Your Silver Screen Dream Detailed

10 Steps to Start Making Your Movie

Hollywood, fame, money, and glamor is what comes to many people’s mind when they think of making movies. In April 2006 I took a trip up to Montreal to attend a DiscoverU Power Workshop by my Sensei, Muhammad Alshareef. The night after the workshop Sensei asked me, “Belal, if Allah SWT gave you 50 people to do what you want with them, what would you do? How would you employ them?”

I thought for a second and responded, “I’d make a movie!”

Many of us have a desire to make a movie. Those of us who are conscious of Islam and practice it as a way of life, many times have made statements such as, “I’m very interested in making Islamic documentaries,” or “I want to educate the non-Muslim mind, but in a cool, interesting, comedic, and professional way.” Many people also say, “I want to learn the basics first but don’t know where to start,” and “I want to make a short video.”

Many of us have just stopped after making the statement but for one reason or another haven’t really progressed beyond that point. When digging deeper there were two main reasons for that:

1. A lack of clarity on what the finished video should look like
2. Not having goals for the movie laid out

As for those who actually took a step forward to start, but didn’t completely follow through - there were also two main reasons for falling short:

1. Not fully understanding the implications of what is involved in making a movie
2. Not having a deeply compelling reason or purpose to totally go through with it and overcome the challenges

These are major problems and concern all of us. We all understand it’s extremely important to have righteous Muslims in the media - not just the news media, but all facets of media from television and theatrical entertainment, print and online media, as well as marketing. We are the voice of Islam and it’s up to us to carry its message out to the masses.

Several months back, I had a conversation with our dear brother Azhar Usman of Allah Made Me Funny comedy tour. You may recognize his name from the stand-up comedy he’s done. He mentioned that if we don’t tell our own stories in our own words, then other people will try and tell them. The garbage Hollywood is producing is enough proof.

A little more than six months ago he completed a short film called “The Boundary” under his production company, 9 Saints, LLC. Usman and a few others took it upon themselves to raise the funds needed to make a short film with the highest of quality. They put it together in 35MM film and Dolby Digital Sound — in other words, it’s a professional Hollywood style production. The people who starred in the film were famous Hollywood actors such as Alexander Siddig whose work includes: Syriana, 24, and Star Trek, Christopher Mann from The Wire on HBO and Jacqueline Atamarian from the Sopranos - to name a few.

Another bit of advice Usman gave is to understand that in the West we live in a capitalistic society. Film and Media are called “Show-Biz” for a reason. Half of it is “show” and the other half is business. Like any business, people want to make money. If we give them a captivating and engaging story with a plan that can make money, then mainstream media will support it. He also mentioned that while it’s true there are some who don’t like Islam or Muslims, the majority of people who work in the media are neutral. They simply want to make money.

Creativity and money isn’t lacking within the Muslim community. According to A.T. Kerney, a global management consulting firm focusing on strategic and operational CEO-agenda concerns, Muslims accounted for $170 Billion of the spending on goods and services in the America. It’s obvious we have the talent and money, we just haven’t put it to appropriate use.

However, before we get all excited and jump into something we know nothing about, let’s look at a few facts. In the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, one of the top three film festivals in the world, there were 3,624 film submissions, out of which only 121 were selected to be shown. Further, out of those 121, only 20 were bought by distributors to be shown by the mainstream media. Let’s do the math. The chances of our film being an official selction is just over three percent, while achieving mainstream distribution is just over a half of a percent.

Don’t let the statistics scare you or depress you. Allah SWT teaches us in the Quran:

“And that man shall have nothing, but what he strives for.” - Surah Najm:39

Keep in mind the results are not up to us. Our job is to do the work with sincere intentions and leave the rest to Allah. One day Rasoolullah (SAW) noticed a bedouin leaving his camel without tying it. He (SAW) asked the bedouin, “Why don’t you tie down your camel?” The bedouin answered, “I placed my trust in Allah.” At that, Rasoolullah (SAW) said, “Tie your camel AND place your trust in Allah.” - Tirmidhi

One aspect of tieing our camel is doing our homework, which includes understanding the market place.

The Market Place

For maximum impact, we want to involve as many people as we can. However, we need the right people on board for making our film. The right and wrong persons is the difference between success and failure. Don’t be afraid to say, “No” to the wrong people, even if they are good people.

