The Intro

Hello, listening audience!
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Andrew Allen. I'm a Dallasite, a UT grad, and a filmmaker....or at least, that's what I'm trying to be. I'm currently in the process of funding and developing my first feature film currently entitled Glow.

This blog will be devoted to communicating with and updating interested parties on the progress of the film. This film is going to be extremely low budget and will purposefully cast no stars, so I can honestly use any support/word of mouth possible to generate excitement about the project.

This blog will be of interest to anyone who knows me/cares where I am in life, anyone who enjoys following and supporting quality artistic endeavors, and anyone who wants to learn about film and all the work that it takes to make one. I have no idea what I'll do with this blog, how much detail I will share, how much of my personality I will reveal, etc. I've never written a blog, and to be honest, I'm hesitant to even write this one simply because I hate the trend in my generation of oversharing and self-advertising. Whatever though, this is about my movie, not me, and I figure I have to play the game of online media to some extent especially when I am banking on a grassroots marketing effort to make my film a financial success.

So with all that said, I will catch you up on where the film stands.

I have a script, a good script. The movie is a multiple protagonist drama similar to Magnolia, Crash, Babel, Grand Canyon, and many more if you've seen any of those. However, before you get all jaded and cynical about that subgenre being overdone in the past decade, I have to say my film is different from all of them in a few ways. I won't say what they are. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Now what's next? Money.

I know it's rude to talk about money, but I have to convey this sad reality to all the aspiring filmmakers out there. Without money, you don't have a movie. You have a bunch of words on a page. They can be great words, but if you want to turn those words into pictures, you're going to need some green stuff.

The budget for my film is give or take $100,000-$110,000. I'm 22 years old, one year out of college. I don't have near that much money. So... what's my plan? Or what's been my plan?

Well part of it has been to earn a good portion of the budget myself. When I graduated from school a year ago, I was fortunate enough to find a job selling Xerox copiers. This is not a glamorous gig whatsoever, but I am genuinely thankful I'm getting a chance to pursue my dream in a very proactive way, earning money to invest in the movie myself. Why wouldn't I? I believe it will be a huge success!

Even though that's great and all, I'm still moving rather slowly in coming up with the rest of it. I've tried my best to network with friends and family members and talk up the movie to anyone I get a chance to, hoping to reel in that big fish of an investor eventually. However, that just hasn't happened. I do plan on doing a Kickstarter and opening up to smaller investors in the very near future though. I will keep you posted on that as it develops. Also, should you or anyone you know be interested in hearing about the investment opportunity that is this film, let me know. I'd be more than happy to talk with you about that.

So I don't have enough money. Where does that leave the film? For now, stuck. It's stuck in the poor-man's preproduction, indie hell of "how do I get this financed?" I won't say I have the answer to that question until I see five zeros staring at me in Glow LLC's bank account. But I'm constantly moving towards making it happen. If something doesn't work, I try something different. I have faith I will figure this out.

I have so much faith that I have perhaps made the reckless decision to decide I'm going to shoot the movie late Spring 2013 regardless of how much money I get by then. You can drag out funding an indie film for years if you want to, but if you want to make something happen, make it happen. That's my philosophy for now. I'll make the thing for whatever I can and accept it for what it ends up being. Maybe it'll be a little less cash than I originally wanted. Maybe it'll be right on the money... no pun intended. Who knows, and who cares? There's no law that says the $60,000 or $70,000 version of this movie is inherently worse than the $125,000 version. Now, one version might require more people skills and creativity to get it done than the more expensive version, but to borrow a phrase from the great Ron Washington, "That's how filmmaking go."

So that's where I am. I am no longer waiting to find a trail. I'm blazing one. I'm a runaway train at this point. Anyone who wants to hop on, please do. It should be a crazy ride.