I had the pleasure of sitting down with Joseph Dougherty on a Zoom call for a 15 minute interview. Joseph is the Producer of and the man behind the movie BORDERLINE. It’s an hour and a half long thriller feature film that was uploaded to YouTube on September 6th, 2022. The film has made a huge impact and has amassed over 40 thousand views on YouTube. On top of all of that, it was made on just an $800 budget. I wanted to get down to the bottom of this and see exactly how Dougherty was able to make such a successful film with only $800 at such a young age. Joseph Dougherty was wearing a blue blazer along with a white collar and light blue tie when he joined the zoom call and thus the interview began.
Mr. Dougherty, you made this feature film at such a young age and all by yourself. You are currently 21 but were 19 when you first started making it. You wrote, produced, directed, and starred in this film. 40 thousand plus views on YouTube. Tell me, what led you into making this film?
Well, I mean, there were a lot of things that led me into doing this. You know I saw that there were a lot of movements and a lot of changes in this industry and I saw that there was an opportunity to make a film all by yourself. And so, I wanted to go out and prove it. The reason why a lot of people don’t make it in this industry is because they can never secure fundings for their films from studios. I think actors, directors, producers, all struggle with this. Directors can’t get the funding from the studios, the producers can’t get the funding from the studios, and the actors can’t book the roles from the studios. So all of the failures in this industry are directly linked with studios. The reason why this has been happening is because we’ve all been relying on these production companies such as Paramount or Universal to pursue filmmaking. But not many people have realized how accessible technology has become in the last decade. It is more affordable than ever to make a film all by yourself and have it be a success. You know if you look at films made in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, eighty to ninety percent of the film’s budget went to equipment because they needed to afford film for the camera. And on top of that, the cameras themselves were rare and expensive. We didn’t have iPhones in our pockets back then and technology was not as advanced. A $10,000 camera now is far superior to the million dollar cameras they were using back in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. And so there were multi million dollar budgets in the 70’s and 80’s but all of it was going towards equipment and very little was needed for locations, wages, crew members and other aspects of productions. And this dynamic worked, there were some great movies made in that era. But now if you look at films today, they’re still the same amount of money poured into these films but the cost of equipment has dramatically decreased. It’s now 5-10% of the budget breakdown. This is weird because the budgets of these movies should have dramatically decreased. But the problem is now that people are getting paid millions of dollars to work on the film whether it’s in front of the camera or behind. There’s an oligopoly that formed over the past few decades because these limited production companies had all of the control over the market. And this was great if you were on the inside looking out and you were working for Netflix or Universal but for the people on the outside looking in, they couldn’t get the fundings from the production companies and were stuck. But now, what the people on the outside looking in don’t realize is that there is now another way. There is now a way to make a film all by yourself without the aid of these studios. And so I saw all of this and I saw this window of opportunity and I took advantage of it. I went out to see exactly just how cheap of a film I could make with the lowest budget possible while still being scripted with a cinematic storyline. And so yeah that’s what led me into this and that’s what originally started BORDERLINE. I wanted to show that the people are now in control and not the production companies. We don’t need to rely on these companies to make a film, we can simply make a successful one all by ourselves thanks to technology. The industry is now decentralized and it’s time to break apart this oligopoly.
What were some of the challenges that presented themselves while doing this?
