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 ...

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 ...

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… ...

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 ...

Even though the cost of production equipment has plummeted over 100% in the past 10 years, the number of film schools in the same period of time has nearly tripled. With Federal Student Aid still readily available, it’s become quite lucrative for schools to open their doors, cram 30 kids into a classroom at $30,000 a head, and teach them ...

Late last year I had the pleasure of checking out a hilarious play called “Point Break Live”. It was, you guessed it, based on the movie “Point Break”  starring Keanu Reeves, Gary Busey, and the late great Patrick Swayze. The play was a blast: literally. I had to buy a plastic rain poncho to avoid getting sprayed by the water they ...

PT Anderson, director of “There Will Be Blood”, “Boogie Nights”, “Punch Drunk Love”, and a slew of other great movies, was once enrolled at NYU Film School. For a Week. But before the Bursar could completely digest his tuition, he smartly got out, got most of his money back, and used it to help make his first film. But what ...