Filmmaking - Sundance 2007
I will not be in attendance at this year's Sundance
Film Festival.
I will not support a certain nameless, tasteless
video that mocks my beloved home town.
I will be home, working on my own projects.
Filmmaking
Friday, January 05, 2007
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Best Use of Extra $5k?
Filmmaking - Using Resources Wisely
"What Would You Do With an Extra $5k?"
Camera equipment? Lighting equipment? Editing software? Let's imagine that $5k has just fallen in your lap. What to do with it? Shoot your short, film your feature? As far as you can go, until the money runs out? What should you buy?
If I were you, I'd spend the $5k to pay my rent and bills for a couple months, and quit my job, or take some vacation time, or a leave of absence.
I'd sit in a room and turn off the phone and tv, and eat spaghetti and raw vegetables 2 times a day, and exercise in the morning and skip dinner and take a walk in the evening, so I didn't get fat.
I'd get up early, and go to bed late, and not even look at, listen to, or answer my voicemail and email and filmmaking sites, until the evening.
THEN...I'd turn on my computer, and WRITE.
And write and write and write and write and write and write. Then I'd write and write and write and write and write and write and write. Then I'd edit, and write and re-write.
Until I had a really great movie script. That's what you should do with the money. Write.
That effort would give you an asset in the world of filmmaking that most filmmakers simply don't have.
Ever wonder why you're not getting anywhere? The answer to becoming a great filmmaker is not "camera equipment." The answer is "writing."
The way you get good at writing is not college or reading books or hanging out with friends. The way you get good at writing is by "writing."
You can sell a great script, or get hired to write another one, or talk somebody into lending you money to make your great script into a movie, but you need it written first.
Great scripts don't write themselves. They take time and effort, more than anything. If your scripts aren't very good, chances are you haven't put a lot of actual time and effort into them.
By the same token, if you have a script you wrote it in your spare time, from dribs and drabs and scraps of time, in between working all day at your job and family and school and church and bills and relationships and pets and all the crap that gets in the way, chances are it isn't very good.
So, take the time. Invest the money - $5k is real money - and buy yourself something nobody can give you. Buy some time alone, and write your script. It is the best possible use of that money.
That's what I'd do if I had an unspoken-for $5k. Just my opinion, because I want you to succeed.
Best to you,
Sam
filmmaking
"What Would You Do With an Extra $5k?"
Camera equipment? Lighting equipment? Editing software? Let's imagine that $5k has just fallen in your lap. What to do with it? Shoot your short, film your feature? As far as you can go, until the money runs out? What should you buy?
If I were you, I'd spend the $5k to pay my rent and bills for a couple months, and quit my job, or take some vacation time, or a leave of absence.
I'd sit in a room and turn off the phone and tv, and eat spaghetti and raw vegetables 2 times a day, and exercise in the morning and skip dinner and take a walk in the evening, so I didn't get fat.
I'd get up early, and go to bed late, and not even look at, listen to, or answer my voicemail and email and filmmaking sites, until the evening.
THEN...I'd turn on my computer, and WRITE.
And write and write and write and write and write and write. Then I'd write and write and write and write and write and write and write. Then I'd edit, and write and re-write.
Until I had a really great movie script. That's what you should do with the money. Write.
That effort would give you an asset in the world of filmmaking that most filmmakers simply don't have.
Ever wonder why you're not getting anywhere? The answer to becoming a great filmmaker is not "camera equipment." The answer is "writing."
The way you get good at writing is not college or reading books or hanging out with friends. The way you get good at writing is by "writing."
You can sell a great script, or get hired to write another one, or talk somebody into lending you money to make your great script into a movie, but you need it written first.
Great scripts don't write themselves. They take time and effort, more than anything. If your scripts aren't very good, chances are you haven't put a lot of actual time and effort into them.
By the same token, if you have a script you wrote it in your spare time, from dribs and drabs and scraps of time, in between working all day at your job and family and school and church and bills and relationships and pets and all the crap that gets in the way, chances are it isn't very good.
So, take the time. Invest the money - $5k is real money - and buy yourself something nobody can give you. Buy some time alone, and write your script. It is the best possible use of that money.
That's what I'd do if I had an unspoken-for $5k. Just my opinion, because I want you to succeed.
Best to you,
Sam
filmmaking
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