Ed Burns on how to make a movie for $9,000
Writer-director-actor-producer Ed Burns on his newest ultra low-budget movie Newlyweds:
The movie’s trailer:
The story summary:
Buzzy (Edward Burns) and Katie (Caitlin FitzGerald) are a newly married couple living a seemingly conflict-free life. But when Buzzy’s damaged and impulsive half-sister Linda (Kerry Bishe) arrives at their doorstep expecting to stay for an indefinite period in their Tribeca loft, her antics threaten to disrupt the couple’s commitment to an “easy” marriage. Meanwhile, with Katie’s sister Marsha projecting suspicions of her own husband’s infidelity onto Buzzy, will the couple’s formerly trusting and insulated life be able to withstand the dysfunctions of their respective siblings?
Twitter: @edward_burns
I have been following Burns on Twitter since I started my account there about 3 years ago. It’s been fascinating to watch his progress on two of these ultra low-budget movies, the first one Nice Guy Johnny, which I posted on several times including here and here.
I think we all know it doesn’t cost a lot of money to make a movie. The sticking point has always been and continues to be how do you market and distribute the movie to get enough eyeballs to pay and watch it? That’s another interesting aspect of Burns’ approach: He spends zero dollars on either. He uses Twitter and his website extensively, relying on the community of his fans to promote movies by word of mouth through their access to social media. He has a highly interactive relationship with that community. For instance, he ran a poster contest and a song contest for Newlyweds, getting that content for free, but also promoting the movie.
Now yes, we have to acknowledge Burns is a pretty well-known personality who has over 31,000 Twitter followers, so he has a leg up compared to a relative unknown filmmaker, but there is something of a model here not only for movie production, but also marketing and distribution.
What are your thoughts about what Ed Burns is doing? Bypassing the festival circuit? Bypassing a theatrical release? Ultra low-budget filmmaking? This guerrilla approach to marketing and distribution?
For more background, here is another article on Burns and the changing face of indie film distribution.
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