“He Became This Year’s Oscar Favorite By Going Broke Again and Again”
Director Sean Baker, whose new film is The Florida Project, made a career of spending his own money to tell stories Hollywood wouldn’t.
Director Sean Baker, whose new film is The Florida Project, made a career of spending his own money to tell stories Hollywood wouldn’t.
I attended an early screening of The Florida Project over a month ago at which its writer-director Sean Baker did a Q&A. Totally impressed with him. Plus I loved the movie, one of those films which stays with you for a long, long time, as I find myself still thinking about it.
Please, if you want to support GREAT MOVIES, go see this film!
Here’s the thing: We would never have had this marvelous movie had it not been for Sean Baker quite literally putting his money where his mouth (read: creativity) is. Excerpts from a Wealth Simple essay written by Baker:
In 2007, I’d just finished my third feature, entitled Prince of Broadway. It was about an immigrant from Ghana selling knockoff purses and sneakers on the streets of Manhattan. It cost $46,000 to make, and I financed the movie out of my own pocket. I decided to make a pretty risky gamble. I put all the money I had — around $100,000 — into the release of this film. I decided to pay the costs for the release. We got my film in to some very prestigious theaters around the U.S. including the Angelika Film Center in New York City. A lot of money went to advertising, too. A New York Times ad alone can cost thousands. It felt crazy to drop that much of my own money into it, but I believed in the film (which had done well on the festival circuit) and wanted to invest in my own work. I was certain I’d make some money back.
But I was dead wrong.
Prince of Broadway bombed in theaters. I put $100,000 into its release, and made $28,000 in return. One of the worst investments of all time. It was a real low point. I started smoking cigarettes again. I was like, “Shit, I can’t believe it. After all this time and effort, where am I?” I was literally nowhere, having just spent all my money, without a dollar left in savings. I thought that was the end of my filmmaking career. But in some ways, it was actually just the beginning. Even if you lose money putting a film in theaters, there can be value in having your work widely seen. Critics write about it; a movie becomes eligible for certain awards; industry decision-makers get exposed to your films and see what you’re capable of. While Prince of Broadway hadn’t done well commercially, the reviews were great. Plus, we had a Spirit Award nomination. Suddenly, people offered to finance my next film, Starlet, for $250,000.
Baker goes through his entire filmmaking history and virtually each step of the way, he’s confronted financial peril. Indeed, he ends the article with this:
As for what comes next, it’s not like I’m being offered Marvel movies, so I don’t know that I’ll leap anytime soon into making the kinds of blockbusters I loved as a kid. These days, I look to model my career on the careers of people like Paul Thomas Anderson, filmmakers with singular visions who’ve been able to make their own films from their own screenplays. And when I think of the last 20 years — all the ups and downs in the creative and commercial process, all the money I risked on my own films — I can say that, at last, I feel a small sense of financial security because opportunities are finally coming my way. Last night, sitting on the couch with my girlfriend, I looked over and said, “You know what? I’m 46-years-old, and I finally, finally, finally have reached the point where I’m not scared about next month’s rent.” And when it comes to personal finances, that’s about the most satisfying feeling anyone can ask for.
If you want to make it in this business, unless you’re a trust fund baby, you’ve got to be willing to make enormous sacrifices and take big risks. Is it worth it? Only you can answer that and it can take years before you have any idea.
But with the Sean Bakers of the world creating wonderful movies like Tangerine and The Florida Project, at least we have some storytellers to inspire us.
For the rest of the Wealth Simple article, go here.