{"id":13378,"date":"2014-11-18T08:16:55","date_gmt":"2014-11-18T14:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=13378"},"modified":"2014-11-18T10:33:03","modified_gmt":"2014-11-18T16:33:03","slug":"five-quick-questions-with-gabriel-campisi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=13378","title":{"rendered":"Five Quick Questions with Gabriel Campisi"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Gabe\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Creative, reliable, reputable, ambitious, and easy to work with are just a few qualities describing Gabriel Campisi.\u00a0 He began filmmaking at eight and was winning awards at festivals and contests as early as fifteen.\u00a0 Gabriel recently wrote the book \u201cThe Independent Filmmaker\u2019s Guide to Writing a Business Plan for Investors.\u201d \u00a0The book is highly recommended for filmmakers as it provides advice, plans, and includes interviews with successful producers that share real-world experiences and strategies.<\/p>\n

He also is one of the partners at Traplight Media which has released multiple films and has many more in development.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Jared Cohn is another partner at Traplight Media and between Gabriel and Jared along with the rest of the Traplight Media team they are making nothing less than highly entertaining films.\u00a0 Traplight Media is always pushing the envelope and thrives on audiences being shocked, thrilled, and getting stomach pains from laughing.<\/p>\n

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Five Quick Questions with Gabriel Campisi<\/strong><\/p>\n

Can you tell us about your book \u201cThe Independent Filmmaker\u2019s Guide to Writing a Business Plan for Investors\u201d and the benefits filmmakers will get from it?
\nGABRIEL: Most people think of Hollywood as a creative place, where ideas flow, imaginations run wild, and movies get made like magic.\u00a0 It’s accurate on the one hand, and that’s why I’m here.\u00a0 However, a lot of people don’t truly comprehend that Hollywood is also a business, creativity be damned.\u00a0 It’s a place of numbers, contracts, agents, lawyers, money, statistics, research and strategies.\u00a0 A far cry from the world of imagination and if you’re not careful, it can be a very cruel place.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wrote my book because I noticed a lot of less-experienced filmmakers getting taken advantage of by more savvy individuals in the business.\u00a0 From financing deals to distribution deals, I saw filmmakers with amazing talent crash and burn because they had no clue what they were doing with the business side of things.\u00a0 They were so eager to sign “the deal,” that they didn’t pay attention to the small print.\u00a0 Then, when the movie made money for the distributors, they wouldn’t see a cent of it, and cry foul.\u00a0 Yet it wasn’t exactly because the distributor was a crook, but because the filmmakers agreed to something in the contract that they shouldn’t have.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I also noticed other filmmakers have a line to someone with money, but wouldn’t know how to go about getting them to put up the cash for their projects.\u00a0 So I stepped in to help there as well. <\/strong>Eventually, the whole experience culminated in me writing a book on the subject, with the same goal in mind: to help aspiring filmmakers understand how the business works, and how to go about securing funds for their projects and taking it to market — and not getting taken advantage of along the way.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The book is written “from the trenches,” from hands-on experience, not theory.\u00a0 The second part of my book is filled with interviews with many of my successful friends who basically endorse what I have to say about the industry.\u00a0 The interviews are conducted with independent filmmakers as well as A-list producers, such as Gerald Molen, the producer of Jurassic Park, Minority Report, Twister and so many more.\u00a0 He worked with Steven Spielberg for over 20 years, and has an Oscar for Schindler’s List.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There’s also Donald Kushner, who produced Tron and Tron: Legacy, as well as Monster with Charlize Theron (for which she won an Oscar). <\/strong>Others I interviewed include filmmakers Pen Densham, Morris Ruskin, and the owners of The Asylum, those guys behind Sharknado and Z-Nation. <\/strong>Each tell stories of how they made it in Hollywood, how they got the funds to make their movies, and how aspiring filmmakers and producers can succeed in this insane business.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Independent Filmmaker’s Guide to Writing a Business Plan for Investors, 2d ed.<\/strong>
\nby Gabriel Campisi
\nLink:<\/strong> http:\/\/amzn.com\/078646285X<\/a><\/p>\n

\"GabeBookCover\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Being\u00a0a partner with Jared Cohn over at Traplight Media, can you tell about the company and when\/how it started up?
\nGABRIEL: Jared and I met a few years ago, and we quickly realized we shared the same aspirations.\u00a0 We began to share ideas, thoughts on movie projects, and strategies on making it all come together.\u00a0 We began to collaborate, creatively and financially, and quickly realized our thoughts were always in sync with each other.\u00a0 It was a perfect partnership right from the start, and so we decided to make it official.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We worked together on 5 movies this year alone, and have several in active development. <\/strong>The company gives us the liberty to pick and choose a lot of what we want to do with our careers.\u00a0 It allows us to steer things in certain directions.\u00a0 We have a huge pool of talent we work with, from producers and crew members to cast, including very well-known actors.\u00a0 We have a line on investors and distribution outlets, and can strategically produce films that make sense — films that will make their money back, because we consider the content, the performers in the movie, and the overall viability of its potential in the marketplace.\u00a0 (You’d be surprised how many indie filmmakers make movies without any legitimate idea of their performance potential.\u00a0 They believe just because they make a movie, they can sell it.\u00a0 They couldn\u2019t be more wrong.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

We also work independently with other filmmakers and producers, and we pursue our own individual goals.\u00a0 You might see us working on different things from time to time, but that’s only because we’re both very ambitious and constantly hammering away at the walls of Hollywood.\u00a0 Our minds are always racing, always looking for a way to express that creative spark.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have a comprehensive business plan we put together for Traplight, and it\u2019s helped open a lot of doors for our company.\u00a0 With so much that\u2019s transpired this past year, I\u2019m actually in the process of completely updating it to reflect the completion of so many projects. <\/strong>The bottom line is we just want to make really cool movies and tell really cool stories, and just have a lot of fun doing it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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