Want to Make Movies? Find Out How at the Library

What do the films American Beauty, To Kill A Mockingbird, Pulp Fiction, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Psycho all have in common?

They were independent films.

An Independent film is a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system and the Morristown and Morris Township Library is going spill the beans on how to make an independent film happen. 

“Developing, Making and Marketing an Independent Film” is a program featuring New York Film Critics Series producer Mark Ehrenkranz and it kicks off at 7:00 p.m. on Sept. 12. Independent films are sometimes distinguishable by their content and style and the way in which the filmmakers' personal artistic vision is realized. Usually, but not always, independent films are made with considerably lower film budgets than major studio films. Ehrenkranz’s presentation will provide an inside look at  independent films: their conception and development, packaging and financing, production, marketing and much more.

Ehrenkranz is the New York Film Critics Series (NYFCS) producer and is the producer of Turbulent Souls – a Full Length Feature Film based on The memoirs of Stephen J. Dubner (co-author of Freakonomics); the Creator/Marketing Director of VideoLine; the Associate Supervising Director of Michael Nesmith's Prime Time NBC Series, Television Parts; and has developed comedy videos for Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno, and Whoopi Goldberg.

The discussion is scheduled to include the process of developing an idea to taking a film to market and everything in between. Ehrenkranz will explore the developmental stages of how to plan, write a screenplay, how to package a project and how to fund it. Challenges like once a film is fully or partially funded, what must a filmmaker do to begin production and finish post-production will also be covered. Other questions answered will be how a filmmaker markets a film and premieres it at festivals and screenings. 

Ehrenkranz’s talk will explore the entire lifespan—one that has been compared to bearing offspring from baby to adult and the various cycles with which a project experiences for both the movie fan and or professional.

What could make it better? Well, it is free and refreshments will be served.

This program is supported through funding from the Friends of the Morristown & Morris Township Library.