This is Session One of The Seven Part Free Film E Course: 

Introduction:

Hi my name is Colm O’Murchu owner of International Film Base. I also write a blog on Indie Film Making passion  . Check it out.  I am very much a passionate film Maker. Back in 2005 I wrote a series of blogs about how famous film makers made it in the film industry. I found that writing about the successful film makers is a very inspiring process and that it teaches you so much about the mindset of the successful. I am sure you will find the series to be also very inspiring and educational.

You will be delighted by the Quality information about how to become a Film Director.

You will receive one email every three days. It will take about 10 minutes to read each section.

In this seven session course, we look at:

  1. How to become a Movie Director.
  2. How other Directors made it and the lessons that you can draw from their experience
  3. What to do if you want to be a Film Director

Also I will send you a FREE BLOG about the Film Industry regularly.  This will have updates on our Film Schools taking place in Australia. If at any time you do not want our Free Quality Film E Course or my Weekly updates on the Film Industry, you can unsubscribe by hitting the link at the bottom of this email.

What does it take to be a Film Director?

Certain Key attributes are necessary for a Film Director to make
it. You will see these attributes appear amongst the Directors that
we profile over the next few weeks.

1 Persistence. This is the number one attribute. Persistence alone
can get so many directors over the line.

2 Talent. It really helps to have a talent for storytelling. Much of
this talent can be developed through training and practice, but some
people just have it naturally.

3 Network and Charm.  Most Directors are charming and have an
ability to find the people that will help them succeed.

4 Improve. Most talented Directors will consistently learn.
Every Film that a Director makes teaches him how to Direct.
Directors will also go to Film Making courses to get the knowledge
to make a Film Happen. They learn as much as they can.

The quickest way to improve and learn how to be a professional film director is to enroll on a professional film course like the ones we present

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What are the paths that Movie Directors follow to get started?

Directors come from various different paths.

Way 1

Step A Make Short Films on a extremely low Budget.
Step B Director gets Funding for a full budgeted Short Film.

Step C Writes Feature length Scripts.

Step D  Raises Private Investment or Funding with Market Attachment

Step E Film is shot and becomes a sleeper Hit from a So called
First Time Director.

As a result, big budget films follow and success.
Way 2

Make Short Films.

Make Music Videos for  Bands on the cheap as a sideline:……>

Band hits it big and………>

Director now makes Big time Music Videos and Commercials……>

Director gets recruited to direct a Movie.

An Example of this way of breaking in to films is Alex Proyas.
The Bird, Dark City, I Robot.

Way 3

Make Short Films —->

Make a couple of Pretend Commercials…….>

Seek work making Commercials and succeeds……>

Become a high paid commercial Director……>

Offered a Directors job on a Feature length film which becomes a
hit and a Movie Director has arrived.

Example: Ridley Scott. Alan Parker.

Way 4

Scriptwriting.

One write scripts for fun One of these feature length scripts sells
and becomes a hit…….>

The writer then becomes a writer for Hire and gets to know everyone
in the film industry……>

He manages to raise money or leverage money from his network of
powerful film people that he knows…..>

Directs a Feature Film Debut

The Film becomes a hit film and the Director is established.

Examples: Oliver Stone. Frank Darabont. Quentin Tarantino.

Way 5

Directing Acting in Theater.

Certain Directors have started in theatre and then through their
success and after many years in this medium, they have being offered
jobs directing Feature Films.

Example: Ben Mendes, American Beauty, Perdition, Jarface.

Way 6

Make a ripper short film that gets noticed in a Film Festival
by a Talent Scout

This is a great way.

The Talent Scout creates a Deal through the Studio System Hired as a
Director to direct a Studio Film.

This Film becomes a hit film. Robert Lutkic from Melbourne who
directed Legally Blonde followed this path.

Way 7

Making a No Budget Feature Film on the weekends with HD
Cameras lights and Sound Equipment.

This is a great way and is the way that will now happen more and
more. It is also lots of fun on the weekends.

Director makes short Films first to learn the process and attends
a Film Course.

Then buys $20,000 worth of Camera Lights and Sound Equipment.

He makes low budget Feature on the Weekend.

The Film becomes a highly successful film at the Film Festivals and
is bought by a Distributor.

Becomes a Sleeper Hit Film.

Director gets offered Bigger Budget Feature Films which succeeds and
becomes wealthy.

This particular method is now becoming very popular due to the
inexpensive cost of making films.

An Example of a Big Success with this way is Robert Rodriguez, From
Dusk till Dawn, El Mariachi, Once upon a time in Mexico, Desperado.

Also Chris Kentis and Laura Lau made Open Water on the weekends with a Sony PD 175 and the film sold for $2.5 million and became a hit
film all over the world. We will look at this example later.

This is the way of the Future and over the next ten years we will
see more and more no budget Feature Films shot on the weekend and
becoming hit films.

The above are the main ways of breaking in as a Movie Director.

Now 90 percent of successful Directors that we surveyed started out
by making short films, so it makes sense to take the first step and
start to make a 10 minute short film well and put it out to the Film
Festivals around the world.

If you do not know how to make a film yet or would like to learn

more about making films and how to write a script, we can help.

We train the Film Director Stars of tomorrow at International Film Base

 

This is the Key to making your Director Career happen.
If you do not know how to make a film yet or would like to learn
more about making films and how to write a script, we can help.

Start now to make short Films and write scripts.

 

Our First Movie Director is Quentin Tarantino.

How did he make it from a video shop sales assistant to a famous
international Movie Director.

