More About Found Footage

            More on Found Footage

    I have just spend a week trying to analyze what is right and what is wrong with the found footage craze.
    I believe that the craze began with Paranormal Activity. After the Blair Witch there were a few attempts at making found footage films, but that movie was basically a one and done. Even the sequel is not found footage (that was a major mistake on the producers part).

   We could go back further to the first great found footage movie. All the way back to the 70's there was a notorious movie titled Cannibal holocaust. It is so dark and bloody that most fans over look this minor master piece. It is about a band of so called journalist who travel to the Amazon to document a lost tribe only to first create the story they are there for and then later become victims of their own curiosity.

    I believe that curiosity is the key to the quality found footage films. In Cannibal Holocaust these jerks ( I am being kind) keep filming from a safe distance while someone is raped, later while the same thing is happening to one of them and then they keep film while one of their own is being killed. It is a film that shows that the person or persons with the camera does not have to be a hero or likable. You can give that camera to a murderer or a thief or a total coward.

    I say that you can do this because you are doing this. You are picking who holds the camera and reveals the action. We are trying to follow rules here and there are no rules. Anything goes in this new genre.

    I would argue that the biggest problem with this genre is the sticking to the rules of normal films. Look at most of them, they are still stuck in a 180 degree world. They are shot as if there is still a crew of fifty people behind the camera.

    To prepare for this post I looked at a few movies that I had not seen yet. The first one was Paranormal Activity, Tokyo Nights. A sort of remake of the American version. You can see the whole thing on youtube if you wish. I like the pacing of this version. There is a rule about Japanese horror film making. It is said that American’s try to startle their viewers while the Japanese try to disturb them. Their style of filmmaking is to get under your skin and scratch away.



    The other film was one that I had high hopes for, Area 407. This could have been a great film instead of just an okay film. The people who boarded the plane that crashes in this film are much smarter than the ones who crawled out of the wreckage. I would have rather watched a movie about the flight and the crash without the monster portion. All the stuff that happens on the ground reminded me of the playstation 2 games I did not like enough to finish.

    Challenge yourself and your characters to be smarter than the audience. Characters who go out of their way to get killed are characters that no one will remember.

    Okay that is it for now. If you have any suggestions leave them as a comment. If someone disagrees with me so much that they wish to respond in post form I would be happy to post it here if it is well written.
Lastly remember to stumble us on Stumbleupon and if any of you are interested in learning to turn your no budget screenplay into your own no budget movie please visit my new site where I offer advice and tutorials on different types of filmmaking. You can visit it by   clicking here.

Think like A Filmmaker

            Think Like A Filmmaker

    Do I need to learn about filmmaking to be a good writer?

  No. You can be a great writer and never learn anything more than the basic format of a script.

    Is there a but coming?

    Yes.

    But you need to learn something about no budget filmmaking to be good at writing this type of script. You need to understand that it is not like writing any other kind of script. The limitations of your no budget screenplay are fixed. There are certain things that you cannot include in a script because it cannot be done on a budget of under fifty thousand dollars.

    Here are some basics to keep in mind.

    You cannot count on CGI to save you. Computer effects can only do so much. Unless you or the director you are working with is a master at this and can reproduce scenes from the Avengers on his or her Mac you need to keep it realistic. The software required to make it look great will probably cost more than the film’s budget. Final advice on this subject if you are going to write scenes that require seeing a lot of monsters, explosions and space ships just sit back and watch what the sci-fi channel has on any Saturday. This should cure you. There is being cheap and looking cheap and sci-fi channel manages to pull of both.

    Next up is your cast. Do not include more than twenty speaking roles. I would suggest keeping it to around ten or less.

    Why?

    They need to be paid usually. Either up front or down the road.

Secondly you have to feed them. “So what,” you say. So just imagine having to feed fifteen or twenty of your friends sleeping in your living room for a week. They will need bathroom time and they will need food. Lots of food and you (the writer filmmaker)  will have to provide said food at least three times a day. Screenwriters do not usually think about this. The writer producer has too. Food cost money and did I mention coffee cost lots of money and people drink lots of coffee when it is free to them. This is one reason for a small cast of characters. The other reasons are the cost of wardrobe. The cost of transportation for each one of them. The added risk that someone gets hurt on and off the set. An injury to one actor who is in multi scenes shuts down the movie until they are able to work again. Keep your cast small. Here is a clip from a film that kept its cast small and I bet you never noticed.

    One more note on cast. Extras that show up for one day and one scene do not count. You do not usually have to feed them. They are people who just want to be in a movie and are going to be easier to deal with than your real actors.

    I will not talk about location here. I did a post on location. I will mention that one of the best things that you can do is actually see a movie being shot. Watch some behind the scenes tutorials. Visit a set if you can, even as an extra. Get your camcorder out if it shoots 24p and or if you have an iPhone download the filmmaking apps and shoot a scene or two of your script with friends to see how it flows visually. Trust me you will learn a great deal from this process.

    What was that?

    You do not know how to shoot a scene. Fine, I can help you. You can visit my new filmmaking site, (shamless plug coming) it is titled thephonefilmmaker. This site has basic tutorials on how to make a film using the iPhone and digital cameras and camcorders. Also a bunch of short films shoot with each. There will also be advice on where to go and get Apps and or basic equipment to shoot you little test films. To go there you can   click here. 

    Okay I think the next post will be about writing a short film. Good luck and remember to add this blog to your Google plus and Stumble us on Stumbleupon.  It is a way for me to know if this site is worth continuing. It is a way of knowing that there is someone out there that is getting something from these post. If you have a suggestion for a future post please leave a comment.

    Thank you and see you soon.

Busy Work

                  The Busy Work Curse

    Sounds like the title of a bad short film. If you like it then use it, but that is not the subject of this post. Busy work is. Busy work and why it is one of the great curses that afflict every writer from time to time.
    Busy work is the work that you do that keeps you from doing the work that you are afraid to do; writing your no budget screenplay.
    I am busy doing research, can’t write today.
    I am busy going over last years collection of bill receipts, can’t write today.
    I am busy writing the treatment for the new screenplay that I am planning, can’t finish the one that I am working on.
    I am waiting for the hairdresser I found online who moonlights as a demon slayer to come by and get rid of that entity who lives inside my playstation 2.
    Really?
    Seriously?
    Let it go.
    Push all of these excuses aside and make your busy work the actual act of writing. I am guilty of this myself. I have a dozen scripts that have died thanks to the curse known as busy work.
    The only busy work that is acceptable in this universe involves Jennifer Love Hewitt, a dwarf, a camcorder, silly string and Snapple. You figure it out and if your imagination has Jennifer holding the camcorder at any time you are both wrong and sick.
    Busy work is writing.
    Writing is your job.
    We avoid it because if we are good at it we open up and lose ourselves. We are not only revealing things about our characters, but about ourselves as well. That is a scary experience and on some level each of us who write realize this. Not one of us who manage to do this for a living will look back on the experience of writing and wish that we had done it less often. (Do I have to mention Jennifer Love Hewitt again? Why did she have to do that new show? I was recovering from watch the Ghost Whisperer. The medication was working and now its little maid outfits. Why does it have to be on demand too?)
    Okay I am back and that will not happen again. Well again today.
    Here is the perfect counter to busy work.

    Don’t you wish that we could all have an Annie to help us get off of our butts and write every single day?