We all know movies begin with a screenplay. And as a talented up-and-coming filmmaker, you probably noticed that a lot of the movies being made these days are crap. And you probably think you can do better.

The good news is, you’re probably right!

A few years back, I read screenplays for a producer in NYC… And I learned a few things. The biggest lesson I learned was that most screenplays floating around the market are crap. And I’m not just talking about new screenwriters.

I remember reading screenplays from working, established writers that just seemed underdeveloped. Add the enormous amount of material that came from friends of friends and other producers and I was able to see first-hand how much garbage is floating around out there.

So I can tell you, if you have any talent as a writer, the odds are stacked in your favor. Write a good script!

SCREENWRITING

I’m assuming you want to make a movie. So I’m not going to provide too much advice on how to “sell” your screenplay.

That being said, weither you plan on producing your own material or selling it, there are still a few factors applicable to your end-goal. The first thing you have to do is write.  And that means actually sitting down and forcing yourself to put words on an otherwise blank screen.

If this is difficult for you, you might consider finding a writing partner and then sharing a story credit.

Here is the down and dirty lesson for today:

ACTIONS

1. Get some screenplay software. Final Draft and Movie Magic Screenwriter are the industry standard. Or you could do a Google search for “free screenwriting software.”
2. Once you have the software, consider writing a feature script on the cheap. Think in terms of limited locations, with limited actors, with a short schedule that you can eventually shoot with limited equipment on HD video.
3. Consider making things funny. Some people think horror comedy works pretty well.
4. The story should be fun with a STRONG, marketable CONCEPT.
5. The name of the game is FUN. If you can’t have fun, you’re doing something wrong.

Putting the final polish on a screenplay is an amazing accomplishment. But just make sure you’ve created your best work. As they say, you only get one chance to make a good first impression – that same thinking applies to your screenplay.

You only get one chance to grab the attention of a potential actor or department head who may or may not decide to help you with your project. Two screenwriting books you might want to check out are: Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting and How to Write a Movie in 21 Days.

And one more resource (It’s my own) – The Indie Producer’s Guide To Writing Screenplays That Sell

Happy Filmmaking!

Posted under SCREENWRITING

Cannon EOS 7D is good for Filmmakers Image via Wikipedia

If you want to get started making movies, my suggestion is to get started. So many people in Hollywood bounce around for years pretending to do work, when all they are really doing is pretending. Many of these people call themselves producers, yet they have no screen credits and have frankly failed to do anything…

Don’t do that. For around two-thousand dollars, you can buy a camera that produces cinematic results. And if you can’t afford that, then just use any camera you can. In the event you cannot yet afford your own equipment, then find someone who already has the gear and make friends.

You next step is to get an idea for a short, 1 to 3 minute movie. Something funny. Then plan the shoot. The story doesn’t have to be overly awesome or complex. Most of my first movies were centered around my drunk friends playing characters. These movies sucked, but they were good practice. Your initial movies will probably suck too. Don’t worry about it. Give yourself permission to suck.

Just remember, the more you practice, the better you get.

And if you’re really short on short film ideas, then the next best thing is to create a music video… Which is essentially a short movie too.

If you are looking for short film ideas, this resource may help you: 101 Short Film Ideas

Posted under FILMMAKING

Scissors can be used to foreshadow your screenplay Image via Wikipedia

A screenwriter sent me an email saying she understands the need for foreshadowing but wasn’t sure how to do it. Of course the specific content depends on the story but here are some general ways you can adapt:

1. A visual clue. A very obvious one is letting us glimpse a gun in a drawer when your protagonist is looking for a pair of scissors. We know that gun will be used at some point.

2. An innocent verbal clue. This could be something that we don’t even notice standing out in any way, but later it pays off. For instance, someone might mention that he used to enjoy hunting, and that makes sense later when we see that he’s a great shot.

3. A verbal cue that stands out. By this I mean something that is out of the ordinary and you do notice it. For instance, if somebody is asked casually which school they went to and they answer, “I don’t see why that’s important,” it signals that at some point in the story we’ll find out a reason why they’re touchy about that subject.

