Regardless of if you’re new here or if you’ve been following New 32 for a while, we want to help you get your indie movie made. We work hard to provide as many free resources as we can on our blog and our Instagram, but we also have a few paid resources that might be able to help you get a leg up in making movies. We’ve priced these as competitively as we can while still paying our team for their time; these ebooks took us a really long time to make and we poured all our knowledge into them. Here’s a rundown of the filmmaking books we currently have available, best practices for using them, and who they might be right for.
The Mindful Maker
The Mindful Maker is our biggest ebook with almost 60 pages, and it covers our entire philosophy of gentle, ethical indie filmmaking. Think of this as your guide to running a film set that you can actually enjoy. This bad boy is chock full of tips and tricks from our 30+ combined years of experience that will help you make your film set safer, more eco-friendly, more ethical, and more enjoyable. We cover everything from paying your crew to the ethics of passion projects to how to feed your people well.
Perfect for: the aspiring producer, the experienced producer who wants to do better, the filmmaking visionary, the film student who wants to be prepared, the person who held down the picket line, anyone who is (or wants to be) above the line
With this book, I recommend you read it more than once; maybe skim through it to get a sense of what’s in there, do some reflecting on your own process, and then sit down with a pen and paper and make some notes on ways you personally want to improve. For producers who are working to make their sets more productive, more fun, and a reflection of the film industry they want to see, maybe pick 3-5 things you want to implement in your next production and go from there.
Sneaky Guide to Self-Distributing your Indie Film workbook
The SGTSDYIFW (or Self-Distribution workbook, if that’s easier) is a 29 page, instantly downloadable and printable workbook that walks you through what you need to know about self-distribution and helps you create a roadmap for the perfect distribution plan for you. In this guide, our aim is to demystify the very opaque world of self-distribution and help indie filmmakers see that self-distribution is both achievable and possibly desirable as a career step.
Perfect for: the writer-director who wants to get their story out there, the film festival novice, the filmmaker who is sick of lowball offers from distributors, people who are on the fence about self-distribution, people who are feeling overwhelmed by the idea of self-distribution, filmmakers in post who are ready to get going but don’t know where to start, anyone who finds themselves saying “I made a movie… now what?”
With the Self-Distribution workbook, I recommend you download it and either print it out and work through it by hand or pull it up on your ereader and take notes about each step. There’s a lot of information packed into this book, so really take the time to read and understand each step before you move on to the next. What’s really great about this one is that you can use it for any project and you can use it repeatedly, so it’s an investment not just in the movie you’re working on now but on all your future projects, should you wish.
Boom to Brilliance: Mastering the Basics of Sound for Filmmakers
Written by our brilliant sound production recordist and producer Cecilia Keirstead, Boom to Brilliance part one covers everything you need to know to get started with sound on a film set. From what you should have in your kit to how to get started as a boom operator to how the sound department relates to every other person on a film set, this 29 page ebook is the first installment of a three part series that will cover literally everything you need to know to reach audio brilliance.
Perfect for: film students, future audio engineers, anyone who’s curious about what the sound department gets up to, filmmakers looking to round out their skills in different departments, aspiring filmmakers
This is another book that it’s safe to say you’ll want to reread. Cecilia has poured so much love and care into this book, and she really lays out everything you need to know to get started in the sound department. Take notes, take your time, and come back for installments two and three as they become available, because there’s a LOT to learn about mastering the basics of sound.
Screenplay Outline in a Day Workbook
If you’re a screenwriter who wants to get through your work faster with fewer edits than usual, let me introduce you to our outlining workbook. I wrote this book as a novelist and screenwriter to condense all the things I’ve learned in my years of reading craft books, trying different outlining techniques, and working to balance character, plot, and theme all in one outline. I was sick of the tools that were available to me and so I made my own tool, which is now available to you. My idea behind this product is that you could feasibly construct your entire outline in one sitting, allowing you to skip straight to the good part. Now, this workbook isn’t a shortcut, you’ll still have to work hard and flex your creative muscles, but it makes it a lot easier to implement a three act story structure while making sure your characters are being challenged and your themes are shining through.
Perfect for: screenwriters who are tired of doing multiple revision rounds, writers who work collaboratively and want to get on the same page, writers who are still getting familiar with story structure, anyone who wants to win a screenplay award at their next film festival, people who get stuck in the pre-writing phase and just want to get started
This workbook is designed to be printed out and written in, time and time again, but if you don’t have a printer you can totally follow along in a notebook! I recommend sitting down when you have an idea and a free couple of hours and working through your entire outline, beginning to end. If that’s just not how your brain works, fair enough, and this workbook can be waiting for you as ideas come to you here and there. And remember, as you get started drafting, an outline is a living document; you can (and should) revisit and tweak things as you get a better sense of your story.
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