Craig Nachsin (Check out his film at www.timethefilm.com)
I'm a 44 year old father of three, married for 14 years. I've been writing for around 17 years. I have written four complete screenplays.
"Time" my latest screenplay will be shot on weekends in January and February. Like so many before me the path to bringing your vision to life is a long and winding road.
I truly believe that in order to make your vision, come to life, "YOU" need to make it happen. What I mean is, don't go down the traditional path that almost everyone does. I'm referring to finding an agent or someone to produce or fund your film.
Sometimes this path works out, but it's so rare and you could be waiting until your 80th birthday for that to happen. I'm an example of not taking that path.
I spent about a year creating my characters for my story. ("Time") It's the most time I've ever spent just thinking about a story with out writing one word. I was very proud of the story when it was done and I put it on a shelf, anxious to make it into a film. It sat on a shelf for almost three years. I wanted to make this film so badly I could taste it, but I didn't have the funding and I've been so distracted with work, bills etc... that it just sat.
About seven months ago a friend of mine told me about this really neat little indy film called "Truth About Average Guys". He said it was shot for around five thousand and it was really good. Although I have to admit I was very skeptical because $5,000 is really not much of a budget to shoot a film. I've always said that we need to grade a film for what it is and not for the budget. If it's great or if it stinks, budget should not enter your verdict of the film .
I was ready, I have to say I loved the tag line "Finally a chick flick for guys". I watched it. I really, really enjoyed it. If this movie had a budget of five million instead of five thousand, I think I would have enjoyed it the same.
The story was really funny and real. The acting was really good. I remember thinking to myself after watching it, I have to do the same thing with "Time".
Someone I know has his own critic site and I reached out to him. I told him that I have to speak with the guys that wrote "The Truth About Average Guys". He put me in contact with Ken. I asked Ken several questions over the next five weeks. I have to say, it's really great when you're trying to bring your story to life and there are people out there like Ken, that are happy to spend their time answering questions.
One of the suggestions Ken gave me was if you're on a tight budget to make sure you only get people involved that are really in love with the story. Someone that shares your passion and desire to get it done.
The (director) I eventually choose was young. He had done several shorts and some pretty nice work. From the first time we spoke, he had that get it done now attitude. Just like me. He also really liked the script a lot. A few weeks after I brought him on board, we reached out to this amazing experienced DP. The DP read the script and now he's on board with all of his talented crew.
My final suggestions: Get together a great story, get a few talented people that share your passion that are really sharp in areas that you may not be. I also recommend when doing your first film allow at least 6 months for pre-production, so you're prepared and you have time. You don't want to cast bad actors because of a time crunch. If you can't have good acting, don't shoot it until you can.