Tanya Kersey | Hollywood Career Strategist | Hollywood Career Coach | Entertainment Industry Consultant | Hollywood Career Resources

I can’t tell you how many film­mak­ers I meet that have com­pleted their film and find them­selves stuck, unable to shop it or find dis­tri­b­u­tion. A lot of times its because the film­mak­ers didn’t do their home­work on the front end. There are SO MANY issues that MUST be addressed before you even start prep­ping your film. The entire process, from script to screen — screen­play, plan­ning, bud­get­ing, sched­ul­ing, cast­ing, mar­ket­ing, pro­duc­tion logis­tics, post-production, dis­tri­b­u­tion, and much more — should be care­fully con­sid­ered BEFORE you even start pre-production. Prob­lems based on unin­formed choices made early in the process could take you by sur­prise later and cost you dearly in terms of time and money.

Let me ask you a few ques­tions you might want to think about:

• Have you got­ten an analy­sis and review of your script by a script con­sul­tant? If the story isn’t tight, the film won’t be right (you can quote me, LOL).
• Who is going to want to see this film? Many films fail to suc­ceed because there wasn’t a clearly defined audi­ence for the film.
• Why would a dis­tri­b­u­tion com­pany want to dis­trib­ute your film? How are you going to make your money back? Each film you make is part of your body of work.
• When a poten­tial investor asks you how your first film did, what will you say? Too many film­mak­ers just want to make the film with­out real­iz­ing the film is not part of their film­mak­ing legacy.
• Do you have enough money not only to shoot the film, but also to get it through the post-production process includ­ing the costs of deliv­er­ables, mar­ket­ing, and festivals?

The list of things to be con­sid­ered before you shoot is almost end­less. You have to be on top of your game and there’s so much to con­sider it can become overwhelming.

The bot­tom line is that mak­ing clear, sen­si­ble deci­sions and plan­ning ahead are essen­tial to the suc­cess of any film. I can save you save you time, money, and aggra­va­tion. Check out my new film­maker book camp, script analy­sis, script devel­op­ment and other coach­ing offer­ings at http://www.tanyakersey.com/coaching, and con­tact me for help. Invest now, or pay later.