5 Rules These Oscar Nominated Filmmakers Didn't Follow

Director Mark Gill and Producer Baldwin Li broke quite a few rules along the way to their Academy Award nomination.

Oscar-nominated short film "The Voorman Problem" tells the story of an inmate who believes he is a god

“The Voorman Problem” written and directed by Mark Gill and starring Martin Freeman (aka Bilbo Baggins) is a dark comedy about a prison psychiatrist who is brought in to analyze an inmate (Tom Hollander) who believes he is a god.

1. If there's one rule most people have heard, it's that religious discussion in public is taboo, especially when tied thematically to mental illness

These two filmmakers made a film about a god and put him in a straight jacket.

2. When contacting a star, always go through his manager

Mark and Baldwin sent the film script directly to Kevin Spacey in London.

Remarkably, Kevin Spacey responded within days, saying he couldn't do it, but recommended it to Tom Hollander (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest).

3. You need a huge budget to hire big stars

In fact, Mark and Baldwin secured Tom Hollander & Martin Freeman as unpaid actors and had the audacity to request that Hollander and Freeman travel over 3 hours to the shooting location on their own dime.

4. Don't publicly beg for help

These two filmmakers shared their budget woes with a leading newspaper in England who printed their story, directly resulting in sponsorship to travel to the Oscars from England to the U.S.

5. Don't ask friends for work help

The two filmmakers reached out to a friend at Autodesk Media & Entertainment and got him to do the post production work for free.

Learn more about Autodesk.

Purchase The Voorman Problem on iTunes..