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"I
want to be a filmmaker what should I do?"
I
get emails all the time from people who have read Developing
Digital Short Films asking what they should do about wanting
to be a filmmaker or animator - go to film school or make a film?
I tell them to just make the best film you can and use the money
you would have spent on film school to pay your expenses, while
making the film, or do it part time while working.
If
you need the structure of a class to learn things like software,
check with local community colleges for digital arts programs. Community
colleges will teach you the same types of skills the private colleges
do that charge lots of money in tricky student loan deals. You do
not want to come out a two year digital arts program with $70,000
worth of student loans at 5-20% interest to start off your career
in debt. Many of these loans from private art schools have lots
of penalties and interest rate hikes, for things like a missed payment,
that can easily turn a $75,000 loan into $150,000 that cannot be
forgiven even in bankruptcies.
Read
the new article from CNN "Student
Loan Fugitives"
Read
the new article from NYT "In
Grim Job Market, Student Loans Are a Costly Burden"
When
visiting potential schools keep in the mind that the staff people
"helping" you to make a big decision, are actually sales
people who's job it is to get you to sign up for a student loan.
Media people and companies hire based on great demo reels and the
ability to produce professional looking work. Some companies will
not even look at your reel if you put a media school on your resume
they do not like, or think produces graduates they do not want to
hire.
If you want to make other people's films, and have the time and
money, you should go to a top notch film school. If you want to
write, direct and create your own ideas get this DVD workshop and
make a great film fast! Many people who have gone to film school
email me saying their school never covered the types of things I
talk about in Developing Digital Short Films and how important these
things are when actually making the film yourself. Most film schools
will leave you in debt to the tune of $40,000 -$100,000 with no
film to sell, competing for a very small number of film or animation
jobs available each year to graduates. If you were to take this
story class from me at the art school I use to teach at on the graduate
level, it would cost about $2500 and you would not be getting any
DVDs.
You
can now make a digital feature film for about $3000 worth of equipment.
We will be posting a list of the types of equipment we use soon.
To make a feature film even a few years ago you had to come up with
$100 per minute just to pay for film stock and processing. DV tapes
cost about $4 for 60 minutes. It is very easy to hit the record
button on a modern digital video camera, point it at something interesting,
capture the footage into your computer, edit and output to DVD in
a snap. The hard part is coming up with a great idea or story to
shoot. This new DVD workshop will help you to think in a completely
new way about creating stories by seeing, hearing, reading and participating
in a fun to watch animated TV show storytelling workshop. These
DVDs are high resolution full of motion graphics, 3D animation and
digital video techniques. They are guaranteed to work in 95% of
DVD set top players and 100% of standard Mac and PC computers.
All
of the new techniques presented in "Writing A Great Script
Fast" are designed to help you think like a professional visual
storyteller, while deepening your film idea and making it more emotionally
engaging. This will make you more enthusiastic about getting your
film project into production, while attracting top investors and
talent. It also works great for rewriting existing screenplays or
getting ideas on how to fix problem films already in production.
Writing
A Great Script Fast is not a film theory workshop. This class
is designed to get you into motion and excited about creating
your dream film projects now!
You
do not need to have read the book "Developing
Digital Short Films" to benefit from this workshop. "Writing
A Great Script Fast" has been specifically designed to be a
complete and simplified screenwriting process. If you have read
the book, or are in the middle of doing the step-by-step process,
this workshop will speed up your progress and deepen your understanding
of creating digitally enhanced scripts and visual storytelling techniques.
Click here
to read what other people are saying about using the step-by-step
process presented in the book.
What
went into Writing A Great Script Fast?
