Category Archives: Resources

Where will the intelligence and kindness come from that can save us? ( Stephen Siciliano, author)

Need a film crew?

avatar, film crew network post

FCN – Film Crew Network – is, in its own words “a Network that puts quality before quantity keeping things up close and personal to support each member through their developments. It doesn’t matter where you are in your career our crew will welcome and help you out since we we all started somewhere and sometimes all we needed was some inspiration and support to keep us buzzing and on track. On FCN you will be able to meet some very cool individuals that have worked on gigs we all dream of, make some valuable connections, share and learn from some of the best in the industry.”

SOME FCN FEATURES:
JOB post and respond
PROJECTS create & invite crew onto your projects
NETWORK develop your specialist list of contacts
ALBUMS create and develop unlimited
ADVERTISE yourself or your business
SHOWREEL & video upload and share
GROUP & EVENT creation and participation
UNRESTRICTED contact on the Network

check out the FCN site!
CINEMAHEAD

Make a doc.mob film (and try the Cent-Up beta)

doc.mob manifesto

DocMob is a film practice for the making of miniature documentaries  with available digital equipment.  The idea is to witness local stories and events, and make short-short films. These can be one-person portraits, events, or anything at all. The goal is to document what would otherwise go unseen, with energy in focus, and little planning. DocMobbers can follow a set of simple practical principles, in the Doc.Mob Manifesto.

doc.mob! logo

See what you can do.  (watch doc.mobs)

Centup is a crowdsourced project that allows the online support of projects.  The evolutionary plus is that miniature Centup donations let us distribute – simultaneously with each project “like”- small money to NGOs of choice.

Micro-documentary and Cent-Up share size and speed: small, quick and effective.

Make a Doc.mob make Cents by registering your doc.mob project and trying the Cent-up beta.

 

What’s your OFS?

An OFS is an Online Film School.

Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi, Spy Kids) wrote a “10 day film school” book. Other authors have since followed suit with How-tos books about how film is simple and the learning goes quick. Yes! it doesn’t take long to get with the fundamentals of making movies and, like with music and languages, kids learn it faster.

They are even better teachers. Infact some of the best film know-how is spread by Youth Cinema makers who grow up with open access to cameras and the digital realm . They can write and shoot without having to deal with gatekeepers or need the approval of adults or, god forbid, censors. And they have begun to think cinematic, too.

When a young filmmaker makes a film, you get two birds with one peanut: fresh knowledge is added to the common know-how. Youth Cinema pays its (dark) stars with love, learning and growth more than money. A key reward for a young crew is the knowledge and experience of the making-of, of taking the dream home as a festival film. How was the movie made? How were problems solved? That is practical knowledge that rarely fits in an a paper book.

As the internet spreads knowledge, I searched for and found a lot of online film schools. They seem run by young makers, producers and media entrepreneurs. A pool of makers and experts who offer film ABC, substance, and application.

ABC = Alphabetization: of film-making. Our environment remixes images, representation and duplication form the core of our communication-based evolution. the ABC of it is cinematic storytelling.

Substance: Online film schools often include technical content, aesthetics, philosophy, math, history, geography. Film may be passepartout to understanding knowledge as it changes, in practice.

Applications: The How to? Movies are problem solving adventures, experimental tests of will, desire and expectation. To realise what you wanted to say and how you did it a key step of personal empowerment.

A post will soon list our favourite online film schools.

D.

Producing Shortcuts

Take a look at Cinecore, the new production resource that just looks like it could solve a whole bunch of issues. It’s available for free, and that’s great for exploring the concept and the tools. But – be careful – it quickly asks for monthly subscriptions. For those I suggest you wait until your next budgeted movie in the making.

Creating & viewing locations from cinecore on Vimeo.

follow me @cinemahead

(part 2) Why is this blog called “Movies Without Cameras” ?

One of my favourite philosophy books is “Introduction to Metaphysics” by Henri Bergson, the “cinematic philosopher” who explored matter, memory and motion at the turn of centuries 19 and 20. Bergson saw links between the new art and science of cinema and almost everything around us. He made “Movies without cameras” inside his head.

