How to Make a film for Less Than A Car: Interview with Sean Cisterna of Moon Point

Moon Point is a Canadian indie feature made for - drum roll - less than a car.

This is the story indie filmmakers know. This is the story all filmmakers know, really.
The nice thing about what Sean and his team have been doing is being very open about their process - even, in many ways, be more transparent about how they got from point a to point b on their site than most are.

What's incredibly fascinating, though, is the process of getting to theatres. No easy feat for most indies out there. But with a lot of dedication to the cause - they've done it with a really great team.

What's been the process from start to finish in getting Moon Point to a theatrical release?

Start to finish? The amount of detail I could go into to answer this question could fill a novel, so let me give you the run-on sentence version. Had idea, hired writer, read script, loved it, applied for money, raised $950 thousand from various sources, needed just 150 more from Telefilm, they said no, went to the major distributors, they said no, therefore lost $950 thousand as well as self-esteem, my sanity, and two years of my life. Angry at the system, I then greenlit my own ass, managed to raise $60 thousand from angel investor, hired film friends to help me make it, auditioned awesome actors, shot the film in 12 days, edited the film over 6 months, crowdsourced finishing funds, applied for and received local arts council grants, sound mixed and colour corrected the film, applied to festivals, got into festivals, traveled across Canada with my actors, won an award, admiration from audiences, self esteem returned, Indiecan Entertainment picked up Moon Point for distribution, received marketing money from Harold Greenberg Fund, became good friends with social media, released the film at AMC Yonge and Dundas, and awaited our first paying audience.

What did you shoot on?

We shot Moon Point on a Canon 7D, a tiny digital SLR that you can pick up at any Future Shop. Our awesome DOP Carl Elster had just purchased one, so we used his personal camera, pushed its limitations, and shot a beautiful-looking film.

How many crew members/cast were you working with?

It was a small crew - about 10 people. We were making a road trip movie, so we needed to be small and portable to get to multiple locations on any given shooting day. We had about 30 speaking actors throughout the film. One of the rules for low budget filmmaking is to limit your locations and your amount of actors. We broke that rule badly. You can't make a road trip movie if you don't go anywhere or meet anyone. 

You've done a lot with social media - has that helped with your turn out at events?

Social media is our best friend. Our team is very active on Facebook and Twitter, and we really respect and appreciate our supportive followers. We've had numerous fans appear at either film festivals or our theatrical screenings, and just introduce themselves. The other day we met Yusef, the 12th person to join our page over a year and a half ago, just a really cool eager young Canadian film lover. It was awesome.

In the early days, we even shot custom-made videos featuring our actors for every 100th fan. Check out this video from Paula Brancati: http://youtu.be/EuvtdP_9SX0 - so yeah, we love our social media followers.

As well, the idea of selling merchandise at a live event - like hats and the (frankly amazing) soundtrack you've got - seems new idea for most filmmakers - has it been successful for you?

We only ordered a few t-shirts and posters at the beginning of our festival run, but at every event, they'd start to sell out. It was crazy. Audiences just wanted us to autograph stuff, and luckily we had our swag on standby. We were recouping more on merchandise than on ticket sales. We've recently mastered our own CD soundtrack with the blessing of all our bands, like City and Colour and Michou, who have been really supportive of Moon Point throughout the process, and we're hoping that's a big seller, as well.

You've had some hiccups in getting the funding together - any advice for other filmmakers dealing with the same issues?

There are two trains of thought - you can either go the traditional route of applying to all the funding sources such as Telefilm and the OMDC on your first projects, but you do have to realize that they only have limited amounts to give out. Now, with the new 2012 guidelines, it's going to be more difficult even for established filmmakers to access funding. If you're lucky enough to receive public support, congratulations, you're one of the few.

The other funding route is to take some lessons in both business and charm, because you'll probably at some point in your directing career, have to go after money yourself. And if you can educate yourself in the private equity game and learn how to incorporate a single-purpose company, calculate federal and provincial tax credits, draw up a recoupment schedule, etc, I guarantee you that you'll be successful raising money yourself. Now, that being said, you'll be on the hook for that money, so you better make sure you shoot good film.

Getting two weeks at AMC seems like a daunting thing for most filmmakers in Canada - indie or not - how much work was it from your team to get that to happen?

We were pretty successful the first weekend, coming in 6th out of 19 films playing there. We were the number 1 Canadian film, and beat out a bunch of big-budget American ones too. It was an insane amount of work, something that the team at Indiecan put a lot of effort into. Now that we're entering our unexpected second week, we're increasing our public appearances, hosting a "pitch the distributor" event, and even raffling off some of our cast/crew at the Valentine's screening. We're basically putting every effort into making these screenings a special experience for our audiences. Canadian film needs that extra bit of razzle dazzle if we're going to compete against our American brothers at the marketplace.

What are the next steps?

Now that buzz is building and we're getting specific requests to screen in certain markets across Ontario and Canada, we're creating a schedule whereby we can embark on a road trip with our film. I'll travel with the film as much as I can, and so will our actors. Moon Point was a unique filming experience in that cast and crew bonded so closely during production all the way up to now - we all have a creative investment in the film and all want to see it succeed as much as it can.

And, lastly, any advice for the other crazy kids out there doing similar work?

Embrace low-budget filmmaking! You don't need millions to make a great film. You'll find that audiences are really supportive to underdog stories, and Moon Point is a shining example of that. It was a film that was rejected by funders and distributors, but a small core of believers had the will and the way to turn it into something bigger. It's so rare to see a Canadian film made for $75,000 make it to the big screen and succeed at one of the biggest theatres in the country, and I think that's thanks in part to our own team's belief in the film.