Once we’ve figured out who we’re going to work with, we need to figure out what we’re going to do. Set specific goals and milestones and give them deadlines. One of those milestones should include a developed story for our movie. Other milestones to meet include when and how we’re going to shoot the film. Most importantly, knowing where we want our movie shown; in other words, what medium we want our movie distributed through. The medium can be Television, YouTube, theater, masjid, video-on-demand, DVD, Blu-Ray, film festivals or wherever. Depending on the target medium, we would apply a specific approach.

Getting distribution is more strategically involved than one might think. There are eight classic paths of distribution, excluding the internet.

1. Theatrical >> Home Video
2. Service Deal Theatrical >> Home Video
3. Top Three Film Festivals >> Theatrical >> Home Video
4. Top Three Film Festivals >> Home Video
5. Top Three Film Festivals >> Self Theatrical >> Home Video
6. Self Theatrical >> Home Video
7. Self Theatrical >> Theatrical Pickup >> Home Video
8. Home Video >> All Other Markets

The issue with these proven paths of distribution are the filmmakers unanticipated costs once the movie is done. If we want any sort of professional or mainstream distribution for our film then we need to get it approved by the Motion Picture Association of America, which typically costs between $2,500-$5,000. You also have to get Errors and Omissions coverage which costs around $13,000 - $18,000. Without having met these two requirements, distributors will either not want to touch our film at all or in the best case, offer us pennies on the dollar of what it is worth.

Once this is done, we’ll also need to pay for submissions to the film festivals which come in Tier One, Two, and Three. Tier one consists of the top 10, the top 3 of those being Toronto, Canes, and Sundance. Tiers two and three make up the rest of the festivals in the world. Expenses to cover submissions and marketing for getting our film covered at the festivals can run anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 on average. Totaling the above costs you can see that we’ll need $20,000 - $28,000 in our budget after the completion of our film to achieve mainstream distribution.

These costs do not include the costs of opening our film in a theater which can cost close to $10,000 per city if we choose to put it in the theater ourselves. Additionally, we need to factor in expense of transferring our movie from a digital format to actual film which can run upwards of $60,000.

Looking at the cold hard facts, we’re most likely going to spend $85,000-$115,000 after the movie is made. Add this to the total cost of making the movie, which could be as low as $300,000 - $1 Million, still low-budget, the likely hood of making our money back is questionable. If we look at it from a business point of view, with a return on investment as your focus, we want to sell our movie for more than it cost to have it made and marketed.

Now for a reality check: most people are afraid or simply don’t have the means to go the classic route. Many Muslims who keep away from riba loans to finance their films find it a difficult path to take the classic route, especially since many independent films are financed via loans. For these types of people, internet marketing and distribution is a great stepping point which can lead to great results.

One of the major challenges we will face as Muslims trying to our movies made is financing. The most common ways to finance films are through debt, upon which interest is paid. As a Muslim, riba is not an option. There’s no sense going to war with Allah SWT and His Messenger SAW to make a movie or for any other reason. If we master film financing in a way that is acceptible by Islamic standards, InshAllah by the tawfique of Allah we will be unstoppable.

Some of the common Halal vehicles for financing are:

• Grants — this is our best route for documentaries
• Donations — I personally find this to be ineffective and unfavorable, but it might work for you
• Equity — getting stake holders on the movie - I prefer this option since it gives others the opportunity to have a stake in an honorable project and profit in this world and the Hereafter, inshAllah. To be effective in equity financing, we’ll need to start educating ourselves about this one step at a time.

The following books are my absolute must-reads for aspiring movie producers:

• The Independent Film Producer’s Survival Guide: A Business and Legal Sourcebook by Gunnar Erickson, Mark Hallaron, and Harris Tullchin
• Writing, Directing, and Producing Documentary Films and Videos, Fourth Edition by Alan Rosenthal
• Shooting to Kill by Christine Vachon and David Edelstein
• Filmmakers and Financing, Fifth Edition: Business Plans for Independents by Louis Levison
  

We should use these books as a step by step guide for putting together our plan and proposal for a movie; we’ll need to learn this for getting grants and equity investors. With documentaries, we either want to master proposal writing or get a proposal writer on board with us. Effective proposals are what fund via grants most documentaries. I highly recommend starting to connect with other established professionals. Start networking with people and picking their brain at every opportunity you get. Go to where such people congregate, learn from them, and connect your way forward from there.

