New York City parks this June & July will host the third annual "Films on the Green" festival which features environmentally friendly films. Located in city parks around New York, NY the festival is a collaboration between the New York City department of Parks and Recreation and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. A total of seven critically acclaimed French films will be screened every Friday at sunset through June and July.
Last year's premiere film titled, "Home" is shot from the air over 54 countries for two years. Its goal is to give viewers a different kind of perspective of the harm humans can induce on the world. Here is the trailer of the festival.
The Zero Budget Movie
Source: Elliot Grove, Raindance Founder
Learn how to make a movie as a producer on a lo-to-no budget.
This quick piece highlights just some of the areas money can be pinched and still produce a quality film. Raindance Film Festival website is full of tips just like this one.
Learn how to make a movie as a producer on a lo-to-no budget.
This quick piece highlights just some of the areas money can be pinched and still produce a quality film. Raindance Film Festival website is full of tips just like this one.
10 attributes of a Great Producer
Source: John Truby, Raindance Contributing writer
Here are 10 things you must know to be a great producer:
1. When listening to a pitch, focus on the probable structural problems embedded in the story idea. Every idea comes with them. You want to figure out now if they are solvable or not.
2. No matter how good an idea sounds at first, it will inevitably have elements that are predictable and generic. Ask yourself: What are some of the possibilities of this idea? Where can we take this that is more ambitious and hasn’t been done before?
3. Most story ideas, especially “high concept” ones, produce only two or three great scenes. You have to know how to help the writer extend the idea to a feature length script. That requires focusing on the opposition and the central moral problem embedded in the story idea.
4. Most of the time, the second draft is worse than the first. That’s because writers and producers don’t know that rewriting and development are a unique set of skills that must be learned, just like character, plot and dialogue. And the most important of this set of skills is knowing the proper order for development.
5. Good script development is all about fixing the structure and not the surface of the script. Dialogue is the surface. Deal with that only at the very end. Often it will fix itself as you work with the writer on getting the structure right. There are many elements involved in fixing story structure. But the most important is to make sure the main character drives the plot.
5 More attributes of a great producer
Here are 10 things you must know to be a great producer:
1. When listening to a pitch, focus on the probable structural problems embedded in the story idea. Every idea comes with them. You want to figure out now if they are solvable or not.
2. No matter how good an idea sounds at first, it will inevitably have elements that are predictable and generic. Ask yourself: What are some of the possibilities of this idea? Where can we take this that is more ambitious and hasn’t been done before?
3. Most story ideas, especially “high concept” ones, produce only two or three great scenes. You have to know how to help the writer extend the idea to a feature length script. That requires focusing on the opposition and the central moral problem embedded in the story idea.
4. Most of the time, the second draft is worse than the first. That’s because writers and producers don’t know that rewriting and development are a unique set of skills that must be learned, just like character, plot and dialogue. And the most important of this set of skills is knowing the proper order for development.
5. Good script development is all about fixing the structure and not the surface of the script. Dialogue is the surface. Deal with that only at the very end. Often it will fix itself as you work with the writer on getting the structure right. There are many elements involved in fixing story structure. But the most important is to make sure the main character drives the plot.
5 More attributes of a great producer
Shutter Island w/ Producer Brad Fischer
Master of filmmaking director Martin Scorsese's movie Shutter Island premieres in theaters everywhere Feb. 19. I found this interview with the producer of the movie Brad Fischer. He talks about working with Scorsese on a horror piece (not his usual genre) how he wound up getting the rights to Shutter Island, and a bit about the Boston area where the movie was shot at.
