in horror Jessie Gilbert aka Raz T Slasher who is a film maker , writer etc. has helped me so much that I want to help him in return we say this if we are at a convention and he sells 100 DVD's and I only sell 20 sure as a business man I'm gonna be pissed off but as his friend I'm going to be proud of him, I will walk up to him and shake his hand and then ask him "What did you do that I didn't" and I will learn from his success and apply it to the next convention appearance.
Like I said I know there is a level of competition for consumer dollars but for me MONEY isn't the bottom line, I simply want to make good movies for horror fans to enjoy and if I make money on it great if not then that's fine also. I enjoy meeting fans, talking to them on social media, signing pictures and DVDs for them and taking pictures with them that is the one part of the job I love the most along with making movies for all of you crazy horror fans :)
STAY TUNED & STAY WICKED My Friends :)
We could show Hollyweird that we have a voice and we have the power to change the game on them like never before.
We can create amazing content in our movies, web series, short films etc and we can do it together we simply have to work together instead of against each other at every turn like the world tells us we should be doing. I tell a short little story about the need to help people when you can, Everyone has to start somewhere and everyone needs help early on, right ? My brother in horror Jessie Gilbert aka Raz T Slasher who is a film maker , writer etc. has helped me so much that I want to help him in return we say this if we are at a convention and he sells 100 DVD's and I only sell 20 sure as a business man I'm gonna be pissed off but as his friend I'm going to be proud of him, I will walk up to him and shake his hand and then ask him "What did you do that I didn't" and I will learn from his success and apply it to the next convention appearance.
Like I said I know there is a level of competition for consumer dollars but for me MONEY isn't the bottom line, I simply want to make good movies for horror fans to enjoy and if I make money on it great if not then that's fine also. I enjoy meeting fans, talking to them on social media, signing pictures and DVDs for them and taking pictures with them that is the one part of the job I love the most along with making movies for all of you crazy horror fans :)
STAY TUNED & STAY WICKED My Friends :)