
After 30 years of coding and tech management, I want to get into movie making - tluyben2
I see often Ask HNs asking what would you do if you were not in tech? I am trying to get into something else, namely making movies and documentaries.<p>Because I know nothing about this business, the first one is only on the sidelines and as investor, however, the plan is to get more and more involved.<p>Here it is:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.co.uk&#x2F;dp&#x2F;B07NPZWHFV<p>Wonder if anyone else here did something similar and has tips on, for instance, getting larger investments and doing promotion. I have only ever gotten investments or promoted software and software services.
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weeznerps
Try reading about Shane Carruth and what he did. He quit an engineering job to
make Primer (which won grand jury at Sundance) for around $7,000 by doing
everything himself--editing, scoring, directing, cinematography, writing,
acting and producing.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_(film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_\(film\))

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mrandish
It's an admirable and seductive goal that I can identify with. I've been
tangentially in the film & TV business from the 'enabling tech' side and have
enjoyed having exposure to it.

An approach you could think about is to decide what value you are going to
uniquely bring to the table in the early phases of a creative media project
and focus on developing proof points of that. One angle could be your tech and
management skills amplifying the investment and passion you bring. Personally,
I rarely see investment capital as the fundamental limiting constraint, thus
suggest you might not want to focus on that as your primary value.

When you said "I know nothing about this business", I thought two things.
First, it's great that you know you don't know. Second, it's likely you may
have a bad time as an investor until you build more domain expertise. As an
angel investor, I've learned my judgement tends to be far more accurate when I
focus on areas I have expertise in. Additionally, I can also provide help to
positively influence the outcome.

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eb0la
In remember a story from my fikmmaking class 20 years ago.... Rodrigo Garcia
(the son of Gabriel Garcia Marquez) wanted to be a filmmaker.

The industry is quite closed. Everybody knew almost everybody and it was quite
hard to break into the industry.

This guy did something unusual.

Instead of trying to be a director from the first time, he bought a piece of
equipment for moving the camera up/downwards, leartn how to use it perfectly,
and rented the device with an operator... which was him, of course.

This way he was able to get in touch with the industry, make contacts, etc.

My advice is to do something similar.

Get a copy if the American Cinematographer Manual from the ASC, use it to
learn the language of the industry, and do like Rodrigo Garcia (he was
director of photography): use your current skills to find a contractor niche
where you can get to know people in the industry.

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laurex
I spent about 8 years in the independent film business. It's a business that
attracts people because they love movies or like the glamour of it, and from
an investment standpoint, is one of the least likely to return. Lots of hand
waving, creative people, and cool parties. Almost no assurance of success,
even for execs with years of experience.

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tluyben2
That makes sense, although the guys I am working with had a few solid
successes. I am definitely not in it for the glamour; I am in the liking
(horror) movies camp.

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matt_the_bass
Depending upon how much money you’re thinking of investing, you could look to
get involved with OceanX. They are soon to launch their newly redoublantes
ship, Alucia 2. Along with “science!”, it will include a full video editing
suite for working on documentaries while at sea.

For those that don’t know, most of The Blue Ocean 2 documentary was shot on
the first Alucia.

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pcmaffey
I’m investigating crossing over as well, but via animation. Am currently
making an interactive kids story. Thinking about some animated shorts also,
but curious about differt potential distribution opportunities of software vs
straight video.

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muzani
I wonder if there's a road in via the tech industry as well. Movie streaming
companies like Netflix and their rivals all make money on producing their own
content.

YouTube is also low capital, decent pay to start on things like documentaries.

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Academ1c
The video turned out great! Good luck with your new business. You can take
part in different competitions, challenges. Winning the competition is a good
advertisement.

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user68858788
Andy Weir was a software engineer before he became an author and wrote The
Martian.

