James Wall, Director who graduated from Leeds College of Art in 2010
The Truth About Romance
Short films - 1 film a week - 10 films a month - made a big portfolio. Had actors approach him so in 2011 he wanted to make a feature film. He wrote a draft in 2 weeks and launched a fund raiser in 2012 but had to make it into a competition. Expenses were quite high with travel costs, actors however he gained a lot of support from twitter and other social media, so with this founded confidence he launched a website posting his pre production work for the film and got emails with in the day.
Pre Production - Month before production started to get exciting, costumes were needed to ensure that they wore the same thing as scenes would be filmed at different times, and this was all new to him. To cast actors he networked over skype.
Post Production - Planned it to be a 90 minute film however he shot too much and he had to edit the video himself which took close to a year to finish the edits whereas the production of the film took only 2 weeks.
Freelance
Freelance work worked out to be paying more than normal work, freed up his time as well for the editing of the film. He promoted it through social media, its a way to interact with people, making the public build up interest in the film. He got in contact with everyone to watch it, views on youtube 844,000+, a lot of interest with in the film. His work got a four page article in Digital Magazine, and he was invited to a meeting in London with film lawyers to talk about a sequel however he is still waiting for the contracts to be finished. Hopefully Hollywood will buy the film and remake it, would make a lot of money. He was paid by youtube however he only obtained £67 for 2 months worth of viewers, not really a living. From this it generated a lot of work, and still obtaining more views on his youtube channel. He still spends a day or two promoting the film on his social media. He felt that he should have done a transcript for international viewers however it would be extremely time consuming.
An example of freelance work, 1st Wakefield theatre - Leeds is not the best place for work - you need to actively seek work, showing showreels to companies, contacting the Marketing Department as they are the people that deal with that. You need to make a good quality of work, as freelance is extremely hard to manage and sometimes hard to work, especially if you don't network/promote yourself. People will hire you to do the boring parts - effectively you are your own business. Rebranded himself and told people he was a company however he did all the work himself, ended up hiring another person but had to fire him when he had no work for a few months.
Networking
More important than being good at the job - Social media is a MUST - dont have to go to an office to ask for a meeting, can connect with them directly. Chit chat is important it helps you to connect with them. Freelance work cannot predict what work will come your way - identify what it is you are going to do with them, to what standard - if you are not sure, it can spiral out of control.
You need to:
Operate as a business
Have Professional Accounts
Make Connections
Keep Improving
PROMOTE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE!!
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