Filmmaker Freedom

Naomi McDougall Jones

January 06, 2021 21:29 - 2 hours - 120 MB

If you haven't seen The Joyful Vampire Tour of America doc-series yet, it's amazing and insightful. Watch it here. And you can stay up to date with all of Naomi's projects and workshops and such from her website.

Zander & Elliot Weaver | Cosmos

December 28, 2020 18:16 - 1 hour - 107 MB

My favorite indie film conversation of 2020. Hands down.

Marcus Mizelle | A Life In Micro-Budget Features

March 09, 2020 23:23 - 2 hours - 134 MB

Today on Filmmaker Freedom, a super in-depth interview with Marcus Mizelle. Marcus is a multi-talented filmmaker with three micro-budget features under his belt, and that's alongside a prolific career directing music videos, working in the grip department, and being a writer/producer. And pretty soon, he's launching an entirely new kind of film festival dedicated specifically for us micro-budget folks. It's called the Micro Film Tournament, and it looks pretty rad. Anyhow, this ...

Audience Mapping, The Niche Filmmaker’s Secret Weapon

February 29, 2020 02:02 - 53 minutes - 49 MB

So, you’ve chosen the perfect niche for your films. And you’ve done the research to ensure it can support you financially. Now what? Well, one option is to just start making films and marketing yourself. Just taking those two prerequisite steps—finding and validating your niche—puts you ahead of 95% of other indie filmmakers in terms of building a sustainable business around your work. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t share the final piece to this niche puzzle—one that’ll help you c...

The Exact Process I Use For Niche Research

January 17, 2020 01:09 - 53 minutes - 49.3 MB

In the Art of War, Sun Tzu tells us, “victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win." If your goal is to earn a living from your films, this is wisdom to live by. I mean, what if you could virtually guarantee your film would be profitable before you ever wrote a word or shot a frame? What if you knew—with a high degree of certainty—that if you engaged a particular niche, you’d be able to build a sustainable, enjoyab...

How to Choose the Perfect Niche for Your Films

December 10, 2019 00:19 - 1 hour - 70.2 MB

This episode is long. Quite long. In fact, when it comes to choosing a profitable niche audience for your micro-budget films, you’re about to listen to the most comprehensive guide on the internet. Make no mistake, if you want to succeed as an indie film entrepreneur, targeting profitable niches is the single most important skill for you to learn and master. Getting your niche right is the 20% of efforts that drive 80% of results. In other words, you could be a mediocre filmmaker...

Niche Down or Perish

November 23, 2019 20:18 - 24 minutes - 22.9 MB

Today on Filmmaker Freedom, the only sustainable way for micro-budget filmmakers to win the brutal war for audience attention. This is a war being dominated right now by the likes of Netflix, Disney, YouTube, Facebook, and plenty of others. You might not think you have much chance of competing against companies like this, with their multibillion dollar content and marketing budgets. But when you shift your focus and niche down, you absolutely can. In fact, there’s surprising pow...

The Smart Way to Build an Audience for Your Films

November 12, 2019 23:27 - 24 minutes - 22.6 MB

Today on Filmmaker Freedom, how to approach building an audience for your films, and do it in a way that leads to sustainable revenue with minimal work. That might sound like a hyperbolic promise, but I guarantee you it's not. There are two foundational missteps that entrepreneurial filmmakers tend to make when building audiences, and these strategic errors limit how much you can earn from your films, while dramatically increasing the amount of work you have to do. Basically, ...

Jason Zink | Horror Stories from the Trenches of Micro-Budget Distribution

November 06, 2019 14:16 - 1 hour - 70.1 MB

Today on Filmmaker Freedom, an interview with Jason Zink. Jason's directed several micro-budget, DIY features, all in the realm of horror and punk rock. His latest is called Straight Edge Kegger, which looks awesome. He's also experienced first hand just how predatory some traditional distribution deals can be. So in our wide-ranging conversation, we go deep on Jason's ethos for making cool, grungy flicks that he and his team can be proud of, what to watch out for when offered di...

Mike Dion | The Pioneer of DIY Distribution

September 06, 2019 23:25 - 1 hour - 66 MB

Today on Filmmaker Freedom, an in-depth interview with Mike Dion. Now, Mike's not a household name in the film community, but to my mind, he's one of the real pioneers of indie film entrepreneurship. In fact, since 2010 Mike's put out a handful of features that appeal to an extremely small, niche audience. But despite the size of the niche, Mike's managed to make a good living for himself—without film festivals, distributors, sales agents, or any middle men whatsoever. Instead, M...

Film Festivals Are Not a Business Plan

August 29, 2019 19:42 - 20 minutes - 19 MB

Today on Filmmaker Freedom, we’re going to kill one of the sacred cows of indie filmmaking culture. Film festivals. We’re going to dissect, point by point, why festivals aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, especially if your goal is to make money with your work. In fact, by the time we get to the end of this episode, you might just be convinced, as I am, that the vast majority of festivals are a waste of time and money. So let’s get to it. Full Transcripts & Archive Each solo ...

Coat of Arms | Running a Successful Studio & the Pursuit of Meaningful Work

August 07, 2019 19:46 - 1 hour - 104 MB

Today on Filmmaker Freedom, an in-depth interview with Clara Lehmann and Jonathan Lacocque. Clara and Jonathan are the co-founders of Coat of Arms, a full service production and post studio that's created work for some of the biggest companies on earth. Think Google, Microsoft, Land Rover, Marriott, WebMD, and way more. They also take their passion projects very seriously. They've made short animated films and documentaries. They made a web series that was nominated for a Webby a...

