7 websites where you can find collaborators for your indie movie

Wait! Stop! And now, slowly, without sudden moves, close Google. Well, don’t you have nothing else to do? Don’t waste your time searching for websites where you can find collaborators for your indie movie. We did it for you.

Let’s not waste any more time. Jump here and discover seven platforms where you can find partners to shoot a movie. And in the end, you will get a small bonus.

What are these 7 magic websites for finding partners for indie movies?

1. Backstage

Location: USA, Canada, Argentina, UK, Australia.
Cost: You need to pay $ 0.99 to 8.33 monthly to activate your account. The price depends on a selected plan.
Roles: Actors, performers, voiceover artists, creative freelancers, crew.

Launched in 1960, Backstage is one of the best-in-class online platforms for filmmakers. More than 100,000 creators connected with the movie industry use this website to find partners for their projects.

As an indie filmmaker, you can find collaborators of different kinds. They can be actors, cameramen, voiceover artists, whatever. But before you start searching, you have to register on the platform and activate your membership. After that, go to the message board and choose Finding talent. Then your action plan should look like this:

Add your projects and role details, including a type of production, description, payment information, etc.
Review thousands of resumes to choose the most relevant and quality talent. You can filter them by age, gender, ethnicity, and compensation parameters.
Cast and hire the talent you need. Here, Backstage provides convenient tools for managing your workflow.

Some exciting facts about Backstage:

The famous production studios that use the platform are Disney, Netflix, Nickelodeon, NBO, 20th Century Animation, and Amazon Studios.
Approximately 5890 new roles appear on the website weekly.
Backstage has its online magazine where you can find casting and industry news, advice, interviews, and more.

2. Shooting People

Location: UK
Cost: £9.95/month, £39.95/year, and £24.95/year for students.
Roles: Actors, directors, writers, crew, animators.

In 1998, sixty filmmaker friends, including founders Cath Le Couteur and Jess Search, pioneered this group. Shooting People is a vast network that unites thousands of independent movie creators in the UK today.

Can you imagine that the platform members create around 200 films each week? That’s impressive. And you can become one of them, taking advantage of Shooting People services and hiring collaboration for your indie movie. Let’s see what you should do:

Sign up and pay for the membership immediately. Unlike the other website, you can explore all the features as a guest. The platform sends you to the payment page every time you try to open the message board.
Go to the Production page consisting of two sections: Get work and Get people. Here you can review existing resumes or post an offer. When publishing the offer, you should add information about payment, location, and project details.
Contact your potential partners and get ready to shoot something terrific.

Some exciting facts about Shooting People:

The platform provides funding and arranges competitions and training courses.
As a member, you will get special discounts from festivals, industry partners, and brands, including Sheffield Doc/Fest, London Short Film Festival, Adobe, Nikon, and Zipcar.
You can share your short films to get feedback from other users.

3. We Make Movies

Location: USA, UK
Cost: Free access, the Silver plan is $10/month or $100/year, and the Gold plan is $20/month or $ 200/year.
Roles: Actors, directors, writers, editors, crew.

We Make Movies positions itself as a film studio. It aims to ultimately bridge the gap between the filmmaker and the business of film. To achieve this goal, the company provides production and creative services, writers, rough cut, and performance labs.

As an indie filmmaker, you may be interested in its membership community. We Make Movies launched it to help independent movie creators to connect and collaborate with other indie filmmakers in their area. Let’s see how it works:

Sign up for free or choose a suitable plan. The paid membership gives more opportunities like access to training courses or consultations. However, a message board is available even with a free account.
Go to the message board. There, you can choose a job board particularly. It works very simply: You need to add your offer. There are no filters, special requirements, or whatever. Your ad can include your contacts, so you don’t need to message somebody using the website.
Contact your potential partner and discuss all the details by personal email or telephone.

Some exciting facts about We Make Movies:

The company arranges its own International Film Festival every year. You can participate as well.
Its blog tells about filmmaking insights.
We Make Movies offers a unique Smartphone Studio course where you can learn how to shoot films with your mobile camera.

4. Mandy

Location: USA, Canada, UK, Australia, India.
Cost: Free
Roles: Actors, singers, theater professionals, voiceover artists, dancers, music professionals, entertainers, crew.

Mandy (actually, it’s a founder’s name) launched the website in 1996. It was the first online resource helping film and TV professionals to find work. And today, it is the world’s largest creative community of moviemakers and theater professionals. Mandy empowers creators to connect so they can collaborate to create fantastic projects together.

You can get the most out of Mandy using its forum and noticeboard. The platform sends daily job alerts so you won’t miss a thing. Also, it provides a super convenient personal page where you can see job applications, recent jobs and opportunities, mails, forums, and more. So, how to start?

Sign up and choose a profile type. It can be for candidates and employers. Each one provides extra functions that come in handy in a particular case.
Go to the Jobs section, where you can see many offers. You can post your ad or look through the available ones here—filter messages to save your time.
Get job applications from other members. Contact them through messenger on the platform.

Some exciting facts about Mandy:

Mandy is proud to partner with such outstanding organizations as UK Film Festival London, Equity, Fat Llama, National Youth Theater, London Screenwriters’ Festival, etc.
It offers a free video library with lessons from the top professionals in the industry.

5. Stage 32

Location: Worldwide.
Cost: Free
Roles: Actors, screenwriters, crew, colorists, directors, producers, etc.

