Show Don't Tell: Micro-Budget Filmmaking Touring With Your Indie Film, Self-Distribution & Building a Sustainable Filmmaking Career With Hudson Phillips
Oct 31, 2025
53:17
On today’s episode, I’m joined by filmmaker Hudson Phillips, who returns to share the incredible story of how his first appearance on the podcast led to getting his feature film financed (via one of our listeners)
Throughout the discussion we take a deep dive into the realities of making micro-budget features profitable - Touring films like bands, selling merch, building community city-by-city, and designing a sustainable filmmaking life outside the traditional Hollywood pipeline.
Topics covered include:
Links from the show:
Mirror Box Films
Hudson Phillips - Instagram
Mirror Box Films - Substack
Sign up for my newsletter for exclusive filmmaking insight each Sunday
Throughout the discussion we take a deep dive into the realities of making micro-budget features profitable - Touring films like bands, selling merch, building community city-by-city, and designing a sustainable filmmaking life outside the traditional Hollywood pipeline.
Topics covered include:
- How a single podcast interview led directly to a private film investor
- Touring your film like a band, and why this model works
- How to screen in multiple cities without losing money
- The merch items that actually sell at indie screening events
- Lessons from distribution hell, and why Hudson went DIY
- Self-releasing via FilmHub, Bitmax & digital strategy in 2025+
- Building a real community vs chasing festivals
- Why creative constraints make films better (even at the studio level)
- “Higher-concept, lower-budget” filmmaking strategy
- The future of micro-budget movies & audience building
Links from the show:
Mirror Box Films
Hudson Phillips - Instagram
Mirror Box Films - Substack
Sign up for my newsletter for exclusive filmmaking insight each Sunday