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I want to take a moment and reflect on this project I spent a year & a half on, maybe more. And before we go too far down the road, I did ask Film Threat to review it so I do want to thank them for spending the time to review, even if it went from critic to kinda mean at the end. https://twitter.com/FilmThreat/status/1295077507172114432
I mean "isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever seen" but gets a 1/10?
But that all being said, Enrique Acosta makes a lot of good points, points I knew during the project, points I haven't talked about publicly because they cost me a friendship. But I feel they are totally valid and worth talking about so I figured why not?
If talking about them can help future filmmakers not make the same mistakes, then I want to help. So let's get into it. Grab some popcorn and gather round for story time.
I started talking about this project in March of 2018 with said ex-friend. He had, as Acosta points out, a really really good idea for a sit-com and I had been dreaming about making a web-series so he pitched that we would be co-creators and both write. He'd producer, I'd direct.
Things started out great actually, but guess what we didn't do? We didn't have a contract... yep... rookie mistake I know. But hey! We'd been friends for 8 years! What could go wrong? Well everything... ALWAYS have a contract. Especially with friends.
Here's my @_FilmItYourself where I go over exactly why you need a contract and which ones are super important. I also have links to where you can download them for free.
Anyway, mistake #1. No contract. You see, contracts help set clear expectations for everyone involved, and because we didn't have one my ex-friend and I ended up having very different expectations. This started a rift that unfortunately was unrepairable.
I was under the impression we were making the video as part of a kickstarter campaign. You see the plan was, or so I thought, we would make a video to show my YouTube channel fans and get their support to make the full series, since it'd be pretty expensive to make the series.
However, I think my ex-friend had different expectations. I think he was just hoping to make a good pilot episode and was trying to setup the world. Plus it was super important to him to surprise the audience with the zombie twist at the end. Which sounds good if it was a film.
But as Acosta points out, the zombie at the end isn't a surprise because how could it be? All of the marketing, the kickstarter campaign, the behind the scenes series I did, it was all built around people being hooked by the good idea. Zombie apocalypse meets family sitcom.
That was the good idea that always made everyone's eyes light up, and it was the good idea the script started with. The original script was very different. There was no zombie surprise, instead it had the backdrop of a zombie apocalypse, axes on the wall and only lantern light.
But the comedy for me came in with the stark contrast of the sitcom over-the-top dialogue and acting with the very dark zombie background. This juxtaposition of gritty apocalypse with upbeat sitcom humor is what for me made it super funny.
But my ex-friend decided he wanted to take it in this different direction, because he felt the plot twist was better. However, once that juxtaposition was removed, we were left with a not so great sitcom episode that has an obvious twist at the end. Again, Acosta nailed it.
Once the juxtaposition was removed, mistakes just kept rolling in. We were no longer working as a team, instead we were working as two filmmakers with very different goals and the end result reflects that. The whole project was suddenly different than what was pitched to me.
To make matters worse, we made mistake #2, we didn't split the cost of the project. Instead, ex-friend was funding this first video 100% and then the plan was to leverage my YouTube fans to raise the larger sum to make the web series.
Now, obviously this isn't always bad, and as a professional filmmaker you're going to have investors or maybe even studios funding your film, so it was a great learning lesson for me there. I realized I need to learn to adapt to investor's wants, which is challenging.
However, if you're making a small film with friends, I highly encourage you to split the cost evenly and have those conversations as early as possible. Honestly, do it before you do anything else, because conflict will arise down the line if you don't hammer those details out.
Get the details of the split in writing and put it in a contract! Remember that? Mistake #1 fueled mistake #2. But the reason I stress this is because if it's an even split, no one person can feel like they have more ownership over someone else.
You see, my ex-friend felt he has more ownership as the project went on. It was his idea after all and he was 100% funding it. But I felt like I should have say too. I was a co-creator after all and we were leveraging my YouTube audience.
This added fuel to the fire, and quickly the projected shifted from co-creators to a completely different vibe. I felt creatively unheard and honestly expressed a lot of the points Acosta points out, but felt they fell on deaf ears. Plus I was working for free and doing a lot.
Later my ex-friend told me he felt the same way. He felt he was not being heard and like his ideas were falling on deaf ears. And this leads us to mistake #3, communication. You see, we didn't set down clear guidelines for communication and it was his first big creative project.
Because of that, things that were obvious about the filmmaking process to me weren't obvious to him. Roles and processes weren't clearly defined and this made communication break down fast. Plus he was on the other side of the world for several months of the project.
This all lead to a lot of poor communication on both of our parts through email and in person, and honestly kinda helped inspire my filmmaking channel because I realized there's a huge need for this stuff to be explained to new filmmakers.
The saddest part in all this, besides loosing an friend, is that the end result totally reflects all of the drama that went on behind the scenes. We're left with something that isn't great but really could have been, and at no fault of the rest of fantastic cast and crew.
So, if there's an important lesson for future filmmakers here, it’s that conflicts during production will make your final product suffer and as a filmmaker there's nothing worse. You want to do everything you can to make sure your final product is as good as it can be.
And to do that, make sure you avoid those three mistakes. #1, always have contracts in place before doing any work. #2, split the cost of the film evenly so the financial weight is even. And #3, always clearly communicate and make sure everyone is on the same page.
I learned a lot from this projects. In a lot of ways I'm proud of it and in a lot of ways I'm not. But I now know what important mistakes to avoid and have carried those lessons on with me with all of the other projects I've done since, which thankfully have all gone smoothly!
I'm thankful I had the chance to learn these mistakes & I'm thankful I got to work with an awesome cast and crew that hung in there during it. I'm extremely proud of what we pulled together despite the challenges, but I also now know I can do better in the future. Ok story done.
