How to Make Your First Feature Film

Hear from a panel of experienced filmmakers on how to make your first feature film.

We'll discuss:

• Making an indie feature as a multi-hyphenate
• Working with streamers like Tubi
• How to find the right creative partners
• The pitfalls our panelists experienced when making their first features — and how to avoid them
• Directing name talent
• Writing a script with the goal of self-producing it on a low budget
• Fundraising
• Film festivals and distribution
• And much more!

Thank you to ShotDeck for their contribution to this workshop!

Meet the panelists:

Vivian Kerr is an LA-based actor, writer, director, and producer with her company Rue Dangeau.

SCRAP, her feature film debut, co-starring Anthony Rapp, Lana Parrilla, Beth Dover, and Khleo Thomas, world premiered in competition and was nominated for the Grand Prize at the Deauville-American Film Festival and is currently on the festival circuit with 40+ official selections.

She recently won the NYWIFT Award for Excellence in Narrative Directing at the SOHO International Film Festival, a Special Jury Prize in Acting Achievement at Phoenix Film Festival, Outstanding Actress at Micheaux Film Festival, Best Director at Mystic Film Festival, the MINT Spirit Award at the Montana International Film Festival, Best Actress at Beaufort International Film Festival, Best Director at Waco Independent Film Festival, and the Jury Awards for Best Narrative Feature at the Naples International Film Festival, Coronado Island Film Festival, Fayetteville Film Festival, and Fargo Film Festival.

Her screenplay for SCRAP was a Top 10 Finalist in Final Draft's Big Break Screenwriting Competition.  Her second feature, SÉANCE, a Victorian-era psychological thriller, was selected for Wscripted’s Cannes Screenplay List and is currently in post-production.

She was a Finalist in Sony Pictures TV’s Rising Storytellers Search with her pilot FIVE POINTS, about the female-led gangs of 19th century New York, which was also invited into the Stowe Story Labs, the Story Incubator Writing Lab, and selected for the inaugural Moonshot Initiative TV Pilot Accelerator (formerly Women's Weekend Film Challenge).  Her feature script EXCHANGE placed in the Top 20% of the Nicholl Fellowship and her pilot NEWSPAPERWOMAN was a Second-Rounder in the Austin Film Festival.

As an actor, her work includes episodes of GREY'S ANATOMY, RIZZOLI & ISLES, SUPERSTORE, MASTERS OF SEX, CRIMINAL MINDS, NEW GIRL, CASTLE, FRANKLIN & BASH, and THE BOLD & THE BEAUTIFUL.  She has a BA in Theatre from the University of Southern California, during which time she studied Shakespeare in London. Vivian is a member of SAG-AFTRA, Actors' Equity, and Film Fatales.

Elaine Del Valle is a native New York, Puerto Rican Director and multi-hyphenate Storyteller.

​

Her awards include the HBO Latinx Director award, the LALIFF | LFI | Amazon-MGM works-in-progress independent feature film post-production grant and from festivals including SXSW, Urbanworld, Catalyst Stories, Seriesfest and more.

​

Elaine’s feature film directorial debut is a genre dance-drama-thriller Tubi original, Midnight Hustle (now streaming.) Her second narrative feature, Brownsville Bred, which she wrote and directed, is currently in post-production. The YA family drama, and gritty slice of Urban American Latina life shares Elaine's personal coming-of-age story and was filmed in New York and Puerto Rico. The story is adapted from Elaine's award-winning short film, autobiographical novel and Off-Broadway one-woman show, Brownsville Bred.

​

Elaine is a WarnerMedia 150 Artist, Sundance Writer & Director Lab alumna, Shondaland Director finalist and two-time Lynn Shelton and Imagen Impact award nominee.

Her short films, Me 3.769 and Princess Cut, can be seen on Max.​

As a Writer, across mediums, Elaine's original one-hour procedural drama pilot, The System, was bought by the CBS network; The New York Times hailed her off-Broadway stage play, "From Girlhood Trials to Onstage Triumph."  Elaine's debut novel was named a "Most Inspirational YA Book" by the International Latino Book Awards. ​

​

Elaine completed the (by invitation only) 2023 WGA East Showrunner Academy program and is a proud member of the Rideback Rise Writers Circle.

​

Elaine was trained as an Actor at New York City's Carnegie Hall by Wynn Handman. She worked on stage and screen, including

recurring guest star roles in the ABC drama Queens, and Dora The Explorer. Other guest star roles include on The Resident, and The Sinner. 

​

On a mission to tell authentic stories, and expand representation and opportunities for underrepresented artists, Elaine founded Del Valle Productions. She has Produced over 50 titles, and made history as the first person ever to license an interstitial series to HBO.

Mandy Fabian grew up in a tiny no-stoplight town in central Texas, moved to Austin and became the youngest member of a professional sketch comedy troupe before attending Vassar College to major in film. (What? I know.  Her parents thought that too.)

After doing sketch, improv and theater in downtown NYC spaces much cooler than she is, she moved to LA, bought a horse, and worked as a singer-songwriter, producing 3 albums and playing on the capitol steps, until finding her home as a writer-director.

Since then, her passion has been creating female-driven stories and characters. Mandy co-created and directed The Young Hillary Diaries, Lifetime’s first digital series, and wrote the Amazon digital series Dropping the Soap, which won Jane Lynch an Emmy for Best Actress in a Short Form Original in 2017. She was awarded a fellowship from the Sony Pictures Television Diverse Directing Program, was named “Best New Filmmaker of the Year” by NewFilmmakers LA and her screenplay, Late Bloomer, featuring LGBTQ+ characters and women over 60, was selected for the NYWIFT Meryl Streep/Oprah Winfrey Writers Lab. Recently, she was one of six directors chosen to lead an all-female crew for the Women’s Weekend Film Challenge, and the independent pilot she directed, Vicarious, won Audience Awards at Dances With Films and the LA Indie Film Festival.

Currently, Mandy’s first feature, Jess Plus None, which she wrote and directed, was awarded a finishing fund grant from Warner Bros. One-Fifty and the WIF ReFrame Stamp, which serves as a mark of distinction for projects that achieve gender balance in hiring, both on-screen and off. It’s a modern day homage to The Big Chill, and a feminist rom-com.

Mandy lives in LA with her husband Patrick Fabian, her daughters Abbey and Delilah, and an impressive collection of reusable water bottles.