Loving Film Festivals

I’m particularly excited about film festivals right now.  If I’m honest, probably partially because we seem to be cleaning up, but also because I’m just generally having a blast.

So far this year, of the ones I’ve attended, I’ve found Florida, Breckenridge, Cannes and Palm Springs to be incredibly useful.  I’ve met really cool people who also happen to work at WME, The NY Times, Huffington Post, Focus Features, Magnolia, Paramount and a ton of great independent producers and festival programmers.  All people I am eager to share my work with and hopefully collaborate with at some point in my career.  All people I did not know or have access to two months ago.

As everyone has heard a million times, this business is all about relationships.  And I don’t mean in that smarmy “here’s my card” sort of a way.  (Though absurdly you do still need business cards in this digital age.)  What it means is that you could be the most talented filmmaker in the whole wide world, but this sport is a group effort and if you don’t have anyone to show your work to you’re most likely going to be stuck.

So although I may not have anything of interest for some of these people at the moment (but of course I do because I’m not one to let an opportunity pass), I’ve cleared the very important she’s-not-a-freak-I-can-take-her-email-test because I shook a hand, said hello and shared a drink.  Or, as in most festival cases, shared a few.

Oh, and we were chosen as Best of the Fest at Palm Springs, Best Drama Short at Breckenridge and Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Film at Florida so that doesn’t hurt either.

Breckenridge last weekend, Palm Springs this weekend

Well readers, last weekend TOUCH won Best Short Drama at the Breckenridge Film Festival and it was a blast.  Unfortunately, I had to fly in Saturday morning and fly out Sunday afternoon but the short time I was there was well worth it.

It was a great festival in a lovely little town nestled into the mountains.  Sunday morning it even snowed!

The reception to TOUCH was amazing and the other filmmakers I met there were a blast.  I was so pleased I made the trip.  The programmers chose really interesting films and I was not disappointed by anything I saw.  Keep your eyes open for a fantastic feature called NORMAN.  I think it’s the best thing I’ve seen this year.  Just excellent.

This coming weekend TOUCH screens at Palm Springs so if you’re in the area please come and check it out.  Sunday, June 27th, 11:30am in the When Strangers Meet program at The Camelot.

TOUCH at Cannes

Writing to you jetlagged from a friend’s couch in England, I’m looking forward to hitting the ground running in Cannes later today. On the agenda is starting the search for a producer and about two million buckaroos for my feature, KELLY & CAL, watching TOUCH screen at the American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase and just generally enjoying the sun, sea and sights while drinking wine and eating cheese.

If readers find themselves at Cannes please come check out TOUCH.

Thursday, May 20th at 4:30pm at the American Pavilion in the Roger Ebert Center or at your convenience at the Short Film Corner in the American Pavilion section.

The Florida Film Festival Kicks Ass!

I just returned to Los Angeles from the Florida Film Festival and I’ve come back its biggest fan.  If you love independent film this is the place for you.I saw excellent documentaries (Exit Through the Gift Shop, The Lottery and Cleanflix) and wonderful shorts (Watermelon Man and On The Road to Tel Aviv).  Unfortunately I missed the features because I didn’t stay long enough to enjoy everything the fest had to offer but I heard they were great.

This is a film festival run by film lovers and it can be felt everywhere.  There’s great food, really fun parties and a very welcoming casual atmosphere.  The audiences and other filmmakers were lovely to hang out with.  The volunteers are the best!  And the guests, speakers and judges are the real deal.  I went to panel with Gena Rowlands and hung with Chris Gore, whose excellent books I’ve been using to navigate the festivals since before Withoutabox.  So thank you Chris!

The only small downside is that some of the venues are a bit spread out (which cuts back severely on my drunken stumbling but maybe that’s not such and thing) but their quality makes up for the distance.

On top of it all I was very fortunate for my film TOUCH to have won the grand jury award for best short film.  And since the Florida Film Festival is an Oscar qualifying fest we’re now one step closer to the very heavy naked gold man.  It’s still a long road from here to there but every step counts and this one was especially fun.

I want to particularly recognize Matthew Curtis and Brian Quain who did a wonderful job making me feel welcome.  Thank you so much!

Central Florida really has a gem in the Florida Film Festival and I hope to be back again very soon.

Filmmakers, they begin accepting submissions again in October.  Put it on your list.

Bleary-eyed from the Florida Film Festival

I am having a wonderful time at the fantastic Florida Film Festival.  If readers are in the Orlando and Maitland, FL areas come down and check out the great films and excellent events.

