Filmmaking Stuff Filmmaking Stuff provides resources for independent filmmakers. The website includes articles on how to take a story idea from script to screen, including articles on scriptwriting, producing, finance, shooting, editing, directing, marketing, distribution and how to build an audience. Filmmaking Stuff also has articles detailing how to make money making movies – including interviews with Hollywood Producers, Directors, writers and other filmmaking professionals.

“Chasing the Monster Idea” is a book by Stefan Mumaw in which he identifies seven questions that will help you determine whether you have a “monster” idea rather than just a good one (or a bad one).

These questions also can help you figure out whether your movie idea is a monster.

The first one: Does it evoke an emotional response?

People go to movies not just to see something, but to feel something. Horror fans want to feel fear, thriller fans want to feel suspense, comedy fans want to feel amusement, and so on. It’s obvious, but not every movie or every script makes that happen. There are three main reasons some fail:

1) We don’t identify with the protagonist. Especially in horror, thriller and drama we experience the feelings vicariously via the protagonist. She’s scared and we’re scared. The more your script has done to help us understand and identify with her, the stronger our feelings.

2) We don’t believe the situation.Sometimes we feel these things because we know more than the protagonist–we know the killer is hiding in the closet, she doesn’t. In comedies we are just as likely to be laughing at the protagonist as with him. But if the situation you have set up obviously is fake, then we may not buy into it and we don’t feel what you want us to feel.

3) We feel used up. If there’s not enough emotional variation–for instance, in a horror film if the horror is unrelenting–we may feel emotional fatigue and stop responding. That’s why the films of Hitchcock, for instance, are so good: he gives us moment of suspense interspersed with moments of comic relief, high drama mixed with low drama (a guy named Shakespeare understood this, too).

If your screenplay allows for these factors, it will have the emotional intelligence to give viewers the experience they crave.

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Jurgen Wolff has written more than 100 episodes of television, the mini-series “Midnight Man,” starring Rob Lowe, the feature film “The Real Howard Spitz,” starring Kelsey Grammer, and as been a script doctor on projects starring Eddie Murphy, Michale Caine, Kim Catrall and others. His books include “Your Writing Coach” (Nicholas Brealey Publishing) and “Creativity Now!” (Pearson Publishing). For more tips from Jurgen Wolff, also see www.ScreenwritingSuccess.com

Posted under SCREENWRITING

If you’re currently working on your next movie script, this might be of interest to you. My screenwriting friend Jurgen Wolff is hosting another MAD (Massive Action Day) on April 9. It’s all online and it’s free.

According to Jurgen, here’s how it works:

You commit to working on some writing (or other) project that is important to you for up to 8 hours, with short breaks every hour. You plan it so you know what you’ll be doing (for instance, nobody will actually write for 8 hours, but it could be a combination: some research, some writing, some getting organized, etc.) You don’t have to participate for the full 8 hours–even four or six hours of focused effort will give you a big boost.

Everybody checks in online very briefly every hour (during the breaks) to say what they achieved in the past hour and what their goal is for the next one. These messages will be posted in our chat window and we can support each other.

Every hour Jurgen will create a five-minute live video feed to give you a little tip or motivational quote to help keep everybody motivated. During your time together, Jurgen will also randomly award some prizes, like a book or another useful item.

The MAD event starts at 9am London time on Saturday, perfect for the UK and Europe, and he will stay on the air until 2am Sunday morning so people in the US and Canada can get their full eight hours in as well. In the last event, Jurgen had participants from Russia, Bali, India and New Zealand as well!

Here are some more comments from our first MAD:

“This feels good—have been wanting to get this story sorted out for ages”…
“Amazing how much work we all do together!” …
“This is such a great way to work!” …
“I am so focused it’s as if my mind has had a kick up the backside.”

Join Jurgen and other writers from all over the globe and give your project a great shot of energy and momentum.

To reserve your spot, go here: www.writingbreakthroughstrategy.com/MAD

Let me know how it goes!

