Hollywood isn’t the only place movies are made. Sometimes filmmakers can be found in your own backyard — even in Maine. Besides Hollywood productions filmed in the state, including Mel Gibson’s “The Man Without a Face,” Kevin Costner’s “Message in a Bottle” and Stephen King’s “Thinner,” residents of the Pine Tree State have taken camera to shoulder and created interesting works of their own.
The independent film movement became widely recognized by audiences and film studios in 1991, once a Utah film festival took the title “Sundance” under the guidance of actor-director Robert Redford. In the early ’90s, “sex, lies, and videotape” sold for big bucks at Sundance, said York County-based filmmaker Dana Packard. All of a sudden, movie studios realized there was money to be made in the independent film market, he said.
Since that time, small-budget films, some of which took only thousands of dollars to make, have gained notoriety around the country. In the best-case scenario, this could mean a distribution deal with a major studio. Who can forget the marketing blitz behind the independently produced and directed “The Blair Witch Project” in 1999, which was made for only $60,000 and earned more than $140 million after it gained a distribution deal with Artisan Entertainment?
Technological innovations in filmmaking over the past decade led to small, affordable digital cameras and editing software available for anyone’s home computer. Robert Rodriguez, the filmmaker behind “Desperado,” is rumored to have edited his entire children’s film series “Spy Kids” on his home computer. Can film
hobbyists and untrained newcomers truly make a self-financed movie and get it screened for an audience, perhaps finding a distribution deal with a studio along the way?
“Most indie films made are not going to get distribution,” Packard said. “It depends on what your [ultimate] goals are.” If you simply want to get a picture shown, there is very little in the way. It only gets tricky, he said, when a lot of money is involved.
What kind of state support is available?
The Maine Film Office is a small government division of the Maine Office of Tourism, with all of two people working in the office. Its meager budget of only $1,274,923 ranks it 40th in comparison with other states’ film offices, according to assistant director Greg Gadbury, who spoke at the first annual Bangor Film Festival in December 2007. Lea Girardin, the director of the film office, explained the division’s purpose is to bring more outside film productions to Maine and support the local production industry.
While Maine had a good share of Hollywood productions in the past, no major films have been shot in the state for three or four years, according to Girardin. “The state’s current [financial] incentives are not strong enough to attract feature films,” she said. However, she noticed a substantial growth in the local film industry in the past 15 years, spurred by the change in technology. She sees more people interested in the media than ever before. But getting financing for making a film is still a major barrier, she said, and she believes that trying to make a feature film for less than $100,000 to compete in the independent film world is practically impossible.
Girardin has seen films overcome these barriers, and once a movie is made in Maine a filmmaker simply needs to search around the state until a venue is found to show the finished work. “We can sometimes find that audience and help,” said Girardin. While the Maine Film Office does not offer financing for filmmakers, it can direct people to granting sources. Girardin has worked with several independent projects in the state to see if they could get money through the Finance Authority of Maine, or FAME. The filmmakers have come close on a couple of projects to receiving FAME financial support. The available grants usually require projects with a historic, artistic or educational component, Girardin said.
Outside of financial concerns, the Maine Film Office can lend other types of support to local filmmakers. They can assist filmmakers in finding a crew for the production, help scout out locations and liaison with local officials to receive the required permits. “We will work with each project in relation to its needs,” Girardin said. She emphasizes an important thing to remember is to turn to others for help, because it’s “tough work, hard to go alone.” But according to Packard, the producer-director of two Maine-made films, “Its no harder to make a film in Maine than anywhere else.”
Lending a helping hand
Another place to turn for assistance is the Maine Film and Video Association, or MFVA, “an active group of production companies, film and video professionals, TV stations, students, actors, musicians, writers, crew members, and others who are interested in networking with individuals working in this industry here in Maine,” according to its Web site.
William Fraser, a Maine native and producer-director of independent films in and outside Maine, is a member of the group and updates the group’s Web site at www.mainefilm.com. “Their quarterly meetings are a great — and very affordable — way to learn more about film and video production, as well as to meet other locals in the field,” said Fraser. According to the site, annual membership dues are $45 for professionals and $25 for students.