My film, TOUCH, screens tonight at 9pm at the Regal Winter Park Village Cinema.  And tomorrow I speak on a panel with Chris Gore (Film Threat, The Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide) at 1:30pm at the same theater.

We’ve also been invited to screen at Cannes at the American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase. We’ll screen there on Thursday, May 20th in the shorts program from 4:30pm - 6:30pm at the Roger Ebert Center.  We’re very excited about this  as only ten American films have been invited!

You can check out the trailer and upcoming screenings on the film website at http://www.touchthefilm.com.

TOUCH at Method Fest

Alright readers if you’re local to the LA area come out tomorrow and check out my latest film, TOUCH, at Method Fest, a great local festival.

The Method Fest

Sunday, March 28 at 9:15pm - 11:15pm

Regency Agoura Hills 8, Theater 5, 29045 Agoura Hills Road, Agoura Hills, CA 91301

(we screen fifth of six films in the program)

Tickets can be purchased in advance here for $7/$11 for our shorts program “That’s What Friends Are For”

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producerevent/103131?prod_id=2315

You can check out reviews and the trailer for the film on IMDB or on our website here…

http://www.touchthefilm.com

Energy Suckers

Sometimes while making a film you’ll find yourself working with people that you just don’t connect with.  No matter what you do you cannot communicate.  I’ve found this a couple times and have fortunately gotten pretty good at spotting people I know I’m going to conflict with before I get involved.I have never been able to understand people in this business who do not love what they do.  I just don’t get it.  And when I encounter these people it frustrates the crap out of me.  But the fact is that in Hollywood there are many like that here and for lots of reasons I can understand but it’s really not my problem to accept.

I thought I’d share some red flags to help others quickly identify these people and either run for the hills or jump in having been told.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t make the deadline we agreed to, (insert bullshit here) came up.”

Translation: “I don’t find this to be my number one priority so you’re just going to have to wait until I do my other more important things first.”

“Is it ok with you?”

Translation: “I either don’t know if it’s good enough or I don’t care and I’m not going to bring anything to the table beyond precisely what you tell me to do.”

“I’m happy if you’re happy”

Translation: “I don’t work for myself.  I work for my weekend and my paycheck.”

“Not a problem.”

Translation: “This will become a problem very soon and I am keeping mental score of all the “not a problem” things I have to do.”  This is a sure sign of someone doing something through gritted teeth.

Talking about money before the creative

Translation: “When the going gets tough I’ll be the first to bring up my contract, my agreement, whatever.  I will not go above or beyond the bare minimum.”

Blaming/talking about anything in the past

Translation: “I just don’t want to take any risks or be responsible for anything.  Really, I probably shouldn’t be in charge of anything”

The drama prone/the bad homelife

Translation: “I want to chat constantly and will not go home at the end of the day because I prefer working to everything else in the world.”  (This is actually not so bad for the job sometimes if they can focus, but may start affecting your home life if you get sucked in.)

Rarely, I may still find myself working with these energy-suckers but when I do at least it’s not by mistake.  Now, I’ll only seldom do it knowingly as a result of weighing the pain of working with that person versus the gain I think I may get from the project.  And once I’ve made a decision to do it there’s only one thing I can do from that point out - shut up, smile and work my ass off to make the best of it.  Oh, and probably drink a lot too.

The First Thirty

There are many things in Hollywood I wish weren’t the way they are but my job is not to change the system, it’s to make movies within it.  However, there is one thing that happens in Hollywood that I dislike that I actually do myself.  And it’s not going to change anytime soon.  So I thought I’d take a second and explain what and why.

I am not a very slow reader, but I’m not a particularly fast reader either.  I don’t move on in a sentence if I don’t get what I’ve just read and if I get interrupted and lose my train of thought I have to go back again.  So when I sit down to read a script I sit down to read the script.  I clear my schedule to read.  I give the writer my full, undivided attention.  For thirty pages.  What?!?  Yup, that’s it.  Thirty pages.  And here’s why.

None of my two days are ever alike, but here’s today’s schedule for example…

5:30 am                        wake
6:00 am                       drive to beach
7:00 am                        surfing lesson
9:30 am                        conference call on way back from beach
10:30 - 11:30                read & return emails and write blog
11:45 am                        drive to meeting in Hollywood
12:30 pm - ?                 meeting
drive back to meeting in West LA
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm     meeting
4:30 pm - 8:00 pm     read scripts, read & return emails, read 3 scripts for tomorrow’s meetings
8:00 pm                        drive back to Hollywood for another meeting

8:30 pm - ?                  meeting
10:00 pm                      read whatever I couldn’t finish earlier/collapse and go to bed

So this is a particularly busy day but I’ve yet to come across a calm one so let’s just go with it.  I’ve got three scripts to read.  I would like to devote 2 hours to each.  Six hours to reading scripts.  It can actually just about fit in this day so that works.

