4 ms·

After 30 years of coding and tech management, I want to get into movie making

28 points by tluyben2 8y ago

I see often Ask HNs asking what would you do if you were not in tech? I am trying to get into something else, namely making movies and documentaries. Because I know nothing about this business, the first one is only on the sidelines and as investor, however, the plan is to get more and more involved. Here it is: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07NPZWHFV Wonder if anyone else here did something similar and has tips on, for instance, getting larger investments and doing promotion. I have only ever gotten investments or promoted software and software services.

laurex 8y ago
I spent about 8 years in the independent film business. It's a business that attracts people because they love movies or like the glamour of it, and from an investment standpoint, is one of the least likely to return. Lots of hand waving, creative people, and cool parties. Almost no assurance of success, even for execs with years of experience.
- tluyben2 8y ago
  That makes sense, although the guys I am working with had a few solid successes. I am definitely not in it for the glamour; I am in the liking (horror) movies camp.
weeznerps 8y ago
Try reading about Shane Carruth and what he did. He quit an engineering job to make Primer (which won grand jury at Sundance) for around $7,000 by doing everything himself--editing, scoring, directing, cinematography, writing, acting and producing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_(film)
mrandish 8y ago
It's an admirable and seductive goal that I can identify with. I've been tangentially in the film & TV business from the 'enabling tech' side and have enjoyed having exposure to it. An approach you could think about is to decide what value you are going to uniquely bring to the table in the early phases of a creative media project and focus on developing proof points of that. One angle could be your tech and management skills amplifying the investment and passion you bring. Personally, I rarely see investment capital as the fundamental limiting constraint, thus suggest you might not want to focus on that as your primary value. When you said "I know nothing about this business", I thought two things. First, it's great that you know you don't know. Second, it's likely you may have a bad time as an investor until you build more domain expertise. As an angel investor, I've learned my judgement tends to be far more accurate when I focus on areas I have expertise in. Additionally, I can also provide help to positively influence the outcome.
muzani 8y ago
I wonder if there's a road in via the tech industry as well. Movie streaming companies like Netflix and their rivals all make money on producing their own content. YouTube is also low capital, decent pay to start on things like documentaries.
user68858788 8y ago
Andy Weir was a software engineer before he became an author and wrote The Martian.
matt_the_bass 8y ago
Depending upon how much money you’re thinking of investing, you could look to get involved with OceanX. They are soon to launch their newly redoublantes ship, Alucia 2. Along with “science!”, it will include a full video editing suite for working on documentaries while at sea. For those that don’t know, most of The Blue Ocean 2 documentary was shot on the first Alucia.
Academ1c 8y ago
The video turned out great! Good luck with your new business. You can take part in different competitions, challenges. Winning the competition is a good advertisement.
pcmaffey 8y ago
I’m investigating crossing over as well, but via animation. Am currently making an interactive kids story. Thinking about some animated shorts also, but curious about differt potential distribution opportunities of software vs straight video.
eb0la 8y ago
In remember a story from my fikmmaking class 20 years ago.... Rodrigo Garcia (the son of Gabriel Garcia Marquez) wanted to be a filmmaker. The industry is quite closed. Everybody knew almost everybody and it was quite hard to break into the industry. This guy did something unusual. Instead of trying to be a director from the first time, he bought a piece of equipment for moving the camera up/downwards, leartn how to use it perfectly, and rented the device with an operator... which was him, of course. This way he was able to get in touch with the industry, make contacts, etc. My advice is to do something similar. Get a copy if the American Cinematographer Manual from the ASC, use it to learn the language of the industry, and do like Rodrigo Garcia (he was director of photography): use your current skills to find a contractor niche where you can get to know people in the industry.

28 points by tluyben2 8y ago

laurex 8y ago

I spent about 8 years in the independent film business. It's a business that attracts people because they love movies or like the glamour of it, and from an investment standpoint, is one of the least likely to return. Lots of hand waving, creative people, and cool parties. Almost no assurance of success, even for execs with years of experience.

tluyben2 8y ago
That makes sense, although the guys I am working with had a few solid successes. I am definitely not in it for the glamour; I am in the liking (horror) movies camp.

weeznerps 8y ago

Try reading about Shane Carruth and what he did. He quit an engineering job to make Primer (which won grand jury at Sundance) for around $7,000 by doing everything himself--editing, scoring, directing, cinematography, writing, acting and producing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_(film)

mrandish 8y ago

It's an admirable and seductive goal that I can identify with. I've been tangentially in the film & TV business from the 'enabling tech' side and have enjoyed having exposure to it. An approach you could think about is to decide what value you are going to uniquely bring to the table in the early phases of a creative media project and focus on developing proof points of that. One angle could be your tech and management skills amplifying the investment and passion you bring. Personally, I rarely see investment capital as the fundamental limiting constraint, thus suggest you might not want to focus on that as your primary value. When you said "I know nothing about this business", I thought two things. First, it's great that you know you don't know. Second, it's likely you may have a bad time as an investor until you build more domain expertise. As an angel investor, I've learned my judgement tends to be far more accurate when I focus on areas I have expertise in. Additionally, I can also provide help to positively influence the outcome.

muzani 8y ago

I wonder if there's a road in via the tech industry as well. Movie streaming companies like Netflix and their rivals all make money on producing their own content. YouTube is also low capital, decent pay to start on things like documentaries.

user68858788 8y ago

Andy Weir was a software engineer before he became an author and wrote The Martian.

matt_the_bass 8y ago

Depending upon how much money you’re thinking of investing, you could look to get involved with OceanX. They are soon to launch their newly redoublantes ship, Alucia 2. Along with “science!”, it will include a full video editing suite for working on documentaries while at sea. For those that don’t know, most of The Blue Ocean 2 documentary was shot on the first Alucia.

Academ1c 8y ago

The video turned out great! Good luck with your new business. You can take part in different competitions, challenges. Winning the competition is a good advertisement.

pcmaffey 8y ago

I’m investigating crossing over as well, but via animation. Am currently making an interactive kids story. Thinking about some animated shorts also, but curious about differt potential distribution opportunities of software vs straight video.

eb0la 8y ago

In remember a story from my fikmmaking class 20 years ago.... Rodrigo Garcia (the son of Gabriel Garcia Marquez) wanted to be a filmmaker. The industry is quite closed. Everybody knew almost everybody and it was quite hard to break into the industry. This guy did something unusual. Instead of trying to be a director from the first time, he bought a piece of equipment for moving the camera up/downwards, leartn how to use it perfectly, and rented the device with an operator... which was him, of course. This way he was able to get in touch with the industry, make contacts, etc. My advice is to do something similar. Get a copy if the American Cinematographer Manual from the ASC, use it to learn the language of the industry, and do like Rodrigo Garcia (he was director of photography): use your current skills to find a contractor niche where you can get to know people in the industry.