We want to get to know entertainment lawyers who can advise us on the legal aspects of show-biz. We also want to get to know tax consultants who can advise us where and how to budget our movie, yielding the most tax breaks and optimal cash flow to meet the milestones in our budget.

Let this info motivate you to move forward. We will fail at times and make mistakes along the way. That’s almost a given. What matters is how well you pick yourself up and move forward. Let the failures and mistakes be a gold mine of lessons that school could never supply. However, we should still take the appropriate to continually educate ourselves on the business and craft of film making. Don’t neglect the hands off learning; however, don’t stay in that phase forever suffering from paralysis by analysis, reading and studying but not doing.

Remember it’s show-biz not show-art. Business is the other half of the process and it’s intertwined from the beginning to the end. We want to continuously grow in our skill. We need to keep moving forward, progress, track our progress, and learn from the mistakes. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to get going! Keep in mind at the end of the day, when a viewer is pitching your film to his friend for him to watch it, what will he say? Will it be something sounds interesting and has a story?

When it comes to reaching out to the mainstream audience, stories are what sell. If we can help people get value to distributors and our audience members, we’ll be able to do the work we want to do. Ideas are great and they really are a dime a dozen. You need a developed story to complement the idea. I’ll give you a few examples:

• My movie “Tufaan” - tufaanmovie.com is very specific in its approach. “It’s the story of Muslim relief workers post Huricanne Katrina. Muslims in the media are portrayed as people who cause disasters. What they don’t show are Muslims in the face of disaster.” From the synopsis and description you know exactly what to expect.
• UPF’s “On a Wing and a Prayer” tells the story of Monem Salem, a financial analyst, goes to flight school to learn how to fly a plane through the challenges of discrimination and stereotyping from his fellow pilots as well as the government.
• Warner Sisters producer Cass Warner tells the story of how her grandfather started the “Warner Brothers” legacy, rose to power, and lost it all through sibling rivalry.

You’ll notice from the above movie descriptions, we expect a story. We can tell whatever we want to the audience. It may be general or specific in terms of Islam; it just has to be served in a captivating story. As stated earlier, ideas are a dime a dozen if not cheaper. Stories are gold.

Develop a captivating story with characters people can relate to. Wrap the message you want to deliver around it and you’ll be able to move forward with your movie.

Where do I start?

• Step 1: Keeping the end in sight, I recommend that you make your movie with the intention of distributing it online with a possibility to venture out into Television
• Step 2: Focus on making your film between 5 to 7 minutes long
• Step 3: Start a blog
• Step 4: Brainstorming ideas now. For the next ten days think of three story ideas for your documentary and post them on your blog. At the end of ten days you’ll have 30 stories to pick from.
• Step 5: Pick the top three from your 30. Seek shura from friends, family, mentors, and blog visitors to get feedback on your ideas. Use Facebook and other social media tools to communicate with people, drive them to your blog, and get continuous feedback. Pray istikharah and pick the best of the three.
• Step 6: take your one awesome idea and start your research - interviews (don’t record video yet) books, etc, to develop your story’s outline. You want to make yourself a semi-expert on the topic your movie will be about.
• Step 7: Once you have gathered enough information, assemble your story’s outline and script. This is where you should learn about the three-act structure of story telling. I’d recommend you watch a video I’ve recorded at the following link to help you get started on your story: http:tinyurl.com/5×88fx
• Step 8: Put together a shooting plan. This is where you have to be creative and resourceful if you’re on a tight, shoe-string budget. You may meet many challenges along the way. I sure did and still am with the work that I do. Don’t be discouraged.
• Step 9: Gather all of your audio and visual material and start assembling the story. I recommend you organize and arrange your materials as you shoot them. It will make the editing process much less stressful. Use this time period to optimize your website to collect email addresses and build a following for your film.
• Step 10: Get the finished cut of your movie and get it distributed through the online community you have garnered as well as other media such as organizations who have large email lists and are supportive of your film and your goals.

If you have questions along the way or even before you start, feel free to email me: khanb@leechon.com or look me up on Facebook “Belal Khan.”

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Belal implements what he teaches, sharing his progress, setbacks, and insights along the way at: www.leechon.com. You may also get the opportunity to become part of his projects and gain hands on instruction at www.messagemastery.com.