FILM MAKING RANTS AND A COOL FREEBIE

 

I would first like to thank Rob for making the video that I am presenting to you today. He touched on so many of the problems with movies today. I wish that I could say that he is only correct about studio films, but low budget films and micro budget digital films suffer from the same problems.

Readers of the blog know that I have problems with CGI and the god awful screenwriting that dominate the playing field, but there is so much more and the video below touches on things that I have overlooked.

We need our heroes back. I do not mean another Marvel film. I mean big time film makers. Why is it that most of the truly great thrillers come from places like Korea. Memories of Murder came out almost fifteen years ago. Where are the domestic answers to that kind of film making. We have the basic equipment. We can raise the money. I know that we can craft the screenplays, but they do not get done.

Maybe too many of us are chasing money instead of quality.

Look it, I thought when I started this blog almost five years ago I would be networking with amazing film makers and by this point in history the digital revolution would have changed the industry forever.

Instead too many film makers are either walking away just when they are getting good or dreaming about cashing in at Netflix or Amazon. Allow me to offer up the three F's that you need to consider.

Fuck Netflix, Fuck Amazon and just go out and make some really good Fucking movies.

Okay I am back with my Freebie offer. Today I am giving away ten free copies of my Audiobook on Writing A Low Budget Screenplay. The first ten people who email me at cannonbooks777@gmail.com with a request for a copy will be sent an Audible.com code. Even if you do not have an account there you can use it anyway. This is for those of you who are having problems with crafting a low to micro budget screenplay or just want to improve your screenwriting.

Crowdfunding And The Stray

Crowdfunding and The Stray

Normally I would put this content up on my crowdfunding page, but the campaign only has six days left as I am writing this and since the cast and crew did a great thirty minute interview about the project I felt it was too good to pass up. First take a look at the trailer for The Stray.   I hope to do a Q&A with the filmmaker because this is a blog dedicated to digital film making. Most of the readers here want to know the how and why and with what part of the film making process. I could guess the cameras being used, but why guess when I will get the answers sooner or later. We do get a behind the scenes look at the camera rig (around minute 15). Okay here is the cast and crew interviews. You can visit their Indiegogo campaign page at this link. http://igg.me/at/TheStrayTheMovie That will be it for today. Please take a moment to check out their crowd funding page at indiegogo, it is pretty impressive. Just remember that if you can not afford to contribute to a campaign then use social media to spread the world about it. We are low or micro budget film makers and we need to help each other out.

Digital Peep Talk

   

                You Are Not Alone

    This is about Digital Filmmaking so do not worry I am not about to sing a Michael Jackson song. Instead we are going to spend some time with some of the low budget filmmakers who have made it.

    Micro budget to low budget filmmaking is a lonely job. There is more failure than success. There will be more setbacks than steps forward, but if you push on there will come a moment when you are sitting all alone in the dark watching the end credits of your film rolling by. After the credits roll you may decide to put in away in a drawer or go out and find a way to get it onto a thousand screens. It will be up to you, but the road starts with you believing that it will be done. Can be done gives you time and a way out while will be done forces you to act.

    If you do nothing today, but write a page of your script. Study a tutorial in an area where you are weak. Read a good book on the craft of filmmaking. Network with other film makers. Get a set of lights or even a dollar pack of c47s. Pat yourself on the back, tell yourself job well done for to day and keep going.

    Remember that speech from the last Rocky movie, “You keep moving forward, you keep going forward, that is how winning is done.” Damn right and that is how films get made. Film making is for the relentless and digital feature filmmaking is for the last knights searching for the Holy Grail, dying along the way is always an option, but other than that it is the only reason why the film should not get made.

    Okay no more talk from me today, let’s hear from some guys who got the job done.

    First up is Kevin Smith.

Next up is the king of do it now filmmaking. He got many of us into the industry. Let's go to ten minute film school.

     Last up for today is a guy who has been an inspiration to many of us in the micro to no budget film world. If you live and breath this world then you know about Oklahoma Ward, if not here is the first video in what would become a two year march to the completion of his feature film Crawl. If you want to know what the walk you are going to take is really going to be like watch his youtube post.