Hello to all from my freezing apartment in Brooklyn – basically what the subject says! I've been a part of a few recent small movies, including Paula González-Nasser's Tribeca film THE SCOUT, out later this year, and just wrote about making FREE TIME, starring Colin Burgess, Rajat Suresh, Holmes, and more.
The movie is now streaming on Tubi, free of charge, and available everywhere to rent. I'm here to answer your questions.
Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8oBjb0nI94
Synopsis:
Approaching the end of his twenties and his relative youth, a man decides to quit his cushy desk job and 'embrace life' – only to realize he has no idea what to do with this newfound freedom.
My Filmmaker Magazine article:
https://filmmakermagazine.com/132674-microbudget-case-study-free-time/
I'll be back tomorrow, Monday 2/2, at 3 PM ET to answer your questions. AMA!
by FreeTimeAMA
10 Comments
Hey Ryan, thanks for being here. If you had taste buds on your arms, would you eat yogurt with your mouth or your elbows?
If you could adapt a book into a film, what would it be?
Following – no questions right now other than are you warmer today??
With high-quality cameras now literally in everyone’s pocket through smartphones, the technical barrier to making a film has dropped dramatically. It seems to follow that microbudget features would be one of the best entry points into the industry today; in an era where access to equipment is less of a differentiator, what does a truly microbudget film actually prove about a filmmaker (especially in terms of story, writing, and creative decision-making with limited resources) in the eyes of festivals, agents, or producers?
Hi Ryan, great to have you here with us
My question to you would be, how can I think about narratives that fit microbudget filmmaking or more short film focused? My question comes from a place of wanting to start my career in filmmaking but being so paralysed by what to write about and how to focus on making it doable for someone with no experience or budget and so on?
Thank you for your time, have a nice day!
Have you ever had bad diaheorra before?
What’s something you wish you had learned earlier?
Hey Ryan,
I worked with Paula recently on ‘The Big Game’ (writer/director of ‘The Scout’ for anyone curious.) I loved her vibe, and her work ethic was incredible. I even told her the exact same thing as we wrapped, and I’d love to work with her again. She told me a little bit about the film but just wanted to say congrats on Tribeca Film Festival, thats amazing!
As this is an AMA, I guess I would make my question about distribution. I’m someone that owns a camera, a bunch of great apurture lights, anamorphic lenses. I’ve made shorts that have performed well locally (and a few internationally) and although it’s felt good to get some recognition, it hasn’t led to much success as far as making my own feature goes.
So I’ve been discussing it with friends recently, and I watched [this](https://youtu.be/TG883HHvLqw?si=j1gY5wgbxfdkFMRi) director’s commentary (by Noam Kroll) – I think I am going to shoot my feature this year regardless of if I get $5k or $500k in financing. But I’ve spoken to a lot of other friends and filmmakers that did the same, the films got into *some* festivals but didn’t amount to much, and they just ended putting it up on Amazon Prime, Tubi, etc. Didn’t get picked up, no theater or streaming distribution.
What would you do if you were making your first movie in 2026 and thinking about reaching the largest possible audience that you could reach?
I’ve heard & seen that some people are starting to stream it through their own websites (for example, Danny Gevirtz, a filmmaker, putting his feature up here: https://itisfilm.com/) and perhaps that may be profitable, but my worry with that is a lack of discovery. How would you go about getting distribution so that you could get as many eyes as possible on your movie?
I look forward to watching The Scout as soon as it’s available.
When working on microbudget films, what’s the one decision that has the biggest impact on whether a project actually gets finished and seen?
is there a certain film or show that made you realize that filmmaking is what you wanted to do ?