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Indie Film Distribution Deals & Festival Strategies: A Case Study
Ryan Patch Lights Film School recently had the opportunity to chat with indie filmmaker Ryan Patch about his distribution and festival experiences with two short narrative films and one feature length...
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Indie Expert BOND360 on How to Distribute Your Film
A couple of weeks ago, Lights Film School spoke with director Sam Macon about his feature documentary, Sign Painters. Sam partnered with BOND360 – the film distribution initiative within BOND Strategy...
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How to Enter a Film Festival
After hours of research and careful consideration – which, I hope, included our primer on indie film distribution in the digital age as well as our introduction to the world of film festivals – you’ve...
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What Is an Independent Film?
Here at Lights Film School, we talk and teach a lot about “independent film”. But as I gathered my thoughts and research in preparation for a post about independent film financing, I realized that...
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An Introduction to Independent Film Financing
In our recent exploration of the meaning of “independent film”, we discovered that most indie projects are made for $20 million or less – a drop in the ocean for a Hollywood blockbuster, perhaps, but...
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Film Directing Tips: from Idea to Distribution with “The Offering”
Thanks for sharing The Offering with us here at Lights, Ryan, and congratulations on your Short of the Week profile! Your film left me chilled to the bone. Before we discuss how you made it, let’s...
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How to Finance an Independent Film: Credibility & Community
Plan your fundraising strategy. You have read the first chapter of our independent film financing Art of War (if you haven’t, you should do so before proceeding). Consequently, you understand the rules...
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How to Finance an Independent Film: Donations & Grants
If Only Funding Was This Easy… This post is part of a series. It is best read after (1) our introduction to independent film financing, and (2) our overview of how to finance an independent film....
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How to Finance an Independent Film: Finding & Winning Investors
This post is part of a series. It is best read after (1) our introduction to independent film financing, (2) our overview of how to finance an independent film, and (3) our discussion of grants and...
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How to Finance an Independent Film: Crowdfunding & Conclusion
This post is part of a series. It is best read after (1) our introduction to independent film financing, (2) our overview of how to finance an independent film, (3) our discussion of grants and...
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Behind the Scenes with a Student Academy Award Winner
Last year, Daniel Koehler (far right) made his way to Los Angeles to receive his Student Academy Award for Win or Lose, a short documentary film that follows a photographer’s campaign against a...
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Behind the Scenes with a Fulbright-National Geographic Fellow
Hello, Daniel! Last week, we had the opportunity to chat with you about the award-winning short documentaries you made during your college years, The Tobacco King and Win or Lose. We didn’t have time...
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Lights and You in 2015
A New Year! Initial caps, because we respect how a 365 day cycle can clarify our goals and dreams. There’s something about every January 1 that inspires us to turn thought into action. All too often,...
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Launching Our New Music Video Course
At 12:01 AM Eastern Time on Saturday, August 1, 1981, a new television network rocketed into existence, airing footage from NASA’s first Space Shuttle launch with footage from the launch of Apollo 11,...
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Cracking the Code of the Antihero
There are two of you, can’t you see? One that kills… and one that loves. – Roxanne to Benjamin Willard, “Apocalypse Now” (1979) “WE WANT TO MAKE PEOPLE QUESTION WHO THEY’RE PULLING FOR” When we lived...
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Daily Dose: Director Michael Bay on Action Sequences
Say what you will about director Michael Bay… Despite poor critical reception, the man knows how to succeed at the box office! Last year’s Transformers: Age of Extinction brought in more than $1...
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Behind the Scenes with a Visual Effects Artist
Lights Film School recently had the opportunity to speak with NYC-based director and visual effects artist Perry Kroll, whose work has appeared in commercials, music videos, and short and feature...
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Daily Dose: Ira Glass on Closing “The Gap” Between Ambition and Ability
In 2012, I was a few years out of film school and recently returned from living abroad when I hit a sort of creative rock bottom. I had a couple of produced shorts and the strands of several...
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Risk and Originality in Today’s Hollywood
When I think of my wife, I always think of the back of her head. I picture cracking her lovely skull, unspooling her brain, trying to get answers. The primal questions of a marriage: What are you...
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Daily Dose: Sound Design in Aronofsky’s Films
When I heard director Darren Aronofsky was coming to my school to host an advance screening of his new film, The Fountain, I decided to study his previous work. Thus I made the mistake of watching...
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