In an independent film that casts talent for a movie about characters too young to be known movie stars, the most expensive creative artist working on the production is the director.

The director, Michael Tabb, personally invested his money to make this film and took no upfront frees.

The second most expensive employee would be the WGA screenwriter, who writes, rewrites, and polishes the script for the producer and director before production. Well, Michael Tabb is a screenwriter of over 29 years, professionally, for studios including Disney, Universal, and creative icons like Stan Lee. Michael swapped fees for points. This saved the film hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Now, let's talk about the gear and equipment required to make the movie. Times have changed dramatically over the last few years, and technology along with it.

Cameras used to make films used to run a quarter million dollars. Now, you can shoot a film on your iPhone like Steven Soderbergh (Oceans 11, 12, 13, Magic Mike, and the Academy-Award winning "Best Picture", Traffic). Now, we used something better than that, obviously, but the cost of product ratio is astronomically different.

Studios often still use film if you can believe that, not digital. If you think digital isn't good enough, you should know James Cameron shot the Avatar movies on digital. And regardless of digital or film, most movie theaters now use digital projection only, not film. These projectors in major cinema chains traditionally show films at a maximum of 4K. We shot Winter Breaks in 6K, for clearer resolution and far superior for working on in post production.

Editing once required an editing bay, avid, film slicer, which cost six figures as well. Nowadays, top editing software like DaVinci is a proprietary color grading, color correction, visual effects, and audio post-production video editing application for macOS, Windows, and Linux, developed by Blackmagic Design... and it's free. Yes, FREE. We only have to pay editors who put the film together.

Additional manpower is the other major cost.  When I got into the business, filmmakers were very expensive because without access to the expensive equipment I mentioned, there was no way for aspiring filmmakers to learn how to do the job. They had to come from money to get into a select few film schools like USC, NYU, and UCLA… all three of which Michael Tabb attended. college was the way to get access to this expensive equipment to learn on. But with the prosumer equipment today and a ton of YouTube instructional videos accessible around the clock, the entire field has exploded with hungry talent. Look at how young people today easily shoot and edit their own videos for posts on social media to be influencers. They don’t even need film school or fancy expensive equipment to learn. It’s common knowledge now. That said, I did use film-school trained crew, leaving nothing to chance.

Locations cost a lot not just for the location itself, but every time production moves from one location to another, it eats up a lot of time and effort to re-set up everything at a new place, typically 4-6 hours (half of a workday). Well, like The Breakfast Club, we shot the entire film in one location. Instead of a high school we used a beautiful house for the base of the annual Christmas soirées.

To make  a long story short, everything today is much more inexpensive. Meanwhile, the studios still use the mature professionals who use the expensive equipment they already have and know. There is a lot of waste going on.

Film crews used to be predominantly men because the equipment was tremendously heavy to move and operate.  Now, instead of lights weighing 50-60 pounds, we use lights that weigh 6 pounds. That means anyone who can learn how it works can do it, not just burly men. Yet, studios still use lights that require so much more electricity to operate that it’s obscene. 

We saved money everywhere throughout the process of making our film. The whole model of the filmmaking process needs to change for movies today, and bloated studios are set in their ways. 

When you watch the credits of a film, it’s insane the number of people who worked on the project.  With the equipment of today, my entire crew was 16 people. This meant renting the house for the month and catering were our biggest expenses.

Instead of making movies for millions with stars that require tens of millions to be in it, we specifically made this film the new way, about characters at the age which there are no real proven movie stars you could cast in these roles. There's no reason to make this movie for that budget when we can instead expand the profit margin. Winter Breaks serves a tremendous audience geared toward what has always been the most sought-after demographic in films (18-25 years old).  

Also, we add the whole Christmas element to the story, and we have a long tail business model that ensures potential earnings every holiday season for as long as Christmas is a thing. 

We saved a fortune. And those savings make tremendous room for a solid profit.

When I was a kid, I was infatuated with movies because they whisked me away from my less than blissful reality as an escape.

It wasn't until The Breakfast Club, a film about all the things I was really thinking, feeling, and experiencing in my life… about people my age... that I realized great movies are about real-people problems, helping us ask and answer the questions that need asking. Movies were not merely an escape. They had real purpose and meaning to me for the first time, for me, and could mirror truth and teach us. Advise us. 

