How to Find Winning Short Film Ideas

How to find winning short film ideas? The idea that begets all other ideas. In academia they call it cheating. In the professional world, it's called collaboration. I'm referring specifically to the process of venturing beyond one's own resources and borrowing or buying ideas, assistance, and products from others in order to accomplish a goal. In school, you're punished for asking someone across the room for the answers when in the middle of a test. Pride and intelligence are measured by your ability to come up with the answer, solution, or creative result by yourself. Our idol based/pop star culture reinforces the lone ranger notion by presenting success stories as if they were primarily a matter of one person pulling himself up by his bootstraps.

In the professional world, at large, and in the filmmaking community, in particular, it is understood that teams are the entities that get things done; small armies of passionate individuals, each of whom contribute a specialized form of knowledge or skill, united by a common desire to move a project from concept to completion.

How To Direct A Movie

In this article I will go over what it takes to direct a movie. Directing a movie may seem easy being the boss calling all the shots but it can be very difficult and there is a lot of behind the scenes work that can be time consuming. Some directors prefer to write there own script, but that is more challenging as to searching for a script that has been written for you. Once you have your script you want to break it into sections, go over your script time after time. You want to be able to envision each scene as it would unfold in your film and write out how you want your characters roles and how you want them to express there emotions, share this with your actors. It can help to take some acting classes because you will be directing your actors and it will give you a better understanding as if you were in there shoes.

There are many software programs you can use to help you with drawing out your storyboards which can be very efficient as to saving you valuable time. Make sure you write how you want each set to look and how you will shoot each scene, also any special effects you feel you will be using. Remember to share all these aspects with your film crew you want your entire team onboard with you. They need to know exactly how you want each shot and it's your job to fill them in with your vision of this film. Get your crew together and lay everything on the table, make sure everyone is on the same page.

Film Making Courses to Start a Career in Filmmaking

Many people dream of a glamorous career in filmmaking and wonder what film making courses will best help them get started. Before you sign up for film school take time to get realistic about what you can expect to accomplish. Although the filmmaking industry employs thousands of people it can still be one of the hardest industries to break into. Besides acting, the two jobs most often pursued are being a film director or a screenplay writer. Because this is what most students request these are the jobs where they offer the most classes. This is where the problem starts.

The demand in Hollywood for new film directors and new screenplay writers is almost non-existent. The current working directors and writers spent many years apprenticing and working their way up through the ranks. The newly graduated student walking up to the hiring department of a film studio or production company will be lucky to be offered a job as receptionist or mail-room clerk. This is the sad reality of the education of future movie makers. Few beginning students are willing to believe that the odds are so strongly stacked against them. They sign up for film making courses which will consist of watching and discussing classic, old movies then making little short films using commonly available video equipment. Students most interested in screenplay writing spend their time writing short scenes and discussing them with fellow classmates.

Matt Damon Movies And Biography

Matt's first film role was a one-line part in Mystic Pizza (1988). However, it was enough for him to catch the acting bug. Then, while attending Harvard, he kept skipping classes to pursue acting projects, which included the TNT original film, Rising Sun (1993), and prep-school drama, School Ties (1992). Then when his film, Geronimo: An American Legend (1993), was expected to be a big success that he decided to drop out of university completely. 

Matt would next get noticed for a role as a soldier who had problems with drug-addiction in the movie, Courage Under Fire (1996). The following year, he starred in Good Will Hunting (1997), a screenplay he had originally written for an English class at Harvard University. Good Will Hunting (1997) was nominated for 9 Academy Awards, one of which, Matt won for Best Original Screenplay along with long time close friend Ben Affleck. Due to the success of Good Will Hunting Matt Damon's autograph started being sought after by collectors and has continued to gain in value with each new movie he makes. Unfortunately, this also means that forgers are flooding the autograph market with their forgeries. Therefore collectors are being warned to only buy from established and trustworthy dealers.

In 1998, Matt demonstrated his acting abilities in Steven Spielberg's film, Saving Private Ryan (1998), working along side Tom Hanks and Tom Sizemore. That same year, he starred as an earnest law student and reformed poker player in Rounders (1998), starring opposite Edward Norton and John Malkovich. The following year, Matt rejoined his childhood friend, Ben Affleck and fellow comedian, Chris Rock, in the controversial comedy Dogma (1999). Towards the end of 1999, Matt starred alongside Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow in the movie, The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999). Although the movie earned mixed reviews from critics, Matt earned praise for his performance.

Jennifer Aniston Biography

They were Hollywood's golden couple, Friends star Jennifer Aniston and hunky heartthrob Brad Pitt, who married in a private ceremony in Malibu two years after they met in 1998. The marriage was claimed as a rare Hollywood success, then he made the film "Mr and Mrs" and met co-star Angelina Jolie. Pitt and Aniston were divorce in 2005 and rumours were rife that her husband had cheated on her with Jolie. The divorce became headline news for months and T-shirts with "Team Aniston" and "Team Jolie" started to appear, with "Team Aniston" outselling "Team Jolie" 4-1. Aniston has always said Pitt was the love of her life and they'd had seven very intense years together, "a beautiful, complicated relationship."

In 2010 the couple resumed their friendship, which has annoyed his current partner Jolie. She dislikes him keeping in touch with Aniston's mother and has banned the star from seeing Aniston when he is with any of the six children they are raising together. After the divorce Aniston reunited with her estranged mother Nancy asking her for support. Mother and daughter fell out after Nancy talked about her daughter on a television show and they were estranged for ten years. Nancy also went on to write a book "From Mother and Daughter to Friends - A Memoir".