Creating 2015—Day 321: SUPPORT INDIE FILM

Yesterday, I had lunch with an indie film producer pal of mine I just adore…Mark Stolaroff.  He’s talented and a rare commodity in Hollywood…he’s a super nice guy!  I met him when I took his class, “The Art & Science of No-Budget Filmmaking” in August of 2012.  I loved the class and I made my first no budget feature film five months later.  I highly recommend it if you’re about to make an indie film or any film for that matter.  He not only teaches how to make films for 50 bucks and some twine, he’s also out there making them himself!  He’s truly in the trenches of being an indie filmmaker.

His first feature premiered at Sundance back in 2001.  The first one of his films I saw is a sci-fi, mind bender called Pig and you can see it on iTunes or buy it on his website: www.ThePigPicture.com  His film, The House That Jack Built, premiered at the LA Film Festival in 2014 and was released in theatres and on VOD at the beginning of the month.  And he just wrapped his latest indie feature, called Driver X starring Patrick Fabian and a bunch of other wonderful actors you’ll recognize.

Meet Mark, my producer pal!

Despite all of that great success on paper, he’s still out there busting his ass, humping it to raise money for his films and he’s about to do a Kickstarter campaign for post-production for his latest.  In the world of indie film, you are constantly trying to raise money and no one is getting rich.  Most of us are lucky to pay our rent!  Most have to have the proverbial “day job” to even do that.  Glamorous, indie filmmaking is not.

Yes, of course, every indie filmmaker dreams of the “big one”…the Little Miss Sunshine, the My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the Blair Witch…that will lead to the bungalow on the Warner Brothers lot and wads of cash for strippers and blow in Vegas.  But if, or more likely when, none of that comes, why do we keep going?  Because we love creating!  We love telling stories.  We love making movies.  We love working with other creative artists.  We love finding an audience for material that matters to us—whether that is an audience of one or a hundred or a million doesn’t matter.  We keep going because creating is oxygen.  Without it, we die.

So, support indie film and check out my producer pal’s films.

Until tomorrow, create from what you have…pals to support.

Kelli Joan Bennett is a filmmaker, actress, writer, entrepreneur, advocate for creative thinking and Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Think Outside The Box Inside The Box Media.

Follow @KelliJBennett