WHAT MY FAN FILM DID FOR ME

article originally written 1/31/2004
revised on occasion

So what's the point? Why make a fan film? You can't sell it or even make your money back. You have to spend a lot of time and money making it. What's the benefit?

There's quite a lot of benefits, actually. And I know this because I can answer this question:

What did my fan films do for me?

Young Jedi: High School Student helped get me into college, including the prestigious film studies program at Johns Hopkins University and the exclusive radio-television-film program at Northwestern University, where I am. Without it in my pathetic 'portfolio' I might be stuck doing actual homework instead of making movies. Without my fan film I could not have gotten into film school.

Run Leia Run got me my first public screening, my first film festival screening, my first award for filmmaking and my IMDB listing. It's the best exposure I could have asked for at such a young age.

So I think fan films can turn out to be very positive things to do. But don't take my word for it.

Ken Lawton, what did your fan films do for you?

Opened my eyes to a community that I never knew existed prior to making my first film.

I gained exposure in places like conventions and film festivals. Another thing I wasn't aware of.

It gave me confidence as an artist. In fact, I've learned things about myself that I still am a little surprised at.

It taught me a lot about how to figure out spiffy new effects that I never tried before.

It taught me how to pass on what I had learned.

[Also], the Episode III ["Oobi"] Trailer put me in contact with the creators of the show as well as one of the network executives. It's funny when I see Bear in the Big Blue House, or Oobi, I always have in the back of my mind that those people have all seen the film and loved it!

(years later)...

So, recently, I contacted him again, on a matter unrelated. But while I had his ear I said, "Hey, I'm in the middle of a layoff period, ya know... You guys need any help with anything?"

Next thing I know, I'm in contact with the IT folks and the art director. I got one small job to fix a little thingy on their site. Today they contacted me again. (Nothing moves like the speed of New York City). They want me to redo the entire site. They also want me to do the coding on another site they are launching. This all spells massive amounts of freelance work.

So, now I will be spending most of my weekend making up proposals to explain how much time it will take and how much it will cost.

... this is potentially my biggest client. And I got the contact because I spoofed his show with a Star Wars fan film.

James DeRuvo, what did your fan film do for you?

It got me off my butt dreaming about filmmaking and on to actually making something.

Patrick Kerby, what did your fan film do for you?

Got me a good bit of exposure at several film festivals. Some kudos (no cash though) from the Pepsi-Cola company, an entertaining piece to show as my director's demo, and helped get my lead actor and fight coordinator jobs on Timeline and Pirates Of The Carribbean.

Trey Stokes, what did your fan film do for you?

Raised my credibility a tad. I'm currently fishing for financing for a new project and I have at least one good answer to the "so what have you done that I should give you money?" question. (I like to think I have several good answers to that question, but the fan film tends to get the most attention.)

Led to meeting a number of nice folks that I wouldn't otherwise have met—such as Fenn [John E. Hudgens] and his pals Sandy Clark and Lowell Cunningham (Men in Black), and just within the past week Mr. DeRuvo and the newly-arrived Mr. Hanel. And the possibility for new projects with any and all of them have come from those meetings, and new projects are always good.

Jeremy West, what did your fan films do for you?

Well, I think making fan films saved my life. I mean, not from a terrible illness or keeping me from taking my own life or anything like that, but I was at a place in my life where I had kind of resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to live up to the goals I once had and I figured that the fun in life was pretty much over for me.

I was only thirty at the time, but I had been very creative when I was younger, with acting and being a musician etc. When none of those dreams panned out and I was staring at the rest of my life with nothing really exciting to look forward to, well... I got pretty depressed. I used to have passion for life and for doing creative things, and all that just kind of left me for a while.

When I finally got around to doing Power of the Sith, I had no idea how it would eventually change me personally. It was really weird, but I felt like I was alive again. I felt creative, I felt passionate about something that I was really interested in, and it just felt like someone woke me up from a coma or something. It's hard to explain, and I know it sounds crazy for a thirty-year-old guy to feel like there's nothing exciting left to do with his life, but that's what happened. Fortunately, my creativity didn't stop with fan films—I'm back into music and other areas of my life that I thought were dead have started to flourish again. I feel happier, healthy, and wiser.

Is that sappy enough for you?

Nick Jushchyshyn, what did your fan film do for you?

Picked up a few paying video gigs (landed using fx shots from Hidden Phantom as a demo reel).

Became co-leader of the Media Studio Pro forum on CreativeCOW.

Was contacted by the Science Fiction Writers of America for some video help when their Nebula awards was held in Philly. As a "thank you", Ann Crispin and Vonda McIntyre sent me autographed hardback copies of their books (the Han Solo Trilogy & The Crystal Star).

Have made numerous direct contacts with people in the professional feature film visual effects industry.

Alex Bess, what did your fan film do for you?

My film created bonding time for me and my brother, something we haven't been able to [do] as much since he left for college.

Dave Macomber and Mark Thomas, what did your fan film do to you?

I can answer this one for them. They're out in Hollywood getting screenplays made, and they did digital effects for The Purgatory House.

Mark Twitchell, what did your fan film do for you?

It turns out that extreme resourcefulness I showed in putting it together proved my metal as a producer and the appearance of the website convinced potential investors that I knew what I was doing. So it was at this point that I decided to take the next step…

After carefully constructing and compiling a business plan and executive summary based on what real investors want to see I had a plan in place for launching Xpress Entertainment as a major production company with a production schedule that would have us cranking out two projects a year for 5 years. Now my latest project, Day Players is ready for pre-production.

It has a budget of $3.5M, letters of intent for distribution and a completion bond and the two leads cast.

Over all, investing $60K in [Secrets of the Rebellion] was the best investment I ever made. It taught me everything I need to know about the logistics of how to effectively produce and direct a feature film, while giving me something to prove I know what I'm doing so that I can continue to write, produce and direct high paying work while keeping all of the creative rights to my projects.

Rajneel Singh, what did your fan film do for you?

As someone else who is doing his first feature-length film this year with a multi-million dollar budget and has had 4 years of work as a professional director/producer/editor...all thanks to a single fanfilm he made in 2003...all I can say is GO YOU GOOD THING!!!

Hank Braxtan, what did your fan film do for you?

I sent the trailer for "Return of the Ghostbusters" to a producer in Hollywood and was hired on the spot. I sent the final film to an agent, and may be meeting with Harold Ramis.

Fan films can work for you.

Mike Kane, what did your fan film do for you?

I've been looking for a new job for a bit and that I finally found a good position.

The CEO sat and spoke with me for a while and I found out that out of the 2 dozen candidates and the 4 final choices, I was picked because they liked the creativeness of my fan films... He said the sheer creativity and the ability to mobilize groups of people with no budget and end up with decent product got his attention, and that what he wanted in the business.

Keep that creative outlet and you never know what rewards you will get.

Justin Dix, what did your fan film do for you?

He's not here to answer, but I'll tell you. Justin Dix worked on Attack of the Clones. He got paid to work on freakin' Star Wars and have his name in the credits. He's even in the movie as an extra. He worked on Sith as well, and proposed to his girlfriend on the set of the movie with Artoo-Detoo's help.

All because of his fan film.

So! Professional contacts, exposure, awards, recognition, new jobs, new opportunities, personal accomplishment, bonding, a feeling of self-worth... Clearly there's a lot you can do for your fan film. So if you (or, more likely, a relative) are questioning why the hell you do all this stuff, print this article and put it on the refrigerator, and smile.

Ask not what you can do for your fan film, but... et cetera.