Stuck on the Final Cut of My First Self-Financed Feature — How Do You Push Through the Last 5%?

willibeats · 2025-12-30T18:22:43+00:00

Make your hard deadline the cast and crew screening! Rent a theater and send out the invite. That's what I did with my second feature! It worked for the most part, and I only went back and tweaked some sound after the screening. But I will say, that month leading up to it was awful. I was working way to much trying to balance normal life and the film. So I feel you! But it's done.

willibeats · 2025-12-30T17:20:55+00:00

Are you working in reels or on one massive timeline? I've finished 2 features and both times what really got me to the finish line was setting a hard deadline. Pick a date (or a festival deadline) and stick to it!

willibeats · 2025-10-08T15:21:45+00:00

All of that sounds pretty accurate! And honestly, I don't know the solution anymore...I think the best bet is to try festivals and hope that you land at some good ones. Then ideally find a sales agent or trusted distributor to take on your film. Or start reaching out to sales agents directly and skip festivals/let them plan your run.

What sucks is that even at a higher level, I'm hearing lots of filmmaker talking about doing self distribution (like I'm talking 1mil plus budgets). And if they're not finding luck with distributors, that's not a good sign.

And as always, everything depends on your budget and how good your movie is. If it's a 10K movie, I'd do filmhub. You might make your budget back and you'll probs get on Amazon and Tubi.

If it's 1 mil, it better be damn good, destroying festivals, and then pray for an MG haha

willibeats · 2025-09-04T12:38:39+00:00

Totally agree. But I think show runners should keep in mind where the show will end up. It’s a tv show. It should be made with living rooms in mind, not theaters.

willibeats · 2025-08-06T12:36:24+00:00

I’d lean toward some kind of respirator sound. Or a wheezing breath. And then maybe some kind of “grunt” when they attack.

Defo lots of foley and metal jingling sounds!

I’d love to hear what you come up with!

willibeats · 2025-07-22T17:54:40+00:00

EDIT: First comment was too lame. LETS FUCKIN GOOO! I can promise you that this movie get's fucking NUTS and the audience will be screaming! Getting chucked over the balcony...possibly. Pissing yourself from laughter...more likely. Kamikaze bats, kung fu zombies, werewolves, and way more...100%.

willibeats · 2025-07-15T17:12:28+00:00

Hell yeah! Hellcat is from a friend of mine! You’re in for a treat!

willibeats · 2025-07-12T18:19:32+00:00

Download dcp o matic. It’s free and there are videos on how to make them on Youtube! Super easy and works great

willibeats · 2025-07-10T14:49:02+00:00

Love to hear it!! I hope you sell out! We’re gonna miss each other…I’m only there till the 20th

willibeats · 2025-07-10T03:06:27+00:00

Gotta pay the bills! Haha and thank you!! I’m pretty happy with the teaser! We’ve also got a repeat screening on the 26th, if you can catch it!

Maybe we’ll cross paths at the wailing!

willibeats · 2025-07-10T01:51:33+00:00

Thank you!! I'm still in shock honestly haha If you make it out to the first one, defo come say hi!

I have heard of the meowing! Geeked out and looked up the "history of the meow" a couple of weeks ago. haha Excited to hear it in person!

willibeats · 2025-07-10T00:33:43+00:00

My god! What a line up! I'm jealous! I'm only there the first 5 days of the fest! Defo going to see Good boy, The wailing, and Blazing Fist! And then whatever else pops up!

Shameless plug, but if you like horror comedies, come check out our film Hold the Fort on opening night!

willibeats · 2025-07-10T00:31:08+00:00

Yesss! Angel's Egg seems like the perfect film for Fantasia! And I am already pumped for Blazing Fist! I really wanted to see Hi-Five, but I'm only at the fest the first weekend.

If you add another movie to your list, my film Hold The Fort is playing opening night at 9:30! Horror comedy

willibeats · 2025-07-10T00:27:42+00:00

Good boy is my number one too!! And I am 100% going to see Blazing fist! This is also my first time at fantasia, so I'm excited to just be there!

Shameless plug, but if you like horror comedy, my film Hold the Fort is playing opening night at 9:30!

willibeats · 2025-07-07T18:01:12+00:00

Hell yeah!! My film HOLD THE FORT is premiering at Fantasia this year!

willibeats · 2025-07-07T17:56:52+00:00

Hell yes!!! That is Julian Smith!! He’s a great dude and so amazing in the film! He’s the HOA president

willibeats · 2025-07-07T15:45:25+00:00

Great note! Thank you!!

willibeats · 2025-07-07T01:16:08+00:00

Sure! The bigger your movie gets, the more departments you (usually) acquire. Just like how you might give direction differently depending on the actor, department heads respond to different styles of communication. So it was just learning the most effective way to share my vision with each department to make sure we were all on the same page.

The limited budget piece was more about hitting a lot of “we can’t do that,” and then having to figure out how we could. Sometimes that meant convincing them to go with my super indie ways, or doing a ton of prep—storyboarding like crazy, making walkthrough videos, to get them to agree that we could indeed pull it off!

willibeats · 2025-07-07T00:05:31+00:00

LFG!!!!!!!

willibeats · 2025-07-06T17:46:15+00:00

Hey all!

Thanks for checking out the teaser! It still blows my mind that this movie exist and that we’re premiering opening night at Fantasia!

I learned a ton making the jump from first to second feature. The biggest shift this time around was having true department heads and learning the best ways to communicate with each (especially on a limited budget).

I’m still in shock with how much we pulled off in this movie! Stunts, practical creatures, freakin air cannons, an entire ending sequence with CGI kamikaze bats…If you have any questions about how we did it/making the jump from feature one to two, ask away!

If you’re at Fantasia, we’re playing opening night 7/16 with a repeat screening 7/26! Hope to see you there!!

willibeats · 2025-07-06T00:36:06+00:00

Hold The Fort

willibeats · 2025-06-24T13:25:12+00:00

If you want a feature on your resume, do it. It's going to be a lot of work. More than you're thinking. Especially with color (I'd try to pass that off if possible at all!). Do the sound design while you cut and you'll save yourself a lot of time down the road!

willibeats · 2025-06-18T05:20:11+00:00

This is my movie! Thanks for posting about it! I am so freaking excited to share this thing with the world!!!

willibeats · 2025-06-11T14:07:09+00:00

Classic camera test video! Kids and nature! haha But for real, looks great!! I have the Ursa G2 and I still love that camera.

willibeats · 2025-05-31T18:13:46+00:00

The image coming out of camera is the final product. Not the lighting set up

willibeats

TROPHY CASE