Oh my gosh where do I begin {laughs}. There were so many challenges that arose while making this. You know you are really pushing boundaries here while testing the limits of filmmaking and budgeting in general. There were so many things that were thrown my way that I wasn’t necessarily prepared for and I was prepared for a lot let me tell you. The thing with this production is that it took two attempts. There were so many obstacles thrown my way. There were so many challenges that the first time I attempted to film this in July of 2020 I had to cancel production after just two days of filming because everything was a mess and the final product was not going to live up to my standards. There were so many things that I was trying to pursue at once. But it was a great learning experience. I learned so much from it and was able to fix all of the problems that I encountered. And I was able to fix it for the second time I filmed, which went on to be a successful production. I could go on and on and list the things I learned that are as simple as renting equipment and as complicated as the timing of production. You can get away with a lot when you have a multi million dollar budget but when you have the budget that I was working with, certain things are unacceptable. But there are a lot of skill sets I learned that I know will come in handy for my future films. And with all of the adversity that was thrown my way, though it wasn’t easy, I always handled it and fixed the problem whether it took months to fix or meant that I had to cancel production and re attempt to film the whole entire movie. I faced each one like a man, solved them one by one and got the end result. Overall, I came away from this film with a bunch of experience that sets me ahead of competition especially when it comes to budgeting out the films.
With all of this experience that you have now attained, what is next for you?
Everything. With the skill sets that I learned and acquired from making this film along with the stuff that I proved, I am ready to take them with me for my future endeavors. I think that so much has changed in the industry and my film shows that there is now a way. There is now a way for people to do this. And I want to take this to the next level. There are so many things that I have planned but for the first time ever anyone can make a movie about anything they so desire. Keep in mind for these multi million dollar hollywood films multiple people are putting $1-5 million dollars each into the film. I was able to fund BORDERLINE all by myself. So now this gives anyone the opportunity to fund a film. People are now able to make a movie by themselves, for themselves, and even make it about themselves. You know, I’m working with people right now and we are going to start making more films with this budgeting tactic. Definitely not as extreme as BORDERLINE. BORDERLINE was next level, you know for example it takes place in one setting, movies usually have multiple landscapes, multiple filming locations, cinematographers, different shots, different angles, and professional mics and stuff. And oh yeah, they also aren’t filmed on an iPhone {laughs}. So we are not going to go as extreme as BORDERLINE but I am still going to put my budgeting expertise into action and produce films that are self fundable. I think BORDERLINE is a great example that it can be done. I’m ready to get to work. But I have to move fast because the truth of the matter is everyone is starting to catch on to this opportunity and soon everyone will be self funding their own movies. I just want to make sure that I’m the one that is producing them, not somebody else.
What was most difficult when learning how to budget this film?
I think two things were most difficult. I think writing a screenplay that is economical and can be filmed on a low budget was very difficult. I’ve written other screenplays and this one way was definitely the hardest because it took the most innovation, it took the most creativity, and it also took the longest because I had limited characters and one filming location to base this story around. The second thing was just production as a whole. You are really just testing the limits and like I said earlier the timing of production was very difficult. When you don’t have a million dollar budget you have to make sure you are organized, you have to make sure you are dynamic, you have to make sure you are filming things in the best way and the most organized way possible. Efficiency is key. So I think that was most challenging.
You know you mentioned that there were a lot of challenges that presented themselves such as the timing of production. What would you tell people who are trying to follow in your footsteps and make affordable feature films? What would be your piece of advice?
Keep fighting. Just keep fighting. Just fight. If you look at the final result of BORDERLINE it looks like it was just a simple and easily completed film but that is by far the opposite of the truth. In reality it was a massive struggle. So you have to keep fighting, you have to keep working your way through problems, and you have to keep problem solving and just not give up. It was not easy unfortunately, in fact it was the complete opposite. There were a lot of times where I was not having fun at all. It was very stressful, problematic, and dramatic at times. There were a lot of just difficult situations that were involved and I had to fight through all of it. I had to fight through a lot of adversity and if you are going to do this you have to know that there is going to be a lot of adversity and a lot of garbage and obstacles thrown your way. So just keep that in mind and keep fighting. Always find a way and just be a fighter. Don’t give up.
I ended the interview thanking Mr. Dougherty for his time. I was very impressed with his elocution, interviewing skills, and professionalism at such a young age. He was very intuitive and knowledgeable in his subject matter. I learned a lot. I will definitely be keeping my eye on him and look forward to seeing what he will accomplish in the movie industry in the near future