3 Types of Audiences That Drive Film Revenue

July 31, 2019 18:55 - 16 minutes - 15 MB

Today on Filmmaker Freedom, the three types of audiences you’ll need to understand if you want to make a living selling directly to your fans. We’ll also dig into one of the biggest mistakes I see again and again from indie filmmakers who want to create content, reach people online, and sell their films. Problem is, they do it in the most ineffective way possible. We're gonna fix that. So by the end of this episode, you’ll have newfound clarity on how to use your energy for maximu...

Liz Manashil | Finding Success With Micro-Budget Films

July 22, 2019 23:33 - 1 hour - 55.9 MB

Liz Manashil is pretty prolific when it comes to writing and directing micro-budget features. I actually found out about Liz a few years ago after her first feature, Bread and Butter, recouped its budget, and she wrote a great article for MovieMaker transparently sharing those numbers and revenue streams. These days, Liz just finished her second feature, Speed of Life, and is taking it around the festival circuit, hammering out a unique distribution deal for it, and planning a DIY...

The Fundamentals of Audience Building

July 22, 2019 23:29 - 22 minutes - 20.8 MB

Today on Filmmaker Freedom, a crash course in what it really means to build an audience, and how to approach this process in a way that will lead you to a profitable, fulfilling business selling your films directly to fans. Trust me, there are a lot of misconceptions out there about audience building, and it's easy to spend months or years going down a rabbit hole that leads nowhere. So buckle up, because today we're going to set the record straight, and build a strong foundation f...

Alex Ferrari | Writing Your Own Rules as an Entrepreneurial Filmmaker

July 22, 2019 23:28 - 1 hour - 94.1 MB

Alex Ferrari is the founder of Indie Film Hustle, one of the most popular indie film podcasts and blogs around. He's also got a streaming platform called Indie Film Hustle TV and a book called Shooting for the Mob about his insane early experiences in film. Not to mention he's made two micro-budget films in the last 3 years, and both have been profitable. So here's a rundown of the fun stuff we cover in this wide-ranging conversation. Alex's "stranger than fiction" true story of...

Mike Hall & Chris Sakr | A Radical Experiment in Direct Distribution

July 22, 2019 23:28 - 1 hour - 82.5 MB

Chris Sakr and Mike Hall are the founders of Shohawk Media, and the creators of Generation Freedom, a documentary about online business that's being distributed using online business principles. Pretty meta, right? But it's working, as the film has already broken even, and these two are just getting started with the process of monetizing it. Here's just a sampling of the fun stuff we covered in this conversation. What Chris and Mike learned from their fairly disastrous first atte...

How to Make Indie Film a Viable Business (Part 2)

July 22, 2019 21:05 - 25 minutes - 23.6 MB

The last episode of Filmmaker Freedom was a bit of a downer. We talked about why indie filmmaking is rarely a good business, and why most filmmakers can never make a living from it. But today, I'm sharing a new paradigm, one that goes against everything you've ever learned about making and selling films. And when you adopt this paradigm, you'll quickly see that it actually is possible for indie film to be a viable business. Full Transcripts & Archive Each solo episode of Filmmake...

The Horrifying Economics of Indie Film (Part 1)

July 22, 2019 21:00 - 21 minutes - 20 MB

Today on Filmmaker Freedom, perhaps the most depressing episode of this show I'll ever make. We’re going to dig into the horrifying economic realities of making and distributing indie films. We’ll get into why most DIY distribution is bound to fail, and why you should be wary of distribution deal. I guarantee by the end you’ll be disheartened. Don’t worry though. This is just part 1 of 2, and in the next episode, I’m going to show you a number of counterintuitive ways to shift this...

The Filmpreneur Code

July 22, 2019 20:56 - 13 minutes - 12.5 MB

The filmpreneur code is a set of ideas that will help you make the films you care about, build an audience, and earn a great living from it. The journey won't be easy, and it won't be quick, but it will be worth it. Learn the code. Live it. And let it guide you to an amazing life. Full Transcripts & Archive Each solo episode of Filmmaker Freedom (not the interviews) has a complete written transcript so that you can revisit the ideas quickly and easily. You can find those transcr...

Season 3 Intro: A New Paradigm for the Indie Film Business

July 22, 2019 20:38 - 17 minutes - 16.3 MB

Welcome to Filmmaker Freedom Season 3 (Previously referred to as The Filmpreneur). This is a new type of podcast for indie filmmakers who want to make films they care about, and earn a good, consistent living from them. On this show, you'll learn how to build an audience, market yourself effectively, and sell directly to your fans without the middle men. And by the time we wrap this thing up, I will have shared everything I know about how to build a sustainable business around your...

A New Direction for Filmmaker Freedom

July 19, 2019 17:46 - 9 minutes - 8.49 MB

Hey friend, long time no see. I hadn't been planning on releasing new episodes of Filmmaker Freedom this year, but events transpired that completely shifted those plans. And now, I'm happy to announce that Filmmaker Freedom will be a weekly show from now on, and it will be primarily focused on entrepreneurial indie filmmakers. In other words, if your goal is the make the films you care most about, and earn a sustainable living from those films, you'll learn how on this new variat...