A question I get asked a lot is some form of Is film school worth it? It’s a complicated question that every person has to answer for themselves, but I wanted to focus on one aspect of it which I like to call the Film School Paradox: as the cost of making films goes down, [...][...]
Archive for the ‘Film School’ Category
October 9th, 2011 - 12:53 pm § in Film School
The Seven Components of Film School Strategy
A while back Short of the Week Editor Andrew S. Allen told me I should write about my thoughts about film school strategy. Here are the seven things I came up with that I find essential to any successful film school career: 1. Find Your Voice This is a murky territory that a lot of [...][...]
September 17th, 2011 - 10:53 am § in Film School, Filmmaking
Great First Features for 250K and Under
About a year ago I wrote a piece called the thesis film in the era of the microbudget. In brief the post talked about the evolution of the microbudget feature and its effect on the role the thesis film plays in launching careers. You can read the post by clicking here. It seems I underestimated the[...]
September 12th, 2011 - 6:38 pm § in Film School, Filmmaking
Good Enough
One of the great unspoken tragedies of film school is that many students never finish their films. The reasons for this are manifold; disappointment with the work, the potentially high costs of postproduction, and the desire to shoot pickups come to mind. If I look back on how long it took me to fin[...]
June 3rd, 2011 - 10:20 am § in Film School
Inner Maturity
Making films that move an audience is a very difficult thing to do. It involves a lot of hard work, craft and luck, and often doesn’t turn out the way we hoped. Making and screening a film, something I and my classmates will do next week, is one of the most humbling things a person can [...][...]
January 30th, 2011 - 4:43 pm § in Film School
Great Directors And Their Early Films
I’m in pre-production and a bit too swamped to write a longer post, so I thought I’d share some early works by some now very notable directors. Everyone starts somewhere. For your viewing pleasure. Rian Johnson USC Directed “Brick”[...]
Short Film Festival Strategy
I recently attended a seminar held at UCLA on festival strategy and thought I would elaborate on my own. At this point in my career I’m near completion on two short films, gearing up for shooting another, and am searching for financing for my first feature, which I’m developing with a wr[...]
Students and Alums @ Sundance 2011
There were over 6,400 short films submitted this year. This is a new column looking at American film school student and alumni representation at major festivals. Sundance is the first major festival to start the year, so I’m going to take a look at the US Narrative feature and short film categ[...]
Mamet’s Three Questions
When I write, I have these three questions above my computer, which I initially found in David Mamet’s “Bambi Versus Godzilla.” He also kindly repeated these notes to his writing staff in his famous rant: QUESTION:WHAT IS DRAMA? DRAMA, AGAIN, IS THE QUEST OF THE HERO TO OVERCOME TH[...]