Regardless of whether you are just getting started or have years of experience in one job category and are looking to step up to the next level or to cross-over to another craft, you’re up against the old "prior experience required" Catch-22. You can’t get the job until you have the experience, but you can’t get the experience until you get the job. Of course this is true to some extent in every industry, but somehow more so in the motion picture and television industries.

 Moreover, everyone knows that in this industry, your network of people you have worked with is the most important asset you have for building a viable, long-term career. The people with whom you have actually worked, in a professional environment, under real working conditions are the ones who are going to be in a position to put you up for jobs on future productions in a way someone you knew at school or met at a cocktail party can never do.

 Hence the old industry adage, "work gets work". People starting out or trying to move to the next level need a chance to work, to prove themselves to a network of professionals who can begin to support their careers.

 Foundation Films at Filmmakers Foundation is working production company, designed to provide a credible "this counts on your resume" hands-on experience in the making of professionally run film and video productions. The projects themselves are Public Service Announcement (PSA) commercials and/or "corporate" videos for other nonprofit organizations, or professionally produced art-house type feature films produced on short film budgets.

 Most film school students and grads, as well as others attempting to demonstrate their abilities to the industry, make short films. The only problem is the industry really only pays attention to demonstrated commercial success. In these highly competitive days, festival success is not enough to launch and further careers. Your film project needs to demonstrate appeal to a paying audience. At present the only paying audience newer filmmakers have access to is the art-house feature film market. There is no real market for short films.

 At Filmmakers Foundation, we have pioneered methods of story development and production that allow us to guide filmmakers through the process of making credible art-house feature films for the budget of a typical short film. Our average budget is $15,000 to $50,000 with a maximum cash budget of $100,000. This uniquely allows us to make three to four micro-budget art-house feature films and four to six PSA and corporate videos per year giving hundreds of cast, crew and principle creative personnel an opportunity to strengthen their resumes in a meaningful way. 

 At Filmmakers Foundation we provide some of the highest-level training available anywhere. We focus on story, technical craft, career management and set safety & protocol. Senior industry professionals with ten years or more experience teach and mentor those who are coming up through the ranks, who in turn strengthen their knowledge by teaching those who are just getting started. A large number of our participants are filmschool graduates who realize they need additional training as well as experience to really get their careers going.

 Each production has its own unique financing factors, but typically the production and marketing funds come from a collection of sponsorships, donations, and fundraising by the filmmakers. With the support of major industry players such as Kodak, Panavision, and FotoKem our productions are able to achieve professional production values for extremely modest amounts while our sponsors are able to build relationships with the next generation of industry professionals. Because Foundation Films at Filmmakers Foundation is so thorough and selective in terms of which projects it takes on and because the Foundation provides some of the highest caliber training available anywhere, our filmmakers are the ones that are most likely to go on to have meaningful careers.

 Specifically, the program is designed to produce:

 To date, we have produced four feature films, three PSA’s and two corporate videos for nonprofit organizations such as The American Lung Association, Global Green and LA Works.

 The first feature film has been completed and released. Called MAN OF THE YEAR, it received acclaim on the festival circuit, strong reviews in nationally recognized press such as the New York and LA Times and was released in theaters in over 60 cities domestically as well as overseas. It is now available in Blockbuster Video stores nationwide and will be showing on SHOWTIME’s Sundance Channel. The second, third and forth films are in post-production and the fifth is set to begin principle photography in Fall ’98.

 For these films to have maximum impact on the participants’ resumes, we are focussed on the importance of promoting these films aggressively to the industry in order make sure that the titles are recognizable within the industry as credible, successful feature films. For example, the debut industry screening for MAN OF THE YEAR in Los Angeles was held at the Directors Guild and personally sponsored by industry heavy-weights Steve Tisch (producer of FOREST GUMP, DIRTY DANCING, etc.), Addis/Wechsler (THE PLAYER, DRUGSTORE COWBOY, etc.), president of Production Walt Disney Films and Hollywood Pictures, David Vogel. The East Coast industry premiere was sponsored by Eastman Kodak, New York Foundation for the Arts, and Robert DeNiro’s Tribecca Film Center as part of its prestigious "First Look" Series which is chaired by Steven Spielberg and Robert DeNiro.

 Those interested in working with Foundation Films, can summit themselves and/or their proposed projects in a number of ways. As Filmmakers Foundation is not a membership organization, there are no dues to pay. However, the application process is not simply a matter of sending in a script.

 Foundation Films challenges filmmakers to put together a complete presentation which includes, treatment, script, resumes and bios of key personnel, budget, schedule, production as well as marketing feasibility plan. Throughout the application process, filmmakers are provided with extensive guidance, instruction and feedback by senior FmF training staff in order to maximize the viability of their proposed project.

This process takes a minimum of three months for short projects and documentaries, nine months for narrative features. Therefore, while the application process is open to all members of the filmmaking community, only those who are ready to commit to such a serious undertaking make it through to a final application. The first step in the process is that the principal filmmakers of the project team, take the Story Sessions at FmF, a three month workshop/course. While there is no tuition charged for the Story Sessions, there is a $50 lab fee to cover class costs (photocopying, snacks, etc.). For those with demonstrated need, the lab fee can be deferred.

This is not a contest, but rather a process.

You don’t win a production deal at Foundation Films, you earn it.

Whether or not a given project is approved for production under the program, the filmmaking team has gone through a process where they were able to strengthen their project as a result of feedback from senior, experienced filmmakers. Moreover, FmF is committed to working with any and all filmmakers who demonstrate their commitment until their application is not only complete, but their project is approved and produced.

 Foundation Films is open to anyone and it all starts with the Story Sessions program. If you have been working in the industry and already know all about story and story development; it still starts with the Story Sessions. You may know all there is to know, but we have no way of knowing that you know. Besides, unless you’ve got more than one Oscar for best picture, and a couple Palm Dor’s under your belt, folks with a lot more experience than you have been blown away by the high-level story tools in the Story Sessions. Then, of course, if we’re going to be working together on something as important as your career-launching film, wouldn’t it be helpful if we shared some of the same language and concepts about story and how to tell story cinematically?

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