Advice for fanproduction founders

[FreddyE]

Creating a fan production is learning by doing...sometimes the hard way. I thought it might be a good idea to collect helpfull insights we have gathered from experience. I used to work for a fan production...here my few cents:

1. When building your team and "senior staff" make it very clear who has the last word on stuff. Democracy is okay...but ultimatly YOU the project founder should have the last word on everything.

2. As project founder never let anybody tell you what your function in the project is supposed to be or how that is function is supposed to change.

3. Stay in control. That does not mean you cant delegate...but you should always no what is happening where in your project.

4. Dont let yourself be "demoted" thru vote by your team members or talked into giving up control.

5. Work with your team, be diplomatic and open to compromise but: Its your baby. They have a right to go.

Yes, I know that some of this might sound a bit harsh but if I had known all this before I started that project...it would have saved me a lot of emotional stress.


What hints and rules of thump have others learned from their personal fanproduction experience?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I've found that when you're not paying anyone, being openly collaborative and embracing the ideas and input of all the participants is the best thing to do. YMMV.

You never wind up making the movie that you started out to make, and if you're lucky what you see on the stage is more interesting - unexpected, energetic, inventive, magnetic - than what exists a priori in the imagination of a single individual.

 

[FreddyE]

@My name is legion:

Yep, beeing open is a good thing. But still you need to be in control as far as nessecary to keep the project alive and stable..preventing chaos.

Something else: you should agree on rules what happens with contributions to the project if a team member leaves. We had a big set back because someone left and took all designs contributed by him with him. After that we devised an agreement that any material submitted to the project was done so as a donation (in exchange for credit in the projects end credits etc).

 

[Kelso]

I'm sorry to hear that you had a bad experience.

 

[FreddyE]

I'm sorry to hear that you had a bad experience.

Im over it. But I think I still should try to turn that experience into something good. That inspired this thread. If we collect experiences here that might help others and nobody needs to reinvent the weel. Its my hope that the collected experiences in this thread (bad or good) will ultimatly leed to more succsessfull projects, that benefit both the audience and the makers.

 

[Maurice]

Creating a fan production is learning by doing...sometimes the hard way. I thought it might be a good idea to collect helpfull insights we have gathered from experience. I used to work for a fan production...here my few cents:

1. When building your team and "senior staff" make it very clear who has the last word on stuff. Democracy is okay...but ultimatly YOU the project founder should have the last word on everything.

2. As project founder never let anybody tell you what your function in the project is supposed to be or how that is function is supposed to change.

3. Stay in control. That does not mean you cant delegate...but you should always no what is happening where in your project.

4. Dont let yourself be "demoted" thru vote by your team members or talked into giving up control.

5. Work with your team, be diplomatic and open to compromise but: Its your baby. They have a right to go.

Yes, I know that some of this might sound a bit harsh but if I had known all this before I started that project...it would have saved me a lot of emotional stress.


What hints and rules of thump have others learned from their personal fanproduction experience?

Funny how all five of your "insights" boil down to the same thing: be the boss. That's a rather unrealistic and, frankly, naïve attitude to take when counting on volunteer labor. You can be Stanley Kubrick when you're paying people, not when you're counting on them to help you for free.

Here's my 2¢ + compound interest:

1. Earn the respect of the crew. If you are fair, take the time to hear suggestions and disagreements, and act for what's best for the project, then generally the crew will see you as even-handed and you'll be "the boss" without having to assert your supposed right to do so.

2. Don't be a tyrant.

3. FEED the crew. This means craft services AND meals. I know some fan productions count on volunteers to feed themselves. Fuck that. Spend less money building a perfect set or extra costumes and take care of the people who are helping you.

