by Paula Hendrickson.
After sharing Daniel Nearing’s screenwriting process in a previous issue, it only seemed right to follow through and find out how he’s managed to produce critically praised films with almost non-existent budgets. Here’s how.
Most filmmakers consider $2 million a micro-budget. You made Chicago Heights (now The Last Soul on a Summer Night) for $1,000. How?
We were up front with everyone we approached on the project, telling them it would be done on virtually no budget. Everyone sacrificed by giving us their time and talent. Our biggest problem was not with equipment, casting or catering – we got by on a $1,000 donation for food from a Korean wig manufacturer! – but with locations, and that really was a matter of me dropping the ball. I should have made the time to get it done, as we have with Hogtown.
How do you set a film’s budget?
You go into it thinking “it will be what it will be,” and don’t let the absence of money affect your thinking. Budgets are as imaginative as original screenplays. On any given film you might prescribe a union budget; a budget affected by the presence of A-listers and B-listers; a non-union budget that runs from nothing to the low millions; a grant driven budget based on prospective support and dictated by the limits of the granting organization; and the real hard cash budgets that ultimately come into play in all scenarios. Any film in development should foresee several possible budgets before landing on the one that will ultimately be its master.
Do you think Chicago Heights/Last Soul… would have garnered such positive reviews if you’d had a larger budget? 
I don’t honestly know, but I know in retrospect that I have no regrets. If we’d had a few million dollars, we might have been inclined to make a faithful adaptation of the novel, working with the script we initially had. It would have been a very different film and would have been judged differently. People tend to bring a little more open-mindedness to the viewing of niche art house films than to mainstream productions. Art house films have very patient and thoughtful audiences &#8211; they seem to show more trust in filmmakers.
How can limited budgets inspire creativity?
Chicago Heights got strong reviews in large part because of an “inspired concession” we made in moving a rural period piece to the contemporary city. Co-writer Rudy Thauberger and I had initially drafted a screenplay that was largely faithful to the modular novel, except in its structure and in the creation of composite characters.
When I finally accepted that there was no way we were going to be able to faithfully adapt the settings and period of the novel, we looked at where we were and when we were and thought we’d try to adjust.
I’m often asked why the film is set in Chicago Heights. It is, in places, a down-on-its-luck, exurban community that inspires sympathy, and its crossroads are the crossroads of America – Lincoln Highway and the Dixie Highway meet there. That said, the key thing I liked was its function as an ironic title &#8211; we explore the depths of despair in Chicago Heights.
Equipment’s not cheap. What are some affordable options?
If you can scrape a couple of thousand dollars together, or borrow from others, or join a local film co-op….or even say hey, I’m going to make a movie on my iPhone. You will not be the first. There have been some fine films shot or partially shot on iPhones, including major award winners like American Promise (Sundance 2013) and This is Not a Film (Cannes 2011).
How do you choose locations that aren’t going to require paying for permits or require a lot of set decoration?
We start with looking around our own spaces and to people we know. My wife and I live in a beautiful old Chicago home that was profiled in American Bungalow. We have shot in every nook and cranny of the place. In making Hogtown, we also discovered the power of asking nicely. We made a lot of one-to-one contact with owners of some incredible locations. We got the Crown Point Jail, which had been rebuilt by Paramount for Public Enemies. We got a beautiful old church that survived the great Chicago Fire. We got period trains from the Illinois Railway Museum, which is the biggest train museum in the country. We were up front about our budget, and in most cases we got by with proof of insurance alone.
<div id="attachment_6621" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Chap.png"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-6621" class="size-medium wp-image-6621" alt="Daniel Nearing, Director and Producer of Chicago Heights" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Chap-300x193.png" width="300" height="193" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Chap-300x193.png 300w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Chap-150x96.png 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Chap.png 466w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>Daniel Nearing, Director and Producer of Chicago Heights</div>
How hard is it to convince actors to work for free? 