4. A musical cue. This often is the province of the director and the person who composes the sound track. In a thriller, for example, a particular piece of music may tip us off that something awful is about to happen.

To avoid having any one element of foreshadowing be too obvious, often the writer will throw in some red herrings–some things that could be foreshadowing but in fact don’t pay off or pay off in a different way than we expect.

The person who has the gun in the drawer may become an immediate suspect in our minds, but later maybe we see him use it to light his cigarette and we realize it’s not a real gun (of course he may have a real one somewhere else….). That kind of misdirection keeps the audience guessing.

The goal is to make your foreshadowing subtle enough that it’s only in hindsight that the visual or verbal cue takes on significance.

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Jurgen Wolff offers a new screenwriting tip here every Tuesday; also see his site,www.ScreenwritingSuccess.com and his book, “Your Writing Coach.”

Posted under SCREENWRITING

Modern Marketing For Filmmakers

When it comes to marketing your movie, you need to become proficient at driving targeted traffic to your movie website. While old school filmmakers could rely on various video stores and retail outlets to sell their movies, these days the popular marketplaces are Amazon and iTunes.

Both of these markets are web based. And both are accessible through my partner distribber. But just because your movie gets into the market doesn’t mean people will find you. This means, you’ll have to drive traffic to your movie website. But before you start driving traffic, you must first figure out your filmmaker website strategy.

I suggest creating something my internet marketing friend, Fred Gleeck calls a conversion funnel. Basically it looks like this:

This simple movie marketing model demonstrates that  not everybody who visits your  movie website will buy your movie. But by working to get more and more targeted prospects into the top of your funnel, you will increase your chances of making more sales at the bottom. Additionally, in the event a prospect tries to leave your movie website prematurely (abandon the funnel), you will ask these folks to “opt-in” to your audience list.

Once these prospects opt-in, they will get to know you and know more your movie. Utilizing this “lead capture” strategy, your odds of converting a prospect into customer increases.

Posted under DISTRIBUTION

If you look at my movie credits, you’ll see that I’ve been working with the same crew on almost every project. This is not by accident. The truth is, making movies is challenging. And from my perspective, bringing unknown people into the process makes everything even more challenging and (often) complicated.

But you have to start somewhere. So for those of you planning to crank out some movies, I recommend you start small. Find a few collaborators and assign jobs based on interest. Then grab a camera and complete some micro projects such as music videos, short films and funny sketches for YouTube.

Here is a project my buddy Jared did in a few afternoons to test his new HDSLR camera. As you’ll see in the following video, he created a very simple sketch – a music video that employs minimal locations, a few actors and a lot of exteriors – which means he didn’t have to worry about lighting interiors. The project was a lot of fun too. (My horrible acting is featured too. I’m the guy who spits gum.)

If you can do a dozen of these small projects without ripping each other’s heads off, you’re on your way to creating your core crew. Then later, as your projects increase in scope and scale, you’ll have a good starting point.

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Posted under FILMMAKING

I just saw Kim Cattrall mentioned in the news and it took me back to a long time ago when I did a rewrite of one of her early movies, “Mannequin.”

It was my first script doctoring job and I was in a hotel in Philadelphia, every night faxing the new pages to the studio in LA. where the head of the studio read them the next morning. I wanted to make it as easy for him to visualize the script as possible, especially since he was reading in installments of about ten pages a day. Because of that, I used “parentheticals” like “angrily” or “wearily” much more often than I normally would.

Then the cast came in for the first read-through. Kim Cattrall took out a big marker pen and started marking stuff out. Somebody asked her what she was doing. She glared at me and said, “Crossing out all the places the writer told me how to act.”

Ouch. But I was right, because I was writing a reading script, one that was being read under difficult circumstances.

If you’re writing a script to be read by someone who is possibly going to buy it, you want to make it as easy and entertaining as possible. Yes, it’s easy to overdo the parentheticals, ideally your dialogue itself suggests how it will be delivered. But when it helps, go ahead. A sarcastic remark from an actress is not too high a price to pay.

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For screenwriting tips from Jurgen Wolff, come back here every Tuesday and also see his site, www.ScreenWritingSuccess.com and check out his book, “Your Writing Coach,” available from Amazon and other online and offline booksellers.

