Thanks for your comment, George. Speaking only for myself, the appeal of NFS has always been a combination of thoughtful, educational articles about gear and craft, as well as filmmaker interviews. Speaking of...I'd be remiss if I didn't take the opportunity to pitch a piece about my first feature, Mr Misfortune (trailer: https://vimeo.com/327521448). It's playing in festivals, and I think there's value for the NFS community in a lot of the details of the film's production.

Apocalypse Now is a cinematic journey following one man's descent into madness. It encapsulates Nietzsche's famous quote: "Battle not with monsters lest ye become a monster; and if you gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes into you." The movie a brilliant adaptation and reimagining of Heart of Darkness, featuring stellar performances by Sheen, Brando, Duvall, and Hopper. Thanks for the reminder of how great this movie is on the 40th anniversary of its release.

Great interview! Congratulations to Schavoir and Wilkins on completing the movie. I think we need to establish a new category of budget: nano. I've seen people talk about projects with budgets ranging from $200 to $500,000 as "micro-budget" films. Anything with less than $50,000 behind it is really a nano-budget production. The distinction may seem arbitrary, but it helps in setting people's expectations when it comes to production value.

I also applaud the filmmakers' decision to shoot on Beta. I shot my feature, Mr Misfortune, for just under $10,000 on a Canon 7D using a custom picture profile that emulates log (as much as is possible on a DSLR). The movie looks beautiful, and it turned out better than I thought possible, but it created a really interesting (champagne) predicament: because it exceeded the "no budget" production value threshold, it landed between two sets of expectations. It's similar to animation where something raw like Beavis & Butt-Head will make you focus on the writing, humor, and characters, but if Beavis & Butt-Head was animated in 3D without changing the way it was shot and edited, people would be disappointed.

Check out the trailer here: vimeo.com/327521448

More info here: imdb.com/title/tt10050098/

Self distribution is becoming more viable by the day. Even without connections, you can go through an aggregator like Distribber, and they will pitch your film to Netflix. Jim Cummings (twitter.com/jimmycthatsme) is a pioneer when it comes to self distribution. My first feature, Mr Misfortune, is in its festival run now. I'm hoping for the best, but also planning a self distribution and guerrilla marketing strategy. Congrats to Elisabeth for completing your feature and getting it out there!

These are great tips, but I also think a lot of best practices are situationally appropriate, relative to the ultimate objective. Are you aiming to sell your script? Produce it yourself? Is it going to serve as a writing sample? When I set out to make my feature, Mr Misfortune, I knew that I had to write to available resources, mainly consisting of access to a restaurant, my car, and some rooms in my apartment. Would the optimal version of the screenplay have been so contained if there weren't budgetary constraints? Maybe. Maybe not. I think good tip is, regardless of scope and reasons for scope, write something that feels grand but is producible for far less than the impression would have you believe, and above all else, make it entertaining. Among the positive feedback I got from a Black List evaluation, the reader noted that the characters were something an A list actor would love to sink their teeth into and the movie would be producible for a very modest budget (they had no idea how modest). Check out the trailer! vimeo.com/327521448

This is a great take. The other benefit is the privilege of seeing your work in a theatrical context. My first feature, Mr Misfortune, has been playing the festival circuit, and I've lucky enough to see it play in beautiful theaters twice.

For anyone interested, here's the trailer: vimeo.com/327521448

IMDB: imdb.com/title/tt10050098/