But when I sit down and for thirty pages, that’s thirty whole minutes, I’m bored, confused, annoyed, or whatever I just can’t justify going on for another hour and a half.  I cannot.  And anyone that tells you they do is either A) lying or B) has a little too much time on their hands to be a working professional and you should be suspicious.

All I can say to you writers, is believe me.  Aside from those readers who get paid to read and produce thorough reports on what they read, everyone in town reads like this.  Some also pick a random few pages later on in the script as well but mostly, this is it.

I want to fall in love with the script, but if takes longer than 30 pages to keep me even remotely interested, I’ll never get to that amazing thing the happens on page 60 because I’ll have put it down.  So if you’re going to send your script out, please, for your sake, and for mine, make sure the first thirty kick ass.

Sorry readers, I gotta fix the formatting later.  I’m late!

Down time equals prep time

This week I realized that for the majority of my working life the economy has been good.  Ever since I had my first jobs in high school I never had trouble finding employment.  I’m sure lots of factors played in to that, but I don’t think I ever felt the effects of a bad economy.

Now I have friends who have been laid off, relatives that have been forced to retire early and colleagues who are struggling to find enough freelance work to keep the bills paid.

I’ve had a few conversations recently with friends in various professions about the economy, and what I’ve learned is that what happens in a slow economy is that there are just no scraps to be had.  No scraps for the little guy, the new guy or the guy wanting to make a change.  There just is no extra.  Everyone clamps down on risk and the big boys  scoop up all the work.  No one wants to take a chance on someone or something new.  Everyone becomes conservative.

I have seen this in large tv companies battling for small budget shows they might  previously not have bothered with, commercial directors working with smaller crews and less fancy gear, openings for new young talent becoming even more rare, budgets continuing to shrink.

But with all things, there is an upside.

A teacher I had at NYU said something that really stuck with me.  He said “In our industry, you may have a lot of down time between opportunities, those are the times to work harder, improve your skills and be prepared to make the most of the opportunities when they do come along.”

Now is the time to learn a new skill, make a new contact, strengthen an old one.  It’s the time to absorb the world, write a spec script, learn how our industry is changing, apply to labs and workshops, make a crappy low budget film just for the heck of it.  Now is the time to do whatever you can to make yourself a better filmmaker.

The work will come back and if we’re all smart we’ll have used this slow time to get ready to accept the opportunities that will come with it.

Why Student Films Suck

Alright, I did not write this, but I found it this week while I was tidying up my computer and I thought I’d share it.  I wish I knew who did write it so I could attribute it, but I don’t so don’t sue me whoever you are.  Anyway, it’s something I was given while I was at USC and while I don’t agree with all of it I found it funny/antagonizing/challenging.

I hope you enjoy it!

———————————————-

WHY STUDENT FILMS SUCK

“I’ve made it a point never to watch anyone’s student film.  I usually tell people, ‘I’ll hire you–as long as I don’t have to watch your student film!’  Most student films feature two things–a not particularly attractive girl running towards the camera, and a suicide.  If it’s a comedy, it features a not particularly attractive girl and a dog.  I should know.  I made one, and so did my son.  But these kids are stealing jobs from me, so they must be doing something right.” -Chuck Workman
Chairman of the Director’s Guild of America’s Academic liaison subcommittee
(As quoted in Billy Frolick’s What I Really Want To Do Is Direct.)

How dare we?

• On the whole, student short films SUCK!

(This does not contain the usual advice you get in film school about the elements of good screenwriting. No no, rather, it is a very specific list of common mistakes and trends we’ve seen in crappy student films again and again at screening after screening.)

• Before you even think of making a student film, read this list .
• If you’re a genius, then go ahead - break these rules.
• But let’s face it, if you think you’re a genius, you’re not. So play it safe and spare your audiences the uneasy task of having to lie when you ask, “So- what did you think?”

