I would like to go into detail about making, directing and producing  a professional film. There are 12 steps that one needs to pay particular attention to when creating a professional film.  If any one of them is deficient the film will suffer and lack professionalism.

If you become aware of the steps and what is needed in each one, the knowledge will help you shoot a professional film and you will find greater success and a bigger audience.

Our Four Month Film Course is based on these steps and every session teaches you how to professionally perfect each step.

Here are the 12 Steps.

1. Story
2. Screenplay
3. Casting
4. Locations and Art Department
5. Film Equipment
6. Crew
7. Film Director Preproduction
8. The Shoot
9. Picture Post Production
10. Music
11. Sound Postproduction
12. Audience

Yes, it all looks so easy when one places them in 12 sequential steps.  However, it takes diligent work and expert training to make your film professional.

Step One: Creating a High Quality Story that brings the audience on a journey. 

Story is the reason people go to the movies.  They go because they want to escape the world they are currently in and get taken on the journey with emphathetic or heroic characters.

It is so important that the Film Maker has a great story to tell.  Each one of the 4 Month Film Director’s Course stories is worked on in detail using our Story Creation Process.  This process creates a compelling story.  Till the story is created and locked down, no-one is allowed to write the screenplay.

This is a mistake that many people make when they are learning film making.  They spend very little time on the story and rush a screenplay.  Their focus is production and they rush headstrong into a shoot with a weak story and script.  This is a huge mistake.

Story is the soul and foundation of the film.  If it is wobbly, the whole film collapses into mediocrity or worst still, a stinker.

It pays dramatically to create a great story and one always needs to know how.  If this is an issue for you please enrol on our 4 Month Film Director’s Course and we will teach you our Story Creation Process.

One of the big issues with many films out there is that they seem more like a Talk Fest. Audiences want a story to move.  It is, after all, a  movie and there needs to be a journey with a roller coaster story events that totally engages the audience. Create a great story that engrosses your audience with heroic characters.

Stories about flawed characters who go on a journey are fascinating too.  Think ‘Breaking Bad’ and the journey of the very flawed Walter White.  He transforms from geeky chemistry teacher to Head Boss of his own Drug Cartel.  It is a fascinating story with so many twists and turns.

Story is the bedrock of the final film, so make sure you work on the creation of the story to the best of your ability.

In very simplistic terms, a character should have a strong high stakes objective that is exceptionally difficult to achieve.  With many challenges and difficulties and always the unexpected, the hero goes on the journey.  Against impossible odds the hero either wins outright at the end or something better or more bitter sweet happens.

The above is a simplistic summary of how story works.  We make sure our Film Course Students get it when they are creating the stories on the 4 Month Film Director’s Course.

After spending, say, one week working on your 10 minute short story or two months working on your feature film story, you should know every story event backwards and have locked down the complete story logic and journey.

At this point, you will be ready for he next step, Step 2: Writing the Screenplay.  This next step will be much quicker if you have worked on your story in detail.

Step 2: Writing and formatting a Screenplay next week.