The 99 Recommended Steps For Making Good Movies

Another great post from the amazing Ted Hope! Enjoy!

The 99 Recommended Steps For Making Good Movies

Get "Connected" with Tiffany Shlain's new film!

Multiple Award-winning Sundance documentary “CONNECTED: An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology,” directed by Tiffany Shlain Opens in LA this Friday at @ArcLightCinemas Hollywood (w/ Q & A following 7:40pm show) BUY TIX & Watch Trailer at: http://bit.ly/24ObaY

Tickets Now Available For VisionFest 2011!

TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE FOR FILMMAKERS ALLIANCE'S

VISION FEST 2011!

Click HERE to order before they run out!!

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CHRISTINE VACHON ANNOUNCED AS 2011 VISION AWARD RECIPIENT!

Independent Spirit Award and Gotham Award winner Christine Vachon co-founded indie powerhouse Killer Films in 1995 with producing partner Pamela Koffler. Based out of New York, Killer has produced more than 45 acclaimed independent films including Todd Haynes' Venice Film Festival Award-winning I'M NOT THERE and last year's Best Canadian Feature at TIFF, CAIRO TIME. Over the past decade and a half the two have produced some of the most celebrated American indie features including Academy Award-winning films FAR FROM HEAVEN, BOYS DON'T CRY, ONE HOUR PHOTO, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, HAPPINESS and SAFE. In television, Vachon executive produced the Emmy-winning program, This American Life, for Showtime and more recently the two have collaborated on the upcoming miniseries Mildred Pierce for HBO. Killer Films was honored with a 10 year retrospective at the New York Museum of Modern Art in 2005.

VisionFest 2011 set to take place at the Downtown Independent Theater on Oct. 19th!

Click HERE for more details!

REMINDER: Sign up NOW for AFM: Nov. 2 – 9, Register Early for Best Rates

November 2-9, 2011 / Santa Monica, California

Plan now to be part of the global event that has launched over 10,000 films

Over 8,000 professionals from 70+ countries
The global film industry converges in Santa Monica every November for eight days of deal-making. Hundreds of millions of dollars in production and distribution deals are sealed every year on both completed films and those in every stage of development and production.

Discover the Latest Trends, New Possibilities and What’s Next at the AFM Conference Series
Learn from the best and most dynamic players in the film industry in this unmatched global classroom. Get the most from the AFM… attend the Conference in the morning and visit the market in the afternoon. Conference sessions run Friday to Tuesday, 9:00am to 1:00pm.

Develop. Package. Pitch. Finance. License. Distribute.
Whatever segment of the film industry you work in, AFM is a must-attend event, because in Hollywood, one meeting can define a career.

REGISTER EARLY!

REMINDER: Deadline for VisionFest short film submission is September 16th! TEN DAYS AWAY!

Don't forget to submit your film, now, to Filmmakers Alliance's 14th annual VisionFest. The legendary event features awards presentations, a screening and gala celebration.

http://www.filmmakersalliance.org/VisionFest.html

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS:

•  The filmmaker (director and/or producer) must be based in Los Angeles and able to be in attendance for VisionFest 2011.

•  The film must be no longer than 30 minutes. Shorter is MUCH preferable.

•  The film must have been completed after August 2009.

•  The film cannot have screened previously at VisionFest.

•  An HD master of the film is available for the event one week prior to the event.

•  All submission materials are received by 6:00 p.m. Semptember 16th, 2011.

Membership in Filmmakers Alliance is NOT a requirement. However, should you choose to  join Filmmakers Alliance, your submission fee shall be applied toward your annual membership dues (normally $125 per year). Each submission also entitles filmmakers to one free ticket to VisionFest 2011.

TO SUBMIT:

Please pay the the submission fee, if necessary, and complete the submission form found HERE (fees waived for dues-paying FA members). All submission form fields are required. Then, mail a DVD copy of your film. You can pay the submission fee via the provided PayPal button or you can mail in a check to the same address provided for mailing A DVD copy of your film. The VisionFest 2011 mailing address is:

Filmmakers Alliance

Attn: VisionFest 2011 Submission

12228 Venice Blvd. #406

Los Angeles, CA 90066

Alternatively, you may send us a link to your film online. Please fill out that option on the submission form. Keep in mind, however, presentation is important, so it must be an easy-to-access link at the highest possible streaming or download quality.

Your submission cannot be processed until ALL of the below are completed:

1. Submission form is completed/submitted.

2. The submission fee is paid, if necessary.

3. A DVD copy of your film (or streaming/download link) is received in our office. 

All materials MUST be received in our office no later than 6 p.m. on September 16th, 2011.

http://www.filmmakersalliance.org/VisionFest_Submissions.html

Don't miss the LA Premiere of Calvin Reeder's Sundance film "The Oregonian" on Sept. 23rd at Cinefamily!!

Hey LA Film Community!!

Don't miss the LA Premiere of Calvin Reeder's Sundance film "The Oregonian" on Sept. 23rd at Cinefamily!!

Calvin and Lindsay (the film's lead actress) will be there and they are both amazing peeps!!

Don't miss this incredible film and a fantastic chance to support true Indie Cinema in L.A.!!

http://www.cinefamily.org/films/friday-night-frights/#the-oregonian

What It's Like To Have Your Film Flop At The Box Office

My good buddy and creative collaborator, Sean (Hood), posted a question on Quora and provided an answer that went viral, getting picked up by several newswires and dispersed throughout the internet on the same day. It's a great post, giving a thorough, thoughtful insider's view. It was inexplicably met with a lot of impassioned responses - some wonderfully supportive and some personally hostile. Most of the negative responses were very uninformed and mostly posted by that horde of closeted angerphiles that seem to live all over the web. But don't think their responses didn't affect Sean. However, he's aware that's the risk you take when you choose to share your personal perspective about ANY issue. So, I share it with you here, if you haven't already read it. Please be thoughtful (even if critical) in your responses. Thanks.