We do a significant amount of casting through Craigslist. On Hogtown, the posting for one of the female lead roles had more than 100 responses, even when we were entirely up front in the posting – which is absolutely critical &#8211; about there being no pay and that tasteful nudity might be required. The actors who monitor Craigslist in turn are part of larger communities of actors – such as Sandy Gulliver of Chicago Acting in Film &#8211; and tend to get the word out to other actors.
What about recruiting crew members, or are they primarily students?
It’s a mix. We do work with many students, but also with alumni and colleagues. At the best of times we’re a merry band of brothers and sisters. Our more dedicated students are given more significant functions. Rachel Rozycki, an MFA student, started as an AD and showed a level of commitment that merited a shared producer credit. Others want only to come in for a day or two. We maintained a large pool, and reached out to everyone through doodle.com, posting a range of dates and seeing who could commit to joining us on any given day.
How much time, and budget, is typically spent on post-production? 
We spend very little money on post, but massive amounts of time and patient energy. The Last Soul had roughly 35 hours of footage and was cut down to a short feature film; Hogtown has roughly 100 hours of footage and is being cut down to two hours. I am the editor – and because I consider editing to be a critical phase of the writing – I am spending as many hours dragging and dropping footage as I spent typing in Movie Magic Screenwriter. I have spent the last three months in my dungeon—I mean in my editing room – and I am not halfway home.
You made short and full length versions of your films. What are the practical and creative reasons behind that? 
Making a short version of Chicago Heights – we called it Nobody Knows – was valuable from a creative standpoint because it helped me identify the core of the narrative. The practical value of the short was that we were able to position it in the Short Film Corner at the Cannes Film Festival, where it collected its first hints of legitimacy. We’ve done the same thing with Hogtown. I cut it as a short film called Belles Filles, and though I was too overwhelmed with other production commitments to get it finished on time, it helped me solve a major concern with the protagonist and fix the most glaring problem in the storyline.
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_6620" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/mqdefault.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-6620" class="size-medium wp-image-6620" alt="Andre Truss and Keisha Dysonin Chicago Heights" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/mqdefault-300x168.jpg" width="300" height="168" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/mqdefault-300x168.jpg 300w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/mqdefault-150x84.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/mqdefault-270x150.jpg 270w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/mqdefault.jpg 320w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>Andre Truss and Keisha Dyson in Chicago Heights</div>
Having a completed film is great, but the trick is getting people to see it. How can a filmmaker decide which contests and festivals to enter?
You need to be strategic. You need to do your homework on the festivals and you need to be realistic. There were 13,000 submissions to Sundance last year. Most of the films they accept are already pedigreed to a certain extent – they star the indie actor de jour or they were directed by someone already stamped with Sundance approval – so the odds are just ridiculously low to start with.
Find your niche. If your film is set in the gay community, look not just to the majors but to the many LGBT festivals. We had a largely African American cast, so we looked to African American festivals as well as the more generalized independent venues. It doesn’t hurt to look local, as well – not just at the big local festivals, but at the many small ones.
How important is social media to filmmakers when it comes to promoting their work, or simply as a networking tool?
It makes a big difference. One of the things I like most about our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hogtownmovie" target="_blank">Hogtown</a> page is that it allows us to post production stills within hours or days of shooting, so actors and crew see immediate evidence and warm reminders of the experience.
How can filmmakers make the most of attending film festivals, even if their work isn’t being shown? 
I’ll recommend Cannes above any other festival. Many of us think of Cannes as too rich for our blood, too far, too expensive, too difficult to navigate. It’s a pricey flight from North America, but if you’re willing to stay a train stop or two away, Cannes is cheaper than Sundance, which has expensive hotels and film passes. Most people don’t realize that basic accreditation at Cannes – so long as you meet review requirements – is free, meaning films are free and you have access to the most influential business professionals in the film industry. I went this year and met programmers from Toronto and Sundance, art house distributors from around the world, and made at least one very promising co-production connection. I also got the word out a bit about my current film with postcards, specifically targeting the mailboxes of the journalists and film critics I admire most.