Let the sucking begin…   __________________________________

Dolly & Zoom
No question. This is the most egregious, blatantly non-creative, non-cool, total student film red flag.  Sure, Hitchcock used it in Vertigo, Spielberg used it Jaws , but enough is enough.  It’s cliched, overused, goofy, and overall a bad idea.  By the way, what we’re talking about here is a simultaneous Dolly-in/Zoom-out or vice-versa which compresses the background while keeping the subject at a fixed size during the shot.  A student film no-no.  (The dolly/zoom is such a mark of a student film, it’s a joke in the opening of THE BIG PICTURE.)

The Tortured Artist Film
The story goes like this.  A struggling artist (writer/painter/sculptor/musician — 90% of the time, it’s a writer) grapples with some sort of inner conflict, (a dead relative, writers deadline, religious confusion, etc).  Our tormented soul encounters a muse (beautiful woman, endearing older character, magical artifact, etc) who helps the protagonist come to a sort of realization which ultimately opens the creative floodgates and allows the character to succeed (finish the novel, paint the painting, sculpt the likeness of the muse, or perform at the big recital).  The Tortured Artist Film usually involves a so-called “man vs. himself” struggle which is guaranteed to put you to sleep in the first two minutes.  Related to this is the “introspective shot” which usually features the main character staring into space for a good minute (usually smoking a cigarette).  File this under “Pretentious as Shit.”

Dream Sequences & Flashbacks
If you don’t want your student film to look like a friggin’ episode of Kung Fu, then stay away from dream sequences and flashbacks, young grasshopper.  A dream sequence generally says “I couldn’t think of a better way to reveal information about the character than this.”  So-called “funny” dream sequences are usually not.

Time-Elapse Montage
You’ve got say, 15 minutes to get your point across in a short film.   Every second of screen time should be treated like gold.  A time-elapse montage not only demonstrates an inability to structure your film pacing-wise, it makes the audience wait unnecessarily.  Try to find a simple and efficient way to indicate the passage of time without resorting to this too easy narrative device.

Bad Audio
You can have a great looking short film, but if the sound is bad, the film itself comes across as bad.  Nothing gives away a student film like the soundtrack.  Budgets are tight, sure, but many student directors simply don’t place any importance and give any thought to what their film sounds like.  The result is often a beautiful picture with a badly mixed, distracting audio experience.  In the same vein, if you’re making a 16mm film, be aware of how crappy the 16mm optical track is going to sound (which is REALLY bad) and try to prepare for it.

And now, free of charge, a canonical list of BAD musical soundtrack instruments:

• Synthesizer (the “porn” soundtrack)
• Your friend’s band (trust me, they suck)
• “the lone, slow piano”
• “the lone guitar” (flamenco esp.)
• The “impish” clarinet
• The cello dirge.
• The “spirited” piccolo.
• Any kind of wood blocks.

“Look at me, I’m a director!” shots
Examples include– the gratuitous “fishbowl in the foreground” shot, the “overhead for no reason ‘cept we’re shooting in a soundstage” shot, the “we think it’s cool slanted dutch angle shot” and perhaps most insidiously the “fridge POV shot”, otherwise known as the “put the camera inside the trashcan/toilet/mailbox shot”.  Ok, maybe you need to get this stuff out of your system, but just be warned, it’s usually cheese.

Ultra-slow Dialogue
A film professor once told me that on a film set, one second of “real” time equals three seconds of film time.  Something to remember:  Watch a student film and notice how often there are long pauses between lines of dialogue.  Why is this?  I don’t know, but if you watch the average “real” film, you’ll see that the dialogue often occurs ultra fast.  Maybe it’s because we can hear faster than people normally speak.  Who knows?  A side note– these pauses also extenuate bad lines of dialogue.  A poorly written line is going to hang in the air like a fart if not closely followed by a fresh line to cleanse the air like a gentle breeze…

Blatant Miscasting

• The audience can tell when you cast your significant other as the romantic object of desire.
• Don’t try to pass off someone who is shall we say, “fugly”, as a supermodel.
• In the same vein, why do so many student films cast SAG boy wonders as the “computer nerd” who can’t get a date?
• Mismatched couples. Be honest: “Do you believe that SHE would go out with HIM?” Make sure the answer is “yes.” The audience can only suspend their disbelief so much.
• Don’t have your friends play “older characters.” The baby powder grey hair trick doesn’t work. Neither do the fake beards.
• And while we’re at it, don’t cast people just because they’re hot. This mainly applies to the young male director. Whether they want to admit it or not, they will cast a very attractive actress in a role just so they can be near a hot girl. The script will usually require the actress to be in a scantily clad outfit or a nude scene or whatever. This is the power trip of the young, horny director. It preys on the good faith of young actresses looking for work. It’s not about substance or story; rather it’s an excuse to get an actress naked under the guise of “art”. It is motivated by the director’s ego. This is filmmaking, not a bikini contest - create your film with higher purpose.

