EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH SHARON WRIGHT
WRITER/DIRECTOR OF CHANGE FOR A DOLLAR

Short films need an audience.  It’s a pretty obvious statement to make but it means a lot if your project fails to attract attention at first.  Most independent filmmakers set their sights on the major festivals of the world.  You work hard, save room in your budget and send your film everywhere along with high hopes it will be accepted.  This can get expensive so others focus on smaller festivals to get their work in front of an audience.  Sometimes, this works out and your film shows up on a theater screen.  But it can be tough when the acceptance letters don’t arrive as planned.

Regardless, a filmmaker must also decide what to do with their film once the festival circuit is over.  Whether your film is accepted or not there are still countless opportunities out there for your hard work to be seen.  Today is a golden age for short films with sites like YouTube & Vimeo paving the way.  Combined with the skillful use of social media platforms, you can generate a massive audience.

Writer/Director Sharon Wright’s film Change For A Dollar is an incredible example of what can happen once you put your film online.  Since uploading the short a few months back, the film has generated more than 1.5 million views (and rising) and a mention from a world famous movie critic.  Not to mention thousands of comments and feedback.

I had the opportunity to find out more about what inspired the film and what it was like to find an audience that eludes so many.  Read on for proof that anything is possible if your believe in your film.

What inspired Change For A Dollar?

It’s funny really, I never really thought about writing or directing.  I was on the board of the Independent Filmmakers Coalition of Kansas City and would look for different opportunities once in a while for our filmmakers and ran across this one minute film competition sponsored by Pepsi.  One of the categories was “How far can you go with a dollar”.  I found it kind of intriguing.  I mean, what could you do with a penny?  A nickle? A quarter?  What little thing could you do with them that could have an impact on something else…

I started to kick it around and as I was on a very long drive one night across the state it hit me.  I started to put it all together and was driving as fast as I could so I could check into my hotel and write it all down.  I knew the title and most of the scenes but at the time, I didn’t realize just how significant all these actions were.

Writing a story meant to inspire others is a difficult task and you’ve succeeded.  What challenges did you face when crafting the screenplay?

Thank you!  I didn’t start off writing it thinking I was going to inspire others really.  I was just so focused on getting from point A to B, lol.  I knew I wanted the sign to have a question mark, to make people think a little but it wasn’t till the end when the boy returns the penny that it came full circle and then I knew it was something special.

What was life like on set?  What challenges did you encounter while filming Change For A Dollar?

Being my first time directing, I was REALLY nervous, I seriously don’t think I slept for about two days leading up to it.  We started at about 5:30am at the grocery store and thankfully we were well prepared and had a fantastic team of pros that had worked together before so we started out like a fairly well oiled machine.  Everyone worked really well together.  Late that night though our toughest shot was coming up and laying the incredibly long dolly tracks was a challenge.  It had been raining and so everything was just sinking in mud.  We have this very long complicated shot, it’s late, we were cold and tired and we are all in the mud, lol.  But we managed to get through it and every single person there was a trooper!

Can you talk about your strategy when the film first entered the festival circuit?

Because it is a positive film, I knew our best bet going into it would be to find theme based fests, christian festivals, The Feel Good Film Festival, etc.  Course I didn’t just submit to those, I wanted other festivals to recognize us as well.

The film did very well at smaller festivals but wasn’t accepted into the larger festivals.  As most short filmmakers aspire to gain acceptance into the major festivals, what was it like to miss out on that experience?

It was a little disappointing, not gonna lie about that.  Festivals are so expensive to submit to and you always hope that someone will see it and fall in love with it.  But it didn’t happen.  I spoke with a director of a large fest, that I won’t name, and he remembered seeing my film and said that the reason it didn’t get in was that it dragged a bit and I should consider editing it.  Well, it’s 10 minutes (a good fit timewise already) but there was no way I was going to change the film.  Right, wrong or indifferent, it was the way I wanted it to be and honestly, there was no way to cut it without taking away the story.  It just didn’t resonate with many of the festival people for whatever reason.  We had some luck with some other great fests like Action On Film, Kansas City Film Festival, Gig Harbor, Barebones, and many others.

Today, the end of a festival circuit doesn’t mean the end of a project.  With so many avenues out there for indie filmmakers to promote their work, talk about your approach to promoting Change For A Dollar online?

Wow – it really was kind of an accident.  I thought that I had the film here and wasn’t doing anything else with it really so why not put it online.  I thought maybe I’d get 3 or 4 hundred views (more than most who saw it at festivals btw, lol)  It went crazy!  I really think I lucked out on the timing with the holidays and people just ran with it!

