The Advantages of Owning Your Own Film Gear

For the past six years, we have produced a feature film every year. In the same period, we have made 12 short films as part of our Life Improvised series. This high output is resource and wallet intensive. But a big reason why we can produce so many films and keep costs down: we own and use our own film gear.

I recommend all aspiring independent filmmakers consider this approach. I didn’t always think this way. Initially, I rented equipment or hired cinematographers with their own cameras for my first short films and even my first feature.

But gradually, I started investing in gear — a cheap boom pole, microphone, made in China redhead lights, and a secondhand JVC GY-HD101 camera. 

I didn’t really know how to use any of this gear properly. I remember filming something at the Melbourne International Film Festival for a film producer and my footage being shaky and out of focus. But though I was inexperienced, owning gear allowed me to practice, learn, and slowly improve. It was an investment in myself and my craft and what I wanted to do as a career.

Read More

Is the Oversaturation of Indie Films a Problem?

The indie film market is flooded with too many films. It has been like this for years now. Salon writer Beanie Barnes was complaining that indie film was “cannibalizing itself” back in 2014. Mark Gill, former president of Miramax Films, declared “the sky really is falling” on independent film in 2007. In the year prior, 5000 films were released.

How many more thousands of films are made each year now? An accurate number is impossible to determine as there is just so much content that flies under the radar. But if you go on film discussion social site Letterboxd you’ll find 18,989 feature films listed as released in 2022.

Read More