Posted under SCREENWRITING

Image via Wikipedia

The other night, I spoke at the UCLA film school about how to make, market and sell your movie without the middle-man. And while most of the UCLA film students in attendance agreed that my way of making a movie may not be fully inline with the studio ideal – many of these filmmakers agreed that getting a movie made is better than merely just talking about making a movie.

Thanks to familiarity with YouTube as well as access to affordable production equipment, many film school students, as well as modern filmmakers are embracing accessible, non-discriminatory distribution channels without hesitation or excuses.  And this experience is changing the ways in which filmmakers think about making a movie.

While it’s still true that making a movie can be a pain in the butt, the barriers of industry entry are down.  As a result, filmmakers are now empowered to go out and make their movie. And just in case you are not attending film school, I’ll share the BIG question you need to ask yourself as a filmmaker:

“Given the resources that you have now, what is the movie that you can make this year?”

Posted under FILMMAKING

Image via Wikipedia

I love Kevin Smith’s attitude towards modern movie distribution. If you’re like most independent filmmakers, what Kevin was able to accomplish from his days of Clerks has been amazing. Back then, he not only dreamed the Sundance Dream, but he realized the dream.

The Sundance dream is the idea that you will make your movie, get into Sundance, sell your movie and live happily ever after. As I have been telling you all along, the demise of DVD sales channels, replaced by ever evolving VOD marketplaces are impacting Filmmakers everywhere.

These days, if you are going to make movies and profit, you must now view your independent movie business in ways akin to how any business owner handles their business. You must source and grow your own audience list.

In the following video Kevin Smith shares his perspective on modern movie distribution and how the brave new world is impacting indie filmmakers.

Please feel free to comment.

Posted under INTERVIEWS

Before you jump into BIG filmmaking projects, I recommend working with creative collaborators on weekend films and other, smaller projects. This helps you uncover everybody’s idiosyncrasies early on.

From this experience, you can better determine if anybody’s social imperfections (coupled with your own imperfections) will derail the possibility of collaborating on bigger projects.

A long time ago, I worked on a short movie with a guy. Long story short, I found out the guy was being untruthful about money. He had hired one of my friends to build our movie website. But he failed to pay as agreed. When confronted, he shared an outlandish story about Western Union sending the money to the incorrect address. This was completely stupid and untruthful.

Because he was a “friend,” I gave him the benefit of belief and dropped the subject.

Three years later, I found myself working with this guy again. And guess what? He figured out a way to steal a few thousand dollars from the movie budget. When confronted, he left Los Angeles for Kentucky or some other place. He emailed a few times, appologizing.

Thanks.

The point is – sometimes you uncover facts early on that could save headaches later. You need to have a forward thinking perspective. In small deals, when you have moments of friction, in the context of heated conversations, your colloborators will often say “This is not a big deal.”

But the truth is, small frustrations on small projects will be amplified on BIG projects to become BIG problems.

Be mindful.

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Posted under FILM FINANCING

An interesting twist on the old “write what you know” adage comes from aspiring screenwriter Mark McCann, who also is a policeman. One of his shorts was produced and has won some prizes and one of his feature scripts has just been optioned–for the fifth time.

He told Arkansas Online: ”I try to avoid writing movies about cops.  That may seem illogical, but let’s face it… being a cop is not all roses and sunshine. Nobody calls 911 because they’re having a good day.

“Being a cop means you are there for the worst time of people’s lives; they’re bleeding, crying, or both.  Rarely are there happy endings.  So when I write, I create my own world with happy endings.”

In that sense, writing about what you don’t know may be a great strategy. Stuck in an office? It’ll probably make you happy to write a story set on an idyllic island. (If you’re stuck on an idyllic island, will you want to write about an office?)

Writing about realities we wish were so is a powerful motivator. If you’ve felt constrained by the ‘write what you know’ idea, give it a try.

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For more tips on screenwriting, visit Filmmaking Stuff every Tuesday for a new post from Jurgen Wolff and also check out his site, www.ScreenWritingSuccess.com. You may also find his “Your Writing Coach” book useful.

Posted under SCREENWRITING