Film Strategy

Source: http://www.sequential-one.com/blog/?p=144 My favorite thing about starting a new year is filling out my planner with all the deadlines and screening dates for all the major contests, grant applications, markets and festivals I want to enter or visit.   Doing this hones whatever filmmaking or networking goals I have set for myself and also allows me to plan out my goals for the year to see in an instant what I can realistically aim for and when.  No matter how successful the filmmaker, he or she is caught up in a cycle of developing, writing, producing and selling projects.  Moreso, the hungry filmmaker climbing up that ladder of success.  For the filmmaker at the bottom, knowing the top script contests, film grants, festivals and markets mark one of the key differences between becoming successful or not.   Knowing the top places to target means you are not wasting time chasing fruitless ventures.  So, if you are reading this, it's because you ARE serious about climbin

"You see, it is very, very essential that you know ahead of time something of the orchestration: in other words, image size. What I mean by orchestration is, take the close-up, well, that's like in music: the brass sounding brassy, loud sound before you need it. Sometimes you see films cut such that the close-up comes in early, and by the time you really need it, it has lost its effect because you've used it already. Now, I'll give you an example where a juxtaposition of the image size is also very important. For example, one of the biggest effects in PSYCHO was where the detective went up the stairs. THE PICTURE WAS DESIGNED TO CREATE FEAR IN AN AUDIENCE AND THEN GRADUALLY TRANSFER FROM THE SCREEN INTO THEIR MINDS. HENCE, THE VERY VIOLENT MURDER TO START WITH, ANOTHER ONE LESS VIOLENT -- AND MORE FRIGHTENING -- AND THEY'VE GOT THE THING IN THEIR MIND. Then, as the film goes on there is no more violence. But in the mind of the audience

Most filmmakers don't have the luxury of ONLY working on production projects 24/7.  They have families to tend to, businesses to run, bosses to please and other non-film/video things that keep them away from their passion project.  It's even harder for those who couldn't even make it to film school but have a burning desire to shoot a story of some kind.  The thing is that the only way to become that filmmaker who is working on production projects 24/7 means you HAVE to find time to make that passion project NOW so that it opens those doors for you. You can buy all the  screenwriting and filmmaking books in the world but you will only improve and make it to the top if you write and rewrite alot of screenplays and shoot lots of stuff.   But you're busy with family, your main job and life, right? So how do you find time to do the time-consuming tasks required for writing, developing, producing, shooting, editing and/or distributing your production? Here are