Not all films get distribution deals – what other options are there to get a film seen? 
It’s getting easier to find distribution through niche companies. Our distributor – initially Kirk Harris of Rogue Arts &#8211; made a huge difference by showing faith in us, and ultimately helped us get Last Soul… everywhere – onto Netflix, into Best Buy and Barnes &amp; Noble and into uncountable other outlets. Just being out there means a lot to all of us involved in the film.
That said, I suspect the argument for self-distribution will get stronger year by year. When we can tap into Netflix and the major vendors the way we can tap into Amazon now – anyone can sell a film through Amazon &#8211; things will change.
Publicity is important, too. You were interviewed on NPR about Chicago Heights – how did that happen?
I don’t remember how I ended up on NPR, but I can say that anything you can do to draw attention to your work has a lot of upside. Don’t be shy about making personal contact with radio stations and reporters and critics, if only to say you’d be grateful if they kept your film on their radar. I reached out personally to Roger Ebert more than a year before he reviewed our film. He did not respond to my initial email, but I have wondered if it still might have made a difference in having him notice us.
I want to underscore the value of graphic design as part of the process. Good design is critical. I have the good fortune of being married to an extraordinary designer, and she works closely with me to bring ideas for posters, DVD cases, brochures to life.
What are other ways filmmakers can generate interest in their films? 
Regional libraries are always appreciative of the opportunity to screen socially relevant work and to welcome filmmakers for introductions and Q&amp;As. These are always pleasant experiences and I feel like they make for good karma.
Daniel Nearing&#8217;s new film, Hogtown, is part of the Black Harvest Film Festival at the Siskel Film Center in Chicago this weekend.

Making Chicago Heights for Just $1000

by Paula Hendrickson
Daniel Nearing accomplished what many thought was impossible. He adapted Sherwood Anderson’s classic collection of short stories, Winesburg, Ohio, into a feature-length art film, garnering rave reviews and earning his film a spot among the late Roger Ebert’s list of 2010’s top art films.
Even more impressive: He did it on a micro-budget of just $1,000—which was spent on feeding the cast and crew. Originally titled Chicago Heights, the film was later retitled The Last Soul on a Summer Night.
<div id="attachment_5244" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="http://192.254.190.185/~erikpsc/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Dan-right-with-his-Hogtown-and-Chicago-Heights-co-producer-and-cinematographer-Sanghoon-Lee.png"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5244" class="size-full wp-image-5244" alt="Daniel Nearing (right) with Cinematographer Sanghoon Lee" src="http://192.254.190.185/~erikpsc/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Dan-right-with-his-Hogtown-and-Chicago-Heights-co-producer-and-cinematographer-Sanghoon-Lee.png" width="600" height="458" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Dan-right-with-his-Hogtown-and-Chicago-Heights-co-producer-and-cinematographer-Sanghoon-Lee.png 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Dan-right-with-his-Hogtown-and-Chicago-Heights-co-producer-and-cinematographer-Sanghoon-Lee-150x115.png 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Dan-right-with-his-Hogtown-and-Chicago-Heights-co-producer-and-cinematographer-Sanghoon-Lee-250x191.png 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Dan-right-with-his-Hogtown-and-Chicago-Heights-co-producer-and-cinematographer-Sanghoon-Lee-500x382.png 500w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a>Daniel Nearing (right) with Cinematographer Sanghoon Lee</div>
Nearing—who created and coordinates the Independent Film &amp; Digital Imaging MFA program at Governors State University, just outside Chicago in University Park, Illinois—has since written, directed and is in post-production on another micro-budget feature, Hogtown, and already has another feature script in the works.
