LOW PAY, LONG HOURS, GRUNGY conditions, uncontrolled situations, and new directors learning as they go along are just some of the elements specific to working on an independent film.
Now the bad news. The film may run out of money before it's completed, there may be major location changes on the same day, the portable toilet may clog up if it arrives at all, the water is warm, the coffee is cold, and crews can get downright rebellious.
But, says indie director Kayo Hatta, making your own film provides a sense of empowerment, you have more control than on a mainstream film. In addition, says the champion of independent filmmaking, there's a compelling reason to tell a story that would not be made by mainstream filmmakers. Hatta told one such story as the director and co-writer of "Picture Bride," filmed on Oahu about six years ago.
This Friday and Saturday, Hatta will conduct a Pacific New Media workshop called "Independent Filmmaking in Hawaii."
Hatta was born in Hawaii and "Picture Bride" was one of the first independent film projects made here. The film went on to become an Official Selection at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival and won the Audience Award for Best Dramatic Film at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival.
She will use the film as a case study to take aspiring local filmmakers and producers through the indie filmmaking process, from fundraising, research and screenwriting to the actual experience of shooting on location in Hawaii and then through production and distribution.
Though one of the most obvious difficulties of doing an independent film anywhere is low budgets, it's especially threatening in Hawaii because of the limited talent pool, Hatta said.
WORKSHOP
What: Director Kayo Hatta teaches the workshop "Independent Filmmaking in Hawaii"
"The crew base here is mostly used to working in television or on commercials which means they get paid a lot and work under very controlled, normally comfortable situations," she said. "In indie filmmaking you try to make it a controlled situation but ... there is always a huge element of unpredictability. You have less money so you can't pay as much and working conditions are often uncomfortable."
"Picture Bride" was difficult in part because the entire production was filmed on location, and the location kept changing.
"You're exposed to all the elements and you don't have a budget to cushion the situation," Hatta said.
On top of that Hatta was directing her first film and though she and her producers and production supervisor had planned intensively there were lots of problems. Hatta learned early on that the director had to be part general, Godfather, mother confessor, and "problem solver."
"You have to be prepared for everything," she said. "And you must let your crew and actors know right from the beginning that your film is not some big budget studio picture, but a labor of love that everyone involved has to be committed to to realize the vision."
The blueprint for survival in independent filmmaking, "not necessarily success," is preparation; a tight, cohesive script; flexibility and business sense."We went through so many different drafts of the script and it was still way too large for our budget," Hatta said. "I was unrealistic."
A common mistake for first time directors is to imagine that whatever's written on the page will translate easily to film.
"You may write 'Cane fire' and that's only two words but when you're talking about filming it's a major, major production to do," she said. "You have to take a hard look at the realities of doing your film on budget."
For "Picture Bride," Hatta and company shot four hours of footage with most ending on the cutting room floor.
"If I had really looked at the script as to what scenes were essential that wouldn't have happened," she said. "I should have spent more time crafting the scenes than rushing all of them."
Another rule: Don't get so carried away with your vision that you lose all perspective of crafting the film.
By nature filmmakers are interested mostly in their films and not the business side of the craft and that's a mistake, said Hatta, one of the jurists in the Hawaii International Film Festival this year.
"I learned after the fact how to communicate with our distributor (Miramax)," said Hatta, annoyed by the photo on the film's video cover, which featured the naked back of an Asian woman. "That photo was horrendous; they made it look like soft porn."
But neither Hatta nor her producers had negotiated "ultimate" control over such matters.
Indie filmmakers must "never lose sight" that even "art films" have to make money.
"The bottom line is always will this product sell," she said. "But the filmmakers' decision is whether to create a Big Mac or a hamburger from Kua 'Aina."
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