The members of MFVA are a hard-working group who volunteer a lot of their time in trying to change the course of the future of Maine’s filmmaking industry, according to Fraser. He said MFVA has a new Web site almost ready for release, which will create a smoother experience for Maine media and filmmakers, including online forum discussions, a searchable resume site and useful links.
Packard agrees it would be nice to have more resources available to support local independent film. He expects he probably will join MFVA, not for the access to financing, which they don’t have, but for networking opportunities.
What else can Maine do to support local filmmakers?
Josh Gass, a filmmaker originally from the Bangor area, states he would like to see the state support more local filmmakers. When Josh and his brother Seth shot their independent film “The Mushing Mill” in Bangor in 2003, they received all their money from private investors.
“I would like to see more support at the state level,” Gass said. “[Maine is] trying to cater to large productions. Great, that’s a piece of the puzzle. It doesn’t bring any more productions into the state. I’d like to see the state support more homegrown talent. Those who will ultimately come back and shoot here.”
Packard agreed that Maine’s incentives don’t really apply to low-budget independent filmmakers. “If we were to have legislation designed to support independent film from development through distribution, it would be great. But that’s not something that exists in any state in the country.”
Homegrown talent moves away
Josh and Seth Gass grew up in Bangor and attended Bangor High School. Josh went to Los Angeles to attend film school at the University of Southern California and has remained out West since. Both brothers work mostly in television, “doing reality stuff, because that’s where the work is,” Josh said. He would love to move back to Maine and is finding himself spending more and more time here. The brothers are expecting to shoot a feature film in Bangor this summer called “Friends and Enemies.” “When you shoot locally, you have hometown advantage,” Josh said. “[Filmmaking] is a novelty in Maine; people will go the extra mile for you.”
Fraser also moved outside Maine recently to continue working in media and filmmaking and to attend postsecondary school. Fraser is attending graduate school in Illinois, seeking a master’s degree in teaching. Before leaving the state, Fraser worked as associate producer on the Maine-made science fiction feature “Willow’s Way,” directed by Kevin DiBacco and shot mostly in Fraser’s hometown of Damariscotta.
The benefits of shooting in Maine, Fraser said, “include a close-knit community that provides a lot of healthy support for those in the industry, a lot of friendly faces, and the chance to shoot your project in one of the country’s best-looking states.” However, Fraser admitted, the lack of work was one of the reasons he left the state. Individuals working full time in the film industry need to spend part of their time traveling outside the state, he said.
Packard’s production company, Honeytree Films, is based in Portland; however, it is not his primary source of income. His theater company The Originals is his full-time job. The Originals is the resident company at the Saco River Grange Hall. While Packard filmed his short “The Ballad of Ida and Doob” in 1998 and his feature “Mr. Barrington” in 2002, he has been waiting several years for financing before he can start his next film. “Raising money can go on for years and years, trying to get a production up and moving,” he said. “I’m having a real hard time now. [Film] industry money is there, but private capital the economy is effecting badly.”
A change in technology
Packard explained the change in technology can make independent filmmaking more affordable. “Mr. Barrington” had a half-million-dollar budget, he said, but some filmmakers are now making superlow-budget films with digital cameras and editing on home computers. “You can make a movie for $10 to $20,000 and you’ve made a real movie. You don’t need conventional distribution to make it profitable,” said Packard. His first two movies he shot on film and used an editing studio, but his next one will be digital and edited using Final Cut Pro, a software program on his home computer.
Fraser too believes anyone with a digital camera and some editing equipment can make a movie. “For my own personal and professional projects, I use Final Cut Pro as my editing suite and have a Sony PD-150 that I shoot non-HD and Web-based projects with.” Fraser’s online series “Artifact” was made using this technology. But to create a feature-length film takes a lot of dedication, and Fraser advised to instead start simple and do something short. “I’ve seen and worked with many people who bit off more than they could chew with their first project, and dropped out of it.”
