| Don't Be Afraid to Self-Finance |
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| with Wendy Ord | |
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Page 1 of 2 When Wendy Ord is asked for the single most important advice she could offer to any filmmaker, she replies: “Do not be afraid.” Video Sleeve for Black Swan It’s a lesson she learned while making Black Swan (Black Swan was released as Murder in Hopeville for distribution in the US), her first feature. She started the project in 2000 as a low-budget ($50,000) digital feature to be made over a summer using her own camera with the help of family and friends around her rural Ontario home. It ended up, two years later, at half a million dollars ($800,000 when you factor in deferrals) and shot in New Brunswick. At one point, she had mortgaged her house, sold her car, and run up a couple of hundred thousand dollars on her line of credit as well as her own – and many borrowed – credit cards. Oh yes, and the shock of 9/11 had left just about every industry, including the film business, feeling unadventurous. It’s safe to say that Ord is a woman who’s been on a first-name basis with fear. Actually, I drowned several times, “Actually, I drowned several times,” she says. “But luckily I’m a cat so I have nine lives.” TIPS
Tell everyone about your projectEven though Ord sunk $150,000 of her own money in Black Swan and doubts she’ll ever get it back, she compares it to paying for a film education. “People will tell you not to invest in your own movie. There are stories about filmmakers losing their houses. But I say, mortgage your house, sell your dog and your car if there’s no other way because you will learn so much.”Ord has worked for 25 years in the business, much of it as a first assistant director, on features, 3-D IMAX films, MOWs and TV series. Today, she’s in the final stages of development for her second feature, Crying Time. But for Black Swan, Ord, a gregarious woman, began by telling everyone about her project and inadvertently discovered what she believes is a valuable lesson. Tell everybody you meet that you’re making a film “Tell everybody you meet that you’re making a film. Then it’s too embarrassing to stop, but also people come out of the woodwork offering to help or passing along tips.” One of them told her about New Brunswick Film, a government agency responsible for establishing a viable film industry in the province, which offered equity investment, loans and tax breaks. Ord had set her story of a small-town girl looking for a way out in rural Ontario, but decided she could easily relocate it to rural New Brunswick. Continued... |
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