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When I was twenty years old, Making films just seemed like a far distant dream. Like with any other demanding career choice, filmmaking is a very difficult thing to break into. I was told many times to not bother or, "What's your backup"? So one day, I decided to make a feature film. I had no money and no clue what to do technically; I was a writer and an actor. I saved about $2000.00, grabbed a bunch of friends and a camera/lighting package and left for my families home upstate to shoot for one week. No one thought that I'd be able to pull off short film, not to mention a feature. With a group of people just as devoted as myself, we shot for one straight week and in the end finished shooting the entire script (while having a great time). My next challenge was to edit the film. I had never touched an editing machine before. So I went to work on learning for to use the program.
A few months later after I was able to finish the film, I presented it to investors for a much larger film I had written. After a few months of back and forth, they agreed to give me a 250,000.00 budget to do my next film "Xtacy". http://www.moonscapemediagroup.com/Xtacythemovie.html
I was told by the investors, that if I can pull off a film for two grand and make it look good, they couldn't wait to see what a quarter million dollar film would look like. Xtacy went on to win the New York IIFV festival for, Best Picture, Actor and Supporting actor.
So, my secret is this: Sometimes your dreams seem like they make no sense or they just can't be accomplished. But the only person who can determine that is you. If you believe your going to fail, then you've already failed. But if you believe in yourself 100% you stand a great chance of realizing your dreams. And if you want it, then go for it. I didn't have money to make my first feature, but that didn't stop me. And lack of funds or moral support, though important shouldn't stop you either.
Tommy
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