My Kickstarter Page A few weeks ago I began the process of raising funds to get my last short film, A Son Like You, through post-production. This is a lengthy process that includes a colorist who cleans up the image, digital transfer to HD, foley (SFX) work, sound mastering and mixing, and DVD creat[...]
Archive for the ‘Filmmaking’ Category
10 Problems With Student Scripts
After my first year at film school I have spent a lot of time with short screenplays. I’ve written around 20 or so at this point, and have dealt with almost all of these difficulties in my own writing. In the last few years I’ve seen a lot of short films, and these are the [...][...]
May 30th, 2010 - 5:36 pm § in Filmmaking
Some Quotes from Alexander Mackendrick
Mackendrick was the legendary director of The Sweet Smell of Success and a long-time professor at Calarts Film School. On filmmaking, his collected lectures, is one of the best books I have ever read on the subject, and is especially useful for student filmmakers. Some quotes: Student films come in [...]
May 23rd, 2010 - 12:15 am § in Film School, Filmmaking
The Thesis Film in the Era of the Microbudget
Jared Moshé recently published an article entitled “The Microbudget is the New Short,” where he comments that the microbudget feature is “essentially the new and improved version of the short film.” This is an idea that has been floating around for some time. As the microbud[...]
May 1st, 2010 - 10:07 pm § in Filmmaking, Screenwriting
The Art of The Pitch
A pitch is somewhere between a joke and a campfire story. We recently had two pitching experts come in to speak to our class. They gave sage and candid advice about pitching screenplays. I also had the opportunity to get a pitch critiqued by them for my upcoming screenplay. I bombed and it was an [.[...]
The Short That Gets You An Agent
A Melbourne film school grad and former editor of Oz cinema mag Inside Film, Michod shot to prominence through a series of compelling short films. Many were made with frequent collaborators, such as Susser and Edgerton, with Michod also writing for and acting in their respective shorts. Michod’[...]
April 16th, 2010 - 10:25 am § in Filmmaking, Screenwriting
Is It a Story or a Situation?
I received this from a professor the other day, it articulated something I have been thinking about for years: A situation is not a story. A story is a beginning middle and end about someone who wants something and goes after getting it. They can’t just want anything, though, they have to [...]
April 13th, 2010 - 5:07 pm § in Filmmaking
Adventures in Self-Distribution Parts 2 and 3
Jon Reiss on DIY Web Marketing – Filmmaker Magazine – Spring 2009 So you’ve authored your DVD and perhaps even replicated it. You’ve found a fulfillment company that you are happy with. Now, how to get people to buy it? Jon Reiss on DVD DIstribution – Filmmaker Magazine –[...]
April 12th, 2010 - 5:08 pm § in Filmmaking, News
Adventures in Self-Distribution
This is a fascinating series of articles on one filmmaker who took matters into his own hands, doing his own theatrical and DVD distribution. It has a lot to say about the internet age, marketing, and making some money off of your films. I was reminded of how Cassavetes self-distributed A Woman Unde[...]
March 25th, 2010 - 11:03 pm § in Film School, Filmmaking
10 Things I Learned On the 6-Minute Shoots
The six minute film is now over. We have completed our 7 week Thursday-Sunday rotation through all 7 positions: Director Boom Operator Assistant Director 1st Assistant Camera Gaffer Director of Photography Sound Mixer All seven people in my group (6 directors and 1 DP) went through this rotation sta[...]