Will Dennis' $40k RomCom Vanilla!
September 17th • 5pm PDT (8pm EDT)
My last episode of No Budget Confidential, with the Weaver Brothers discussing their miraculous $7k feature Cosmos, was one for the ages. I don't know if I've ever seen a project quite like that, and I've been doing this a really, really long time. But if you tuned in--and a LOT of you tuned in--you know that what they did could hardly be duplicated by mere mortals. I made the point ahead of the interview that the idea of No Budget Confidential was not to try to duplicate what each of these filmmakers were doing, but rather to learn what's possible for no money, what's important to your success and what's irrelevant, and most importantly, to see how each of these filmmakers were using their unique set of circumstances--their resources, their strengths, and their weaknesses--to create the perfect film for them to make with little money.
My next episode on Thursday, September 17th will feel much more doable. Unlike the Weavers, Will Dennis didn't grow up with a video camera in his hand. He didn't devote his college days and employment afterwards to filmmaking. But he did, however, have the bug, and after a fruitful career in Tech, creating two successful start-ups, he decided to put his career on hold and give filmmaking a try. He learned what he could working as a PA on several productions, made mistakes on several short films he created, and then finally wrote a feature script that he knew he could pull off, as a director, lead actor, and producer, financing it on credit cards.
