Recent content by norwest

This is a really practical point. I’d add that tracking what changed is only half the problem months later, you may also need to know why it changed and who actually agreed to it. That’s why I think anything important should ultimately be confirmed in writing, preferably by email. Calls are...

Another factor may be scheduling. If VP gives filmmakers more control over when and where scenes can be shot, could that also make it easier to coordinate actors with limited availability? For indie productions, solving one difficult cast schedule could be a significant saving on its own.

That makes me wonder if the process should sometimes work backwards. Instead of setting the budget first and then trying to find enough markets to support it, could early buyer feedback help determine what the film should realistically cost in the first place?

That makes a lot of sense, David. There may also be an interesting reversal in the usual order here: serious producer interest in The Black Sun could actually make the representation conversation easier, because you would no longer be approaching managers or agents with only a project, but with...

I agree, Adam. But I’d add that size itself isn’t necessarily the problem. What matters more is the quality of the conversation. Some of the largest platforms have thousands of people talking about almost everything, but volume doesn’t automatically create useful insight. A hundred opinions...

I think the difficult part is what happens in between those moments. You meet someone at a market, have a genuinely good conversation, but there may be no reason to work together for another year or two. How do you stay on their radar without every follow-up feeling like you’re asking for...

Thanks for clarifying. That makes the direction much clearer. If selling the completed screenplay is your main goal, finding the right producer or production company with an interest in this kind of action-thriller would seem like the logical next step. Best of luck with it!

I’d be interested to understand your longer-term plans for the project. Do you already have a target budget range and preferred shooting location in mind? Are you currently looking for a producer and financing partners? And ultimately, are you looking to sell the screenplay, or would you like to...

Lucas, I think there’s another side to this that’s easy to overcomplicate: the audience either believes the world on screen or it doesn’t. Most viewers don’t know what lens was used, how many VFX shots are involved, or how expensive the set was. But they immediately sense when a location has no...

The Clown Riots immediately stood out to me. Taking an event from 1855 and turning it into a satirical historical dramedy raises an interesting question from a development perspective: what makes this story resonate with an audience today? Is there something in the social tensions, characters...

That’s a really interesting way of finding music. Do you ever record those melodies quickly on your phone when they come to you? I imagine it must be frustrating when you hear something clearly in your head and then lose parts of it before you get back to your instruments.

I like the little bit of humor at the end. It made me curious about what happened before this scene, especially why they’re living in fear and what the money means for them. Is this scene from later in the story?

@Harish Chidambaram , Interesting idea, Harish, but I keep coming back to the cost. Renting an entire cruise ship for 100 days sounds incredibly expensive, even for a large production. And while you get hotels, restaurants, pools and lots of different spaces in one place, none of them were...

@MICA, I think the cash-flow point is especially interesting. A 30% tax credit sounds great on paper, but if it arrives months later and you have to finance that gap, you're obviously not getting the same 30% in real terms. For smaller indie films, I wonder if it makes more sense to compare...

One thing I’d consider is bringing an experienced producer in before too much of the visual scope is locked. With a world-building-heavy project like this, that could help shape the ambition around what is realistically financeable, rather than trying to solve the budget question after the...