  
What's it like to have your film flop at the box office?
By Sean Hood


When you work "above the line" on a movie (writer, director, actor, producer, etc.) watching it flop at the box office is devastating. I had such an experience during the opening weekend of Conan the Barbarian 3D.


A movie's opening day is analogous to a political election night. Although I've never worked in politics, I remember having similar feelings of disappointment and disillusionment when my candidate lost a presidential bid, so I imagine that working as a speechwriter or a fundraiser for the losing campaign would feel about the same as working on an unsuccessful film.


One joins a movie production, the same way one might join a campaign, years before the actual release/election, and in the beginning one is filled with hope, enthusiasm and belief. I joined the Conan team, having loved the character in comic books and the stories of Robert E. Howard, filled with the same kind of raw energy and drive that one needs in politics. 


Any film production, like a long grueling campaign over months and years, is filled with crisis, compromise, exhaustion, conflict, elation, and blind faith that if one just works harder, the results will turn out all right in the end. During that process whatever anger, frustration, or disagreement you have with the candidate/film you keep to yourself. Privately you may oppose various decisions, strategies, or compromises; you may learn things about the candidate that cloud your resolve and shake your confidence, but you soldier on, committed to the end. You rationalize it along the way by imagining that the struggle will be worth it when the candidate wins.


A few months before release, "tracking numbers" play the role in movies that polls play in politics. It's easy to get caught up in this excitement, like a college volunteer handing out fliers for Howard Dean. (Months before Conan was released many close to the production believed it would open like last year's The Expendables.) As the release date approaches and the the tracking numbers start to fall, you start adjusting expectations, but always with a kind of desperate optimism. "I don't believe the polls," say the smiling candidates.


You hope that advertising and word of mouth will improve the numbers, and even as the numbers get tighter and the omens get darker, you keep telling yourself that things will turn around, that your guy will surprise the experts and pollsters. You stay optimistic. You begin selectively ignoring bad news and highlighting the good. You make the best of it. You believe.


In the days before the release, you get all sorts of enthusiastic congratulations from friends and family. Everyone seems to believe it will go well, and everyone has something positive to say, so you allow yourself to get swept up in it. 


You tell yourself to just enjoy the process. That whether you succeed or fail, win or lose, it will be fine. You pretend to be Zen. You adopt detachment, and ironic humor, while secretly praying for a miracle.


The Friday night of the release is like the Tuesday night of an election. "Exit polls" are taken of people leaving the theater, and estimated box office numbers start leaking out in the afternoon, like early ballot returns. You are glued to your computer, clicking wildly over websites, chatting nonstop with peers, and calling anyone and everyone to find out what they've heard. Have any numbers come back yet? That's when your stomach starts to drop.


By about 9 PM it's clear when your "candidate" has lost by a startlingly wide margin, more than you or even the most pessimistic political observers could have predicted. With a movie its much the same: trade magazines like Variety and Hollywood Reporter call the weekend winners and losers based on projections. That's when the reality of the loss sinks in, and you don't sleep the rest of the night.


For the next couple of days, you walk in a daze, and your friends and family offer kind words, but mostly avoid the subject. Since you had planned (ardently believed, despite it all) that success would propel you to new appointments and opportunities, you find yourself at a loss about what to do next. It can all seem very grim.


You make light of it, of course. You joke and shrug. But the blow to your ego and reputation can't be brushed off. Reviewers, even when they were positive, mocked Conan The Barbarian for its lack of story, lack of characterization, and lack of wit. This doesn't speak well of the screenwriting - and any filmmaker who tells you s/he "doesn't read reviews" just doesn't want to admit how much they sting.


Unfortunately, the work I do as a script doctor is hard to defend if the movie flops. I know that those who have read my Conan shooting script agree that much of the work I did on story and character never made it to screen. I myself know that given the difficulties of rewriting a script in the middle of production, I did work that I can be proud of. But it's still much like doing great work on a losing campaign. All anyone in the general public knows, all anyone in the industry remembers, is the flop. A loss is a loss.


But one thought this morning has lightened my mood:


My father is a retired trumpet player. I remember, when I was a boy, watching him spend months preparing for an audition with a famous philharmonic. Trumpet positions in major orchestras only become available once every few years. Hundreds of world class players will fly in to try out for these positions from all over the world. I remember my dad coming home from this competition, one that he desperately wanted to win, one that he desperately needed to win because work was so hard to come by. Out of hundreds of candidates and days of auditions and callbacks, my father came in....second.


It was devastating for him. He looked completely numb. To come that close and lose tore out his heart. But the next morning, at 6:00 AM, the same way he had done every morning since the age of 12, he did his mouthpiece drills. He did his warm ups. He practiced his usual routines, the same ones he tells his students they need to play every single day. He didn't take the morning off. He just went on. He was and is a trumpet player and that's what trumpet players do, come success or failure.


Less than a year later, he went on to win a position with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he played for three decades. Good thing he kept practicing.


So with my father's example in mind, here I sit, coffee cup steaming in its mug and dog asleep at my feet, starting my work for the day, revising yet another script, working out yet another pitch, thinking of the future (the next project, the next election) because I'm a screenwriter, and that's just what screenwriters do.


In the words of Ed Wood, "My next one will be BETTER!"