There are several philosophies floating around as to what makes a good movie and how to make a good movie. Some of them hold true some of the time, the rest hold little water for a short period of time. There is no Universal Theory that holds up against scrutiny and the test of time. Before one embarks on the periless journey to film making one should always examine one’s motives for attempting such an endevour.

I was drawn to the industry by accident. As a child at Bell Lane Junior School I had the great fortune to have in my last year an English/Drama teacher called Anna Scher. She went on later to set up the Anna Scher Youth Theatre in Islington and for 40 years or so nurtured the brightest and most talented youth in England. As her pupil, she never taught me how to act. This is important, for there are many schools floating around that purport to teach one to act. This you cannot do. It is a talent and at best can be nurtured and developed. What Anna Scher did for me was to open doors and let me kook through them. To see things and people and observe them. To try and bring something of what I saw into my work. My last year at Bell Lane Junior School saw me playing in the year end school play The Mayflower. A play about the Founding Fathers of America. I played John Carver if I am not mistaken and in an attempt to grey my hair and make me look older I doused it in Talc Powder. Needless to say, I smelt very good for the next week or so. At the age of 11, I for the first time I found that I was good at something, acting. To be on the stage and look out at an audience of several hundred parents and teachers and hold their attention, to control them with my every word and movement was an enlightening thing for someone so young. I gain confidence and several girlfriends that year, falling in love with a young girl. That one year and the experience of working with Anna Scher set me on the path of film making.

I wanted to make movies to tell a story! And I thought I had talent to do so. Whether I have or not, is not for me to say but for the public to say by paying at the cinema or DVD store, if they get the opportunity to buy the product (a whole different thing). Among the many philosophies floating around is that the more money you spend the better chance you have of making a good movie! Hmm! The bigger stars you have in the movie, the more money it will make! Hmm! It’s easier to split movies into several categories. Low budgets, below US$3M, medium US$20-40M and epics or big budgets US$100M+ movies in other categories tend to be very risky as they are either not cheap enough or do not have the named actors to help market and sell the product. .The second and third category are of no importance here, I shall concentrate on the low-budget movie.

What makes a low-budget movie attractive to audiences? Quite honestly, I have no idea, but I can give a few hints on how I approach the subject. Here are some steps to take:

1) Come up with an idea that is quirky and has exotic or unusual locations. This gives a higher production value on screen and especially if you are outside of the USA. It will be attractive to the buyers in Hollywood who are generally ignorant of anything outside the USA.

2) Having sourced your locations, write the story/script around what you have rather than coming up with some great script that needs US$50M to shoot not US1M! It’s simply not going to happen. Flog the location to death, use every part of it. Shoot the same thing from different angles, different times of the day and night.

3) Develop quirky characters that compliment or that are completely juxtaposed to the locations. Make them stand out.

4) Give the actors’ good dialog. Do not be afraid to give them long dialog if it tells the story. Too many movies have short stupid dialog aimed at pleasing an uneducated youth brought up on dumb ass reality shows and MTV. Give your characters whenever possible dialog that might just make a young audience think.

Now the above requires one thing apart from the dedication of the film maker or makers, that is money! Money at different stages of the process is used to achieve different things.

First you need development money. Money to write the story, go to the locations and to do the budget. This is something alien to Asia. Very few Asian countries have a clue on how to put a production together. The Philippines, Singapore and Thailand where I have lived and worked for the best part of 22 years have industries that simply do not do the job properly. The Philippines once had a vibrant film industry in the 1950’s but now it is run by idiots, morons and despots who have a dubious background in Accounting.

Singapore, should with all its infrastructure have a good industry although its size works against it, it’s real downfall is that everyone is posing at being something, producer, director, writer and no one can actually do anything. Of course that bodes well for me, but for those up and coming young Singaporeans that want a career in Films it is disastrous. They learn bad habits and they are difficult to change. Also, the Singaporean Government has placed far too high a priority on new technologies like Digital and HD video and not enough on teaching the basic film making skills and opening up the minds of the young to the possibilities of a creative thought process. Life is not only Chip Making and the Biotech industry.

Thailand is one of the vibrant industries in the region, with high quality crews but like the Philippines, it lacks good producers, directors and writers. It does however, attract more foreign movies than any other country in the region with 400 productions (local and foreign) being made last year there. After you have come up with the idea, sourced your locations, written your script and done the budget you then have to raise the funds. A word of advice, whatever your budget is, stick to it (always make sure you have a miscellaneous fee, contingency and a PR budget). Some skills go well with others. If you want to direct, you should go off and learn about editing, or writing. The best combination is writer/director or director/editor, I usually do all three. That means I really understand what is going on from concept to final product and can sometimes nip a problem in the bud for it manifests itself into a major disaster.

DO

* Develop an idea based on location
* Get development money
* Write script
* Get full funding
* Get the best actors you can for the money
* Get a well known actor that might not be working much at the moment
* Make sure you have good a DOP
* Make sure you have a good sound man
* Work with actors to tailor dialog and characters to their personality
* Start marketing and promotion fro day one
* Understand what you can and cannot do in post and what it will cost
* Try to so most SFX in Camera
* Continuously do PR on website, etc
* The most important is Have FUN
* Allow 10-15% of your budget fro PR and Marketing

DON’T

* Start the movie without the money in the bank
* Stick to your budget
* Finish it before selling it.
* Never undersell your product
* You cannot fix problems in Post
* Don’t go into debt

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