Based on the success of the film, we asked Levin for her thoughts on the making of Runoff and she came back with what she called “a semi-confessional list.”

You know you’re an independent filmmaker when…

  1. Your edit bay is three feet from your bed.
  2. Your partner is jealous of your relationship with Alexa.
  3. You thought honeywagon was a type of breakfast cereal.
  4. Uncle Lester keeps asking, “When are you going to cut the crap and get your real-estate license?”
  5. Your location and your accommodations are the same place.
  6. You are related to five or more people in the credits of your film.
  7. Your Port-a-potty is a bush.
  8. Everyone on the crew is a multi-hyphenate: Writer-Director-Editor; Boom Operator-HMU-Dialect Coach; First AD-Costume Assistant-Bong Wrangler.
  9. If your hours were billable, you wouldn’t be running your dentist’s Facebook page.
  10. Prop food = craft services, one hour later.
  11. Your ADR booth is your neighbor’s closet.
  12. You can’t afford source cues, so you pay buskers in beer to record a few songs you wrote.
  13. You are running a second crowdfunding campaign for the same film.
  14. Your second crowdfunding campaign is much more elaborate than your first, with a donkey, a French Polynesian and the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
  15. Your idea of a short day is 16 hours.
  16. Your idea of a long shoot is 20 days.
  17. The festival circuit brings back popularity anxieties from high school.
  18. You hear they’re going to give you a gross corridor and your first thought is, “Will it involve surgery?”
  19. When someone says you look like you could use some rest, you mutter, “I’ll sleep when I’m rendering.”
  20. Your card isn’t platinum, it’s 18% gray.
  21. When Uncle Lester finally sees your film, he says, “Oh my gawd, it’s like a real movie!”
  22. You realize that you may never experience this level of creative freedom again. by Kimberly Levin / Filmmaker & Guest Blogger