The day I moved in to my apartment building in 2006, I stumbled upon a small film shoot. There were bright lights, gaffing equipment, and a focused kid carrying a Panasonic DVX 100. That kid’s name was Pete Atencio, and you’ve probably never heard of him. He isn’t ultra famous like Steven Spielberg or Quentin Tarantino. But Pete has been ...
Read More »5 Great Cautionary Movies About Making Movies
Everyone loves a movie; and people who make movies love making movies about people making movies. Self referential humor has become a cultural norm. The humor derived from most of these movies is either about how insane it is to make a movie, or how insane or ridiculous the people are who decide to make a movie. But if you ...
Read More »What You Can Learn From Zach Braff’s $2.2 Million Campaign on Kickstarter
Zach Braff wanted to make a sequel to “Garden State”. He decided to raise money via Crowfunding site Kickstarter. The goal of the campaign was $2 million. And at last count, they had raised $2.47 million. Some people have criticized Braff for doing this, since he’s already famous and has plenty of industry connections. Isn’t Kickstarter for the indie filmmaker ...
Read More »Angry Film Student Inadvertently Proves My Point
I received an interesting and aggressive comment today, as I sometimes do from film students who become defensive against what I am saying. This film student started out attacking the validity of what I am saying on the site and then went on to prove my point. I have responded to each point below. Um… so let me get this ...
Read More »Interview: Working as a DP at Age 16
I get a lot of emails from high school students asking for advice. The reality is that your high school’s A/V program is advanced as any film schools’. Seriously. In the old days, yes, a big name school might need $70,000 to buy a quality camera. But if your high school has any HD Panasonic or Sony Cameras, or any ...
Read More »Crossing “The Line”: What They Don’t Tell You in Film School About Film Jobs
To realistically start a directing career, you don’t just apply to film school, get accepted, make some shorts, and wait for the offers to come rolling in. You have to be proactive, smart, and think different than 99% of filmmakers. And that starts with understanding the difference between “Above the Line and “Below the Line”, and a whole lot more… ...
Read More »Best “Die Hard” Music Video Ever
If you haven’t seen this, drop everything and watch it. It’s not a mish mash of clips with some random song overlayed. These guys actually wrote a ballad, a 4 verse rock song describing the entire Die Hard Series! (Minus the 5th installment thank God). The band is called Guz Nite. The video is expertly edited, very funny, and has one ...
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