For Lovers Only: How to Make a Movie with No Budget
Normally for a film to succeed in Hollywood it needs a pretty sizable budget. That’s the generally-accepted Hollywood method of making a film. Gather together a large sum of money to hire A-list stars, create expensive sets, and most importantly, to secure advertising space on every medium possible (television, print, billboards) so they can get audiences to watch the film in theaters. However, with the price of digital camcorders and still cameras that shoot video decreasing with every passing year, as well as the methods of distribution changing, the generally accepted (read: traditional) way of making a film is slowly being replaced. Now, filmmakers have the ability and flexibility to create the movies they want to create, without having to go through the studios and executives who would prefer to make money rather than make art. “For Lovers Only” is one example of this new method of filmmaking. And with the film’s success ($200,000 in profits within the first month of release alone), this method may be something worth looking at.
A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending a private screening of “For Lovers Only” with a Q&A with the Polish Brothers. And while the film was amazing by itself, getting to listen to how the Polish Brothers put their latest masterpiece together was the proverbial “cherry-on-top.” Now a lot of films have been made on a limited budget (see: “The Blair Witch Project,” “Paranormal Activity”), but rarely have I seen films made and distributed with literally no budget (that’s $0). Written and directed by twin filmmakers Mark and Michael Polish, “For Lovers Only” was filmed in 12 days, on location, in France. The cast and crew was so tiny that the brothers doubled up on filmmaking duties; Michael was the director and transportation services, and Mark wrote, starred in the film, and was the liaison between their French contacts. The film had only one other actor on location, and that was actress and “Castle” female lead Stana Katic. Director Michael Polish used only one camera - a Canon 5D Mark II - to film the movie and edited it on existing equipment they owned. Most of the team’s hotels and meals were comped by their contacts and friends; their only expenses were food and a few taxis, but the Polish Brothers don’t consider that part of the budget since those charges would have been incurred if they took a vacation instead.
Additionally, filming solely on a DSLR had quite a few advantages. Not only was the camera extremely portable, and allowed for filming in tight spaces (such as the small alcoves in French churches), it gave the film the level of intimacy it needed. Director Michael Polish, as well as actors Mark Polish and Stana Katic could film in public places, and be left alone, since to the people around them they were a married couple simply on vacation.
When it came to distributing the film, the Polish Brothers knew they wanted to do it themselves. So they planned to release it on Amazon’s Video-On-Demand and iTunes. But how exactly to get the word out to the public? The brothers turned to social media, and asked Katic if she would promote the film on her Facebook and Twitter feeds as well. The film took off from there. Katic’s dedicated fan base created a huge buzz for the film; so much so that the it prompted the film to be released a day early on iTunes. Within a few weeks the film was on the No. 2 spot on the Romance chart and one of the Top 100 most popular films on iTunes (via The Wrap). The result of the production, marketing and advertising budgets being $0? Well, that means that all of the profits of the film start at the first dollar. There’s not much information about how much the movie has made to date, but when the film was released in July, it made approximately $200,000 within the first month. Not bad for a film made for nothing.
So how does “For Lovers Only” impact the film industry? Will filmmakers all of a sudden turn towards this method of filmmaking? Probably, but maybe not tomorrow, or even the next day. The ways of Hollywood are set, and while “For Lovers Only” may be a success case, plenty of other films like this fail because they can’t get enough word out and not too many people watch the film. Traditional marketing and advertising (i.e. Billboards and Television spots) work because they reach a huge amount of people at a given time. Unless you have a rabid fan base, self-promotion of a film takes a while. But what “For Lovers Only” has done, is prove that this method can and will work, and that filmmakers can once again go back to the core of what drove them to making films: to tell a story they way they want, without having to find sponsors with different interests. That’s what the Polish Brothers did. They came up with a story, grabbed a camera, and went out to make their ideas come alive. And the rest they say, is history.
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