Becoming a successful indie filmmaker is never just about your filmmaking abilities. Sure, having a good pair of eyes and a knack for solid compositions and camera angles helps. But knowing how to use colors, sounds and other elements to convey a story are great skills to have too.
In order to be successful, however, you need so much more than that. There are a few other skills that will propel your career as an indie filmmaker and we are going to take a look at some of them in this article.
Social Media
Everything gets promoted through social media these days. Knowing how to take followers on a journey and bring them with you through every step of the filmmaking process are great ways to garner attention and market your movies.
Social media is also a great place to meet industry experts, top producers and even connect with other filmmakers who you could collaborate with. The better you can use social media for these purposes, the better chance you have of becoming a successful filmmaker.
Marketing
A lot of indie filmmakers are taking online marketing degree programs. Over 50% of a filmmaker’s job is about marketing. You start by marketing your ideas and concepts before you move on to marketing the finished movie.
Marketing courses from universities such as Arizona State University are now available online. They are great investments to make if you want to take your marketing efforts to the next level. More importantly, an online bachelor of science in marketing can help you pursue positions in mainstream production houses and with movie distributors.
Leadership & Management
Whether you’re taking the role of director or you’re simply in the process of making a low-budget, do-it-yourself movie, you will be working with a lot of people along the way. Knowing how to micro-manage and having the ability to keep everything in order are essential skills to have.
Management skills are also useful when you’re starting a new project. You will have a better handle on the planning of the project, and will also be able to maintain a suitable timeline for it. More importantly, you won’t have to worry about dealing with contingencies since you already have plans for them.
Makeup and Hair
You don’t have to know how to do makeup and hair yourself, but having a basic understanding of how these two elements can be used in filmmaking is a must. Most of the time, you will be working with a makeup artist or the talent themselves. Being able to convey the kind of makeup and hairdo you want will help keep the project moving smoothly.
Aside from these skills, a good, well-rounded filmmaker should also know how to write and read scripts, how to organize gear and choose the right ones for the scene as well as how to deal with issues on set. These tasks can be offloaded to other people who are part of the project, but until you can afford to grow your team, mastering these skills will help you inch closer to becoming a successful indie filmmaker.
