Lyons is a producer with numerous credits to her name, from sci-fi movies like "Time Toys" to horror movies like "Séance." This online course is truly a master class in which Lyons breaks down every aspect of filmmaking, from pre-production to casting to finding a line producer, which is someone who outlines all the costs of a production.
An especially helpful section of the course explains how to find investors to finance your movie. Lyons tells an interesting story about how you should never judge a book by its cover.
In the anecdote, Lyons relates how an actor friend of hers kept asking about the latest movie she was producing. Lyons assumed that the actor, who works on and off like most of his peers, didn't have any money to invest.
Fortunately, the actor was persistent and revealed that he had been making money by flipping houses and was very interested in investing in Lyons' movie. So you should leave no stone un-turned when seeking out investors, as Lyons explains.
One of the things I really like the most about Lyons' master class is that each session is broken down into bite-size chunks. Each session is only five to 15 minutes long. A few are little bit longer, up to about 30 minutes.
I like the small session sizes, because a lot of online courses with longer sessions are tedious to sit through. If you're like me, you're a busy person who listens to podcasts, webinars and courses while multitasking. And who has the time or attention span to sit through a course or webinar that goes on for an hour or longer?
The bite-size chunks of the Lyons master class enable you to move through the course quickly and digest the information at your own pace. It's easy to go back and find sections that you want to make notes about, since you only have to rewind through sessions that are a few minutes apiece.
Earlier, I mentioned that the course is available through the Indie Film Hustle Syndicate. This is a company run by filmmaker Alex Ferrari ("This Is Meg") that features a website, a podcast and numerous online courses like this master class with Lyons.
Ferrari makes an appearance in Lyons' master class. He leads an informative session about post-production and "deliverables," which are the aspects of your film that are needed in order to present your movie theatrically and to release it on DVD, Blu-ray and online streaming services. Ferrari breaks down all those costs, and it is extremely helpful.
If you haven't checked out the Indie Film Hustle website and podcast, I would highly recommend doing so by clicking this link. Many of the courses, like the Lyons film production master class, are offered at an affordable price. And many of the resources, like the articles on the website and the podcast, are totally free. The Indie Film Hustle is a treasure trove of support for us filmmakers who are forging our own path in a very competitive industry.
I give Lyons' master class five stars out of five. The main reason that I decided to take the class is because I'm about to embark on filming a new movie. The film I wrote and plan to direct is titled "Things Are Tough All Over," a fictional story of an African-American family struggling to keep their heads above water during the Great Recession of 2008.
Before I set out to film "Things Are Tough All Over," I figured I needed a refresher course on film production. The other full-length movie that I produced, the documentary "Lady Wrestler: The Amazing, Untold Story of African-American Women in the Ring," was filmed and edited over several years. So I needed a crash course on how to produce a film in a compressed amount of time.
Taking Lyons' master class, combined with all the resources at the Indie Film Hustle, will absolutely help you do that.
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