The Power of Green Screens

Watch and be amazed at just how far technology has come.

02/21/2010 | Cinematography, Videos | No Comments

Avoid the “Mirror Scare” cliché

Here’s another cliché to avoid when writing your script: the overused “mirror scare” trick. You’ll see what I mean when you watch the video. Remember to try and be different when writing. Don’t rely on things that have been done before. Be different! Check out previous clichés to avoid here.

Tags:

02/16/2010 | Screenwriting | No Comments

Film Festivals for February, 2010

February 4-7
Hollywood Brazilian Film Festival (Hollywood, California, USA)
 
February 4-14
Santa Barbara International Film Festival (Santa Barbara, California, USA)
 
February 5-15
Boston Science Fiction Film Festival (Boston, Massachusetts, USA)
 
February 11-21
Berlin International Directors Lounge Festival (Berlin, Germany)
 
February 14-21
Southern California Business Film Festival (Los Angeles, California, USA)
 
Continue reading this post »

Tags:

02/01/2010 | Film Festivals | No Comments

Avoid the “Enhance” cliché

I’ve already featured the cell phone “no signal” cliché here, and now it’s time for you to realize that the idea you had to feature a cool “enhance” bit in your script is a terrible one. What do I mean by “enhance” cliché? Watch the video.

Tags:

01/09/2010 | Screenwriting | No Comments

Film Festivals for January, 2010

January 5-18
Palm Springs International Film Festival
(Palm Springs, California, USA)

January 14-17

Festivus Film Festival
(Denver, Colorado USA)

January 15-17

Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival
(Nevada City, California, USA)

January 16-17
15 Minutes of Fame Film Festival
(Palm Bay, Florida, USA)
 
January 21-31
Sundance Film Festival
(Park City, Utah, USA)
 
January 28
Indiana Players Short Film Festival
(Indiana, Pennsylvania, USA)
 
January 29-February 6
Clermont-Ferrand Short-Film Festival
(Clermont-Ferrand, France)
 

Tags:

12/28/2009 | Film Festivals | No Comments

A Talk with Alfred Hitchcock

Part 1 of 2

Part 2 after the page break.

Continue reading this post »

Tags:

11/28/2009 | Videos | No Comments

The Birth of Cinema

Here’s a history lesson on the birth of cinema. Watch it, learn it, love it.

10/25/2009 | Videos | No Comments

Short film spotlight: Robert Rodriguez’s Bedhead

Bedhead is a 1991 short family-comedy-fantasy film directed and co-written by Robert Rodriguez. Made while he was a student at the University of Texas at Austin, Rodriguez shot the film with his brothers and sisters as actors and with his family and friends as crew. The short film was then entered into several competitive film festivals, where it won cash prizes, money that Rodriguez then used to produce his first feature film, El Mariachi.

Tags: , ,

10/07/2009 | Videos | No Comments

Robert Rodriguez - Film is Dead

Part 1 of 2

Part two after the break.

Continue reading this post »

Tags:

09/26/2009 | Videos | No Comments

Avoid the “No Signal” cliché

Here is a video to convince you not to use the dead cell-phone cliché in your films. It’s lazy and it’s been used thousands of times.

Tags:

09/24/2009 | Screenwriting | 1 Comment