Posted under SCREENWRITING

After exploring all the wonderful filmmaking information here at Filmmaking Stuff, you may benefit from putting some other blogs on your reading list. So to that end, I’d like to point out a few of my filmmaking favorites:

Jon Reiss’ Website
Jon Reiss wrote the famed book Think Outside The Box Office. Like most feature filmmakers, Jon realized that the world of independent film is evolving. I recommend both his book and his blog. Make sure you pay special attention the NEW role of PMD. Jon believes (as do I) that a producer of marketing and distribution is now essential for all modern productions.

Peter Marshall’s Action Cut Print
Peter has been in the industry for a long, long time. His site Action-Cut-Print is updated frequently and it’s full of useful filmmaking tips. Peter is very willing to help filmmakers improve their filmmaking business.

Jurgen Wolff’s Screenwriting Success Site
If you’re looking for advice on screenwriting, I can’t think of a more robust resource than Jurgen’s site. But more importantly, Jurgen is very kind and really wants you to write the best projects you can.

Sheri Candler’s Marketing Site
Sheri is a marketing guru. Her business is totally focused on helping modern moviemakers create an engaged and robust online community for their work that can be used to monetize effectively. So if you have a movie and you are looking for marketing tips, I recommend her site.

Ted Hope’s Truly Free Film Site
Ted Hope is a very well known indie producer. And I think his filmmaking blog provokes a ton of discussion between other filmmakers. Once you get into the conversation, making comments becomes addicting.

Hopefully these resources help you increase your modern moviemaking knowledge. And if you’re new to filmmaking stuff, make sure you instantly download your modern moviemaker tool kit.

Thanks for reading.

Posted under FILMMAKING

Quiet please…we have speed…ACTION!

A new website is being launched today that will help take filmmaking out of Hollywood, and put it into the hands of everyday, creative people so that they can combine their life’s ambition of being a filmmaker with owning their own business.

makeyourmovienow.com is the brain child of Jason Brubaker, a Los Angeles-based independent filmmaker and an expert in Video On Demand distribution. He has hosted another filmmaking website, Filmmakingstuff.com for years and is taking his experience to the next level.

“makeyourmovienow.com is focused on helping YOU make, market and sell movies more easily,” he says. “The ways movies finally make it to market has changed. makeyourmovienow.com is specifically designed to help grow your fan base, build “buzz” and create community around your title.

“If you want to make a living making movies, you need to realize that your library and the subsequent audience you source (over your career) are your major assets. And, as a result, your most important filmmaking focus (aside from doing good work) is to acquire and keep a customer,” he emphasizes.

For filmmakers in need, makeyourmovienow.com covers the four key areas of film production: screenwriting, film financing, filmmaking and distribution.

Tell your filmmaking friends!

Posted under FILMMAKING

Since starting Filmmaking Stuff, many screenwriters have written me, asking if I could provide advice on how they can protect their screenplay from theft. I usually tell screenwriters that most producers will not go through the process of raising a gazillion dollars without compensating the screenwriter fairly.

However, as my screenwriter friend Jurgen Wolff points out, “While most people are honest, in every business there are people who steal. Once in a while you read about such cases in the media but others are kept quiet as a condition of the settlement.”

Jurgen would know. At least twice in his career someone stole, and took credit for  his material.  As a result, he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars because he didn’t know how to handle the situation, and he listened to bad advice.

So when I saw Jurgen’s product focused on helping writers “stop the rip offs,” I thought it would be helpful to you. In full disclosure, this is an affiliate product and I will get a commission for any purchases. But with that said, I know Jurgen personally and can’t think of too many people who are more willing to share their expertise. So if you are interested in finding out more about Jurgen Wolff’s “Stop The Rip-Offs” system, you can do so by following this link.

Posted under SCREENWRITING

Posted under SCREENWRITING

For filmmakers and screenwriters alike, one of the great things about screenwriter Jurgen Wolff is his ability to make things happen. As you’ll discover in this week’s Filmmaking Stuff guest article – when Jurgen was starting out, he learned very quickly that waiting for a lucky break was a loser’s bet. He decided instead to create his own luck.

