You Can't Make a Film on Your Own

“We were just starting out at the time, making short films, and we felt that there must be a better way to make a film than calling and begging people for help and money,” says producer Jess Search of the humble beginnings of Shooting People, the London-based online community of independent filmmakers. Search and fellow filmmaker Cath Le Couteur founded Shooting People in the U.K. in 1998, and the first U.S. branch launched in New York in 2004. The organization expanded to include Los Angeles and San Francisco on May 15 of this year.

Shooting People began as a free online network, with about 60 of Search and Le Couteur’s friends as its first members, but started charging membership fees three years ago. Search says that only about 30 percent of their members shifted to the pay model initially and that they have yet to make a profit in the U.K., but over time they were able to attract more new members and expand their services. Now there are over 29,000 “Shooters” in the U.K. and U.S., where for an annual fee of $40 members can find and develop scripts, cast and crew their films, and get advice from other Shooters throughout the filmmaking process.

“I was coming to New York a lot, so I knew it and I saw that there was a comparable indie scene there,” Search explains. “I was actually surprised there wasn’t already something like Shooting People in New York.” Los Angeles seemed liked the next logical step, and depending on the group’s success there Search and Le Couteur will consider taking Shooting People to more locations worldwide.

However, to be most useful Shooting People needs to be more than just a phantasmagoric network of e-mails and online message boards. To that end Ingrid Kopp, who is in charge of Shooting People in the U.S., has started to introduce programs similar to those offered to U.K. members - such as "Shooter socials" and guest speakers - to expand the group’s North American presence. And Shooting People’s Mobile Cinema, already an annual hit in the U.K., will soon launch in the U.S. on a two-week cross-country tour from New York to Los Angeles, stopping wherever they are called along the way to screen the best of their members’ short films.

“The idea of Shooting People is so simple,” Kopp says, “but it can go so far. There’s much more we can do.”

Search and Le Couteur have recently become as concerned with the challenges of independent film distribution as they are with its production. As a result, Shooting People recently launched Word of Mouth, its new DVD label, and released its first title Best v Best, a collection of international award-winning shorts available only in the UK. Word of Mouth will also release the upcoming DVD for Rupert Murray’s 2005 documentary Unknown White Male, which was co-produced by Search.

“We’re really proud of the model we’ve developed,” Search says. “Shooting People is self-sustaining, created by filmmakers for filmmakers.”

For more information about Shooting People or to become a member, visit www.shootingpeople.org.