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[...]
August 7th, 2011 - 12:41 am § in Contemporary Short Films
5 Shorts That Launched Features: Where Are They Now?
About a year ago I wrote a post about 5 directors who successfully launched feature films based on their shorts. You can see the films and read the post here: http://jasonbkohl.com/archives/2010/5-shorts-that-launched-features/ I thought that after a year it would be interesting to check in where th[...]
August 2nd, 2011 - 8:39 pm § in Opportunities for Filmmakers
Opportunities for Filmmakers: Cannes Residence du Festival
The Residence du Festival is an amazing opportunity for young filmmakers to live in Paris while working on their first features. It’s a bit like a combination of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and the DAAD Artists Fellowship. They’ll even teach you french! Application Details Below: 1 â€[...]
July 12th, 2011 - 6:11 pm § in Filmmaking
20% Fiction – Dylan Murray – Berkeley, CA
20% fiction is an exercise my wonderful teacher Barry Primus has us do in our advanced directing class. Each person is called up to the front of the class to tell a personal story from their lives that can contain up to 20% fiction. When I told mine it was a life-changing experience. I thought [...][...]
June 21st, 2011 - 1:34 pm § in Filmmaking
Why Every Director Should See Buck
“All your horses are a mirror to your soul, and sometimes you might not like what you see there.” -Buck On Friday night I saw the premiere of Buck, the 2011 Sundance Documentary Audience Award winner at the Landmark. This has been a good year for movies, but none has stood out so signifi[...]
June 8th, 2011 - 5:43 pm § in Screenwriting
How To Rewrite
I finished two scripts this quarter and will be moving into some major rewriting this summer. My excellent screenwriting teacher gave us a lecture on it in our final screenwriting class that I found very valuable. I’ve found rewriting difficult because I often started by going through page one[...]