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my filmmaking tip for you this week is this: Don’t burn your bridges!
You never know who might help you in your filmmaking eventually. So you’re going to want to make friends with everyone you meet and hang on to that friendship dearly. You never know who could make or break your career some day.
You know the saying “working for penuts”? Well… it’s real! You can very possibly get cast and crew to work for free for two things: 1) Credit, 2) Free Food!
This week’s tip is simple (and it’s advise I need to take myself!)
PLAN AHEAD.
I have the problem of trying to do things too fast. The end result is that there isn’t a finished film, but a dropped project!
Give yourself ample time for a project. Dont’ say “I’m gonna make this film this month!” but rather “I’m going to make this film over the course of the next several months”.
Slow and steady wins the race, so take your time, plan everything out to the smallest detail, and give yourself plenty of headroom so you aren’t rushing to get everything done.
How do you make it in the industry? Well, yeah, it helps to be talented, but what helps more is knowing people.
How do you get to know people? NETWORK!
Join any filmmaking web-forum you can find! Get involved in independant film productions and make buddies with everyone involved. Talk to EVERYONE you EVER meet… even if they’re NOT in the industry. You never know who you might meet that might want to be involved in making a movie. So make sure everybody knows you make movies.
Crashing a few hollywood parties MIGHT help, or it might get you in jail… so for that one, I’d say be cautious. You’re better off going the legal routes.
Ok, so, I wasn’t sure what to write today’s blog about until about 5 minutes ago when someone in a message board asked me “Seriously, what do you need to make films?”
About a week ago, someone asked me a similar question. “I want to be a film maker too when i get older. How many years of college do you need?”
I answered each of these people individually… but you, my readers, may have similar questions. So here we go:
“What do you need to make films?”
1) A Script. There’s a famous saying. “The plot’s the thing.” This is absolutely true. If you have no script, you have no story. If you have no story, you have nothing. Also, if you have no script, you have no characters. And if you have no characters, you have nothing to drive the story. If nothing drives the story, there’s no story… and without a story you have nothing. Sure, writing a script takes a while and some may find it hard to do.. but just remember, “The plot’s the thing”. No script, no plot, no movie.
2) A camera. You’re making a movie. A movie is a VISUAL medium. If you don’t have a camera, to get the visuals, then you don’t have a movie.
3) Lights. Think about it like this: if you film something and have no light source, you’re shooting in total darkness. What will the audience see? A black screen.
4) A microphone. Actually, it’d be cool to have a full multi-million dollar sound studio… but since I’m willing to bet you don’t have that (if I’m wrong, please let me borrow it!), a microphone in your camera’s mic jack will work. If you’re poor like me and have a piece of crap camera that doesn’t even HAVE a mic jack… save and get a camera that does, or borrow/rent someone elses.
5) Actors. Your story needs characters… so you need someone to BE those characters!
6) An editing program. Editors are important. Perhaps the most important position on a film crew. The editor is the guy that puts all your footage together into a cohesive film.
“How many years of college do you need?”
Answer? None. Sure, there are positives to film school. You get the experience. You get the know-how. You get the networking. You get damn good equipment. But, if you DON’T go to film school, and decide to read books, talk to people on film forums, and shoot your own movies, you’ll get all the same stuff… just not as good equipment.
Ok, so the very first question you need to ask yourself before you make your film is “what should I make a film about?” That’s a pretty tricky question. You’d better take some time to think about that. I can’t tell you what to to make a film about, but I can make some suggestions on where to start.
A well known saying is “write what you know.” Well, ok, that makes sence. Especially when you’re first starting. After all, you don’t really want to go through all the research on writting a screenplay about Jesse Marcel when you know nothing about the Roswell Crash or Area 51. And why on earth would you try writing a script from the point of veiw of a struggling 52 year old black woman when you’re a 22 year old rich white kid?
On the other hand, you live every day of your life with “what you know”, right? You’re probably sick of it and don’t want to spend another second with yourself. (At least I don’t… but hey, maybe you had a better day than me!)
My opinion? Write what you care about! So the idea of space exploration interests the hell out of you, but you’ve never been outside of your hometown let along the stratosphere. So what? If you really care about space exploration, you’ll find the inspiration to find out more about it and write a convincing first draft! And you’ll probably have fun doing it, too!
More so than writing about a guy who works the midnight shift at a plastic factory practically breaking his back everyday just so he can make his car payment. Sure, you ARE that midnight plastic making guy with a decent car (at least until your muffler rusts through next month, and your breaks go bad a week after the muffler gets fixed. Sorry to be the one to tell you about that!), but that doesn’t mean you should write about it! You’ll be even MORE depressed writting about your sad sorry life than actually living it!
And please, PLEASE, do NOT write an autobiography. An english teacher once told me (well, my class, at least) “Don’t give me the story of your life. I don’t care.”
So figure out what you WANT to write about. What interests you enough to sit at a computer and write a 85-130 page script over the next 3 weeks-3 years. Then, write it.
And if I hear of ANY new movies about a guy breaking his back on the midnight shift for Plastec, I’m going to demand back end points!
One of the most frequently asked questions from aspiring filmmakers is “how do I learn to make great films?”
There are actually three answers to this question, and really, you should follow all three.
1) READ. You should read books on filmmaking. LOTS of them. Don’t bother spending tens of thousands of dollars on film school (unless you REAAAAAAAALLY wanna!)! You can get the same information by heading to the library (well, maybe not the MONROE library, as I’ve pretty much read all their filmmaking books, and it’s not many)! What books should you read? Well, for books that cover all filmmaking subjects, get books like “The Complete Idiots Guide to Independant Filmmaking” and “Filmmaking for Dummies”. Really. They’re good reads, and very informative. You can also get books specifically geared to different aspects of making moving pictures, such as directing, cinematagraphy, and script-writting.
And really, since the movie is all about the story, you should read more than just books on how to do it! Read Scripts too! At the end of “Rebel without a Crew” by Robert Rodriquez, you can read the original script from El Mariachi. Also, at the Monroe Library System, you can get the script to Stephen King’s “The Storm of the Century”.
Want some more specific books to read? Go here!
2) WATCH! What movies should you watch to learn about filmmaking? That’s the easiest question of all to answer! ALL OF THEM! Watch every movie you can get your fingers on. Watch good movies, bad movies, feature films, short films, blockbusters, bombs, indie flicks, flash-animated cartoons… EVERYTHING! Every movie can show you something about filmmaking. What to do, what NOT to do, dialogue, sound, cinematagraphy, story… Watch movies. Lots of them. After all, would you try to write a novel if you’ve never read a book? Then don’t attempt filmmaking without watching some movies!
3) DO! Make a freakin’ movie! It can be anything from your own indepenant feature film, to a 5 minute skate board video! The best way to learn how to do something, is get out there and do it! So after you’ve read a couple books and watched a couple DVDs, get out there and make a movie! And don’t worry so much how good it is. You’re still growing. Don’t be afraid to bomb in the beginning. Don’t worry about it looking like a home video. Just make something!
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