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Luck? Screenwriters have to make their own!

Everybody needs some good luck along the way, but it’s fatal to wait for it to spark your career as a screenwriter. It’s much better to make your own. Let me give you an example:

Back in the Paleolithic Era when I first went to Hollywood, I arrived with no contacts and very little money. I quickly realized that the business was not waiting for me with open arms. I daydreamed about talking to successful writers, agents, producers, and others who knew the score and getting them to tell me their inside information on how to get started as a scriptwriter. Of course those doors were closed, but then I wondered–who DO these people talk to? To journalists! But although I’d done some free-lance journalism, I wasn’t working for any publications.

The solution? I started my own. I called it The Hollywood Scriptwriter. I bashed it out on a typewriter (yes, this was just before word processing on computers took off). I did the layout myself and had it printed at the local copy shop. My first interview was with Danny Simon, comedy writer, from whom I was taking a class. My second was with a producer who’d been a guest speaker at Danny’s class. That gave my modest little publication credibility, and it got a further boost when I sent it to the L.A. Times and they gave it a nice write-up.

Suddenly the doors that usually are slammed in the face of a new writer in town opened. I got to interview Hollywood’s top TV producer, Stephen Cannell, and the creator of the TV series, M*A*S*H* Larry Gelbhart, and many more. I applied their advice and information, got an agent, and started working regularly, first writing sitcoms, then TV movies, then doing feature script doctoring.

When I started teaching screenwriting and wanted to get a bit more visibility, I and my friend Kerry Cox, to whom I sold the publication when I got too busy to do it anymore, pulled together a batch of the interviews and other materials into a book that was published by Writer’s Digest. I did another one on Sitcom writing for St. Martin’s Press,and Kerry and I did a third book of just interviews for Lone Eagle Press.

I wish this showed I’m a genius, but I’m not. I’m just a guy who realized fairly early that marketing yourself and your writing is a crucial part of what we scriptwriters have to do, and that if we’re as creative about that as we are about the writing itself, we can move forward ahead of the pack.

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If you would like more of Jurgen’s screenwriting advice, check him out at www.ScreenWritingSuccess.com

Posted under SCREENWRITING

Earlier this week, veteran Hollywood scribe Jurgen Wolff stopped by Filmmaking Stuff to offer three valuable tips and also, tell you about his upcoming mid-November screenwriting workshop in Las Vegas.

Screenwriting tips & workshops from jurgen Wolff on Vimeo.

For those of you interested in Jurgen’s Las Vegas workshops, CLICK HERE

Posted under SCREENWRITING

Once your screenplay is complete, how do you get a screenwriting agent? Image via Wikipedia

Somewhere in the world someone has just finished the first draft of his first screenplay – ever.

Full of enthusiasm, the unknown screenwriter breaks out a hammer and puts the final touches on the two brass brads that hold the 90-120 pages together. It is at this point when this writer asks himself the obvious question:

“How do I get my movie script produced?”

This is the point when things get confusing. Should the unknown screenwriter send his screenplay to contests, to agents, to the family friend attorney who is willing to pose as the “entertainment attorney” and hopefully shepard the script through the guarded gates of Hollywood?

Or should the first time screenwriter decide instead to send the work to producers? And what if somebody steals the idea? And why don’t producers accept unsolicited screenplays? UGH!

“Allow me to offer some perspective.”

One of the reasons I am excited you’re reading these words is because I can help you avoid my early mistakes. What I just described was me a decade ago. I was still in York, PA. I had just finished the first draft of my first screenplay.  And frankly, I thought I was brilliant. I thought my story was awesome. And I actually thought Hollywood would just knock down my door.

Of course it didn’t happen like that. After I wrote my script, email was the new thing. So I started sending email querys to various production companies. And surprisingly, a few companies did respond to me. But after I sent out my script, it wasn’t long until I either got a rejection letter or heard nothing. Back then, I still had a lot to learn.

“Would you like me to tell you the secrets of getting your work produced?”