4. Be efficient. Figure out what you're doing before you're on the set. On set is the worst time to figure things out because it's the time when the most people are required, and every delay wastes the time of more people. I strongly recommend spending the first half hour of any shooting day going over the pages with the actors, discussing blocking and business, and doing a couple of read-throughs. This lets the actors rehearse with some direction so that when they land in front of the camera you spend a lot less time trying to find out the tone. As you discussed it earlier and you can move through setups faster.

5. Trim the script. Fanfilms are notoriously talky and the scenes drag. Pare it back. Make every line important. Don't waste time. Lose technobabble wherever possible. A lot of actors have problems with it, and it's unusually unnecessary.

6. No hangers on. People on-set should have a job or they shouldn't be there. You have a limited amount of time to get your shots, and non-participants have a bad habit of distracting their friends in the cast and crew.

7. The first shot of the shoot should be a no-brainer. Get an easy one right off. It makes the crew feel great to get one right away, and it's bad for morale to have to struggle through the first shot.

8. Announce when each actor wraps on the shoot. This not only makes the actors feel good, but it makes the crew feel like one more step towards the finish line has been reached. (e.g. "Attention please. Orson Welles has wrapped on Citizen Kane.")

9. Don't let your D.P. convince you to only get master shots or mini masters. They trap you editorially. Get coverage.

10. Get B-Roll. Get reaction shots. Get people working at their desks, computers, whatever. This saves your bacon in editorial.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

3. FEED the crew. This means craft services AND meals. I know some fan productions count on volunteers to feed themselves. Fuck that. Spend less money building a perfect set or extra costumes and take care of the people who are helping you.

Definitely an important aspect on film shoots.

 

[jamesmc]

The Best advice is : Do not make a fan film.

 

[MikeH92467]

The Best advice is : Do not make a fan film.

Gee...sounds like you might know something about it!

Honestly I wouldn't trade my experiences in audio production for anything, but even though our logistics are not nearly as complex as a video production, there have been times when I found myself wondering if it was worth the effort. Not so much now, because we're pretty much done with learning how to do actually do it and are now concentrating on ways to do it better...huge difference in my opinion.

That said, I can guarantee that making a fan film (or even something more modest) will be far more work, far more stressful and (in the case of video) far more expensive than anyone other than a professional film maker would guess.

That's why I have nothing but respect for anyone who can take a concept and put a finished product out there for everyone to enjoy, gush over and/or nitpick.

 

[doubleohfive]

The Best advice is : Do not make a fan film.

Yes and no.

 

[Maurice]

The Best advice is : Do not make a fan film.

^^^This. (Speaking of which, what's up with the licensed Buck Rogers, James?)

My advice: make something original, even if it's in the same genre as your favorite show. Own it. Don't be constrained by so-called "canon" or even continuity. It's more work at first, since you have to design more, but it's also liberating because you're not forced to create perfect replicas of anything. You're freer to make more creative use of what you have available. If you own it, you can at least sell it, even if in small numbers.

The only downside: you may find you'll have fewer volunteers than on a fanfilm, because fans who will devote time and bucks to recreating something they love may not translate some enthusiasm to something that's not exactly the thing they love.

 

[Tribble Herder]

The Best advice is : Do not make a fan film.

Well, yeah, if you wanna take the boring way out...

 

[FalTorPan]

My hat's off to anyone who successfully completes a fan film. I couldn't do it. I wouldn't be willing to spend the mucho dinero needed to make or acquire authentic costumes, props, sets, etc., etc. In addition I like making my own rules rather than following others' rules.

The closest that I've come to making a fan film is this video that I made for VOLTRON:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqQy83NriVE

(The video probably doesn't have any significance unless you're familiar with the 1980s cartoon.)

 

[Barbreader]

The Best advice is : Do not make a fan film.

One of the inspirations for Star Trek Reviewed was that I simply could not believe that people were putting so much time, energy and money into productions they could not even get their investment back from.

That... does not... compute!

But, miracle of miracles... people do it...

 

[Tribble Herder]

The word is "no", therefore they go ahead and make their fanfilms anyway...