SF filmmaking scene August ’26 (7 shorts, 3 features): shorts • @bephrem is executive producing 3 live-action shorts via svfilm.fund (2 in development, 1 announced) • @donaldjewkes is developing an animated short/series (recently backed by @osvllc) • @anupamsidhant is in post-production on a satire featurette • @brandonkachen is in development on the first part of a 3-part romance based in San Francisco • @bephrem is writing a short film based in San Francisco w/ a Taiwanese-American founder protagonist (developing since April, finishing 2nd draft) features • “Again, Tomorrow” by @nikhilganesh001 has stopped development • @jasonjoyride is in production on a book adaptation (w/ @InfiniteF8lms) and developing a sci-fi trilogy • @GeffenAvraham is developing a sci-fi feature (3m trailer in post-production) directors are quietly leaving, quitting, or getting absorbed into the industry. the solution is to fund them. I have moved $25k (allocated $80k) to tech interior & adjacent writer-directors creating cinema.

making a film is incredibly difficult.

as of right now, film (non-commercial) is not a viable career path in San Francisco. if you know enough about tech to not hate the people and understand the cultural landscape, you’d just make much more staying inside. you’d have a life. the ones outside have stopped doing the math.

Casting lead actor for a short film • Nov 13-15 Mid-late 20s, software engineer, South Asian American. The character is watchful, quietly intense, a bit behind the current moment. Paid role. SF-based is ideal, open to LA or NY. Non-actors welcome. Casting for look, technique can be taught. If someone seems close, tag him or DM me. (mockup via ChatGPT since I don’t have a sketch artist)

making a film is strange because you live in this imagined world that you play second for second in your head. draft after draft. shotlist after shotlist. in a dark room, by yourself, for months. and you realize that to anyone around you, the thing doesn’t exist. you could explain it with words, you can hand off references (a lookbook, a treatment). but there is no way to transfer that exact vivid thing you’re playing. to show a lot has become certain that wasn’t certain (eyeline direction, speed of gestures, character interior at any given moment). and the whole time you have no idea if it’s any good. it’s strange.

the storytellers who can make honest films about tech, are getting rich working in tech. if you leave tech (which you must to make a film), your social standing dies. filmmaking = being poor (for a bit). nothing changes until an institution changes this.

currently casting for my first short film, 2 insights: • I was reluctant to feed faces to Fable at first, given I didn’t want it to steer or confirm my reads on people. But it turns out it’s extraordinarily good at reading faces, to the level a director would analyze them for emotional cues. This makes it clear to me that today’s models are already craft-competent to that of a professional casting director. Hybrid human-AI directed films seem inevitable. • Much of pre-production is paperwork, budgeting, schedules, and sending emails. Something Fable also excels at. I’ve been able to draft sides, complete SAG paperwork, & plan timeline constraints I otherwise would have no experience or reference on. All with my steering and final eye over every word. But the friction that doesn’t go towards the actual film’s creative is melting away. A PDF that would take me 20 minutes takes Fable 20 seconds. various other things: • the acting pool in LA is almost 10-20x that of SF + the Bay (at least from submissions I got) • travel + lodging add $1,000+ per actor brought up to SF • the first 10 extras in a crowd of 30 cost $173/day/person (SAG) so a crowd of 10+ on film automatically costs you +$1,730/day • the female lead role received 2,000+ submissions over 2 days (via Breakdown Express), if half the pool is serious about pursuing the role, actors have a .1% chance of landing lead.