Posts Tagged ‘film students’
Screenwriting Books You Need to Read – Top Ten List
Top Ten Screenwriting Books You Need to Read 1) Screenplay by Syd Field The first book I ever read about screenwriting. Syd Field is the forefather of the how-to for screenwriting. He cracked the code of the three-act structure and paved the way for all other screenwriting gurus that would follow. As far as I know,…
Read MoreHow to Get Bad Ass Prop Guns for Your Film
How to Get Bad Ass Prop Guns for Your Film When my team and I were making my first short film BROKEN we really wanted to have functional and professional-looking guns for the project. Obviously, we weren’t going to use real guns and getting our hands on working prop guns was too cost prohibited. We knew…
Read MoreTop Ten Best Screenplays Ever Written
Top Ten Best Screenplays Ever Written If you want to be a screenwriter you have to read screenplays. There’s no better place to start than reading the masters of the craft. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) published this list of the top ten best screenplays ever written and I would have to agree. My personal favorites…
Read MoreHow to Make a $1,000 Feature Film with Jay & Mark Duplass
How to make a $1,000 Feature Film with Jay and Mark Duplass Make a feature film for $1000? Sounds crazy right? Well if you don’t know Mark Duplass you should get to know him. Mark and his brother Jay Duplass are most widely known for making the indie film hits “The Puffy Chair” and “Safety Not Guaranteed.”…
Read MoreQuentin Tarantino’s Unreleased Feature Film: My Best Friend’s Birthday
Quentin Tarantino’s Lost Feature Film: My Best Friend’s Birthday Sponsored by: Special.tv – Stream Independent Few directors are as high profile and equally controversial than Quentin Tarantino. The man is a lightning rod for criticism and praise. Make no mistake, there is no middle ground here—you either love his work or are physically repulsed by it. However, one objective…
Read MoreAkira Kurosawa: Breaking Down the Master’s Directing Techniques
Akira Kurosawa – The Master of Masters Some of my favorite directors of all time are Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, and of course Akira Kurosawa. Ever since I watched the Criterion Collection Laserdisc (yes I’m old) of Seven Samurai and Rashomon I was hooked. Even in high school I knew that no one else in the world…
Read MoreRobert Rodriguez Interview: How to Build a Indie Filmmaking Empire
Robert Rodriguez and How to Build a Filmmaking Empire You can’t say indie film without saying, Robert Rodriguez. I’ve been a HUGE fan of how Robert Rodriguez makes his films for a long time. His legendary film “El Mariachi” was released when I was in high school and changed my life. Since then he has…
Read More[WATCH] All of Robert Rodriguez’s 10 Minute Film School
Robert Rodriguez’s 10 Minute Film Schools – ALL OF THEM I’ve been a huge fan of the way writer/director Robert Rodriguez makes his films. The almost total creative control within the studio system is remarkable. Before Youtube film schools there was the 10-minute film schools on every DVD release of any Robert Rodriguez film. These 10 minute film…
Read MoreFREE Screenwriting Master Classes: Top Ten List
Screenwriting Master Classes: Top Ten List What you are about to listen to is probably the equivalent of taking at least five years of screenwriting courses or classes at a top tier film school. BAFTA (The British Academy of Film and Television Arts) has an amazing collection of FREE screenwriting lectures from some of the…
Read MoreDavid Fincher: The Ultimate Guide to His Films & Directing Style
David Fincher: The Ultimate Guide to His Films and Directing Style 1999 was a watershed year for people in my generation, as it no doubt was for other generations as well. On the eve of the new millennium, we were caught in a place between excitement and apprehension. The 21st century loomed large with promises…
Read MoreWATCH: Why the First Act of Every Film Is The Same!
Why the First Act of Every Film Is The Same! It is surprising that the first act of most movies are normally the same, the way they set up the character as part of the storyline for the film. Most films show these five things, although maybe not in this exact order. Check out this…
Read MoreLessons Learned from Winning a Screenwriting Competition
Winning Screenwriting Competitions: Lessons Learned Years ago when I received word that my screenplay, Control; Alt; Delete, had won not one but two screenwriting competitions, I believed that all the hard work, years of struggle, self-doubt, and rejection had culminated to a glowing achievement that would forever wash away the specter of failure: I had…
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