In 1975, Jaws was a Monstrous Success. It quickly grew into an iconic piece of filmmaking, made Spielberg a star and it became the first blockbuster summer movie ever. Obviously, a lot has been written about it, but there are three main…
Category: FILMMAKING
About film. Things you should know (or think about).
CGI that Makes a Difference
Many of us have grown tired of CGI effects in movies. So often they look fake, they take our minds away from the story, they become annoying. Occasionally, though, they become real magic. These times we may not even recognise…
Honest Trailers as Scriptwriting Tools
Honest Trailers are great fun. Maybe those filmmakers that get trashed by them wouldn’t agree, but they are fantastic. That, though, is not the only reason why I’ll be making them part of this blog from now on. The reason…
Vancouver Never Plays Itself
Ok, films create magic so places look like other places because it’s convenient and needed. But Vancouver never plays itself, and maybe deserves so! Nice Job, Everyframeapainting!
Akira Kurosawa’s Frame of Mind
Akira Kurosawa‘s framings have magic. His storyboarding work is magnificent. Sometimes though, the Master’s decisions come from very down to earth motives. In his book Making Movies, Sidney Lumet says: ” I once asked Akira Kurosawa why he had chosen to frame a…
Screenwriting and Social Issues (part 2): Dylan Marron
Let’s talk about screenplay. Let’s talk about race. I was lucky enough to attend a chat with Dylan Marron at the fantastic Independent Filmmaker Project‘s Film Week last September. What Dylan, an actor and a writer, showed to us was very…
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Ensemble Staging Vs Dull Coverage
Scene coverage is essential. As a film lecturer I see that, the most common mistake students make is to not overlap shots, not to cover the scene in a way that gives them a range of possibilities in the editing…
Screenwriting and Social Issues (Part 1): The Bechdel Test
Let’s talk about screenwriting. Let’s talk about gender. “The Bechdel Test is a simple way to gauge the active presence of female characters in Hollywood films and just how well rounded and complete those roles are. It is astonishing the…
Continue reading Screenwriting and Social Issues (Part 1): The Bechdel Test
A Film has Three Directors
Yes, it does. But what do we mean by “director”? We mean “storyteller”. The screenwriter, the director and the editor share that role. Those three are the ones telling you the story. The first “storyteller”, and the only one 100%…
Basic Film Economics
Movies usually need to make 373% to break even. 7 in 10 films lose money. Ever heard of RoI (Return on Investment)? Film economics can be the ugly duck, usually ignored in film blogs. The fine people from Storyality posted…
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