Want to make a web series? Money no object!
Emilie Wood, photojournalist, talks to film maker Guillaume Beylard about the challenges of making films in the current, economic climate.
What is the economic model today for young film makers starting off in the field?
A group of friends passionate about movies, who borrowed cameras, their props technician friend opened the doors of his workshop... and the thousands of ideas inside the head of Guillaume Beylard, a 29 year-old film maker. All these ingredients were necessary to create and diffuse the first season of a web series: Another Hero, using the city of Montpellier as a backdrop. The first season of Another Hero was broadcast on the cable channel ‘No Life’ shortly after its release on the web at the end of 2011.
After directing one short and two full-length horror movies, Guillaume set out on the adventure of a fantastic, yet comic web series; beginning with an idea he had had 10 years before. Today, Another Hero has its place among recognized French series such as ‘Noob’ or ‘Le visiteur du Futur.’ It was awarded third place during the Montpellier convention MIG (Montpellier In Game) in 2012 (after Noobs and Flander's Company).
“The best ambassador for our series is our passion.” Guillaume Beylard.
Horror or fantastic movies, video games, graphic novels, mangas, movies from the 80s, cartoons... hundreds of references spice up the storyline, from one episode to the next. Here, the hero does not have a super-hero name, nor does he have his looks or muscles. He has but one super power – his wounds can heal by themselves – but he is not especially strong, fast, or smart. He fights, however, with a sword or with bare hands, in the middle of the pedestrian streets of Montpellier in the evening, or at the Corum, before going for a bit of shopping at Monoprix in Place de la Comédie... His two roommates, who first believe he is simply a night watchman in a hotel, will end up discovering his true nature and follow him to fight against evil forces.
But how is it possible, today, to make a film, or a web series – especially a fantastic one with special effects - when you have almost no money? This was the question we decided to ask Guillaume.
How did you manage to make the first season of Another Hero, and how much did it end up costing?
I wrote the episodes of Another Hero at the beginning of 2011 after having re-looked at a short film I’d made in high school 10 years before, with my two oldest friends: Romain David (who plays the hero) and Christophe Robin (who plays Fred, one of the characters in the series). I re-worked the old story to make it into something totally new. After reading the script, Romain decided to give all the money he had saved up to produce the series. That was 1,200 Euros. I said, let's do it!
Another Hero
At the beginning we had absolutely nothing. Everybody who got involved did it for free. Four technicians, up to twenty actors in some episodes. A friend, Stephane Bouyer, agreed to lend us his SLR camera (Canon 5D), 3 lenses and some lights. Another friend, Thomas Laporte, gave us access to the costumes in his workshop. We made some of them ourselves. When everybody is working for free, that means everyone has a job on the side, which means you always have to juggle with each other's schedule and it can get complicated. Everything takes time. We had a sound technician who would disappear without warning, from one day to the next, with no explanation. That caused a lot of problems later and we had to dob all the episodes... But still we were lucky. So many people helped. Special effects, make up, combat choreography... we managed with almost no money to create something as close as possible to professional quality.
In the end, the money we had from Romain got used for renting a truck to carry all the equipment from one place to the next when we were going far, for gas, for food, for all the things that cannot be planned ahead for and which had to be dealt with urgently. Of course I wish we’d had more money to be able to pay everyone, even if just a bit.
Will there be a second season?
Of course there will be a second season. The first season took so much energy and time for me that I had a period of doubt – should I direct it, or let someone else do it? Not anymore. At the moment, together with Christophe Robin, we are re-writing the script, because I want it to be perfect. The first season was a blast but it had a lot of small problems, defects... I learned from them. Hopefully we will make it happen at the beginning of 2014.
Are finances a problem?
Finances are a false problem. They should not be an excuse to not create. I am confident money can be found. Fans can donate money from the web site. I hope to find some generous donors who want to get involved! I am trying to make a system, like a permanent crowd-funding system for the series. I‘m waiting for the right moment too.
Noob, the oldest French web series, broke the European records of crowd-funding by raising 682 161€ in only 70 days through the web site Ulule. What do you think about it?
That's an amazing achievement and it’s going to help all of us, by making web-series more credible in France. Main-stream TV channels in this country don't want to trust web-series. It's only the beginning and mentalities need to evolve here. Producers should look at what we have been able to achieve with just 1,200 Euros and picture what we could make with a real budget. Unfortunately, so far, none of them have seen it.
How can attitudes change?
I’m really hoping some American or English web-series gets extremely famous and successful. Maybe then it will also happen in France.
This year, for the very first time, there's going to be a festival for Francophone web-series, with a real price distribution. It will take place during the Toulouse Game Show (TGS, November 30th to December 1st) – hopefully that also will help.
Any English web-series you recommend?
The Guild is an American web-series we liked, Inspector Spacetime an English one, a parody of Doctor Who. Of course we know the French one better because we go to all the conventions. Today there are new kids making amazing web-series, they are the new generation. They love cinema, they want to make web-series and assume its homemade status. It's an amazing way to create with no boundaries. To be free from the politically correct. Sometimes this can be lost if the wrong people finance your project.
To discover the first season of “Another Hero,” which has also been shown on the cable channel “No Life” go to http://www.another-hero.com/ … and don't hesitate to help them out.