12 Key Traits of the “Indie-Friendly” Director

Video Village, Indie-Style

Not every director is suited for low-budget indie filmmaking, and that’s OK if you’re Terrence Malick or David Fincher. But chances are, you’re not…or not yet, anyway. I get a fair number of calls from biggish directors and producers who are having trouble raising money for their films and want to explore how to make them on the super-cheap. I’ve entertained some of these requests, collecting funny anecdotes along the way, like the director who wanted to fly in stars from another country and rent large trailers for them, but forego unions and production insurance. Or the producer who wanted to cast an actor whose agent demanded $12,000 worth of perks, when our entire costume budget was just $4,000. As much as I want to work with these namey folks, I usually end up politely declining because I know that it will be difficult for them (and for me, especially) to make a movie on a fraction of the budgets to which they’re accustomed...  [Read More]

Film Project Markets, Dissected

Film Independent's Fast Track

Sometimes I feel like a traveling salesman, going from festival to festival selling my finished films, and from market to market pitching my new projects.  I recently participated in my ninth project market on the “filmmaker” side, and I’ve done four of them on the “industry” side, so I figured I’d write about my experiences with project markets to try to demystify them a bit... [Read More]

Three Tips For First-Time Producers (Plus a Panel)

I'll be on a panel (yes, again) called "Independent Producing: What Is It, Who Does It?" on Monday, 3/26, 7pm at The New School, Wollman Hall, 65 W. 11th St, 5th Floor.

Also speaking will be Lisa Cortes and Amy Hobby, with moderator Anne Hubbell. It's co-sponsored by the Tribeca Film Institute and the New School, and it's FREE, so please come! More info here.

Leading up to the panel, Lisa and I each posted 3 tips for baby producers on Tribeca's site. Here are mine:

1. Don't be afraid to ask questions. You may feel overwhelmed or insecure about not knowing everything, but it is your job to ask questions, even if you think they may be dumb. I guarantee you'll find most of the time that someone else has the same question; the producer needs to be the one brave enough to ask it.

2. Listen to feedback from others, but be firm in your own decisions. Every decision you make should be a well-considered one that welcomes input from your director, cast, crew, attorney, agent, financier, etc. But remember that, perhaps apart from the director, all of them have a narrower focus than you and will try to get what they want, which will not always be compatible with what someone else wants. So never let the cacophony of voices make you forget that the buck stops with you. Every decision you make should be one that's best for the film, that you can enforce, and that you can live with. If you end up making the wrong decision, acknowledge it, fix it, and move on. There will be many, by the way, that will be wrong. Given that a producer can make hundreds of decisions daily during prep and production--just be sure to learn from them!

3. Respect your director, and make sure he or she respects you. Directors and producers just starting out are often confused about the proper division of responsibilities and oversight. It's important to remember that the director is the creative head of the film, and must answer for all the creative decisions. The public will hold him or her responsible for how the film turns out. It's also important to remember that you are the business head of the film, and must answer for all the business decisions. Your investors will hold you responsible for the film being done well, on time, and on budget, and launched into the world in the best (and most profitable) way possible. Producer and director must respect each other's realm and figure out the best way to mesh them to ensure an equitable and fruitful partnership, and ultimately, a great film.

Read the rest of the original post here.

Musings of Yesteryear

Hey, I'm back (after a very long hiatus)! I'm going to be blogging for IFP, so I thought I'd put together a little collection of some of my musings over the last few years so you'll have an idea of who I am and what I'm about--although it's weird reading these old statements of mine since I disagree with some of them now. But hey, since they're already floating around out there in cyber-eternity anyway...

Check back for more posts to come. I'll be republishing my monthly IFP posts here, and perhaps blogging in between those as well. In the meantime, c'mon and follow me on Twitter and Facebook. I'd be much obliged!

• Angry Asian Man | Angry Reader of the Week: Mynette Louie (6/4/10)
• Forward Marsh | Meet the Producer: Mynette Louie (6/4/10)
• Indiewire | Futures: “Children of Invention” Producer Mynette Louie (4/23/10)
• Truly Free Film | “Children of Invention”: Why They Are Glad They Went DIY (3/12/10)
• Truly Free Film | “Children of Invention”: Why They Turned Down 8 Distribution Offers (3/11/10)
• The Harvard Crimson - Fifteen Minutes | 15 Questions with Mynette Louie (3/4/10)
• Harvard Magazine | Indie Film Blues: Interview with Mynette Louie (Mar-Apr 2010)
• Filmmaker Magazine | Mynette Louie on Big Art, Little Debt (2/3/10)
• Filmmaker Magazine | Blogging From the Sundance Creative Producing Lab: Mynette Louie, Part 2 (7/28/09)
• Filmmaker Magazine | Blogging From the Sundance Creative Producing Lab: Mynette Louie, Part 1 (7/16/09)