My pleasure. Savage Island is the story of two families pitted against one another in a desperate struggle for survival. We were out to make a completely savage film, to explore what savage filmmaking could be and it looks like we were successful. People really 'dig' Savage Island (pun intended but you'll have to see the movie to get it).

Many people helped us make the film along the way. The cast and crew for starters all offered up their services on a completely deferred basis, all of our grip, lighting and camera gear (we shot on mini-DV) was offered up to us for points basically.

A local soundstage with a large green screen just donated their space to the production. Columbia Academy, a sound engineering school located in Vancouver made of Savage Island a school project and completely recreated the sound track in a very collaborative process that lasted about six months... Finally, the film would have gotten nowhere if it weren't for web sites like this one and the small genre film festivals that championed Savage Island.

In the end we made it for about $35,000.

Far more than two crew members walked off. On the first day of shooting (before lunch) our inexperienced assistant director apologized to me and said he couldn't handle it. He gave me his radio and walked off into the woods (we were a solid ten minute walk through drizzly muck to the nearest road). He took with him all four of our PAs (this was about a quarter of our crew). Apparently he'd had some sort of premonition the shoot would end in disaster the night before. Perhaps he saved us all by walking away, we'll never really know. By the way, he isn't credited in the film so don't blame the guy who is... different guy.

This was just the beginning of our shoot, it 'set the tone' as it were. We couldn't seem to hand on to a sound crew until Trish Dolman showed up to save our butts, our key grip sprained his ankle in the first hour of the shoot and was never replaced...

I made a few speeches. I don't know how effective they were, mainly they were along the lines of acknowledging the people who'd stayed, who were being true to their word despite the lack of rent money, shelter, sleep etc... Thanking people goes a long way. The funny thing is, people who worked on the film keep coming up to me and telling me it was one of their favorite on set experiences. Those that survived that is.

Amazingly enough, it did go to plan. Screenwriter and horror guru Kevin Mosley and I designed the movie with a microbudget (or nobudget) shoot in mind. What that meant is that the story had to work for a very raw look (I hate that super clean video look, it's ok for reality tv but makes my skin crawl in drama) and had to be strong enough to hold the viewer through all the flaws and lack of production value that we were likely to encounter.

Kevin Mosley is an amazing writer, pumps out 10-20 pages per day (a draft a week, really) and takes correction very well. He's completely committed to excellence and knows that writing is -as they say- rewriting. We worked that script like crazy, just as we are working SITTER'S NIGHT right now.

We were hoping to make our money back with a straight-to-video release, we've done that. The place I greatly underestimated was how much horror fans would enjoy SAVAGE ISLAND. If we'd worked to raise the 200K or so to shoot on film we'd have had a theatrical release.

This is British Columbia, Canada, and we have the UBCP here instead of SAG but they're not all that different. UBCP wasn't going to stand in our way. Given how low our budget was, they knew there wasn't a chance in hell anyone was getting paid. They have waivers their members can sign for that kind of situation, basically they stipulate they're working outside the system and UBCP is washing their hands of the matter. Most actors are happy to sign the waiver if they believe in the project.

We hooked up with the cast in a variety of ways, about a third of them came from a casting call and wading through headshots. We never went through agencies or casting directors though. A couple of the characters were written with actors in mind, specifically Gregg Scott's terrifying turn as Savage Joe and Brendan Beiser's hilarious performance as the obnoxious Peter. We wrote Don S Davis' part with him in mind but had no relationship with the guy. I just approached him one day on the set of STARGATE where I was doing a stint as a lighting technician and told him we were writing a role for him, would he be willing to read the script and consider doing our film? He was extremely generous and said yes, I don't think he had any idea what he was in for.

There were complications, there are always complications.

I figured the live sound would be pretty much unusable (standard for low budget pics, especially ones shot in the woods in the rain) but didn't have any deal in place to handle it. I estimated it was a $100K job to fix.

That was one that really had me worried. I looked around for a while, thinking maybe I could get money from a distributor to finish the film or find a guy with protools and some recording gear who would do it. Everything seemed to lead to dead ends or having to spend lots of money for a mediocre job (I didn't have the 100K obviously).

Thank God I hooked up with Jeremy Butler and Chris Hind at Columbia Academy. They took one look at my cut and emphatically said yes, their students worked on the show for six or seven months, we completely recreated the entire sound track. I think the only piece of original sound in the film is a closing door (sorry Trish). We also worked hard to dirty up the tracks so they didn't sound too pristine, so they'd sound more like low-budget location sound. Thanks also to the actors who came back (not everyone did) to dub in their own voices, especially Kristina Copeland who spent a harrowing week in the booth to recreate an award winning performance.

I suppose I would have had to. This film was getting made, one way or another.

Ha ha... All I have to say about that is that making an independent film is a very emotional process for any filmmaker. There are peaks and valleys right? The peaks can be oh so very high, but expect some very low low moments, and when you get to those low points, remember, it's just a valley.

