Troma Films and Independent Filmmaking

I think the one thing Kaufman has going for him is that he is violently independent.  Even when given the opportunity to get in on something more mainstream, he bucks it. 

It's a shame, actually.  He's got enough moxie that I think he could do something really exciting within the mainstream.  I'd like to see him exert his talents instead of relying and insisting on T&A and Bromo Seltzer.

Granted, the world needs ditch-diggers, too, but he's got the intelligence to do something better.

I gotta get this new book

To be quite honest reading Direct/Produce Your Own Damn Movie I found quite helpful when working on my projects.  When it came to trying to negotiate with actors, scheduling, directing, deciding responsibilities.  Grant it my thesis never materialized due to slight *major understatement* problem of previous students destroying good locations; but his words carried me through and helped quite a bit.

I think Kaufman has been able to distill necessary and good information in an easily digestible and engaging read.  I've read other film books at film school; but the problem is that they're far too analytical, scientific and generally dull.  I actually found myself quoting Kaufman to a classmate when he said he was worried about an actor being difficult and threaten to drop out during the shoot; told him to schedule his film chronologically so that if the actor does that he can easily write in the character's demise/departure.  The actor was in the finished film, dunno if my classmate let the actor in on the scheme or they had a change of heart.

Coming from a film student perspective in all honesty, yeah I'll buy this as I know that 1. I'm getting needed information from someone whose worked in the industry and 2. it's gonna be fun as hell to read

Last edited by thegoldensimatar (2011-06-06 09:35:59)

That's a problem with every movie I've had, all my films have been picked up by a distributor at one time or another, and only one of them only released it, which is why I release ALL my movies myself, I know exactly how much my movies are going to cost, I know exactly how many movies I sell, I have total control, I gave up on distributors a long time ago.

Last edited by Sonny (2011-06-10 20:33:10)

Hi,

I write some article about independent Filmmaking. You can take a look.

Truth about Independent Filmmaking

Has anyone submited a script with him? Any feedback from them? I'm thinking of sending them something but I want to see if it's worth it before I snail mail it to them

Well, hopefully you know to QUERY FIRST.  If you send anyone a script unsolicited, chances are it'll wind up in a trash can.  No film studio wants the legal issues inherent with an unsolicited script.

If you don't know how to write a query letter, go here: http://www.craftyscreenwriting.com/query.html