“Eyebrow acting”
It may work at the Golden Tugboat Dinner Theatre, but it doesn’t come off on film.  What’s eyebrow acting?  It’s an overly expressive use of facial muscles more suited to miming than screen acting.  This acting technique is only acceptable in films where the characters have sex within the first four minutes.

The “Nothing Happens” short film
A very common bad student film.  Usually consists of a main character who spends his or her time talking to people about nothing of consequence.  Nothing happens for up to forty-five minutes.  At the end, some contrived “climax” comes out of nowhere and tries to wrap everything up, but because there has been no conflict of any sort for so long, the audience is asleep and misses it.  Common threads of these films include the “personal discovery/epiphanies that go inside the main character’s head” film, the “warm remembrances of my childhood that no one cares about” film, and the “Slice of Life that is more uninteresting than real life” and  “funny people I know come to life on the big screen.”  Nearly 50% of these films include an alcoholic single parent.

Note:Before you begin writing your screenplay, start with an outline. This allows you to see the problems and strengths in your idea before you invest countless hours of time and effort. An outline is your chance to confirm something interesting happens. If you begin by writing dialogue there is a good chance you’ll write a problematic story.

The Feature Film Masquerading as a Short Film
If you’ve ever sat through a student screening, you’ll notice that often the films best received are the shorter films.  Now it could be argued that this is due to the simple fact that they suck and less sucking is better than more sucking.  It could also be that the audience is sitting through many, many student films in one evening and appreciates the shorter ones because it means the whole thing will end sooner.  In the short narrative film genre, every moment is precious.  It’s to your advantage to make your film short but sweet– for one thing, shorter films cost less, take less time to edit, and allow you more time to focus on making your film as tight and well designed as possible. Ask yourself when writing (and editing) the film -is this scene necessary?  Is this moment necessary?  What does it do for the audience?  We call this The “Get In And Get Out” principal.  Don’t cram a full-length feature into the short film style.  Do what your film needs to do and then get the hell out.  Remember, longer isn’t necessarily better. Less is more.

The One Joke Film
A good short film has got to be a collection of good ideas, not one good idea stretched out for fifteen minutes.  In any event, at least make an attempt to fill your time with stuff that’s actually interesting to someone other than yourself.  I don’t know how many bad student films I’ve seen that are actually about the filmmaker’s uninteresting life or contain vignettes that go on and on and on.  Before you shoot, make a list of all the “good ideas” in the script.  You should have lots of them.  How’s that for a generic tip?

The “Walk into the Camera” Transition & Other Lame Ideas

• This one is crazy. A character walks INTO THE CAMERA LENS! And then we fade to black, or more commonly, cut to the reverse– someone walking AWAY FROM THE CAMERA LENS! OOOooo! What a good idea…
• The zany “Slacker with a Gun” film
• You’re not Quentin Tarantino. Don’t bite his style. Be you.
• Overuse of bad video effects. In fact, just stay away from effects unless they help to tell your story. Just because somebody left you in front of the AVID and you figured out where the effects palette is doesn’t mean you should use it. The point is to tell a quality story. Gratuitous effects at the student level usually shout LAME STUDENT FILM! (except for cinelook or magic bullet - if you shot on DV then by all means please apply these “film looks” to your project)
• Keep dissolves to a minimum. They are not synonymous with cuts. Same goes for wipes, keys, etc. The 80’s are over. Video effects suck.

Note: As a general rule, make sure that every directorial choice you make is a motivated choice. Your choices should assist and complement your story. Don’t do anything just because it “looks cool”. Gratuitous cuts, transitions, shots, gimmicks, and effects will simply bog down your film. Attempting professional effects at the student level student level typically lacks the necessary quality. Remember to work within your means. If you have no budget, don’t attempt Lord of the Rings. Besides, quality and originality is what the audience and the industry is looking for; so go for something witty and interesting that doesn’t require elaborate effects.

The “Dramatic Cigarette”
A character is having a dramatic crisis:  So what does he/she do?  Whips out a smoke and puffs dramatically as if to say, “Look, this is so serious I’m smoking.” YES, people do smoke when they are nervous or excited, or under pressure.  But there’s no excuse for using the long, boring “drag ‘n puff” scene as a lazy alternative to finding a more original way to express the same thing.

