Burns Edward - Independent Ed: inside a career of big dreams, little movies, and the twelve best days of my life

M y first film was released in 1995. It was The Brothers McMullen, a comedy about family, relationships, sibling rivalry, and growing up after youre already grown up. Shot for $25,000 in and around my parents Long Island home, it won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, scored at the box office, and got me labeled as one of Hollywoods hottest young independent filmmakers. A few years later, I couldnt get a movie made.

You should know that I did not set out to become an indie filmmaker or to make an independent film. Ive never given any consideration to those labels and definitions. Besides, what is an indie film? Some people argue that it has to do with subject matter. Some people think it has to do with the size of your budget. Others believe it has to do with how you got your financing or who distributed your film. Ive always defined it as a film that is independent of outside influence. And thats all I wanted. The goal has been to make filmsmy own filmson my terms, the way I have envisioned them, without any interference. And that last part is tough to pull off. It has required belief, courage, and an unflinching streak of independence. The result has been a labor filled with far more love than frustration, and far more a sense of accomplishment than defeat. And thats the story I have told in this book.

As of January 2015, it will have been twenty years since I took McMullen to Sundance. Since then, I have written and directed another ten films. Many of them have had seven-figure budgets (my biggest budget was No Looking Backs $5.5 million); my last three have cost so little they have been labeled microbudgets. To dwell on the budgets, though, would be to focus on the wrong thing. Independent Ed is about my education as a filmmaker, a producer, and a writer. Its the kind of book I would have wanted to read back when I was in film school or before then, back when I first got the idea of writing scripts and putting those stories on film. In those days, I didnt even know if making a movie was possible. More important, I didnt know it was impossible. I was dumb enough and young enough to believe in my dreams. I like to think I still am. Dumb enough, that is.

Which is the message I hope to convey here. In this book, you will read about how I have made movies, why I have made them, and what happened along the way. You will see that the business side of making films is as crucial as the creative process. But nothing can replace the commitment you have to make to your work. If you want to make a film, you simply have to find a way to make it. An important thing to remember: There are no rules when chasing your filmmaking dreams.

Thats the big takeaway. There is no right way or wrong way to make a movie. Youve just got to figure out a way to get it done. And it wont be easy. But thats not why we do it, is it? We do it because we have no choice. Its who we are. And most likely, youll find that those days on set will be the best days of your life.

Eddie Burns
Tribeca, New York City
2014