Introduction: Director Sean Baker has been committed to spending his own money to make stories that Hollywood does not want to tell. His new film is called "Florida Paradise." In 2007, I just finished my third feature film "The Prince of Broadway". The film tells the story of a Ghanaian immigrant selling fake designer wallets and sneakers on Manhattan streets. The cost of 46,000 dollars is all out of pocket. At that time, I made a very risky decision: I invested about 100,000 dollars in the release of the film. I decided to spend money for the release. At that time, I got my films into some of the most prestigious theaters, including the Angelica Film Center in New York, and a lot of money was spent on publicity. A single "New York Times" advertisement cost thousands of dollars. It sounds crazy to spend so much money on a movie, but I am mainly confident in this film that has been well received at the film festival, and I am willing to invest in my own work. I was sure I could make my money back. But I was so wrong. "Prince of Broadway" sank in the cinema, costing $100,000 and only earning 2 back. 80,000 dollars, the worst investment in history. I was really sad at the time and started smoking again. What I thought was: "Fuck, I can't believe it. After spending so much time and effort, how did you end up in such a field?" At that time, there was really nothing, and all the money was spent, and no dime was left. I thought the film career was over. But from another angle, it is actually the beginning. Even if you lose money by showing the movie, it is valuable to let more people see your movie. The film critics are discussing it; the film has participated in some awards; the people in the industry have the opportunity to get in touch with your film and know how good you are. Although "Prince of Broadway" did not work at the box office, the media commented very well. And we also got a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award. Suddenly, someone was willing to invest $250,000 in my next movie "The Rose to Be Bloomed". I grew up in New Jersey and fell in love with movies at a very young age. My mother used to take me to the local library to watch series. They would show movies from Universal Monsters, such as James Weir’s "Frankenstein". Soon I discovered "Star Wars" and "The Third Type of Contact". High school is "Robot" and "Die Hard". At that time, I didn't understand how the big studios worked, but I dreamed of making a blockbuster by myself one day. In the days between the end of high school and the beginning of the four years of New York University, I began to lean towards independent films-Spike Lee, Jim Jamush, Richard Linklater, and Steven Soderbergh s work. Staying at New York University is itself a kind of film education. I also go to MoMA, Lincoln Center, the Film Archive, and all the art theaters in New York that show the best world films and independent films. So I started to fall in love with these films that are more willing to tell stories about personal events than special effects. When I graduated from New York University, I realized that the first film after I went out couldn't be an action blockbuster like Die Hard. Ingeniously, my love for independent films has taken me in a different direction. I saved my salary as a video producer in a distribution company, plus some money from advertising, and when I was 25, I took it to shoot my first feature film, called "Four Letter" (original name: Four Letter) Words), is a private story about young people in the American suburbs. We used 35mm film to shoot, and most of the $50,000 budget was spent on movie film. In order to make this film, we had to ask someone, borrow money and steal it; I really don’t know how we did it. A few years later, in 2000, the film was shortlisted for the South by Southwest Film Festival. I was "Oh my God, I can't believe it!" I was unbelievably recognized by the authority. The screening of this film at the South by Southwest Film Festival means everything to me. "Four-character Vocabulary" is very popular and even released in a small range, but that doesn't mean that I suddenly became rich or people suddenly rushed to invest money in my next film. To be honest, we haven't made every cent of the money we invested in "Four-Character Words", but there is still a way to go. In those few years, the economic situation of independent film production has undergone a radical change. The Dougma 95 movement in the late 1990s changed many things. This Danish film movement was initiated by filmmakers Lars Von Trier and Thomas Winterberg. They shot a lot of great works but only used a small amount of money, and some even replaced them with mini DV tapes. Expensive film. Now anyone with a camera can go out to make a movie. After that, I co-produced a film "Takeaway" with another filmmaker, Zou Shiqing, which cost only $3,000, about a Chinese restaurant delivering food to a man. There are only a few people in our cast, and there is no filming team—just starring Charles Chang, sometimes also serves as a helper for the filming team. What we really need to spend money on is food, subway fares, hard disk and blank video tapes. The film went to the Slandans Film Festival and several foreign film festivals. We are particularly excited. I didn't realize the importance of premiering my own film at the biggest film festival before. Since then, I have learned a lot about participating in film festivals. Small film festivals cannot attract buyers or distributors; there is no real market there. Where to premiere largely determines the success or failure of your film. A small publisher took over "The Takeaway", but did not have enough resources to immediately get the film into theaters. Although I especially hope that everyone can see the film, I didn't know what to do except for the preparation of the new film. Then I started shooting "The Prince of Broadway". After the film was shot and screened at various film festivals, I took several financial risks. The first is that I paid my own pocket to let "Takeaway" enter the country's important theaters. For me, after putting in a lot of time and hard work after making a movie, I feel that it is worth paying for my own money to let the movie be seen by others. Although the money earned is very small, the media comments are as good as I hoped. We scored 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, which gave me new vitality to my stuff. So the desperate bet at the time and the money invested in "The Prince of Broadway" have worked, but not in the way I could predict. Precisely because of the good media reputation of previous films, "The Rose to Be Bloomed" became the first film without having to pay for it. The film’s starring Deri Hemingway, her mother is Marie Hemingway, and her great-grandfather is Ernest Hemingway. Her agent had seen "Prince of Broadway" in the theater, so she was interested in starring in my movie. In the end, my crazy gambling