A century-plus later, we make movies with smartphones, glasses and watches. We make images, that is, not always movies. What is a movie then? Or, as the film school jargon imposes, what is film?

Who are movies made for? Are they for audiences (yes) or for your the pleasure, or personal growth of the makers (also)?

This blog is called “Movies Without Cameras” because it is about thinking about movies and stories, but also about trying to get movies made in a simple and cheap way.

Is this blog for you? Well, this is who I am writing this blog for (the target)

those:

a) trying to say something with your voice as a film (but need an alternative approach?)
B) looking for a niche audience (that can become your crowd?)
C) interested in making movies (with new tech)
D) tired of movies as stars, money and celebrity (…)
E) studying Theory of film (but want to try making one, in Practice?)
F) with a film in post-production (and want feedback?)
G) under 25 years old (and looking for Youth Cinema funding)
H) who are writing scripts
I) looking for skills leading to a job in film & media (less is not more here)

DANIEL

You can also connect here:
follow @cinemahead
linkedin group :> Cinemaheads
cinemahead forums

The OpenWritersRoom at BBC – until 3.28.2013

You know how, well, access for writers is still kind of a problem? You write the script and it takes 2 years and nobody loves you anymore and all the lost sleep and still you can’t get good readers you can trust, industry folks who care about your work?

In the US you have to find an agent who guarantees that :

a) your script is not stolen, “plagiarised” or “inspired” by someone else’s.
b) can get into a decent pitch meeting (executives are always in a hurry).

In the UK the BBC has re:opened the writersroom doors again!

Here is what you do:

1. Find your masterpiece from last year. (It’s holding up the blue chair)
2. GO in to BBC and plop your script on the pile, digitally speaking.
3. Relax. You got nothing to lose.

What? you don’t believe it?

Real experts will read it, merit will shine, and the bells may toll for you.

go to the BCC.co.uk site or get more info at the awesome mediamuppet.co.uk

if you need to do a rewrite, or your movie was about phone booths and polaroids, stop in our twitter @cinemahead.

Dust dust off those rusty scenes just one more time. Let them shine!

Free Scene Feedbacks from the cinemahead forum You got it, free script consulting until, well, April st1 2013.

Learn code, learn story. Get under the hood, kids.

I never thought I would be posting Bill and Zuck bragging about their early coding experiences, but here I deny it and do it. Why? Because I too started to code as a kid in 1980, in school, in Naw Haven, Connecticut. I wrote a program in BASIC, called “2 minute football”, with my older brother Greg. A player had only two minutes to come back from 9 points down and win. No graphics at all. Just a number matrix and a flashing ball.

Then as a freshmen in college I coded in Assembler language and Pascal. I made a Cat & Mouse graphical video game that challenged me more than 4 years of latin in greek in high school. Solving problems for credit, what a blast. I went to work for IBM and for 3 years sold software solutions. With the money I shot my first films. What I knew as “Problem Solving”, I began to call… “Conflict”.

I love Coding because it’s problem solving in a controlled environment. It’s logical (plan, design) , abstract (math) and narrative (code begins and ends, like a story). But Code serves another primary purpose, learning form your own mistakes, debugging your own thinking process. Coding allows to do stuff we just could not do before. Coding empowered me with new knowledge and experience. And now that film is digital, Code and Story go even more together.

Thanks to Code.org for activating the EDU button in the global algorithm, and for joining two key pieces of the puzzle: kids and problem solving.

Let’ fit more puzzle pieces together.

.Danny
CINEMAHEAD

http://www.code.org

How to Package your next Movie?

I recently spent some time in the Yasuni region, in the Amazon. We could start to learn some tips & tricks from the plants and animals in the jungle. Each has an organic solution to is basic needs: plants need space to grow high and get more light. Animals need to reproduce. The story of nature is an un-sentimental cycle of survival efforts.

Look at this post on organic packaging from Evocative via GOOD.is

http://www.good.is/posts/mushrooms-based-packaging-and-designing-a-circular-economy