Film Festivals for May, 2008
May 1
SFMUG Short Movie Festival (Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA)
May 1-5
Marfa Film Festival (Marfa, Texas, USA)
May 2-4
MOCKFEST: The Mockumentary Film Festival (Hollywood, California, USA)
May 2-4
New Strand Film Festival (West Liberty, Iowa, USA)
May 2-4
Festival des Très Courts (various cities, France)
May 3-11
Toronto Jewish Film Festival (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
May 8
Golden Trailer Awards (Los Angeles, California, USA)
The Rule of Thirds
If there are only a couple things you remember from reading this blog, the rule of thirds should be one of them. It is an incredibly useful and easy rule.
The rule of thirds is a compositional rule in photography and film. The rule states that an image can be divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines. The four points formed by the intersections of these lines can be used to align features in the shot. Aligning a shot with these points creates more tension, energy and interest than simply centering it.
Here are two videos to help you understand the concept:
How to White Balance
An important step in film making that every person should know is the process of white balancing a shot.
What is White Balance you ask? To put it simply, it’s the process of telling the camera what the color white looks like, so the camera will adjust the other colors accordingly. This way you will get a nice shot that isn’t too yellow or too blue… it’s as natural looking as possible.
To white balance you follow these steps:
Study other writers’ screenplays
The internet is a great research tool for any subject, including screenwriting. There are many sites that provide free scripts for the majority of movies. The best way to learn is to read lots of screenplays and study their style. Notice what they have in common with each other and how they are unique. I find this particularly useful when I see a cool and unique scene in a movie and wonder “Hmm… I wonder how this scene was written in the screenplay”.
The following websites provide scripts for free:
http://www.simplyscripts.com/movie.html
http://www.script-o-rama.com/snazzy/table.html
http://www.movie-page.com/movie_scripts.htm
http://www.moviescriptsandscreenplays.com/
Recommended Viewing: Sunset Blvd.
Sunset Boulevard is an American film noir classic directed and co-written by Billy Wilder. It was named after the famous boulevard of the same name that runs through Los Angeles and Beverly Hills.
The film stars William Holden as Joe Gillis, a screenwriter with money problems, and Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, a silent film star who has faded away as a result of movies with spoken dialogue. The two cross paths accidentally and form a relationship. An odd and frightening relationship.
Let your actors improv
When shooting something, you have a screenplay written and ready to go. The dialogue is set and all that’s left is for you actors to deliver the lines to the best of their potential. But something happens when good actors get going. They’ll begin to improv if they forget their lines and the wonderful thing is that sometimes those lines are better than what is in the screenplay. Actors play off each other and their environments… when they’re feeling something, they go with it and you as a director should keep the camera rolling and let them do their thing.
Of course you should watch the improv if you are shooting on film — which is expensive. If you’re shooting video then keep recording. Tapes are cheap. Don’t worry about filling up a tape. Simply reload and keep going. Even though you should embrace improv, you should also have the actors deliver their lines as written in the screenplay.
Once you get into the editing room and start logging your shots you will be able to decide if the written or impromptu performance was best. Sometimes you can even mix written and improv takes. The viewer will never be able to tell.
Writer’s block? Take a week off.
There are times when I am writing something and I come to a dead end. I don’t know which direction I should take the story in or what dialogue to use. The problem being that I have been writing consecutively for days without really taking a break to soak it all in.
The downside is you get tunnel vision. I like to take a few days or even a whole week off from that project and do something else… maybe some editing or sound production to keep my creativity juices flowing.
After you return to your script in progress, you’ll often find that you now have an idea where to go next. You’ve read through it with fresh eyes and it’s time now to continue writing. So next time you find yourself trying to write the next scene without success, take a break!
Diablo Cody wins Oscar, brings hope to aspiring screenwriters
So tonight Diablo Cody won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Why should you care? It was her first screenplay. If this doesn’t inspire you, the aspiring screenwriter, then I don’t know what will. She went from being a blogger to writing a screenplay and now she’s an Oscar winner.
This just goes to show that anybody can make it as a screenwriter long as you write something good. It doesn’t matter where you come from or if you know someone who knows someone at a studio. If you genuinely write something good, it will get noticed.
So let Diablo Cody’s win be an inspiration to you to keep writing. But remember to write from the heart and not from the wallet. Don’t worry about whether or not you think your screenplay will sell. Worry about telling a great story with great characters because while big budget, special effects driven movies make a lot of movie, they aren’t remembered 20 years down the line. Nobody will say, “Hey, remember Transformers?”, they’ll say, “Remember No Country for Old Men? Remember the coin toss scene at the gas station? Wasn’t that an amazing scene that sent chills down your spine?” And you will agree.
Behind the Scenes of Troublemaker Studios
Here’s a cool behind the scenes video of Robert Rodriguez’ Troublemaker Studios.
Part 1 of 2
Part 2 of 2
Q&A: What does ‘against’ mean in an offer?
Question: When someone says: “She received $200,000 against $400,000 for her screenplay”, what do they mean by against?
Answer: What this means is the writer will receive $200,000 up front and the rest of the money (another $200,000 in this case) when the film begins principal photography. There is one thing you should take note of though and that is the fact that the up front money is usually paying you for two rewrites. So don’t think you’re work is done once you cash that first check!
