This past weekend, we shot a new short film, and did so with an entirely new crew than we had worked with before. First time working with a pro DP (Philip Kral who you can hear on the Cinematography Panel from Macabre Faire episode) and the 2nd time with a pro sound mixer, Brian Neris. So, this week we discuss the shoot, how the entire day went ...…

This week, we bring you the Filmmaking On A Budget panel from the Macabre Faire Film Festival, featuring indie directors Patrick Devaney, Jeremiah Kipp, and Jerry Landi. Whether making films on the budget of a pizza dinner, two days of shooting for 10 months of post production, to working with Hollywood actors, at the end of the day the only th ...…

Production management software is popping up all over, from the veterans like MovieMagic to newb's like Celtx, it's hard to decide which one is best for your needs. This week, we talk to Jim Miller & Ben Yennie, creators of ProductionNext, which is a Cloud-based all-in-one platform, working to meet all of your production management needs. Discu ...…

Rejection is probably the toughest part of being an artist. Peers, audiences, film festivals, distributors, everyone has an opinion on your work, and a lot of the time, it's not very positive. But, that comes with the territory and, many times, the way you deal with your rejections defines the path you will take. This week, we have a very hones ...…

This week, we bring you the Latino Filmmaker panel from the Macabre Faire Film Festival. Hosted by Manny Serrano, and featuring filmmakers Edwin Pagan and Christian Moran, horror super-fan and actress Ines Peek also joined us for the talk. UPDATE: there was a minute or two of overlapping audio on the original upload, it has been fixed, so if yo ...…

Happy Valentines Day everyone! We all know that just because it's a holiday (sort of) that doesn't mean the hustle ends, so here we are with some updates! At the beginning of the year, we set some 6-week goals for ourselves, and today is our progress report! Meager they may have been, the tasks of writing a script and scheduling a shoot (respec ...…

Happy Women In Horror Month! January 12th, 2018 was the 2nd Annual Women In Horror Panel at the Macabre Faire Film Festival in Ronkonkoma, NY. Featuring Director/Producer Lindsay Serrano, Actress/Director Angie Hansen, Director/SFX Artist Shiva Rodriguez, Cinematographer/Director Jill Poisson, and Actress/Producer Lowry B. Fawley, and hosted by ...…

Producing a low-budget feature can easily be one of the most daunting undertakings you will ever experience, but also the most rewarding. The crash-course in filmmaking you receive will be unlike any other. This week on the show we talk with Writer/Producer/Director Joe Badon about his upcoming feature film "The God Inside My Ear." With a budge ...…

Filmmaking is a visual medium, obviously. So it goes without saying that choosing the right cinematographer is essential in telling your story properly. At the Macabre Faire Film Festival, Manny was lucky enough to have hosted multiple panels, one of which was The Art Of Cinematography, with two extremely talented D.P's in Phil Kral and Jill Po ...…

At the Ax Wound film Festival, Lindsay sat in on a live Podcast recording for 4Mile Circus, who are not only an awesome podcast you should all check out, but they are also a production team based out of Brooklyn, NY! On this panel, hosted by Nicole Solomon and Sean Mannion, Lindsay, Monika Estrella Negra and Christina Raia discuss how to use an ...…

Social Media! That ever elusive combination lock that we all struggle to get right. How to get followers, how to get shares, how to get likes, how to get people to pay attention to you and your film! Well, this week, we sit down with Sean Mannion and Nicole Solomon at 4MileCircus and discuss exactly that. 4MileCircus is a media company who offe ...…

Happy New Year everyone! Today marks the one-year anniversary of the first episode of Filmmaking Sucks AND the first episode of the new year, so we decided to do a bit of a year end wrap-up. A huge part of this struggle is keeping yourself motivated in the face of so much rejection and, plain and simple, a lack of time. Between working to pay t ...…

The 3rd annual Ax Wound Film Festival is a celebration of Women in Horror, and Lindsay's new film Beneath was selected to be part of the festival. Hosted by Jay Kay of Horror Happens Radio, the panel includes Lindsay Serrano, Julia K. Berkey (Gemmas Monster), Aislinn Clarke (Childer), Stee McMorris (Strange Harvest), England Simpson (Prelude: A ...…