With one of our other projects FOR WORSE, a web-series I did with Gary C Warren, we wanted to test out going direct to the public.  We created the concept and shot it ourselves for the most part and threw it on YouTube.  We posted links to it to any site that liked funny or relationship content.  We got some good views and started to develop a good audience but wrapped the season up after 8 episodes with a cliff hanger and haven’t really had time to go any further with it.

I would say that you really need to consider who your audience is and do your research on what sites/blogs/etc. are available online to market it.  You don’t want to upload it everywhere, you want to link it to as many sites as possible so that you aren’t diluting your views.  With CFaD I have it embedded with 2 other major sites but all the views go through Youtube so I have a larger base and can see all the analytics.  Because it is copyrighted, I do not allow anybody else to upload it to their pages, if it can’t be linked, it doesn’t get posted.  Or if it does, I get it removed.

I maintain all control as much as possible and with the info I collect, I can speak directly to the people that are watching it, build a relationship with them and ultimately build my database to use for promoting my next film or for fundraising.  It is invaluable information I am collecting!

Change For A Dollar found a massive audience online with over 1.5 million views on YouTube and rising.  What was it like to watch the number of views skyrocket?

AMAZING!  That’s really the only word for it!  I would check the numbers all day long and just be so shocked!  I kept saying maybe we’d hit 20,000 by Christmas, then it was maybe we will reach 500,000 but I was certain we would never reach a million, lol.  Boy, was I ever wrong!  I never dreamed it!

The feedback on the film has been tremendous with thousands of comments online.  What is it like to know your film has inspired people around the world?

There is nothing more satisfying as an artist than to know that something you created has inspired or moved someone.  I get comments and emails every day about how they were inspired to empty their change jars and go by food for the homeless or to give to the Salvation Army for the first time.  There is a paper in Canada doing a story about how a hockey coach used the film to inspire his team to do charity work for the holidays….the list goes on and on.  Honestly, I don’t think I can ever do anything in this world that will mean more to me than what this film has accomplished.  To be able to say that I helped change someones life, in some small way, is the greatest accomplishment ever.  This film will be my legacy, lol….and I’m okay with that!

The film was recently mentioned by Roger Ebert.   What was it like knowing he saw and praised your work?

This is a Quote from the Ebert Club Newsletter of 12-14-11:

My friend Bill Nack, the great sportswriter, emailed me this video with only four words: “This one touched me.” It touched me, too.  Sharon Wright.  Remember that name.”

OMG!  It was one of the highlights of my life!  Someone sent me a message and it listed the quote and I thought it had to be a joke, or it was a different Ebert, lol.  I wasn’t going to believe it till I saw it with my own eyes.  But there is was!  I mean it doesn’t get much better than the movie man himself posting a link to your movie and saying things like that.  Any filmmaker in the world would give their right arm for that.  I was just shocked, and honored!

This was your first film.  What lessons did you take away from your experience with Change For A Dollar?

I learned that I don’t need to be a control freak, I can let others do things, I also learned that you never have enough money and that it is a brilliant test to friendships, lol.  But really I learned that even if a film doesn’t get attention on the festival circuit – there is still an audience, and sometimes, it is a LOT bigger than you realize!

What advice would you give aspiring filmmakers out there?

Four simple things:  Don’t quit, be smart enough to know that you don’t know everything, surround yourself with people who know more than you, and never sacrifice your vision!

What’s next for Change For A Dollar?

We are submitting it for a region Emmy this spring and have a few distributors and charities looking at it, but I really don’t know, nothing would surprise me with it any more!

What’s next for you?

I’m in pre-production for my next film and I’m feeling the pressure now as I know everyone is watching and waiting to see what follows CFaD.  It’s a scary place to be, I gotta admit!  I’m doing another feel good film.  This one is about a dog looking for a home and a little girl looking for a best friend and their journey to each other.  It’s a really beautiful story and I can’t wait to shoot it.  We will be filming in Kansas City and some in LA.  Of course they always say “Don’t work with kids or animals” – yup, I’m doing both!

Special thanks to Sharon Wright for the interview. 

Be sure to check out her website and stop by her YouTube channel too.

Check out this short video from the LEGO Hero Factory. There are 8 videos in all…

I may be nearly 30 years old but I’m still tempted when I pass the LEGO Store at the mall. I think my one regret growing up is never creating a LEGO short film. I had the tools to do it. Why didn’t I?