For the interview: Fear Net, by Joseph McCabe
Interview w/ Scorsese at Berlin also ft. DiCaprio and Sir Ben Kingsley:
Keep up with the Raindance Team now in Berlin at Raindance_Fest
For the interview: Fear Net, by Joseph McCabe
Interview w/ Scorsese at Berlin also ft. DiCaprio and Sir Ben Kingsley:
Keep up with the Raindance Team now in Berlin at Raindance_Fest
Pitching your Script
Source: James Burbidge, Raindance Intern
Loglines are tricky things – distilling 120 pages of script into one sentence and imbuing it with the power to summarise, titillate and intrigue is a surprisingly difficult task. As a writer it can be hard to develop a good logline because you are invested equally in each part of your work – identifying the crucial story elements and leaving everything else out feels like you aren’t doing your script justice. But remember, a good logline is crucial to selling your script; in a covering letter, in a pitch, in the 30second window you have with an executive when you accidentally meet on the Great Wall of China. That being the case it is vital that you develop a good logline for your magnum opus, something with sizzle and pop, but also, crucially, something that tells the audience what the script is about.
Firstly – what is a logline?
Loglines are tricky things – distilling 120 pages of script into one sentence and imbuing it with the power to summarise, titillate and intrigue is a surprisingly difficult task. As a writer it can be hard to develop a good logline because you are invested equally in each part of your work – identifying the crucial story elements and leaving everything else out feels like you aren’t doing your script justice. But remember, a good logline is crucial to selling your script; in a covering letter, in a pitch, in the 30second window you have with an executive when you accidentally meet on the Great Wall of China. That being the case it is vital that you develop a good logline for your magnum opus, something with sizzle and pop, but also, crucially, something that tells the audience what the script is about.
Firstly – what is a logline?
Coen Brothers Scripts
Take a few minutes to see if you know from which Coen Brother movie script these quotes and scene descriptions came from. Afterward keep the link bookmarked to the Raindance website's Coen Brothers Suite, highlighting all of Ethan and Joel's scripts.
The answers are linked in the description or quote.
1.
The answers are linked in the description or quote.
1.
Character #1
...Ah, you'll lick this picture business,
believe me. You've got a head on you
shoulders. What is it they say? Where
there's a head, there's a hope?
Character #2
Where there's life there's hope.
...Ah, you'll lick this picture business,
believe me. You've got a head on you
shoulders. What is it they say? Where
there's a head, there's a hope?
Character #2
Where there's life there's hope.
2.
Excited, he counts out a bundle of bills and tosses it onto the back seat.
He starts to take the rag away from his chin but the layer pressed against his face sticks, its loose weave bound to his skin by clotted blood.
He pulls very gently and winces as blood starts to flow again.
He carefully tears the rag in half so that only a bit of it remains adhering to his jaw.
3.
4.
EXT. FACING ROOF
We are looking through the telescopic sight of a high-powered rifle. The rifle sweeps up from BLANK'S body across the brightly lit room, and centers BLANK, still staring at the window, in the cross hairs.
Excited, he counts out a bundle of bills and tosses it onto the back seat.
He starts to take the rag away from his chin but the layer pressed against his face sticks, its loose weave bound to his skin by clotted blood.
He pulls very gently and winces as blood starts to flow again.
He carefully tears the rag in half so that only a bit of it remains adhering to his jaw.
3.
CHARACTER #1
It's all a goddamn fake. Like Lenin
said, look for the person who will benefit.
And you will, uh, you know, you'll,
uh, you know what I'm trying to say--
CHARACTER #2
I am the Walrus.
CHARACTER #3
That Fucking bitch!
CHARACTER #1
Yeah.
CHARACTER #2
I am the Walrus.
CHARACTER #3
Shut the fuck up, Donny! V.I. Lenin!
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov!
It's all a goddamn fake. Like Lenin
said, look for the person who will benefit.
And you will, uh, you know, you'll,
uh, you know what I'm trying to say--
CHARACTER #2
I am the Walrus.
CHARACTER #3
That Fucking bitch!
CHARACTER #1
Yeah.
CHARACTER #2
I am the Walrus.
CHARACTER #3
Shut the fuck up, Donny! V.I. Lenin!
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov!
4.
EXT. FACING ROOF
We are looking through the telescopic sight of a high-powered rifle. The rifle sweeps up from BLANK'S body across the brightly lit room, and centers BLANK, still staring at the window, in the cross hairs.
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