Let's Make a Movie!

It’s now a year and a half since I wrote the first check to begin the process of making my first film, EYE FOR EYE, starring John Savage, vet of well over 300 films; the international beauty, model and actress Blanca Blanco; and Montana’s finest actor and balladeer Shane Clouse. I wrote the following article for RoundUp magazine, the publication of Western Writers of America which I’ve been a member since the mid 1980s. I’m happy to say the film has been accepted by several streamers and we expect many more. Submitting to the 200+ streamers across the world is a time consuming process, one that’s being handled, and handled well, by a relatively new company to film distribution, FilmHub. Having been a commission guy for 98% of my working life, I was pleased with their willingness to work for a piece of the action, and don’t regret my decision to join them for a minute. Among others the film can be viewed for $1.99 on Amazon Prime or free, with adds, on TUBI.??

Here are a few links:

Thrilled to report you can now watch the classic western feature film EYE FOR EYE, on Amazon Prime. Click on the link: https://tinyurl.com/4wjx86sx

You can now watch the classic western feature film EYE FOR EYE, on TUBI. Click on the link:?https://tinyurl.com/59reum6x

You can now watch the classic western feature film EYE FOR EYE, on FLIXWEST. Click on the link:?https://tinyurl.com/tp3frwbh

You can now watch the classic western feature film EYE FOR EYE on Stash TV on YouTube:?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH8Gv-qcuCE

And others….

If you have an interest in my experience making my first feature film, here’s the article:

To Hell With Hollywood!

By

L. J. Martin

Okay, being a lifelong movie buff I really don’t mean it. I love movies and admittedly am a groupie. I love to watch celebs and vicariously walk in their footsteps. John Wayne, Joel McCrae, Clint (wouldn’t you love to be recognized by your first name), Palance, Costner (or even only by your last name) and many others are semi-deities to us western fans. But also after thirty five years of banging away on novels, non-fiction works, and screenplays, and waiting for Hollywood to come calling, one tends to vent and wallow in frustration. So, what to do? Stop waiting, that’s what.

Make the damn movie yourself.?

Being a lifelong photographer and videographer helps (I was the school photographer in 7th?grade), but thousands out there know cameras. And thousands—or hundreds of thousands—want to make a movie or at least be involved in one. Now with consumer priced equipment and software, you don’t need MGM or Paramount or Universal. You can have a studio in your bedroom office. Final Cut Pro, Premiere, or the free DaVinci Resolve; software that puts what was formerly a several hundred thousand dollar editing bay at hand. And yes, I said free. A dozen consumer priced cameras (Sony, Canon, Nikon, Pentax) shoot video in today’s standard 4K, and the cameras I settled upon, Blackmagic, shoot in 4 and 6K. You can have a cinema quality camera shooting 6K for just over two grand, plus lenses, or a 4K for just over twelve hundred. And the fact is, films making money are being shot with iPhones. Theater’s across the country project only a 2K resolution, and many streaming services require only 1080p.?

Yeah, I know this technical talk is gobbledygook to most of us. So what? Like I said, nearly everyone would like to be involved in a film, and tech types are no exception. And many will join you on a film journey just for credit.

Story? Yeah, my wife and I are writers and have been making a living at the craft for many years, so with 150 or more books to our credit we have lots of story inventory to draw from. But the fact is great stories are out there in the public domain—open for anyone’s use. And there are literally hundreds of fine writers who’d love to see their tale on the big, or even the little, screen, and would pitch-in their work for a piece of the action.

Speaking of a piece of the action, how does one go from action to account…bank account? I’m just about to release my first full length (90 minute) film, so I’m yet to become an expert. I would never, however, have invested hard-earned bucks into a movie had it not been for the obvious world-wide hunger for content. When I set out on the project EYE FOR EYE, adapted from one of my novellas, I was encouraged by the fact Amazon was paying $.15 a streaming hour for content. Doesn’t sound like much but when they have a billion or more to expose your film, it was making independent film makers with a decent product a hundred grand a year. Of course during the process of making my film they dropped that to $.01 a streaming hour and the hundred dropped a zero. Alas, what to do??

Luckily, Amazon is the biggest fish but not the only fish in the sea. Now there are 200 or more streaming services all over the world, and for a couple of hundred bucks (for Spanish, more for other languages) you can get foreign language captions on your film. The world is now the independent film makers oyster. And there are distributors and aggregators who’ll distribute your film for a piece of the action. This concept is not foreign to me, to risk a pun, as for many years I’ve been selling books via Amazon and other internet sources, and monthly enjoy checks from Japan, India, the UK, etc. In fact I was a cofounder of an uber-successful company, Wolfpack Publishing, built on the concept of working with authors the same way these companies work with independent film makers.

I was fortunate to have a friend, David Mirisch, who’d accept credit as executive producer and used his many contacts and lifelong experience in Hollywood to attract a pair of fine actors, John Savage and Blanca Blanco, who proved their worth not only with their talent but by establishing the work ethic on the set. David is also the consummate PR professional and his expertise is critical to the film’s success. Shane Clouse, a friend for over a dozen years, also happened to have been named Montana’s finest actor and is an unsurpassed song writer and balladeer. Shane wrote and performed the theme song, EYE FOR EYE. Shane allowed the use of another of his works, FARAWAY HORSES. We also used one to which I’d written the lyrics while he did the music and performed, BEEN SOME STAYED SOME. The film couldn’t have been made without Shane’s talent and hard work. And how often do you have a star who’ll double as wrangler and provide his own horses and mules??

Low budget? You bet. How many times have you seen the writer/director/producer with hammer in hand building the saloon bar or the privy? Or digging into his closet for wardrobe? That’s me.??Or the co-producer and wife, NYT best-selling author Kat Martin, housing a few and feeding twenty five players and crew who stomped around the house with mud-covered brogans? Or allowing her home to be turned into a set? Or acting as cook, costumer, make-up artist, and occasional chauffer??

So, pick up your iPhone, download DaVinci Resolve, be prepared to either hire or spend hours if not weeks learning a new skill, lean on friends and acquaintances, and make a movie. Ask me in a year or so if it was all worthwhile monetarily? I’ve long lived by the adage, if it ain’t fun you’re doing it wrong. Yeah, I’ve lost a lot of sleep over the past year…but I’ve had a hell of a good time, met a hell of a bunch of talented young people eager to be part of a project, and kept my gray-matter churning.?

Success? I keep score by the dollars, so we’ll see. It’s my belief the consumer is the ultimate judge of one’s work. But no matter, no one can take away the laughs and comradeship.?

Yes, I’ve rushed in where angels fear to tread, but that’s been my mantra and my wife’s frustration for many years. And who knows, I may even get my dough back.

END

Since this article was published the film has won Best Feature, Best Western, Best Producer, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Score, Best Actor, Best Young Actor, Best Actress, and other categories for its actors and crew in more than ten international film festivals. I'm more than pleased with the return of investment.

Check out EYE FOR EYE, the webpage, at?https://www.eyeforeyewestern.com ?and sign up to keep up, or see the trailer on YouTube at?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCGVGu4o1wo

For more on the Martin’s see?https://www.katmartin.com ?and/or?https://www.ljmartin.com ?.?