Ok. I don’t have all the secrets. The truth is, if you have an amazing script that is totally polished, marketed towards your intended audience of producer types who have a history of producing your type of work – and you have a way of accessing them and getting your brilliant work read, then your success is (a little more) probable.

But for the rest of us, taking that route is an eroded path and (in my humble opinion) requires that you ask too many people for permission. I mean, doesn’t it make you feel a little whorish to ask so many people for validation? “Please read my screenplay, it’s great!”

“UGH. I hate asking for permission.”

And agents? Forget that route. At least right now. Yes, you can send out query letters and market the heck out of yourself. But if you’re an unknown screenwriter living outside of LA, the odds of getting your work read are slim to none.

Remember, agents make a living getting material sold. And chances are, those folks already have a dozen clients. They don’t have time to take notice of your material unless your work already has buzz.

So how do you break through? Here are 5 screenwriting tips… (But I don’t think you’ll like them.)

1. Quit asking permission. Production is getting less expensive every year. Produce your own material.
2. Seriously. I know it sounds crazy, especially if you never considered producing your own material.
3. Grab a $2000 dollar DSLR camera and start shooting projects on the weekend.
4. Surround yourself with your local film community. Get some help.
5. As your confidence builds, write a feature that can be done on the cheap.
6. I recommend horror comedy or something memorable and controversial.
7. When your script is complete, get a creative production manager to break down and budget your script.
8. Once you have the budget, start raising money.
9. When you get the money, decide to direct or hire a director, cast and crew.
10. Then make your movie.

While I know most screenwriters would rather just write a script and then ask someone like me to produce it – I got news for you, don’t do that. Stop asking permission. Instead, I want you to start thinking like an entrepreneurial screenwriter. I want you to start thinking like a producer. I want you to make your movie now!

Of course, a large majority of screenwriters will think these ideas are bonkers.

If that’s you then please ignore me and keep writing query letters. For everyone else – It is far better to have your work produced than to put it in a dark drawer, even if you have to produce your first screenplay yourself.

Posted under SCREENWRITING

Mentors are role models who take a vested interest in your success. Sometimes, you meet your mentor when least expected, and they will help guide your filmmaking career.

A mentor will provide insight and will often direct you toward a successful outcome. This doesn’t necessary mean your mentor will enter into a business relationship with you, but he or she may offer necessary encouragement, advice and influence which will help you get closer to your goal. Your mentor will be there to answer questions.

Have you ever heard the phrase: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear?” Even though this sounds mystical, for me, finding a mentor has always happened without planning.

When I graduated college, one of my most influential mentors appeared in my life. After sending a resume and cover letter to every film and video company I could think of (and getting no response), I finally landed an interview with a guy named Joe Surges. Joe gave me my first job in the motion picture industry.

It didn’t pay very well, but Joe was willing to teach me everything he knew. He coached me through the easy times and pushed me through the tough times with unrelenting encouragement. When I planned my move to New York City, Joe made some phone calls.

Joe connected me with a friend who then connected me to another friend who offered me my first job.

Later, I was working on a feature. When our project completely fell apart, I found myself stuck in New York with no money and rising bills. I thought it was the end of my movie making world. Heck, I even thought it was the end of my apartment. But at that time, it was Joe who told me to quit complaining and get back to work.

His advice was the best.

Then, a year later, prior to his passing, Joe told me something that’s been rolling over and over in my mind ever since. He said, “You never know which ripple will hit the shore first.”

Since that time, whenever I’m hit with a new challenge, I play those words over and over in my mind. And through this practice, I’ve conditioned myself to find the opportunity in every obstacle.

While Joe taught me a lot about writing, directing and producing, it was his values, his life standard and his expectations which influenced me to create a higher standard in everything I do.

If it wasn’t for Joe’s mentoring, I would have never gone to NYC, would have never made a movie and would have never fell on my financial face—and recovered. Consequently, I would have never made the move to California, produced features or written these words.

Mentors have been there. They reach out and help you grow as a person. And I believe mentors are essential for our success.

Posted under FILMMAKING