What They Don't Teach You at Film School: 161 Strategies For Making Your Own Movies No Matter What

by Camille Landau, Tiara White

Overview

Two filmmakers who've beaten the system give the real dope on what it takes to get your movie made.

Do you have to go to film school to get your movies made? No, say two young entrepreneurs who survived the grind. Here they offer 140 strategies for making movies no matter what. Amateurs as well as seasoned veterans can pick up this entertaining and incredibly useful guide in any place—at any point of crisis—and find tactics that work. Whether it's raising money or cutting your budget; dealing with angry landlords or angry cops; or jump-starting the production or stalling it while you finish the script, these strategies are delivered with funny, illustrative anecdotes from the authors' experiences and from veteran filmmakers eager to share their stories. Irreverent, invaluable, and a lot cheaper than a year's tuition, this friendly guide is the smartest investment any future filmmaker could make.

Strategies from the book include: Love your friends for criticizing your work—especially at the script stage; Shyness won't get you the donuts; Duct tape miracles; Don't fall in love with cast or crew (but if you do...).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786884773
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	08/16/2000
Edition description:	1 ED
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	679,698
Product dimensions:	5.19(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Camille Landau and Tiare White are graduates of the American Film Institute and the USC film school. Together they have made over 30 short films, many of which have won awards in festivals throughout the world, and Freestyle, an award-winning feature-length documentary. They are currently in post-production for their first dramatic feature, Three Loves, and live in Southern California.

Table of Contents

	The Credits	ix
	Introduction	1
Chapter 1.	Everything you need to know	3
Chapter 2.	The sign you've been searching for	10
Chapter 3.	If all you really want to do is direct, what are you waiting for?	25
Chapter 4.	Napkins, stoplights, and showers	33
Chapter 5.	Fix the script, the rest will follow	46
Chapter 6.	Sultans, dentists, and Uncle Al	57
Chapter 7.	It's the budget, stupid	73
Chapter 8.	Get the rights or get a lawyer	84
Chapter 9.	Hustling	88
Chapter 10.	Hype, for cheap	103
Chapter 11.	Friends, enemies, lovers, and thieves	117
Chapter 12.	It's a sad dog who can't wag its own tail	129
Chapter 13.	Getting through the most terrible, wonderful few weeks of your life so far	136
Chapter 14.	The road trip test	143
Chapter 15.	Hire the actors with the shiniest shoes	159
Chapter 16.	The emperor's parade	174
Chapter 17.	Donuts, red vines, and keeping the crew together: The care and feeding of the set	179
Chapter 18.	Grace under pressure: Directing under fire	186
Chapter 19.	Sex, lies, and 16mm	193
Chapter 20.	Don't make things more difficult than they are	197
Chapter 21.	Location, location, and location	207
Chapter 22.	The lost, the stolen, and the broken	216
Chapter 23.	How I learned to stop worrying and love the sound	218
Chapter 24.	Uses for duct tape and other quick fixes	227
Chapter 25.	Don't leave the set without it	229
Chapter 26.	Don't wait until the mix to fix it	231
Chapter 27.	Point(er)s of distribution	234
Chapter 28.	One or two more things before the lights come up	242
Chapter 29.	Do it again	244

Editorial Reviews

Filmmakers Landau and White believe that "if you want to make films, make films." Since only four students in each class of 45 at the country's top film schools get chosen to direct an advanced narrative film, the authors urge hopefuls to honor the trial-and-error, Blair Witch-approved method: "if you want to be a filmmaker," they advise, "put down this book and pick up a camera." Though some of their imparted wisdom reads like an After School Special dialogue, the authors do project a healthy dose of industry know-how that could prove useful to those who have never entered the cutting rooms and bursar's offices of NYU, USC, UCLA or other prestigious establishments. The book offers concrete, creative suggestions for initiating a writing schedule, pooling financial resources (or choosing the right low-APR credit card) and feigning confidence in the face of blind fear. Among their best advice is this insight: "Your short film is only as good as your feature script" because "all that work and money [spent on the short film] add up, at best, to the invitation to submit a script to someone's office." The authors' enthusiasm for their subject is matched only by their delightful irreverence toward the industry itself, crediting doughnuts, duct tape and Red Vines as the stuff that reel dreams are made of. (Aug.) FYI: Landau and White are in preproduction for Three Loves, their first feature film. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

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