You can climb out of everything. How good the film will be is entirely up to you -the producer. You can always reshoot the scene, rewrite that plot point, get that extra coverage you need. At a certain point in my picture cut it became evident that the movie didn't work. There were entire sequences missing, huge gaps in the coverage (hell, it was a miracle we made it through the shoot without any major catastrophes). I combed through the movie and made a shot list that was about 220 setups long.

That's no typo.

Over the next two years we banged out those setups.

You decide when you're done, the power is entirely in your hands. You got this far, just make a list of what needs doing and go out and do the next thing on the list.

Firstly, there are no rules. You can make generalities and theorize but you'll always find there are movies and people who prove that those generalities are just that, only generalities.

On the other hand, it is valuable to understand how the industry works.

The elements are obvious really. A name cast is a big one.

First time independent filmmakers rarely think in terms of they're making a product for a marketplace. What market are you addressing? Who is going to buy your movie, why?

The fact is that the mainstream marketplace is very well addressed right now by movies in the 20-200 million dollar budget range. Those are the ones people generally choose to go see in the theaters and living rooms. Where the independent filmmaker can reign is in the smaller - niche markets that the mainstream producers can't address because they're too small to provide a sufficient payoff.

So you have to choose a niche market. Slashers, erotica, thoughty talk-fests, quirky documentaries, offensive comedies. You have to be edgy, play the edge go beyond the pale, take the risk of offending people.

On the other hand, you need to realize that there are possibly a couple thousand other indie movies being made this year in North America. A wide competition for very few slots. You better be intense and entertaining. You better give me a rise.... No half-measures. Go all the way.

And do everything you can to get recognizable cast in your movie.

oh... and shoot on 35mm film. Distributors are buying DV pictures, they're buying HD pictures, they're buying 16mm pictures. But they're selling them for cheap. These are cheap pictures in the marketplace. Only 35mm pictures are considered the real thing. Everything else is microbudget. Once you get into 35, you're dealing with real profit potential.

All the festivals were great to go to for different reasons, I don't really have a favorite but I can say that Maniafest in LA was especially thrilling because it was our first festival and we won our first award there. That really blew me away, I was not expecting anything of the sort.

We've had so many compliments from so many different sources, it's been overwhelming really. My favorites however are the random emails I get from time to time from people who've rented the movie and liked it. It's nice to know that it's being seen.

Yeah, a lot of people get stopped there.

Firstly: BUILD BUZZ. Do whatever you have to do to get attention for your film. Submit to the big festivals, then submit to the small ones. Have a local screening and party and invite press (not a premiere, a cast & crew screening). Put out press releases like mad every chance you get. Get so that when people Google your film they get tons of hits. You're going to need a web site (take a look at ours if you like at http://www.visitsavageisland.com). You're going to need a cool poster, you're going to need a cool trailer. These elements are probably even more important than the actual movie. If you're going to get any actual press, you're going to need great stills (they'll actually get you press if they're good enough).

Then: GET A PRODUCER'S REP. This can be challenging and not a lot of them are worth much. The good news is that the thieves are easy to discover, just ask to speak with their prior clients (or look them up on imdb). If they're thieves, chances are they've done it before... I highly recommend a good producer's rep as they will have the contacts and reputation to get your film bought. You shouldn't have to pay for any market expenses or anything really, they should be paid purely out of the sale of your film (you might have to give them a retainer of some sort but you should be able to negotiate for it to be refundable in case there's no deal).

We went with entertainment attorney Mark Litwak, google him and you'll find he has an excellent reputation for integrity and SHARK HUNTING. He created a little bidding war over Savage Island by mailing it out to a slew of distribs a couple of months before the American Film Market. We closed our domestic and foreign deals within 6 weeks.

Yes there are a lot of horror stories for a lot of good reasons. Ask around about anyone you're 'getting in bed with'. Ask the other producers who've dealt with them what it was like. Do they report? Do they pay? And have an excellent entertainment attorney (I can't stress this enough) go over your contract with you.

Also, beware of your expecations. The marketplace may not function as you expect it to. Sometimes it takes a year or more to see the money from a sale. Make sure you understand how the marketplace works, you may not be being cheated, you just may be ignorant about the marketplace.

Put more time in development. Don't just rush off to make your film because you can, spend the time it takes to get name cast interested, bounce your script off of production companies, friends, critics, festival directors, web masters. Hone and hone and develop and develop. It may take you another 12-18 months to get your film off the ground but your career and pocketbook will thank you.

As will your audience.

And one more thing.... and this is the most important thing of all: Beware the evil within. We all have our flaws, our achilles heels, our inner wounds. Those flaws show up inevitably in our work (not necessarily a bad thing) but they can also stop us from completing our work. How many of us know really how to listen? How many of us have defeatist thoughts? How many of us have the integrity to actually do the work that's required?

The most important thing you can develop is yourself, as a human being. I did something called the Landmark Forum many years ago and it opened me up to new possibilities for myself and what I could contribute in my lifetime. There are all sorts of ways to develop yourself, whether it's meditation, analysis, yoga, scientology, or the forum they are all valuable pursuits. Develop yourself.

Have fun out there!