Saturday 30 August 2014

Film Directing Tips, Film Making Articles and Online Resources for the Independent Filmmaker



Hollywood's health and safety nightmare - Film Directing Tips, Film Making Articles and Online Resources for the Independent Filmmaker

It was the middle of the afternoon when the emergency call came from Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. A 71-year-old man had injured his ankle "in an incident involving a garage door". Paramedics on the air ambulance sent to ferry him to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford were amazed to discover their patient was no ordinary pensioner, but Hollywood actor Harrison Ford. His ankle had been smashed by a door falling from the Millennium Falcon, the spaceship his character Han Solo flies in the original Star Wars trilogy.

Tuesday 19 August 2014

How to show texting on-screen | A ton of useful information about screenwriting from screenwriter John August

Craig and I may have taken umbrage at his video about comedy directors who aren't Edgar Wright, but Tony Zhou'snewest video looking at how filmmakers handle texting and the internet on-screen is all good.

johnaugust.com/2014/texting-in-film-and-television

Friday 1 August 2014

7 Things You Need To Make A Documentary



7 Things You Need To Make A Documentary

Mad about a thing? Want to make a documentary about it and upset a lot of other people too? In this article, I offer guidance to help you on your journey to becoming a rock star of PBS, a lead singer of troubling footage, a drummer of pie charts, a flutist of social engineering masquerading as conscience. The time has never been more totally nigh for Americans to learn the real truth about how things actually work behind the curtains, see how the sausage gets made. The truly beautiful thing about documentaries as beacons of social change is that nothing inspires a revolution so much as a bunch of people who will never meet each other to organize against a common enemy going to bed angry.

It doesn't matter if you do an exposé, a biography, or a societal critique wherein you have a massive complaint that probably pertains to you and definitely has something to do with your daddy, there are some rules you need to abide.

Filmmakers Increasingly Turning to Kickstarter



Filmmakers Increasingly Turning to Kickstarter

SAN DIEGO — The do-it-yourself spirit was alive and well at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con International, and not just among the throngs of attendees dressed in homemade costumes. In the wake of the Kickstarter campaign that successfully greenlighted the Veronica Marsmovie, several filmmakers took to this year's event to tout supporting their own projects through the crowd-sourcing site.

The most prominent among them involves a television adaptation of the 1999 cult-hit comedyFree Enterprise, a love letter to "Star Trek" fandom and geek culture that celebrated its 15th anniversary with a panel at the convention. According to the film's co-writers, Mark A. Altman and Robert Meyer Burnett, the show would retain the humor and pop culture references of the film, but with a new cast and new adventures.

How to Make a Low Budget Documentary Feature: From Idea to Distribution with “Sign Painters”



How to Make a Low Budget Documentary Feature: From Idea to Distribution with "Sign Painters"

When Faythe initially proposed the idea of doing a film about sign painting, I said what many people have said to us over the past four years: "What do you mean, sign painting?" I immediately felt pretty stupid saying that – even as a relatively aesthetically tuned-in person, a person that has always appreciated cool signage, interesting lettering, et cetera, I had never really put two and two together. I had never given much thought to the fact that there was an entire industry of talented tradesmen and women who actually made the signs I had admired for much of my life. My own ignorance was enough motivation for me to say, "Sounds great. Let's do it!"