The establishment of Stage 32 was inspired by Orson Welles, who knew that to have success, he needed to surround himself not only with highly talented creatives but with true collaborators. And Richard ‘RB’ Botto, the founder, used this principle when launching his platform in 2011. He designed it to provide networking opportunities and an extremely positive and collaborative environment.

Today, there are over 500,000 members. And you can collaborate with some of them to make a great film. To start your search, you have to:

Sign up and specify how you deal with the film industry.
Go to the Jobs section and add your offer there. It should be detailed, including deadline, status, genre, type, location, payment, description, and image.
Get requests from other users and find the best talents for your project. You can chat with partners using the local messenger.

Some exciting facts about Stage 32:

Its blog tells how you can succeed in the industry.
Stage 32 arranges webinars, classes, and contests.
It has a podcast you can listen to while driving a car or cleaning your home.
You can upload a Stage 32 mobile app.

6. Stareable

Location: USA
Cost: Free
Roles: Actors, directors, writers, editors, crew, etc.

This platform appeared due to the idea that the creators of web series do not receive enough attention and support while they do very cool shows. Do you know that the popularity of web series is growing today? That’s why this narrow-specialized website attracts the attention of indie creators.

If you’re also shooting web series, you’ll enjoy the platform. But how to start working with it? Honestly, it’s pretty easy.

Unlike other websites, first, go to the Community forum page.
Sign up, and don’t forget to specify your best filmmaking skill.
Add a post like you do on any forum. There are now any special requirements. But you can filter ads by categories to see all Job Postings.
Leave comments on posts you like. Also, here you can add links and personal contacts without a problem.

Some exciting facts about Stareable:

The company arranges the Stareable indie TV and indie web series festival in the US.
You can check its podcast, named Forget The Box.
Also, Stareable hosted a virtual event where famous indie creators shared their experiences.

7. Cinematography

Location: Worldwide.
Cost: Free, but you can get a premium account for $ 3/month.
Roles: Actors, directors, writers, editors, crew, etc.

Cinematography is the simplest of all the filmmaking websites listed. In essence, it’s just a forum where creators share news, tips, and experiences and find partners for projects.

The forum generally consists of many categories, each dedicated to one specialization. However, you need a section called Jobs, Resumes, and Reels. To be able to find collaboration there, you should:

Sign up and confirm your email. But it’s not the end of the registration. Then you have to write a short introduction to the owner. It’s an obligatory step because the owner wants only interested people to have access to the forum.
Open the Jobs, Resumes, and Reels section. You can look through the available posts or start a new topic to find the right partners.
Discuss all the details on the forum or share personal contacts. There are no limits or requirements concerning what your post includes.

Some exciting facts about Cinematography:

There is a calendar containing the birthday dates of all users.
You can find a list of must-see videos for filmmakers on the forum.

Okay, we finished with this independent filmmakers’ list of websites. Honestly, there are other platforms to find partners for your indie movie.

Psss, do you want some extra resources?

You know them: Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, etc. But wait, aren’t they meant to congratulate your grandmother on her birthday and ask people what the worst dream they have today is? Yes, of course. But you can use these websites for professional purposes as an indie filmmaker. Let’s see how.

1. Behance

Behance is such a vast folder with portfolios of all possible visual creators. Indeed, you are unlikely to find a screenwriter here. But by filtering projects by the word ‘film’ in the Creative Fields category, you can find a cameraman, editor, or colorist.

2. Reddit

It is a platform that accumulates vast human experience in any subject. Indie filmmaking is no exception. Proof of this is a large number of subreddits, where independent creators discuss what’s the best way to implement their idea. Of course, it’s easy to find like-minded people with whom you can team up to create a cool product. And to make it easier for you to start searching, check the following groups:

r/Filmmakers (> 2.6m members)
r/cinematography (> 233k members)
r/Screenwriting (> 1.5m screenwriters)
r/directors (> 5.4k members)
r/postproduction (> 1.4k members)
r/videography (> 186k members)
r/VideoEditing (> 313k members)
r/CameraAKS (> 1.9k members)
r/colorists (> 21.7k members)
r/directors (> 5.4k members)

3. Facebook

Facebook is not just a place where you can post videos with cats and repost funny memes. And beyond classmates and relatives, you can find potential partners here for the shooting of your independent film. You can do this effectively by joining thematic groups, where people publish ads or short resumes from time to time. For example, look at these:

4. LinkedIn

Here everything seems clear. It is a professional social network to search for jobs and employees. Therefore, it is a shame not to draw on it. Of course, you can search for the word Cameraman or Editor and write to one of the proposed options. But try also joining special groups and finding collaborators there, for example:

5. Twitter

Is it a little unexpected? Maybe you think how this online platform, where one post can contain no more than 280 characters, can help find partners for filming? But it appears that 77 million people in the United States use Twitter. So, there are your like-minded people. So how to find them? First, subscribe to thematic pages. They not only share helpful content but also repost ads.

The second way is to search using some hashtags, for example:

#supportindiefilm
#indiefilm
#castingcall
#actorwanted
#cameramanwanted

Summing Up

Now, do you see that you don’t need Google? All you need to do is follow the links provided in our article. You can choose one, several, or all. Eventually, you know that there are currently seven best platforms where you can find partners for your indie movie:

Backstage
Shooting People
We Make Movies
Mandy
Stage 32
Stareable
Cinematography

You may choose the one whose interface you like best. But also remember that you can always find help on social networks.

Have you already used any of these websites? Share your experience in the comments.