To me, LEGO is a phenomenal opportunity for filmmakers to try something unique. Especially young filmmakers. Imagine the possibilities and then exceed your wildest expectations by building something no one has ever seen before. Now add in the freedom to tell a story in this new world.

Beyond the ability to build whatever characters and worlds your imagination comes up with, there are also HUGE advantages technologically to enhance your work. Combining simple stop motion effects with digital software like Final Cut Pro, Adobe Photoshop and After Effects can help you create something truly original.

Again, I reiterate, I really wish I took the time to create a couple LEGO movies in my youth. Having said that, LEGO still contributed to my love of storytelling. I had a couple sets of space LEGOS that I constantly set stories around. There is actually a feature film idea in one of my old notebooks inspired by those adventures.

I’m inspired by anything that let’s you build whatever you want. Before games like Sim City and Minecraft, there was LEGO and those little bricks are just as important to creative minds around the world.

What’s the best LEGO video you’ve ever seen?

Disclaimer: This post has been sponsored by LEGO, but all thoughts are my own.

REVEW: STEVE JOBS BY WALTER ISAACSON

“My passion has been to build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products.  Everything else was secondary.  Sure, it was great to make a profit, because that was what allowed you to make great products.  But the products, not the profits, were the motivation…

‘Give the customers what they want.’ But that’s not my approach.  Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do.” (Steve Jobs p567)

I’m an Apple fan.  For years I resisted because I felt Windows based PCs offered more of what I was looking for.  Of course, my theory was proven wrong the day I got my iMac with Final Cut Pro.  Since that day, the Apple brand has been a vital part of my creative life.

The combination of my iMac, iPhone and iPad keeps me connected to whatever project I’m working on at all times.  I write screenplays, I write blogs, I create graphics, I edit movies.  I create…  I create every day thanks to the creativity of Steve Jobs and the talented designers and engineers at Apple.

XTRA | Why the iPad 2 is the center of my creative universe.

Creative people are fueled by the creativity of others.  This is especially true when it comes to the marriage of creativity and technology.  Steve Jobs believed this to be a fundamental component of innovation.

“What drove me?  I think most creative people want to express appreciation for being able to take advantage of the work that’s been done by others before us.” (Steve Jobs p570)

When I opened the cover of Steve Jobs b Walter Isaacson, I was excited to find out more behind the iCEO himself.  When Steve Jobs passed away, the world lost a true visionary and his story fascinated me.  The book itself is absolutely incredible as it describes each and every triumph and defeat Jobs experienced.

But something interesting happened as I turned the pages…  I started relating Steve’s passion and innovation to the world of screenwriting.  Once that happened, I couldn’t put the book down.

Inspiration.  Motivation. Innovation.  Creativity.  Passion.  Dedication.  Commitment.  Sound familiar?

These are the common themes throughout the book but they are also present in the hearts of creative people around the world every day.  In this way, Steve Jobs’ story goes beyond the story of a man who changed the world.  It’s about the very essence of creativity and the quest for perfection.

In my own life, I associate these themes with Screenwriting.

“We try to use the talents we do have to express our deep feelings.” (Steve Jobs p570)

If Steve Jobs was a screenwriter, he would have scrutinized every word.  Every character would be constantly tested.  Each and every description would be reworked until the image was perfected in the reader’s minds.  Steve would have paid extra close attention to the amount of white space he used.  He would have agonized over names and locations.  He would have poured his heart into every scene.  Every moment.

If Steve Jobs was a screenwriter, he would have been tireless and relentless on his quests to get his scripts produced.  If a script wasn’t successful, he would have been angry at first but then he would break it down and find ways to make it better.  He would analyze every single detail and demand better of himself.  Steve Jobs would have believed in his vision.  He wouldn’t have quit until he succeeded.  The story had to come first.

If Steve Jobs was a screenwriter he would have been passionate.  He would have been dedicated, innovative and precise.  Most of all, he would have cared immensely about the audience and how his screenplays would make them feel.

It’s an inspiring thing to read about somebody who cared so deeply about his craft.   Even better, he surrounded himself with remarkable and talented individuals.  People who made him better.  Take Jony Ive for example.  This is a designer responsible for many of Apple’s defining innovations and a visionary in his own right.

