Making the Movie Filmmaking tips, resources, reviews, news and links.

About

Filmmaker and writer John Ott on the set of independent film The Battle of Bunker Hill.

Founded in 2004 by writer and filmmaker John Ott, Making the Movie has become a top-ranked resource for independent filmmakers and movie producers. Ott and the other contributing writers, in addition to posting about the latest filmmaking news and reviewing current films from a filmmaker perspective, maintain several up-to-date information pages on topics such as HD Cameras for Independent Filmmakers, Film Tax Credits by State and Canadian Province and Free Movie Budget Templates.

Among the most popular series on the website have been the in-depth chronicles of the independent feature films The Battle of Bunker Hill and Rain in the Mountains as well as a step-by-step diary of making the short film "Stull".

MORE:
Exploring the Site
Feedback
Comment Policy
Contacting Making the Movie
Requesting a Product Review
Write for Us
Disclaimers and Disclosures

Exploring the Site

Recent posts are listed to the right as "In the Can," reviews are under "Word of Mouth," and a selection of popular posts are under "Favorites Re-Released."

Use the search bar in the upper right hand corner to look for specific articles, or browse the archives by month and year under "Back Catalogue".

Feedback

Reader comments on how to improve the site are always welcome. Please send them to makingthemovie@gmail.com with the subject header "Comments".

If you've found the site useful and wish to express your thanks in dollars, visit the Support page.

Comment Policy

Most posts on the site allow comments. Keep your comments classy! Imagine you're a filmmaker who has come to the site to get useful information about filmmaking. What sort of comments would you prefer to see? Comments which do not meet basic standards of grammar, spelling and relevance will not be allowed through. Commenters who appear to just be doing SEO for another website will be blocked as a spammers.

Contacting Making the Movie

Making the Movie's founder and editor John Ott can provide quotes to journalists who are writing about independent film and filmmaking. He is also open to doing Skype consultations or speaking at events. Please send these requests to makingthemovie@gmail.com with the header "Quote Request", "Consulting" or "Speaker Request", as appropriate.

Requesting a Product Review

If you would like your website, book, movie or other filmmaking-related product reviewed on the site, contact makingthemovie@gmail.com with the header "Request for Review". Please include the following information: a description of the product, the email address of someone involved in the product's creation who can provide further information about it, images that can be used in the review and the date the product is expected to be available to the public. If we are interested and can find a reviewer who is a good fit to evaluate the product, we will reply back with instructions on how to get your product to our reviewer.

Write for Us

If you would like to write for Making the Movie, contact makingthemovie@gmail.com with the header "Writer Application" and please include in your email three articles of 100 words or more as a writing sample. (These articles will not be posted on the site without getting your permission.)

Disclaimers and Disclosures

Revenue for Making the Movie comes from Google Ads, affiliate links and donations. Ads and links on the site do not imply endorsements of products or services. Unlike many websites, it is our policy not to use affiliate links except where they are informational and we are not paid to endorse any products. However, as with mainstream journalistic practice, review products are often provided to us for free.

It is also our policy to be open about writer conflicts of interest, with the pragmatic admission that creating a complete list of all conflicts is impossible. To start with, founder and editor John Ott, during 2011 was paid to write for MasteringFilm.com, a website run by Focal Press (part of Reed Elsevier) and is current employed by EMC West, a company that is a vendor to several movie studios, mainly Disney.

Writers for Making the Movie may own stock in companies that are discussed, but please don't consider anything said on this site as financial advice.

In fact, please filter all advice on this site through your own brain. It is much more useful that way.