Hi everyone. My name is Micah Haley. I'm a film producer and financier. And I came up in production. I came up on set as a PA who knew absolutely nobody in the film industry. And I love talking about, about the business of film and television and answering questions and talking about how it is a viable industry
Micah Haley
@micahhaley · 4:52
Usually he makes a movies for 150 and he sells it for $300 and he does really well and he makes two or three of those a year and live a great life. Yeah, it's really a great industry. It's been a really exciting 15 years in it. But yeah, if you want to know anything more specific, I'm happy to advise nice
Hi Micah, thank you so much for offering your advice and being so generous with your knowledge and wisdom. I think it's and incredible your journey, I guess. First, I would love to hear your journey from PA to film producer and what kind of steps you took, what that experience was like. And Secondly, I was curious about any advice you had for a recent I recently graduated from NYU Film School and trying to make it as a director and writer
And this is where I'll totally take part of the blame for myself, right? When you graduate from College, you want out there and you want to kind of show your worth and then you get stuck in a PA role and you're getting somebody's coffee or you're moving boxes around and you do feel like you're not being valued highly. How do you as a young person get out of that sort of a mindset? Because I definitely fell victim to it
Micah Haley
@micahhaley · 4:56
You'll get to know the types of movies they make and once you find one who's like I love making this kind of movie and that's your kind of movie you can say, look, I have this special script that I wrote. I want to direct it here's a short film or two I'm really good at this hire me but I would 100% focus on the writing
Micah Haley
@micahhaley · 4:55
Four maybe just don't spend your whole life writing short films. You only need a couple and then just focus on features. Features get sold. Features are financial products. Feature length screenplays are what makes the whole industry turn. So get into writing feature length work as fast as you can and if you're not getting enough traction in other areas and you can come up with a good no or very low budget script idea that you can shoot yourself with your friends or on your iPhone or whatever
Micah Haley
@micahhaley · 4:52
But they, for whatever reason, saw something in me that was like, these kids can hold it together. Now you are doing a bunch of mundane stuff. You're making copies, you are getting coffee. But those are privileges. And I'm going to tell you why. Okay. When you're getting coffee for a producer, you're building a relationship with them
I am going to make a few shorts this year so I will keep them short. I think your message was definitely wake up call about the time and money and steering more towards features because I also don't want to be making shorts forever. But yeah, I love everything that you said and we'll be revisiting and relisting to your message and maybe sharing it with my friends if that's okay with you. So yeah, thank you so much again
Oh, and on a side note, I totally agree about the coding job. My sister and a bunch of my other friends have coding jobs and they make. Yeah, so much money. So they can even, like, take off like, like a year or two to focus on whatever they're passionate about. And yeah, it's really amazing. It's like you have the skill, you work a few hours. I do agree that it's a great kind of job to have
Micah Haley
@micahhaley · 4:48
The whole thing is maybe three minutes long. Four minutes long. So short and it's about ideas and telling the story cinematically. That's not a story that you could tell in the same way with the same reveals in another format, right? So do something that's going to use the power of cinema and the emotion that it can bring and betray the audience that's key, right? Leave the audience along in one direction and totally betray them and show them something else is happening. Good luck
Hi, Micah. I just wanted to respond and share my reaction to that short that you summarized. Oh, my gosh, that's wild. Wow, what an ending. Oh, my God. Anyways, I love stories like that. And I can think of one other story in my head that kind of has a similar quality where the ending is so shocking and totally unexpected. Also involving death, also involving highways and cars. So maybe I'll make sure to include that in my next short
Hey Provgal so I have a question for you. We run an event planning company and also a workshop where we build all type of props needed for this event like stage work etc. Now most of the events you are handling are completely online and you are making for sure props instead. So I was wondering how can you transition to making props for movies and how do we transition into this business
As long as you can make it easy for people to get, then you'll have an easier time renting items. Also, the social media platforms are a really good way to advertise your event stuff. And also it's a great way to post pictures and keep people active about what you're making. So if somebody's actually looking for something that you have, you'll have an easier chance to reach out to them and get that thing rented. I hope that helps me. Take care. Bye
Micah Haley
@micahhaley · 4:59
It's a little trickier in general, the type of business that if I had another fund that was specializing in infrastructure, the type of business I would look for would be one that has utility outside of the film industry that isn't solely reliant on income from the film industry. But the problem with that is you often find competitors in those areas as well
Micah Haley
@micahhaley · 5:00
Hey, Sam, I wanted to throw my head and the ring on this one, too. So how does a non film specific vendor, such as, in your case, an event planning or an event a total company where you're making custom decorations and custom side stuff. How do you connect with the film industry in order to sell those services to film? Well, first, I would not recommend going film exclusive, just kind of reading between the lines of your post