Joss Whedon on Writing

Here is a excellent post on Joss Whedon's thoughts and advice for anyone interested in writing,  Full article here.

(via Trevor Cunningham)

Create a Laser Blast Effect without After Effects

From the Frugal Filmmaker is this cool technique of how to make a laser blast effect without the use of After Effects.  Instead only a simple video editor like Sony Vegas and GIMP is used for this tutorial.  Check it out:

Give Your Movie a Film Look with After Effects

One of the trickier parts of producing a great movie shot digitally is to make it look more like film.  Here is a series of video tutorials that I have found which hopefully will help you achieve a film look for your next project.

Videos to Watch: Direct Your Own Damn Movie

Here is something cool to watch over the weekend; Troma president and filmmaker Lloyd Kauffman is streaming his how-to documentary called Direct Your Own Damn Movie over at Hulu for free!  How awesome is that!?  If anyone knows how to direct and produce a movie for the cheap and make it sell it's Lloyd Kauffman.

 As a bit of warning since this is Troma the vid is gonna be NSFW.

Watch the vid here. 

(h/t to Slash Film)

Viewfinder: The Black List that You Must See

Most moviemakers and geeks of the cinema already know of the existence of the Black List which details
each year's top ten unproduced screenplays.  However, a new black list of sorts has popped up on the internet: Viewfinder.

Viewfinder is a list of the top ten short film, music videos and commercials chosen for their originality and for being able to inspire all moviemakers out there.  Some of the short films have already received larger studio support and will find themselves as expanded versions in theaters next year.

Go here and watch the entire list and take lots of notes.

(via /Film)

Build a Mini Greenscreen Studio

From The Frugal Filmmaker is this cool look at how a mini greenscreen studio was built in a kitchen. 

This is the perfect article to read for anyone who needs to build such a set-up but are confined by the limitations of a small place such as a apartment.

Full article here.

How to Build a Indoor Spooky Forest

Ever need to shoot a scene in a forest or need to do a quick reshoot but there is no forest nearby?  Then here is a neat tutorial for you on how to build a spooky forest inside your studio or garage. 

Follow this link for the full tutorial.

(via The Frugal Filmmaker)

What Can We Learn From Black Dynamite and Social Media

Here's a brilliant article on what the film Black Dynamite can teach us about social media. Take notes kids, you may think this stuff doesn't apply to you, but it does. If you want to get people to notice your work, social media is going to have to be in your to-do list.

Go here for more details.

No Budget Commandments

Good Machine has listed a series of rather brilliant commandments of making a low budget film that most of us should strive to follow.  Go here for the full list.  (h/t to The Frugal Filmmaker)

How to Build a Web Audience

It's a tragedy when so much time and money is spent on a movie or a web series and after its release there is nary a mention of it.  No audience, no word of mouth, nothing. 

What is the point of making a movie or web content if you forget that an audience must be built, lured, and even loved, to get your project noticed and taken to a higher level.

Filmmaker Chris Sharpe has taken the skills that he has gained from producing and directing the cooking web series, Hilah Cooking, and is sharing what he has learned on how they built an audience for the show.  It's highly recommend read.  Go here to learn more.

How to Make a $15,000 Dollar Monster Movie

Recently at the SXSW film fest, filmmaker Gareth Edwards, screened his latest film Monsters.  One of the coolest things about this film was that it was completely made for less than $15,000.  It was all done with a two-man production crew, edited in a hotel room, and with visual effects done in Edwards bedroom. 

Go here for the full details and scroll to the bottom to see a behind-the-scenes video on a inside look at how this film was made.

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WATCH ZOMBIE GIRL FOR FREE

ZOMBIE GIRL: THE MOVIE, a the documentary on a 12-yr old girl who takes on the challenge of making a full length zombie flick is now online for free. Watch it before it goes offline on 8/20. Go here for more.

From Wikipedia:

Zombie Girl: The Movie (2008) is an award-winning documentary about the making of the 2006 film Pathogen which was directed by Emily Hagins, twelve years-old at the time. The film chronicles young Emily's two year struggle to get her feature-length zombie film, Pathogen made. In 2009 the film won the Spirit of Slamdance Award at the Slamdance Film Festival. And received largely positive reviews when it was screened at various film festivals.

FOR FIFTY BUCKS...

I've long forgotten where I discovered this story so you will have to forgive me for not giving credit where credit is due. And even though I am sure I've shared this tale before, I read something that made think of it and I want to share it with you again.

The story goes as this; During the filmming of a film, a producer wanted to know how much it cost to do a visual effect shot of the Red Sea parting. The fx person thinks it over for a moment and says well for a million I can part the whole sea. For fifty-thousand I can part just one side, and for fifty bucks I can have a guy look at something off screen and say, "holy crap, the Red Sea is parting!"

Take from this story what you will.

ROBERT RODRIGUEZ 10 MINUTE FILM SCHOOL

Good stuff can be learned in this ten minute featurette:

PART ONE:


PART TWO

CHEAPO FILM SCHOOL TIPS: 10-01-07

• Screenwriting is all about motivation
• A picture is worth a thousand words
• A way to break writer's block