“Simplicity isn’t just a visual style.  It’s not just minimalism or the absence of clutter.  It involves digging through the depth of the complexity.  To be truly simple, you have to go really deep.” (Jony Ive p343)

It’s an interesting quote when you apply it to screenplays.  Especially during the rewrite process.  People like Jony Ive were crucial components in the execution of Steve’s ambition.  Of course, film is also a collaborative medium and while crafting a screenplay is a solo effort, a script destined for bigger things.  Steve Jobs would have not only understood this.  He would have embraced it.

Beyond anything else, Steve was never satisfied.  If he created a product that changed the world he set out to create something better or entirely new.  To me, that’s the most exciting aspect of screenwriting.  Every time you begin a new story it’s a new adventure.  A new world.  A new you.

“If you want to live your life in a  creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much.  You have to be willing to take whatever you’ve done and whoever you were and throw them away.” (Steve Jobs p190)

Each new story represents an evolution of your creativity.  A chance to really say something.  It’s a freedom that screenwriters crave.  It’s an addiction that takes a hold of you.

STEVE JOBS WOULD HAVE CALLED IT MAGIC

Two years ago, I got my iPhone and it instantly tripled my productivity by allowing me to keep up to date on my screenwriting and blogging.  I could write anywhere I wanted and I did.  Being able to craft blog posts while riding a subway actually had me looking forward to my journey to work each day.  For the last few months, I’ve been working really hard on a ton of projects in order to begin 2012 with a clean slate.  So far, it’s looking like I’ll be able to hit my deadlines and I have my iPad 2 to thank for that.

MY NEW CREATIVE COMMAND CENTRAL

I’ve had my iPad for a little over a month now and in that time, I’ve accomplished a ton.

• -The Athletic Nerd has a whole new design with brand new content created on the much easier WordPress for iPad app.
• -I’ve finished all the work leading up to the launch of my brand new blog which will be online later this week.
• -I finished editing my short film thanks to notes and shot lists I created using Apple’s Pages app.
• -I’ve also been using Pages to create outlines and breakdowns for a number of projects I’m hoping to begin next year.
• -I’ve written 3 brand new short screenplays during my breaks at work thanks to the awesome Celtx screenwriting app.

Check out my full review of the Celtx app here.

• -I’ve grown accustomed to using Flipboard, Twitter, Facebook and more to increase my social reach online which helps boost traffic.
• -A full browser experience has helped me stay up to date on all the movie news that inspires me on a daily basis.

Click here to read my Top 6 Apps For Movie News

I’ve only had the device for a month and it’s changed everything.  Let’s face it, being able to read my daily news, post a new article online and revise a new screenplay before I get out of bed each morning is a nice touch.  There are a million tiny reasons why the iPad 2 is amazing but for me, it all boils down to productivity.

My biggest fear before I purchased my iPad 2 was whether or not typing would hinder me.  I’m happy to report that after a slight adjustment period, I’m firing out posts at a decent pace and hammering out new screenplay pages.  The iPad is fast, convenient (not too mention cool) and integrated easily into my life.  From a filmmaking perspective, the iPad has a number of amazing tools I plan to take advantage of whenever I begin my next project.  Until then, I’ve been having a ton of fun messing around with iMovie, the iPad’s camera and my dog.  But beyond that there are apps for every aspect of production.

Filmmaker IQ has a great rundown of 22 fantastic apps for filmmaker.

Stick figures still count for those of us who can’t draw but still need to create storyboard.

When I started discussing the need for an iPad, many people (myself included) wondered if it was just a big iPhone.  I’m here to tell you it’s absolutely true and it’s wonderful in every way.  The iPhone is still my number one source of communication but when it comes to creative outbursts, I now have a tool that has everything I need to express my thoughts and share my work.

I’ve already compiled an album of graphics and posters I’ve created.  Soon, I’ll have all my movies & trailers loaded into the device to show people.  Presentations, demonstrations and conceptual meetings will never be the same again.  Indeed, it’s only been a month but my iPad 2 has taken a firm grip on my creative routine and enhanced every aspect of it in the process.  Sometimes, you just don’t have enough time at home to finish everything you had hoped to accomplish that day.  With the iPad, I’ve been able to sneak in more and more work on road trips, breaks and any other moments when inspiration strikes.

It has truly become the center of my screenwriting, filmmaking and blogging universe.

This post was written on my iPad.

THE PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL NETWORK FOR CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS

Studio Vox is preparing to launch and I’ve got 24 invites to give away to anyone looking to try out the new service.  Use the code STVX-athleticnerd to gain access to the site.  I’m currently in the process of setting up my profile.

Check out this intro video for more:

StudioVox Intro from Mazen Hijleh on Vimeo.