My summer in 2018 was spent interning for the Independent Filmmaker’s Project at the Made in NY Media Center. It was interesting for a number of reasons.
I learned about the ins and outs of getting a film project funded, the challenges of getting projects off the ground, and the importance of pitching your ideas to people who will help see them through towards becoming a reality. I also learned to expand my understanding of what a story is and the different mediums in which to tell them.
But ultimately, I learned that money and networking is the only way anything gets made in this business. Without either, you’re dead in the water.
It’s a stark and humbling realization.
At times, when focusing on the creative logistics of getting things made, you lose sight of the reality of what it takes to actually get those things made. At the end of the day Hollywood is a business in much of the same way that Walmart is; It’s all about the bottom line. As filmmakers and showrunners, it’s important to never lose sight of that bottom line, though it may be counter to creative and artistic integrity. I learned these things not simply for the work I did but from the observations I made and the conversations I had with my colleagues.
The Independent Filmmaker’s Project is a unique non- profit organization that connects artists with essential resources, at all stages of development and distribution of their film, tv, or radio project. It is the largest and oldest organization of its kind dedicated to film. The focus at the organization is on storytelling and helping support underrepresented voices within the creative sphere, such as those from a range of racial, ethnic, religious, sexual, and social backgrounds.
IFP serves as a go-between for film studios, production companies, tv networks and the creatives. They primarily guide storytellers through the process of making and distributing their work. IFP offers creative, technological and business support through year-round programming.
IFP is most known for its Gotham Independent Film Awards, which is the unofficial kick-off to the movie awards season. IFP Week is an event where filmmakers are selected to pitch and develop their projects with meetings, screenings, talks and networking opportunities. The Independent Filmmaker Labs are places where storytellers and their projects are given the support and resources to ensure their project’s success.
IFP’s Made in NY Media Center, where I spent my summer that year, is a workspace where storytellers from multiple disciplines, industries, and platforms can create, collaborate and connect. It is a modern, large center where people come to work on their projects, host screenings, seminars, conferences, and mentorships. At any given time when I was there, there were computer programming classes, networking events, film screenings and media events held there. On the 2 days of every week when I was there, I often perched myself in one of the desks by a window in the open area where other creatives sat working on their projects and got started on my day’s tasks.
I worked on the development side of the organization which of course primarily included mind numbing administrative tasks. I created spreadsheets, looked over documents and helped in the always important and never-ending search for donors to their organization. One project that excited me and I had a hand in helping to spread the word about, was a new collaboration between IFP and ESPN. ESPN was looking to expand its popular 30 for 30 documentary series into a new podcast show. Podcasts are an increasingly popular avenue for storytellers to create content and develop an audience. This was a new and important discovery for me to have made.
Though I attend school for and am receiving a degree in writing and producing for TV, I have begun to understand that many of those same skills can be transferred to a range of different types of creative expression.
My task was to get as many people to apply for the opportunity as possible. ESPN wanted people to pitch ideas to them for what could eventually become an episode of the podcast. IFP was in charge of selecting the people and ideas that they felt the strongest about, and that ESPN would likely show the most interest in. My supervisor was kind enough to let me in on the pitches that were accepted. This was helpful in me understanding what an appealing logline looks and sounds like. Your idea is only as good as what people understand it to be. Some of the ideas were summarized in a way that didn’t seem to have broad appeal and didn’t interest me much. But many of the ideas were seemingly fascinating sports stories that deserved to be told. Only 2 or 3 were to be selected by ESPN.
The other primary task I was involved in was the procurement of donors for a new patron program which IFP is trying to develop in order to secure more funding for their events. Procurement is a fancy way of saying that I had the unenviable task of searching through other cultural institutions’ donor pages and writing down the names of the really rich people they hoped would submit money to IFP as well.
Patron programs are ways that regular, everyday people can submit to causes and institutions’ that they care about. IFP has been around for 40 years and have yet to create one, which seems like a big financial blind spot on their part. They are looking to right that wrong and get it going by the time the Gotham Independent Film Awards rolls around.
My role in this was helping to identify those potential patrons. I used everyone’s friend, google, to search for the names, addresses and emails of donors to other organizations. Admittedly, I felt a bit of trepidation in beginning this task. It felt a bit skeevy and wrong to search for people based solely on their donations to places. I discovered a dark underbelly of the nonprofit world where people actually sell donor lists to other organizations in order to find new donors. It’s technically illegal, which is why they didn’t have me do that.
Though it would have made my job significantly easier. I got over my initial trepidation and became a patron procurement expert. But I never felt very good about it.
It was another important lesson that I had to learn: nothing gets done without money. Even an organization like IFP, which has the best intentions and does good work, have to resort to finding creative ways to make money. If they don’t have money, how could they help filmmakers and storytellers see their projects to fruition. The easy answer is that they couldn’t. I spent a lot of time thinking about this idea while I searched for donors and created Excel spreadsheets. Money is an important part of anything creative. It’s a disappointing realization for me.
I’m someone who has never had money, don’t know many people with money, and know even less people who are in an industry like this one. I reflected on this myself in trying to determine how realistic is it that I will succeed in an industry like this one. Maybe I’ll know how to make a show, write a great script or produce a project but what will any of it matter if I don’t have the money or resources to get those things done.
I developed a respect and appreciation for IFP and other organizations that support filmmakers/storytellers who don’t have the resources that others might. In a world that increasingly devalues art and the role it plays, it’s imperative to have people and organizations that not only recognize its value but encourage, promote and support it. And we need those ever-important rich donors and corporations to support them. One summer of doing administrative tasks at IFP taught me all of that.
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