This screenplay was inspired by the timeless coming-of-age movies of John Hughes, which changed my life. This film is going to be dedicated to him.

Late teens need and deserve a film that addresses what they are really going through. I have gotten notes on this script from young people in every reiteration, keeping it modern and poignant to its era.

Your support of this film is something I will never forget. I want to end with why...

Winter Breaks is a wonderful, funny, painful, personal, and meaningful story about how relationships expose us at that vulnerable age when we become responsible for our actions for the first time, taking those first independent steps on wobbly knees. This is our story...

"What happens to students who stay at college for the winter break? This Christmas, eight misfits discover that friends can become more than family."

Stop and think about our audience. Every young person dreams of having friends like that. Whether it's an aspiration or it's a reality, it applies to every single one of them, regardless of race, gender, orientation... it's universal, and young people will all want to see this movie together.

Besides, we all know how even old Christmas movies are recycled every single year on every network... for decades.

Winter Breaks has the potential to be a holiday staple, especially since so few holiday films exist about and for the largest demographic in entertainment. This is the kind of movie that sticks with its audience for a lifetime. 

The entertainment industry is in complete upheaval. The studios are making far less content, and the movie theaters still need to fill those screens.

Studios had contracts locking up the majority of movie screens in most cinema houses all year, leaving little room for exhibition of independent films.

Pre-pandemic comparison: 

• 2019 saw 792 movie releases.
• In 2023, post-pandemic, the number of movies released in US and Canadian theaters was around 504. 
• In 2024, it's 429 movies.  The number of films being released is just over HALF of what they used to make, and everyone in the industry knows that it's getting worse.

That's 360 fewer films than 5 years ago. That's an enormous drop.

Why is the enormous plummet in studio-made motion pictures happening? 

In a word... STREAMING.  

Studios now have their own streaming networks to which they must funnel their films, and that means they are not giving it to the top bidder as they once did when studios were not exhibiting their own content.  So, they are no longer making the profits they once did.

The more studio film releases decrease; the more room for independent films there will be in movie theaters all over the country. 

Movie Theaters still have all those screens to fill, and the studios are making a tremendous cut in the number of films they are making.

In short, there has never been a better time to release an independent feature film. Theaters need us.

In the days of home video, moviemaking was at its most successful. People would pay to see films in theaters because movies were only in theaters for a long period of time, eventually switching to bargain matinees at the end of their theatrical run, which could last months.

Movie houses used to have only 1-3 big screens. This is why they started building all the giant movie cineplexes in all the major cities across America with up to 20+ screens per theater.

Upon completion of postproduction, we will submit WINTER BREAKS to the top film festivals in the world.

Laurels will be added to our posters every time we get in or win. I will invite all producers to those film festivals.

We will springboard those accolades to approach movie houses directly, with or without a distributor. This was impossible just 5 years ago because the studios had booked all the theater's screens annually before any independent films could approach (unless being distributed by major studios).

Well, theaters have the same amount of screens now, but studios are providing significantly fewer films. And that has led to movie theater chains considering totally independent films to make up for the lack of product the studios are providing.

Any kind of theatrical release bolsters the value of our film in every single entertainment market around the world, and this raises the amount of money they will pay for our beautiful, authentic, and often funny film.

Have you noticed theaters are showing tons of classic films and more foreign content than ever? It's because they need us.

So, even without winning any festivals, independent films are getting movie theater screenings all around the country. 

Then we find distributors to release the film internationally. We will fully monetize our theatrical box office opportunities before seeing which market would be best to utilize next.  VOD, streaming, cable television, network, etc.  

Now, we are not limited by traditional media distribution. If the film is getting traction, we may just make our own app and sell access to watch the film, the behind the scenes footage, blooper reels, interviews with the talent, etc.  

After a while, we will allow fans to purchase a download of our movie. And we don't have to wait for anyone else to keep pushing our film into the black if they try to lowball us. If the film has fantastic word of mouth, the app might be the best financial move for us because nobody would be taking a piece of our revenue off the top, we can charge less per viewer. Everyone knows how Angel Studios made a hit online and then networks approached them to show it.

Given the minuscule cost of our feature film ($250,000 USD), I believe we can achieve great success.

Come on this exciting ride with me. I'll never forget you did.