Locals Taught to Produce and Finance their own Feature Films at NOVAC’s Producing the Indie and Get Funded!

(Get Funded! panelists left to right: Sherri McConnell, Will French, Rebecca Snedeker, Michael Arata, Erika Cohn)

On the evening of Thursday, April 14th local independent filmmakers, Dillard University communications majors and local community members gathered at the Georges Auditorium on the Dillard University campus to participate in NOVAC’s highly anticipated Get Funded! panel discussion where film financiers, independent filmmakers and industry pros weighed in on the ever-changing waters of film financing.  Get Funded! served as a capstone event to NOVAC’s Producing the Indie, a two-day seminar conducted on April 13-14, devoted to the subject of independent feature film producing.

Also held at Dillard University, Producing the Indie was taught by Maureen Ryan, co-producer of the Academy Award-winning documentary, Man on Wire and Assistant Professor of producing at Columbia University, School of the Arts.  The 35 students participating in the course ran the gamut from undergraduate mass communications majors from Dillard University to award winning independent filmmakers and producers and everywhere in between. Using examples from her own film budgets and on-set experience as well as required text, Producer to Producer: a Step by Step Guide to Low-Budget Independent Film Producing, (Michael Wiese Productions 2010©), Ms. Ryan covered everything any independent film producer must know before tackling his or her first, second or even third feature film. Development, legal, casting, budgeting, scheduling, post-production, distribution and much more were all on the menu at Producing the Indie.

With all of that information to digest, Producing the Indie participants along with other members of the filmmaking and film-watching community gathered at the Georges Auditorium to hear from the Get Funded! panelists and moderators on the subject of financing the independent film, particularly, as it relates to local filmmakers. The discussion was led by seasoned television and film producer and former cable network executive, Gina Holland along with the emerging film and television     producer, André Jones whose film, Mr. Okra garnered accolades and applause on the 2009-10 festival circuit.  Panel contributors included: Michael Arata (Shalom Ya’ll, Night of the Demons, Home Front); Erika Cohn (God in America, When the Voices Fade); Will French (President, Film Production Capital); Sherri McConnell (Executive Director, Louisiana Entertainment); and Rebecca Snedeker (By Invitation Only, Land of Opportunity, Choices).

Finding investors, the Louisiana Filmmakers Grant Fund, aggregating films for tax credits, pitching, staying true to your vision and more were all on the table at Get Funded!.  Moderator, André Jones fielded a number of questions from the audience of approximately 150 attendees, concerning the promotion of local independent filmmakers on community websites, the possibility for local WGA signatory agencies, packaging indie films and other local resources available to the community.

That night, Dillard University was buzzing with optimism and hope for the future of the independent filmmaker and the possibility that they too are a significant piece of this pie as it relates to the local film industry.  Events like Get Funded! and Producing the Indie embody NOVAC’s mission and we are proud to play a part in the cultivation of a sustainable film community here in Louisiana.

(Above – Producing the Indie instructor: Maureen Ryan; Below – Get Funded! moderators: Gina Holland, André Jones)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 20th, 2011 at 9:36 am. It is filed under Career, NOVAC Blog, Uncategorized and tagged with Board, Class, DIllard, Dillard University, Feature, Film, Finance, Financing, Funding, Indie, Locals, NOVAC, Produce, Producing, Seminar, Workshop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.