Earlier in his career Nearing was a documentary filmmaker, and sees parallels between the two types of storytelling. “If you tell documentary stories well, you look for dramatic structure as you write, shoot and edit,” he says. “You also become conscious that there are indeed three phases of writing. Writing starts in the solitary experience of the screenwriter; we adapt and revise as needed on the set; we trust then that it will come to fruition somehow in the editing.” But it all starts on the page.
<div id="attachment_5245" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="http://192.254.190.185/~erikpsc/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/thelastsoulonasummernight1.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5245" class="size-full wp-image-5245" alt="Poster for The Last Soul on a Summer Night" src="http://192.254.190.185/~erikpsc/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/thelastsoulonasummernight1.jpg" width="300" height="415" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/thelastsoulonasummernight1.jpg 300w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/thelastsoulonasummernight1-108x150.jpg 108w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/thelastsoulonasummernight1-216x300.jpg 216w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>Poster for The Last Soul on a Summer Night</div>
Nearing’s approach to scriptwriting doesn’t begin with a detailed outline plotting out the entire story. “I tend to write vignettes, little scenes that resonate somehow or contain quietly epiphanal moments that help me find my way into character. The vignettes aggregate into sequences. Plot is important, but secondary—all plot is a veneer to a large extent, regardless of genre, be it action film or art film.”
Not surprisingly, Nearing appreciates Sherwood Anderson’s notion that character is everything, and that people should think in circles, not in straight lines. “When I do research, I’m looking for idiosyncrasies or contradictions or ironies among facts that ground the narrative solidly in history, but also point to deeper truths.”
Patience is also important. Nearing began adapting Winesburg, Ohio more than a decade before finally making Chicago Heights. “My co-writer Rudy Thauberger and I went through a number of incarnations before its time came, and in retrospect I’m relieved that it didn’t come together until it did, and the way it did,” Nearing says. Thauberger was deeply involved in writing the early drafts, and consulted closely as Nearing developed what would be come the final script.
Hogtown had a long road as well. Nearing initially started writing that in 1995, as a novel he’d set in Toronto, but couldn’t find the right ending. “In September 2010, I was trying to figure out my next move—the film to follow Chicago Heights.  I was in Toronto at the Toronto International Film Festival, standing on Yonge Street, when a tour bus went by and I heard a docent say over her loudspeaker, ‘They made a movie called Chicago in Toronto.  Someday they&#8217;ll make a movie called Toronto in Chicago.’”
<div id="attachment_5246" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="http://192.254.190.185/~erikpsc/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/group-shot-of-the-cast-crew-of-Hogtown-on-location-in-a-Chicago-alley.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5246" class="size-full wp-image-5246" alt="Hogtown cast and crew in a Chicago alley" src="http://192.254.190.185/~erikpsc/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/group-shot-of-the-cast-crew-of-Hogtown-on-location-in-a-Chicago-alley.jpg" width="600" height="400" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/group-shot-of-the-cast-crew-of-Hogtown-on-location-in-a-Chicago-alley.jpg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/group-shot-of-the-cast-crew-of-Hogtown-on-location-in-a-Chicago-alley-150x100.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/group-shot-of-the-cast-crew-of-Hogtown-on-location-in-a-Chicago-alley-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a>Hogtown cast and crew in a Chicago alley</div>
Those words struck a chord with Nearing, a Canadian who once lived in Toronto but has long called Chicago home. “Later that day I had the eureka thought that Hogtown could be transposed from Toronto to Chicago. I went through all the strands of the narrative and found all kinds of serendipities.  For example, Ernest Hemingway is a character in both the Toronto and Chicago versions. He was working in Toronto in 1920, but tied very closely to his hometown of Oak Park.  The project is much, much stronger as a result of the move, for all kinds of reasons.”
Having written scripts from both original stories and adaptations of existing works, including his own, Nearing says the creative path is similar. “The processes aren’t hugely different with respect to the decisions you make along the way and that little house of cards you come up with at the end,” he notes.