Ramblers: The “Quest for Truth”
There are several permutations of this theme.
#1. The Puzzled Scientist: The “story” deals with a puzzled reclusive scientist who learns to forgo cold, hard science for something warm, gushy and intangible, like love, god, morality, religion or free will.  Films in this genre are usually condescending to the  audience and set up bogus sounding explanations of scientific principals (look for glossed over references to  Chaos  Theory, Grand Unification Theory, Relativity, etc.) and far-fetched reconciliations of the two.   Filmmakers, please:  if you must write one of these and want to be taken seriously, at least do a little research so you don’t insult real scientists.
#2. The Venting film: Broke up with your boy/girlfriend?  Please, don’t make a movie about it!  It’s dangerous - These self-examinatory “why my ex dumped me” films that turn into long diatribes about the nature of love, the nature of mankind, etc. are rarely insightful and usually about as interesting as listening to a friend complaining about a relationship gone bad.  In short, philosophical examinations of human existence and relationships, when discussed on an abstract level, will almost guarantee that the audience will become bored and/or confused.

Shooting into Mirrors
Now don’t get me wrong, shooting into a mirror can be used to great effect when used at the right time and for the right reasons.  But like so many narrative devices abused by student filmmakers, the “reflective” shot has become a staple of the bad short film.  “Cool!  So she puts her hand mirror right there and then we can see her boyfriend yelling at her behind her and it’s all in one shot.  Man, I’m a genius!”  Or more recently, I have noticed a new crop of mirror scenes involving someone holding a razor blade, staring into the mirror, and contemplating suicide. (see: tortured artist films above)

Voiceover
A poor excuse for not using action to tell the story. This happens because students are too lazy to create an interesting scene that actually defines a character and the world of the movie, so they use the easy way out - voiceover. Ultimately, voiceover is cheap and boring. If you don’t want to use actions to illustrate your story then why are you in film school?  Words are for books! Speeches are for theatre! Talking is for radio! Use voiceover sparingly.

Interminable Credit Sequences
We know you’re excited about your film and you have a lot of people to thank, but please consider the poor audience member who has to sit through ten films.  We’ve seen credit sequences that last longer than the film itself!  Here’re some things to think about:  (1) Scroll fast. Real fast.  (2) Small fonts are great.  (3) Title cards are fast but not every crewmember needs one.  (4) Must you really thank your entire family tree by name?

Excessive Gratuitous Profanity
Why? Because you saw Reservoir Dogs? Because gangsters are tough? Because you want to show them how “anti-establishment” you are? Come on.

Scene One: The protagonist wakes up.
There’s nothing INHERENTLY wrong with starting a film with the buzz of an alarm clock, a hand slapping the snooze button, eyes fluttering open, followed by a yawn or an “oh my god, I’m late!” - But why so much of this?  We see it all the time. It’s as if the writer/director woke up one morning, looked around and said “Wow, This is cool!”  Uh, yeah, just go back to sleep.

Nothing To Say.
Filmmaking begins in the heart. If you don’t have anything to say, why should the audience care about your film? Find your own voice, carefully define your ideas, and then work really hard to bring them to the screen. Just because every twenty-something around moved to LA and wants to be famous doesn’t mean they deserve to be recognized. Originality is highly valued - your own unique style is waiting to be honed.

Tired Plot Ideas:
Someone is gay (or is questioning their sexuality). Someone is dying, Someone is on drugs (nobody cares you were “brave enough” to show pot/coke/heroin in your film, unless they are injecting it into their eye). Someone’s mom is dying. Someone is stalking someone else. Young gangsters. Old gangsters. Sensitive guy likes girl who doesn’t like him. Someone has AIDs. The Disfigured hero (outcast boy has third arm protruding from his back eventually finds a girl who loves him and we find out she also has a third arm on her back). Somebody dies in a bathtub (how convenient for cleanup). Spoofs of old horror or kung-fu movies. Person walking around a city glumly looking at stuff. The streetwise prostitute finds man who wants to save her. Kids aren’t as innocent as they seem (yeah, we know). The bad marriage. The rape. The doppelganger film. Finally, the incredibly popular: Person contemplating suicide.

NUMBER ONE:
The number one reason student films suck is because the director doesn’t do the work necessary to make a high caliber film. You and your crew must take the project VERY seriously.

FINAL WORD:
Art has no rules! And yet Art does have rules! So there you have it, I leave you with a strange paradox. It’s true you are free to do whatever your heart desires; but keep in mind that attempting to produce “art” without knowledge of the craft often collapses into incomprehensibility and self-indulgence. (but then again, a lot of people love David Lynch)

 

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