i went to the screenwriting expo this past weekend (fri, sat, sun) and took a bunch of classes on directing. the classes were all excellent and i highly recommend going next year. there were about 4,000 people there, all trying to make it in the industry. some of the classes were so full that people had to camp out in the hallways.
on friday, the first class i took was “writer’s film school” taught by dov s-s simens, who also wrote the excellent book “from reel to deal” and teaches his 2 day film school through various seminars.
one of his main points is if you want to make a 20 million dollar movie, first make a 2 million dollar movie. if you don’t have 2 million dollars, first make a $200,000 movie. he said this is possible if you set up an LLC and find investors, but most people probably can’t do it. so then first make a $20,000 movie, probably a digital feature. the point is to start wherever you are at whatever budget, and if you can make a good movie, then someone is going to notice and give you more money to make your next one.
another great point he made was that the script is the most important thing. he said nobody is denying that, but it isn’t the most expensive thing, and never will be.
he had lots of information and i ended up buying his dvd film school set for $250 (instead of the usual $400). i’ll let you know how it is.
class #2 was “power directing 1 – the essentials of directing” taught by jeremiah comey. his focus was on actors, and it was clear see how talented he was in that aspect. he had 2 video cameras set up and they were project split screen so everyone could see closeups of the actors. by actors, i mean random people he called up to sit and read a page of script. so 2 people would sit facing each other, and he’d have them read the script, then he’d give them direction. it was amazing to see the performances change so drastically right before your eyes. he would have them hold hands (strangers, mind you), or stroke each others faces, or kiss right before delivering a line. sometimes he’d sit behind an actor and tickle him. funny stuff, but it worked.
class #3 was “staging” and class #4 was “creating floorplans and shotlists”. both were taught by jim pasternak (who was a last minute replacement for another teacher). jim balanced his material between dealing with the camera, and dealing with actors. he didn’t stay too focused on the specific subjects of the class, but it was because in order to understand what he was talking about, he had to cover other material, like how you have to understand editing in order to know what shots you need to shoot.
i’ll try to follow up with my impressions of the saturday and sunday classes as well. i highly recommend going to the expo next year.
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