Which online script coverage do you use? [part 1]

Today we start a ride thru script services online, sites that offer feedback and written notes on formatted, completed screenplays. There is a fee to pay, but in this case, it’s lower than the average.

On top of that, Script Analytics offers a proprietary coverage system that you are probably curious to try out. So am I.

8 tips for spontaneous performance from Ken Loach

There are as many acting methods out there as there are personal journeys through the craft of story and film. As Ken Loach shares in this video, you get to a method by trial and error until something seems to work and make sense. To get performance that plays as “real”, Ken resorts to techniques familiar to many indie makers: follow the story, not the budget, play the scene not the plot… and more.

This previous text comes from the Berlinale 2013 and the awesome award-winning blog Mentorless.com

Enjoy!

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ken loach

REMEMBER THE GIFT TROJAN HORSE ?

I love “Fitzcarraldo” (by Werner Herzog, with Klaus Kinsky), a story about mad vision in the Amazon forest. And yet, the making-of film “Burden Of Dreams” (by Les Blanc) completes the movie organically, not only as a Blue-Ray added value. The same I can say about “Apocalypse Now” and its making-of film “Heart Of Darkness”.

Independent films can tell their making-of story as an organic making-of doc as well. The story of a movie starts with idea, and journeys thru development, Kickstarter / Indiegogo campaigns, etcetera.

The image that comes to mind is the Trojan Gift Horse, full of power within, and only in appearance a predictable offering.

Once inside the gates, the movie-horse can open and reveal hidden content.trojanhorse-gif

4 GOOD REASONS TO CHANGE A MOVIE TITLE

trojanhorse-gif

While I was blog-posting about an indie documentary which is still in the making, the filmmakers told me they had changed the title.

WHY CAN THAT HAPPEN?

1. You change a title because you can. When you make a truly independent film, you own it. You owe no lip-service to anyone, and no one owns your imagination, you can come up with your own title. MAke it free, make it unique, make it awesome. COMMENTS WELCOME: WHAT is YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE TITLE EVER?

2. A GOOD TITLE GETS YOU INTO FESTIVALS
From my experience organizing festivals, I know Good titles get noticed and watched first, before juries get tired, overwhelmed.
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3. ABC comes before RTS in the ALPHABET.
Use a title that will end up on top (or bottom) of a list, but not in the middle. Special characters are ben better #HashtagTitle comes before “A Good Title” Worth changing for.

4. IF YOUR TITLE INCLUDES A TRADEMARKED NAME or BRAND, better to change it now. TIP: more Pirate is to leave the original title, get the publicity-making reaction before the fine, then find an even better, legal title.

Russian American filmmakers Kirill Mikhanovsky made an indie feature film in Brazil entitled “Dreams of Fish” and – before going to the Cannes Festival – changed the name to “Ana”. No problem. “Ana” won the award for best young director.

NEXT POST: REMEMBER THE GIFT TROJAN HORSE

“Notes on A wire” birdsong by R.B. Smart (click “Post”)

This piece makes you both think and let go while you try to capture some big Why? and its Answer! in total wonder. Reminds me – in principle, not sound – of John Cage’s nation of “Chance Operations”, making art film music with found material.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=267029866807388

birdsong

UPLOAD YOUR VIDEO Doc Next Network wants YOU

Doc Next Network is calling on media makers, social activists and critical thinkers: take a stand and share your views on Radical Democracy for Europe on video!

How can we create an open and inclusive European society?

Submit your media works to our video challenge and win €2500! Deadline for entries is April 13.

Read up call

Here are some more reference and inspiration links.

YOUTH CINEMA
DOCMOB.NET
NUFFGLOBAL
NUFF.NO

“APPLAUD or DIE!!” Must see Award-Winning Short (10 min)

Contemporary film studies commonly use the feature film as the basic, common dramatic space and format. The three acts, the familiar setups and characters populate what film students examine the most. If you are learning how to write screenplays, you probably have read and reread “Chinatown” and “Ordinary People” and “Tootsie” ay nd “Casablanca” and other classics. These films of course are awesome and history and deserve attention, respect, awe. But they are not the only source out there and, in my POV, they can frankly be too much. If you are learning to swim, laps are more manageable than crossing the Channel. If you are a beginner at Chess, you can learn how to “castle” from a friend, without having to study a whole Fischer-Spassky match.

This new category in the “Movies Without Cameras” Blog suggests different award-winning short films to watch and perhaps explore. Shorts can have alternative structures, fewer characters and streamlined scenes. What better gym for short-film makers to flex their imaginary muscles in?

The first short I offer for thought is called “Applaud or Die” by and with Benson Simmonds as a desperate man in an alley playing for his life. Not recent, but a timeless CLASSIC.