We attended the Fear NYC Horror Film Festival in October, and filmed the "Masters of Horror" panel hosted by Jay Kay of Horror Happens Radio, featuring producer and journalist Heather Buckley, Horror Historian Tyler Hixson, director Colin Adams-Toomey, Director & Actress Adrienne Lovette, and actor Nicholas Tucci. The panel discussed the past a ...…

Crowdfunding is becoming a huge part of independent film production. A few weeks back, we attended the Ax Wound Film Festival, and were able to attend a workshop hosted by Christina Raia discussing crowdfunding and specifically the platform Seed & Spark. She discussed methods of starting your campaign, perks you can offer, different ways of pro ...…

We're back! After a lengthy hiatus, which we totally didn't intend, we're finally back. This week, we discuss a panel we sat in on at the New York Short Film Festival, about How To Get our Feature Made, and cover some of the talking points hit by the panelist Rob Margolies. Is it the right time to make the film? Do you have the right script? Th ...…

Happy month of Halloween! We've spent the last couple of weeks at different film festivals, including the Shawna Shea Film Festival and Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. On top of winning two awards, we watched a lot of excellent films, and learned a lot about ourselves, our strengths, our weaknesses and were able to realize what some of our near- ...…

To kick off the Halloween Season, we have decided to attempt to cover subjects that relate directly to horror films for this month, and we kick it off with a conversation relating to something we recently spoke about in our Production Apps episode: The Seven Basic Plots. In writing, generally all stories can fall into one of 7 basic plots, whic ...…

When your movie is complete, and you've found distribution, there is a list of items that the distributor (or sales agent) will ask for so that they can properly package and sell your film. This is called your Deliverables. This list contains very specific requirements for your film including the final rendered version, M+E tracks, 5.1 audio, s ...…

This week on Filmmaking Sucks we discuss some of the low-cost production apps and programs which will help to streamline your production, especially wen shooting with a small crew! We begin discussing CineSummit 7, which will go live next week, Sept 12&13. Cinesummit presents numerous video lectures and seminars over the course of two days, tau ...…

Film is a visual medium, and your Director Of Photography is the person who will bring your visual story to life. They help you craft the story through lenses, angles, lighting, movement and color. But, they are incapable of bringing your vision to life if they are ill-prepared. This week, we discuss a few of the basic elements of your film tha ...…

Keeping things low-budget can be difficult, and there are many things indie filmmakers do to stretch their budgets as far as possible. This week, we discuss a few of the methods we have used in the past to achieve professional results on an amateur budget. From home-made (and safe!) squibs and blood pumps, how to create a gun muzzle blast with ...…

On most Low and No-Budget films, the director is usually also the writer, and producer, sometimes camera operator and editor as well. With all of these hats to wear, there are a few key components to being a director that you need to know and have to consider before shooting your film. There's more to making a film that just writing it then gra ...…

Film Races are something we've always enjoyed doing, ever since we began making movies. Our first film race was in 2007 for the Alamo Drafthouse Bloodshots Competition. We have competed in three others since then, we hosted a panel discussion about them at Macabre Faire in 2014, and Manny recently was a judge for the Madison, WI wing of The 48 ...…

Your first film set can be a big undertaking, and you need to be prepared or your filmmaking journey will be over before it begins. Where do I shoot? What do I need? What should I prepare for? How many people do I need on my crew? Who does what?? Do I seriously have to feed everyone?! Having started out with a 4 person crew years ago, and to th ...…

This week Manny and Lindsay sit down with filmmaker, and long-time collaborator Louie Cortes. Together, the three of us as written, produced and directed our first feature film, Blood Slaughter Massacre, our web-series-turned-featurette, The Attack Of The Brain People, and a number of short films, including Louies' web series Holidays Of Terror ...…

We're back! Our computer unfortunately died on us (we did discuss it during the recording, but that turned into a 20+ minute discussion, so it was cut. we'll cover the issue we had on a future episode discussing hardware and software you can use!) so we've been away trying to sort that all out, install the new PC, and get everything up and runn ...…

Manny and Lindsay take on a subject that many independent filmmakers are unaware of this week, and that is Development Funds. This area of your budget is not always necessary, and it depends on what your film budget is actually going to be. What are development funds? Where does this money come from? When do you pay it back (if at all)? How doe ...…

This week on Filmmaking Sucks, Manny and Lindsay sit down with author Loren Molloy to discuss the differences between writing a book vs a script. Besides the obvious format differences, when writing a novel, the creator tends to be less restricted in their story writing, but there still must be some level of constraint. With a script, you must ...…