Below
is a list of resources I have used over the years to come up with
my unique step-by-step story process. The best ideas and visual
narrative techniques were harvested from these sources and folded
into a simple step-by-step process for writing a great script or
story fast:
1)
Aristotle's Poetics
2)
The Art Of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri
3)
Writing Screenplays That Sell by Michael Hauge
4)
Creating Unforgettable Characters by Linda Seger
5)
Making a Good Script Great by Linda Seger
6)
Story by Robert McKee
7)
Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
8)
The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
9)
Screenplay by Syd Field
10)
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
11)
The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler
12)
All of Michael Dougan's screenwriting classes at FAF in SF
13)
Computers As Theatre by Brenda Laurel
14)
Adventures In The Screen Trade by William Goldman
15)
The Illusion Of Life by Frank Thompson and Ollie Johnson
16)
The Bare Bones Camera Book
17)
Writing Short Films by Linda Cowgill
18)
Crafting Short Screenplays That Connect by Johnson
19)
Making A Good Writer Great by Linda Seger
20)
101 Things They Don't Teach You In Filmschool
21)
In The Blink Of An Eye by Walter Murch
22)
Deconstructing 100's of films and stories
There
were other sources too but these above are the main ones. A great
deal of time was spent weeding out information that was interesting
but not very useful for writing scripts. I then went and deconstructed
100's of films, TV shows, animations, myths and stories to find
out how they really worked. All of this information was folded into
the step-by-step process that has now been used by 1000's of people
and continually refined over the last 10 years through much research,
trial and error.
When
writing a script or a novel it is very easy to get lost, run out
of steam or find yourself with a great idea that is missing something
you cannot quite put your finger on but can feel it lacking. By
going through this story building process you will fill out your
idea in layers that play together like instruments in an orchestra.
This
step-by-step story engine process allows you try out 1000's of basic
storytelling techniques at least once, while weaving together a
great original tale. And the best part is that the next time you
go to think up another story idea, you will remember many of the
step-by-step techniques to help you craft great ideas fast for the
rest of your life.
Think
of this workshop as a universal storytelling blueprint engine. You
can throw any idea at it and walk away with a brilliant script idea
in about 20 hours. Now how fun is this creative possibility if you
are a writer or filmmaker?
"A
need to tell and hear stories is essential to the species
Homo sapiens--second in necessity apparently after nourishment
and before love and shelter. Millions survive without love
or home, almost none in silence; the opposite of silence leads
quickly to narrative, and the sound of story is the dominant
sound of our lives, from the small accounts of our day's events
to the vast incommunicable constructs of psychopaths."
-Reynolds Price
"Writing
A Great Script Fast" is an ideal gift for:
-
Digital filmmakers
- Independent
filmmakers writing scripts
- Screenwriters
- Animators
- both traditional and modern computer animators
- Filmmaking
students
- Creative
writing students
- Career
Change Filmmakers - Recently Unemployed? Make a film to sell!
- Music
video artists developing film ideas
- Students
now in classes using the book "Developing Digital Short Films"
who would rather watch a video about the book than read the whole
thing
- Schools
who do not have anyone to teach a screenwriting or digital preproduction
class may use the DVD Workshop with the book and Workbooks to
teach a virtual class
- Directed
or independent study students working on film or new media final
or thesis projects who need guidance on planning out their story
ideas and writing scripts
- Novelists
who need help planning out their stories
-
Independent filmmaking groups who want to use the DVD Workshop
to teach screenwriting and preproduction to members with the Workbooks
- People
who have access to a DV camera and want to make a film one day
but do not know where to start or how to write a script
- School
libraries that would like a copy of the DVD Workshop for students
to check out on loan to help supplement coursework materials
- Homeschooling
DVD class for teaching visual storytelling, screenwriting and
digital filmmaking
- People
thinking about writing their life story or the history of a family
member
- Game
Designers or Developers creating emotionally engaging interactive
stories or games
- Creative
people or kids with ADD thrive in this DVD class structure
- Road
trip car DVD workshop to create a great film or story idea
- School
systems looking for a video server based digital story class solution
- A
wonderful gift idea for any budding filmmaker, writer or visual
artist!
Give
the gift of story structure! These DVDs are a great
resource for people interested in filmmaking or storytelling who
do not usually read books but like watching educational TV shows.
A useful tool for anyone interested in telling visual stories with
their work! Use the techniques presented in this DVD workshop to
get your feature film funded and in production at MyFlik.com
"Your Online Movie Studio."™
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"When
you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary
project, all your thoughts break their bounds; Your mind transcends
limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction,
and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world.
Dormant forces, faculties, and talents become alive, and you
discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever
dreamed yourself to be."
- Patanjali
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