<div id="attachment_5247" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="http://192.254.190.185/~erikpsc/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/last-soul.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5247" class="size-full wp-image-5247" alt="Gerrold Johnson as Pastor Curtis Hartman in Last Soul on a Summer Night" src="http://192.254.190.185/~erikpsc/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/last-soul.jpg" width="600" height="340" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/last-soul.jpg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/last-soul-150x85.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/last-soul-300x170.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a>Gerrold Johnson as Pastor Curtis Hartman in Last Soul on a Summer Night</div>
“[With adaptations] you do have the benefit of the narrative template, and in the case of Anderson’s work, the benefit of one of the most beautiful and highly-regarded books in the history of American literature. But then you face the challenge most screenwriters don’t have to face: you need to distill the essence of a work that may take days to read into a very sprightly couple of hours.”
His initial attempt to get Winesburg to fit into the conventional three-act structure fell flat. “That led to a decision to throw all that work out and go at it again, bridging the length of the book by consolidating characters and taking liberties with the story, all while wondering if Sherwood Anderson was rolling over in his grave.”
One thing Nearing doesn’t think about when writing scripts? Production budgets. “I think Lew Hunter has advised that you ‘spend all the imaginary money you want’ while writing. He’s right. I’m making soft-spoken, character-driven pieces that aren’t reliant on pyrotechnics, so things are going to be easier for me. There’s no sense of restriction.”
He set a vignette from Hogtown at Niagara Falls. With no location budget, it was suggested the scene be cut. But while on vacation near Niagara Falls, the director of photography shot some background footage; Nearing set up a green screen in his living room and filmed the actors there. “The scene turned out beautifully,” he adds.
<div id="attachment_5248" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="http://192.254.190.185/~erikpsc/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Chicago-Heights-Marz-690x384.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5248" class="size-full wp-image-5248" alt="Last Soul on a Summer Night" src="http://192.254.190.185/~erikpsc/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Chicago-Heights-Marz-690x384.jpg" width="600" height="334" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Chicago-Heights-Marz-690x384.jpg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Chicago-Heights-Marz-690x384-150x83.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Chicago-Heights-Marz-690x384-300x167.jpg 300w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Chicago-Heights-Marz-690x384-270x150.jpg 270w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a>Last Soul on a Summer Night</div>
Producing his own scripts hasn’t changed Nearing’s approach to screenwriting, but it did underscore the fluidity of filmmaking. “Don’t try to tell your film that it’s going to have to adhere to your script. When you are editing, let the footage tell you the story it wants to tell. If the writing is strong enough, the best aspects of the screenplay will still shine in the assembly.”
Instead of listening to people tell him why good films can’t be made on a micro-budget, Nearing follow his instincts. “Never tell yourself it can’t be done, and never let anyone tell you that you’re going to be limited by a micro-budget. I’ve learned the converse is true,” he says. “I doubt that you will ever have more liberty as an artist or more flexibility in the process of production than you have when all involved are making a labor of love.”
Often, budget limitations inspire the cast and crew to get even more creative. “I’m honestly not sure we could have made Hogtown with three million dollars on a union set, but we were able to make it with $10,000 and some incredibly dedicated and gifted volunteer cast and crew.”
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<h3>Chicago Heights (aka The Last Soul on a Summer Night)</h3>
<h3>Honors &amp; Awards:</h3>
&nbsp;
Best Art Films of 2010 &#8211; Roger Ebert
In Competition &#8211; Flash Forward &#8211; Busan International Film Festival (Busan is the biggest festival in Asia)
Best Film in a Fine Arts Discipline &#8211; Berlin Black Film Festival
Official Selection &#8211; Black Harvest Film Festival, Gene Siskel Film Center
Official Selection &#8211; Ohio Independent Film Festival
Short Film Corner (as &#8220;Nobody Knows), Festival de Cannes
Honorable Mention, Narrative Category &#8211; Columbus International Film Festival
Official Selection &#8211; Iowa Indie

Making Chicago Heights for Just $1000

Daniel Nearing and The Last Soul on a Summer Night

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