Here is how.

Quentin Tarantino today is a truly famous Writer Director. But he was
a low achiever at school and found acedemic studies very difficult.

He had a troubled childhood.

As an adult he found one obsession, watching films on his VCR.

It was from this obsession of watching movies over and over again
that Quentin learned about Film Making.

He never went to Film School and learned his Film Making Vocation
from using his VCR.

One of the interesting traits that seem to be consistent with
successful Directors is that they seem to have a “Calling”, an inner
voice that drives them to write and get their films made.

As a result of watching so many videos, his local video shop Video
Archives, invited him to work for them.

This led to him getting paid to watch numerous films at work. His
knowledge of movies was and still is encyclopedic.  Video Archives
video shop was the single most important influence on Quentin’s
eventual success as a Director.

One of the most important influences on Quentin in the early 80s
was Cathryn James. She became his personal manager in 1984 and
advised Quentin of his options if he wanted to make it as a Director.

Now Quentin was a great networker and seemed to be able to get
people to help him in his career.

Cathryn James said “For someone with no contacts, make your own
low budget film and write at least three strong scripts.”

This is exactly what Quentin Tarantino did.

He co-wrote a script called My Best Friends Birthday and they
started to shoot it. They knew nothing about Film Making and as a
result had a hard time making the film.

The shooting dragged out over three years till 1987. It cost $5,000
to make the film.

The Film was processed and an edit was attempted.

The Film turned out to be very amateurish and as a result it had
poor response.  It was not the sort of film that Quentin could show
and hope to persuade people to raise money.

One of the Big Lessons from Quentin’s experience was He knew
nothing about Film Making when he started to make the film. It is so
important to First learn how to make a film and then make a film. He
should have attended a Film Course and learned how to do it properly.
Make sure that you learn off experienced people how to make your
film happen.

At International Film Base, we teach people how to make films by actually making films and guiding them through the process and if you want to be a Film Maker you will need to know how to make films.

Still Tarantino had learned many lessons through the process of
shooting the film.  It was also during this time he got the idea to
write True Romance.

For the next few years Tarantino would write many of his famous
scripts. Most Famous Directors write scripts when they start out.
Directors will always stress that you need three or more scripts to
give you the chance to be noticed.

If you have seen True Romance, you probably will agree that it is a
hot movie. Written by Tarantino and Directed by Tony Scott the film
was successful when released, but the Hollywood Studios and major
production companies did not like the script.

Cathryn James sent it out to over a hundred sources and it had luke
warm response at best to vicious rejection at the worst.

One rejection letter from a Studio Executive stated:
“How dare you send me this f… piece of shit? You must be out of
your f… mind. You want to know how I feel about it? Here is your
f… piece of shit back. F… you.”

How would you like to be told that about your script?

How would you like to be the idiot film executive who wrote that
review of a future successful film?

The lesson to be drawn from this is that even the very best film
makers have problems getting accepted at the beginning.

It takes Producing scripts and Making films and then Persistence in
getting the product out there and never giving up.

Persistence is one of the Key attributes of any successful Director.

So after a year of sending True Romance out and getting negative
feedback, finally a break happened.

Stanley Margolias a producer of two feature films called “Bearing
Boogie” and “The Dark is mine” read “True Romance” and liked the
script.

He promised Quentin and Cathryn that he would try and get a deal in
return for a percentage deal.

Finally Tarantino had a fan other than Cathryn James.

Stanley Margolias put the script out and had a negative reaction. He
tried and tried and nothing but dislike for the script and its content.

One rejection letter for True Romance read:
“The Action is not exciting and the characters are under-developed
and unbelievable. True Romance is one long hollow adventure”

True Romance received rejection after rejection.

One year after Margolias took on True Romance, Margolias was feeling
like he had a stinker of a script.

Producers work hard for their money.

Tarantino was now working on Natural Born Killers and at this stage
had earned no money from his scripts or his script writing ability.

It takes persistence to keep pushing on when nobody takes you serious
in your writing and the industry hates your work.

In 1990 Quentin’s life turned around.

He was offered a writing gig working on a script called From Dusk
till Dawn. It was the first time he was offered money to write. The
fee was $1500. Now Quentin had being trying to break into the
industry since 1984.

From Dusk till Dawn died soon after Tarantino wrote it and did not
re-emerge till 1995 when Tarantino had his power and fame and acted
in the film and Robert Rodriguez directed it.

At this time Tarantino completed Natural Born Killers, so he was
moving in a forward Direction always writing scripts. He had a great
talent for writing scripts.

The lesson from this is…

Always be moving forwards. Do not get bogged down with one script
and one project that is not financed. Move on and write more scripts
and make films.

This is so important.

Make Films and find support from mentors such as International Film Base International Film Base 
Back in 1990 it was really expensive to make films. Today it is
inexpensive. So you can make films and this will get you noticed in
the quickest possible time.

Build Critical Mass.

All the Directors we looked at Built Critical Mass. They were always
doing. Either they are writing or shooting or editing a film. If
they have to, they do it in their spare time on the weekends with
what ever equipment they can get. They network at all the industry
functions and get to know the right people.

Make Films.
Write scripts.
Do Both!

In Next weeks session we are going to find out how Tarantino finally
broke through to incredible fame and money.

You can learn how to Make a Film on one of our courses. You actually
write shoot and edit a film on all of our courses. Have a look now and see how the 4 Month Film School can change your life

Film Courses July- December 2013

  • Online Film School 
    Learn how to produce and make your own film in three months
    Please click on above  link for further information

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