This week on Filmmaking Sucks, Lindsay and Manny discuss what is like working the convention circuit. Many indie filmmakers, especially those in the horror genre, decide to forego the traditional distribution route, and opt instead to sell their films themselves by running tables at conventions like Monster Mania, Chiller Theatre, Horrorhound, ...…

This week, Scott W. Perry joins Manny and Lindsay again to discuss his series "In Fear Of." Producing a TV or Web Series is a long process and big commitment. With many moving parts and different directors on each episode, the production can balloon very quickly and just as quickly it can go off the rails. With the success of In Fear Of behind ...…

Every writer has a process, and it's different for each one. This week, Manny and Lindsay sit down with writer/producer/director Scott W. Perry and discuss the process of completing a script. Scott is the producer of the web series "In Fear Of" where he worked with over a dozen directors and writers. In a situation like that, you learn the art ...…

We're back! This week, in what is possibly our least structured episode yet, we have a conversation with teenage filmmaker, Anthony Edward Curry. Anthony, who began making his first feature film at 13 years old and completing it at 15, has since gone on to working on numerous indie projects with many of the NY/NJ Indie Filmmakers, including a n ...…

Hiring a good producer is so important to you film, we needed two weeks to explain it. The day-of filming is the most important moment for your film, and if you're directing, the only thing you should be concerned with is getting what you need on-screen. We're sure you're setting up lights, working with actors, telling your cameraman what you w ...…

Hiring a producer can be expensive, so many indie filmmakers write and direct their own films, which is just fine. But then, they decide "I'll do it myself" when it comes to producing, and they don't realize how much they have actually hurt their film by making that decision. The truth is, it's because most don't actually know what the producer ...…

Actors. You can't make a movie without them! Obviously... well then lets talk! How do you find them? How do you cast them? How do you pay them? SHOULD you pay them? Is your friends brother the best choice? Are you an actor? Would you like to be an actor? We cover all these topics and more, along with a few casting do's, don't and a couple of ho ...…

This week Lindsay, Mario and Manny discuss some tips on how to create a successful crowdfunding campaign for your film. There's more to a successful campaign than just posting and hoping for the best. With so many crowdfunding campaigns out there, you need to stand out from the group and offer things no one else is. Breaking it down into the fa ...…

In part 2 of our Sound discussion, Manny, Lindsay and Mario give you a checklist of things to look out for when you are on set. How to get the best sound quality, avoiding ADR sessions, grabbing sound fx, and so much more. Then, once filming has completed, the real work begins in sound post-production. This topic can be discussed as an entire e ...…

This week on Filmmaking Sucks, Manny, Mario and Lindsay discuss the variety of microphones, the different types there are, and which one you will need for your shoot. Mics can get extremely expensive, but you don't always have $500 to drop on one. My new podcast, Filmmaking Sucks, is aimed at all of the budding filmmakers out there, and the new ...…

This week on Filmmaking Sucks we are proud to bring you the audio from a Cinematography Panel hosted by Manny Serrano and Patrick Devaney at the Macabre Faire Film Festival. The panel itself discusses the importance and unimportance of certain pieces of equipment, frame rates, HD vs 4K, shooting on cell phones, tons of knowledge that we hope ma ...…

This week, we bring you something very special! On January 14th, the Macabre Faire Film Festival hosted a Women In Media panel, and we are proud to bring you the audio of that discussion. All of the women involved are making huge strides, advancing the way people view women working in horror today. Hosted by Adam Ginsberg, the panel members inc ...…

Over the years, we have met many people who (just like we all did at first) said they cant make their film because they don't have the right camera, or the right equipment, or the right actors, the locations, the sets, the know-how.. there's always something. What those things equate to are just excuses. It's self-sabotage. If you say you don't ...…

The Film Festival is the coveted rite of passage that every filmmaker must pass through. Film Festivals are one of the sacred combination locks we much attempt to crack, and honestly, we need to do it with limited funds. How can you do that? Networking, Planning, and Time. How does that work..? Listen in and find out from our first hand experie ...…

Welcome to the first episode of the Filmmaking Sucks podcast! Now, we don't actually think filmmaking sucks. In fact, we love every second of it, but that doesn't mean its easy. We put our heart and souls into every page we write, frame we shoot, and scene we edit, and sometimes, it just sucks. But we still love it. As your hosts are Manny Serr ...…