DONNY BROUSSARD: "Punk Rock Producing: Choosing Micro Micro over the Hollywood Machine"

MARKET MONDAY #7

TRANSCRIPT:

I’m Donny Broussard. So, I wrote a speech for this, and then at the last minute, I decided to just wing it. So today I’m going to talk about change and chances.

I started out making traditional movies – just like most of you want to make, right? – multi-million dollar movies. Well, I say multi-million – one or two million dollar movies, some lower, $500,000–$600,000 movies, and all those movies, I got a paycheck. They were still independent movies and they got traditional distribution. My film Presence in 2019 – not the Soderbergh one, I wish it would have been – it got bought by XYZ, and I’m broke. All right, those movies made nothing. They were made for millions, they made no money. They look beautiful, and every crew member on set was pissed because they’re making my tiny movie. They want to be making real movies, big movies, that give them real money, and they’re all irritated. I’ve experienced that on many small movies where the crew members don’t want to be doing that. They’d rather do Marvel or a TV show or something that provides better craft services than a million dollar movie can afford. Because a million dollar movie—it’s not that much money, right? Sounds like it is, but it’s really not.

And then I made a small movie called Baby Shower, and we made it for ten grand. I went to my lawyer, who does all my movies, and I said, can you give me ten grand—I’m going to make a movie. He said you can’t make a movie for $10,000. I said, well, I’m going to be paying you anyway for the next movie I make, so if you give me ten grand, you’ll make some money and get money out of me anyway. So he gave me $10,000, and we made Baby Shower, which is a movie about three women who could possibly be pregnant and could possibly have multiple dads, so they have a baby shower, get some pregnancy tests, and try to figure it out with all their closest friends. But that movie was made for $10,000.

So what I did was – everyone talks about distribution. I’m not against distribution. I’m not indie, but I’m not against it, right? If somebody offers me a distribution deal, that’s great, I want to take it. It’s punk rock – I want to be that punk rock for you. So you give me the money, I’m there. Usually they cut you out of your movie, and you don’t make any money, and you never see a cent later, and they don’t put any advertising behind your movie. But I made a movie for ten grand. I didn’t really care if I paid my lawyer back – he’s going to see the money one way or the other. So I approached distribution from a position of strength instead of desperation. I went real punk rock, like Fugazi used to do back in the day, and I went directly to audiences. I slept on couches to go to film festivals and met with other filmmakers, and we punk rocked that.

And I made a profit for the first time in my life on a movie – not because it was better than the other movies. It’s a $10,000 movie. It’s exactly what you expect it to be, right? It’s not bad, it’s just a $10,000 movie. But I didn’t have to pay back millions of dollars. I didn’t have to worry about it. What I did do was put more money into Facebook ads, Instagram ads, and Google AdWords. People watched the movie. They rented it on Redbox. It did great. I’m not seeing any money anymore, but for a few years money was trickling in, and I paid my lawyer back, who’s like, “Hey man, you want to make another one of those $10,000 babies?”

And so that’s what I decided to do. I decided to structure my life instead of chasing Hollywood and waiting for permission – to structure everything I’m doing from point A to point B like my favorite punk rock bands. Instead of waiting for permission and begging everyone for money, I decided I’d start making smaller movies – tiny movies. $10,000 is doable, right? For some of you, that’s a tax check at the end of the year. It’s ten of your favorite friends putting in a little cash. It is doable. And if you don’t have to pay it back, you can approach distributors and anyone else from a position of strength because you’re not desperate to replenish anyone’s bank account.

$10,000 is doable. $20,000 is kind of doable too. I made one for $50,000 – not as doable – but we eventually paid that back too. And that should tell you something. Fifty seems easy. It’s not. Paying movies back today, paying back investors, is not easy. It’s never easy. But if you approach it in a holistic way, you can get it done. Now, you’re not going to get that done with IATSE. That’s where I run into walls. People say, “You’re cutting out the workforce.” I’m not. I’m going to film students and people who want to make movies, people who are excited to make movies. They might not be that great, but they want to listen and learn.

And we work together, and we make movies together. They get a choice – they can get a paycheck, or they can have 100% equal ownership with me in the movie. If I make money, they make money. So far, very few of them have taken equal ownership, but they accept the low paycheck because they want to do this really bad.

Now I make a movie like the punk rock bands I love – Fugazi, Dead Kennedys – and their music is still being played. I do what they do. I call filmmakers at festivals, I go to festivals, I meet filmmakers, and I say, “Hey, when you’re in Louisiana, in New Orleans, you stay at my place. If I’m in New York, can I stay at yours?” We sleep on couches so we can save money. We help each other. We loan each other gear. I’ve been collecting cameras and gear for years – I’ve got more cameras in my house than my wife would like – and I use those to help other filmmakers and students make work. We pay it forward.

We make our work cheap and fast. If you can get distribution, great. If you can’t, take it into your own hands. Maybe five or ten years from now, one of your actors from that tiny movie hits big, and suddenly that $10,000 movie is worth a lot more. If you had sold it off, someone else would make that money, not you. So hold on to your rights. Ownership matters.

We’re talking a lot about NonDē today, and I love the movement – I’m all in. Everything Courtney said is amazing. But I also think there’s a bit of competition in all of us. We don’t talk about it, but we’re competing for airtime, for festival slots, for attention 24 hours a day. I just got tired of competing. I got tired of fighting for validation and permission.

So I started making tiny movies, and they’re starting to compound. I made a couple of $10,000 movies, then $20,000, $50,000. Hopefully I’ll keep growing those budgets because my audience is growing. They’re following me because I’m at festivals constantly, talking about making movies for no money, doing backyard screenings, engaging directly, doing things nontraditionally. As that audience grows, my budget grows. I know I can make $20,000 back now. Maybe in a few years I can make $50,000 back without stressing. Then maybe $100,000.

And that brings me to one of my favorite words: sustainability. Nobody talks about that as a filmmaker. We hear about the big success stories – Sundance, breakout careers – but how many of those last? A few (Robert Rodriguez, Tarantino) but not many. Are they still at the same level? Are they sustainable? You don’t know. This industry hides that.

So I say be sustainable.

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