investment finally paid off wonderfully. "Blooming Rose" premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival and was bought by the Music Box Film Company and later won the Independence Spirit Awards. But not everything has changed for me. After "The Rose to Be Bloomed", there are still some difficult times. I wanted to make a movie about a Russian group on Brighton Beach with a budget of $15 million, but I couldn't raise the money. Previously, I planned to use 2.5 million dollars to shoot "Florida Paradise", but the funds were not available. I am over forty years old, and I have to borrow money from my parents for three months. It's shameful. I also feel very depressed, but I don't know what else to do. Then I remembered that Mark and Jay Duplas were fans of "The Prince of Broadway." I found them. They were willing to invest in my small-cost feature film "Orange", which is about transgender sex workers in Los Angeles. Very little money So we decided to shoot with iPhone. After the film premiered at Sundance, it was sold within a few days. Magnolia Pictures is responsible for the distribution-this time I finally don't have to pay for it myself! Moreover, the film received a good response from the audience and the media, and even won many awards. No one made a fortune through this film-but at least we saw some money. After the success of "Orange", I successfully raised money for "Florida Paradise". The budget is far more than 2 million dollars, which is more than 15 times that of my previous film. It tells the story of the poor living in the village next to Disneyland. All my films seem to be about people who are economically poor, socially isolated, excluded, and marginalized. Some are illegal immigrants, some are sex workers, and some are particularly poor people who can only survive in the underground market. In addition to paying attention to money, this society is paying attention to money: when you open ins, everyone is showing what they buy. We forget the people who are exploited by materialism, whether they live in Los Angeles, in the shadow of Hollywood, or in Florida, in the shadow of a huge theme park. I hope that the more stories about marginalized people and subcultures are told, the more this awareness will spread, and these people won't have to become so marginalized. I am not a politician or decision maker, I am just a filmmaker and a storyteller. My goal is to give these usually inhumane hidden people a human face, so that everyone can be inspired to build a better world. Sometimes exposing a problem is the first step in achieving change. I used to think that having more money would make things easier, but no matter what your budget is, you will never get enough money. The situation is also quite tense, but we are very responsible and kept within the budget. The entire shooting process only exceeded one hour. And I always have a way to embarrass everyone! I want to make a movie with many children; I want to shoot on 35mm film; and I choose to shoot in Orlando in the middle of summer. These three are really huge challenges for film production. But we are quite satisfied with the results and are very excited to bring this movie to the audience this week. As for what will happen next, it is unlikely that Marvel movies will let me shoot. I don't know when I will be able to shoot the kind of blockbuster I particularly liked when I was a child. Now, I hope that my career can be the same as that of directors like Paul Thomas Anderson, with my own unique perspective and always being able to make my own movies according to my own script. When I think back to the past 20 years — the ups and downs in creation and business, all the money I ventured into my own films — I can say that in the end I finally felt some financial security because of my The opportunity came. Last night, with My girlfriend was sitting on the sofa and I looked at her and said, "Do you know? I am 46 years old. Now I finally, finally, finally, no longer have to be afraid of not being able to pay next month’s rent." Personal finances are involved. Time, this is the most satisfying feeling anyone can ask for. Source: He Became This Year's Oscar Favorite By Going Broke Again and Again 2017.10.16 https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-us/magazine/money-diary-sean-baker (Wealth simple is not a media, but an investment service brand. This article is one of their series of special topics "Money Diary", sad) ------------------- --------------------------- After watching the florida project, I read a lot of film reviews about movies and special articles about sean baker, Most of them are lengthy, and they are not very much to my appetite. The money diary made by Sean's self-reported film is plain but informative. When I read this article, I was taking the subway to the construction site in the morning, and my eyes were a little wet. Reasons for liking tfp: *I found the feeling when I was a child. Whether it is the personality of moonee, the way of playing, and the separation and combination with friends, they all seem to be familiar with each other. *It’s rare to show children so objectively. I don’t know if most directors are old and have forgotten how annoying children are. When they are cute, they are really cute, but when they are annoying, they are really annoying. Children around the age of six are even more annoying, and the three become tigers (correction: the idiom here is wrong, thanks to the commented friends for pointing out), and doing that bad thing together, adults can't think of, but children can do it. *The accurate description of the poor is what I resonate with Hailey, and of course it resonates with Sean Baker. I have been working by myself for 7 years, and the only improvement is the evolution from worrying about next month's rent to worrying about next quarter's rent. Seeing others are always very elegant and rich in literature and art, and I have always been embarrassed in literature and art. I don't know if the term literary and art is cursing or being old-fashioned. Because I’m poor, I don’t know if there are other activities that can meet the multiple functions of "providing beauty and empathy, psychotherapy, knowledge, etc." at the same time and that I can afford? Especially after my mother had surgery last year. *I admire the mother-daughter relationship Hailey, although the financial situation is distressed, but she really has no blame for her daughter. I was very impressed by a detail: Hailey took moonee to secretly sell perfume, but was caught by the security guard. Hailey didn’t want to be arrested anymore, so he dropped the perfume and ran away. Her daughter kept asking her why she ran and why not. Picking up the perfume and she couldn't walk anymore, Hailey patiently explained it to her and carried her up. I’m over 30, and I don’t think I can be irritable or angry in that situation. This "teenage
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