Overall, Josh Gass believes, “story is the most important thing.” He has seen big-budget short films that appeared to have professional quality but were boring, Gass said, compared with a less professional-looking low-budget short with an interesting premise that keeps you watching.
Maine film festivals open to Mainers?
Gass agrees it is a good thing that more people can make films. Josh and his brother created the Bangor Film Festival out of this belief that they wanted to give Maine-based filmmakers a venue to show off their work. “There was a void to be filled in Bangor for independent film work [people would] not otherwise see,” he said. In December 2007, the Gass brothers started the first film festival in the Queen City. They premiered Seth’s short film “The Legend of Cody Collins” at the event and showed other original works from Maine filmmakers at the Bangor Opera House.
The second annual event was held in August 2008, and Gass expects a third event to occur the last week of August 2009. The brothers will be updating their Web site, www.bangorfilmfest.com, in the spring with the details of how to submit films to the event. In comparing his festival with the Maine International Film Festival, or MIFF, held in Waterville every July, Gass said, “They are in fact an international film festival, which tends to be their focus. [The Bangor film festival’s] in a different area, a different program with more American independent filmmakers … [including] shorts and features which wouldn’t otherwise get play.”
Fraser agreed the MIFF is hard to get into and its popularity is growing. “When I submitted ‘One Sung Hero’ to them, it was up against some heavy competition,” Fraser said about a film he worked on in California. “I imagine it’s even tougher now than it was two years ago.” Packard said the local film festivals haven’t been too hard for him to get into. He had “Mr. Barrington” screened at the MIFF in 2003.
Shannon Haines, director of the MIFF, acknowledged in a phone conversation that the festival gets a ton of short films. It is a common way to get started in filmmaking, but the MIFF’s general focus is feature-length films, she emphasized. There is often a short-film night at the festival and if they are of similar subject matter, a short film may be paired with a feature-length film at the festival, she said.
Haines clarified that while the MIFF “like[s] to show Maine-made films, quality is their number one factor.” On average, the MIFF shows 10 to 12 Maine-made films a year, including shorts. While 35-millimeter film used to be the standard in the industry, Haines said digital films now make up 50 percent of the submissions. The most important piece of advice Haines can give to burgeoning filmmakers is to “make good films and [be sure] to edit. Talk to other filmmakers from Maine. [Find out] what worked for other people [to be accepted into MIFF].”
The annual Portland Phoenix FilmFest is another great festival to start with, according to Fraser, who won an award at the event in 2007. Packard suggests the Camden Film Festival is available for documentary filmmakers.
Other venues for filmmakers
Girardin pointed out that local opera houses, libraries and schools can be set up to show films. There are also quite a few independently owned screens in Maine, she said. It is easier for an independent film to get booked through a film house not directly connected to the Hollywood pipeline, she added. Public access stations are another great free way to broadcast your media, Fraser said.
Both Packard and Gass suggest the Internet as the perfect place for filmmakers to have their work seen. Gass said he heard that some indie filmmakers are even getting opportunities from projects studio producers have seen on YouTube.
“You never know who’s watching,” Gass said. Filmmakers can use Facebook or MySpace, Packard suggested, or even just a big room and invite people over to see their film.
This is “the end point for the vast majority of homemade movies,” Packard said, “[To] take it to the next level, [you] have to begin by spending more money.” Ultimately, it depends on the goals for your film, he said. If your goal is distribution, “there is only a handful of fests industry buyers attend with the purpose to buy films — Sundance, Tribeca, Toronto, Slamdance.” Once indie film festivals became recognized by movie studios as a place to make money, it became the end of pure creativity for little filmmakers who couldn’t compete, Packard said.
He pointed out that Hollywood studios created pseudo-independent arms, giving them access to A-list talent while packaging films as low budget ($2 million-$10 million). “Most of what’s called indie films [are] not anymore,” Packard said, but are instead “bankrolled by the studios.” However, getting noticed by distributors is still possible, if your work is strong enough, he said. But if its simply “getting your work shown, [that] is the easiest part of the [filmmaking] equation.”