10 Tips for Aspiring Filmmakers

Well, duh, right? It's still surprising to me how many times fellow hopeful filmmakers have told me that they just don't have time to watch movies. I'm also often surprised at how behind they are on what is currently out there. If you want to be a writer, you read books. If you want to be a filmmaker, you watch movies. And I mean all kinds of movies. Watch movies you don't like as well as those you do. Try to figure out what exactly makes the good ones good and the bad ones bad.

When the movie is over, do you hit eject before the credits are even rolling? You're missing out on a very valuable and free lesson in filmmaking. Most DVD's contain special features including "making of" documentaries. Watch them. And while you're watching the interview with the lead actor talking about how he interpreted his character, look around him at the actual work going on. See where they set up the lights. Look at where the dolly track is positioned. In your mind, associate that with the shot you saw in the movie. They have to physically get the stuff on film before it can be cut into the movie so try to figure out how they did it.

Of course you don't want to do this before seeing something you're really looking forward to, but if there's a movie you're interested in, and you can get your hands on the script before seeing the movie, read it. It's a good exercise to see how you picture the movie and how it actually ends up on the screen. Then you can start to question the decisions you would have made as a director that differ from the actual movie. Would you have made a better movie? Be honest.

Nothing will train you to be a filmmaker better than making movies yourself. But you're not going to get $150 million to make "Spiderman 4" without a track record. Start small. Odds are your first efforts will have a budget of $1 or less. Just make a short film or scene. Practice an action sequence. You likely have friends that would love to parade around in front of your camera for nothing. Use them.

Now that you've made your 5 minute, no-budget masterpiece, sit down and look at it honestly. Your friends and family are not going to give you an honest critique because they're all going to say they love it. Look at your movie and say to yourself, "What is the difference between my movie and my favorite movies that I watch over and over again in the theater or on DVD?" The first answer will inevitably be the large sums of money. But there's more to it than that. How does it cut together? Does the action move? Is it interesting? Is the audio any good? Is it lit so you can see what's going on? If you had no connection to the movie, would you actually watch it? It's hard, but you have to be honest with yourself and you have to understand what separates you from the big boys. If you can see where you need to improve and acknowledge that you didn't make a perfect movie, you have potential as a filmmaker.

So you've been honest with yourself. That short you shot one Saturday with your buddies didn't turn out very good and quite honestly, you wouldn't even watch more than a minute of it yourself if you weren't personally connected to it. Your first efforts aren't going to be great because filmmaking is not easy. Like any art form, it takes practice and skill to do it well. Really successful filmmakers likely have some inherent talent as well. So now you have to ask yourself if you're ready to take it to the next level. Are you ready to really work as hard as you have to to try to get better or do you just think of filmmaking as a hobby that you're not really interested in being commercially successful in? If completing a movie of your own is success enough for you, then congratulations. You're an accomplished filmmaker. But if you dream of seeing your movies on the big screen in front of a large audience, you're going to have to work really hard to do it. This is where many of your friends will decide that filmmaking is boring because making a good movie takes lots of time and effort.

Now you want to go to the next level, but you still don't have any real budget to speak of. Now it's time to get realistic with your ideas. What could you do really well for little to no money? There are actors out there just looking for roles so they can get something on a reel. Find them. There's people out there that want to DP and have good camera equipment to do it with. Find them too. Try creating an engaging short film, around 5 minutes long, that won't require a huge budget to make. You'll probably need at least a couple hundred dollars no matter what. Enlist the help of other people who want to be professionals as well and are looking to get some experience under their belts. This is when you start to create that first real work of art. You get a small cast and crew to work with where everybody has their specialty and you go for it like a pro. When you finish this short, it's time to do the honest critique again. It's guaranteed there will be problems with this effort as well. But hopefully, if you've been learning from your previous projects, if you've been honest with yourself and you've assembled a decent cast and crew, you could create something that people will actually want to sit down and watch for 5 minutes.

Find a place to screen your work for an audience. I'm not talking about showing it on the plasma in your living room for family and friends. I mean find a venue and show your movie, preferably to a bunch of strangers. Again, it will be a time for you to be honest with yourself. If you made a comedy, but no one laughs, it's not because they don't "get it". It's because it's not funny. If you made a horror film and no one cringes or gasps, it's because it's not scary. Sit in the back of the venue and try to gauge the audience reaction. If there's no reaction at all, your movie failed. That doesn't mean you failed. It just means that effort failed. Go back to the drawing board or maybe try another audience. If you get the reaction you're looking for, even if your movie is rough around the edges, you're successful. When people laugh or gasp when you expected them to, it gives you a great feeling. It will inspire you to keep going. Even one instance in a 5 minute short where someone honestly reacts to your movie like you intended is a sign that you can do this.

I have an inside scoop for everyone on the film festival thing because I have been a co-director of a film festival for 3 years. That scoop is that most movies submitted to film festivals are bad. So get rid of the idea that you have a certain percentage chance of getting into a festival. Also, don't expect to get accepted to Sundance with your first short film. But realistically speaking, 80% of the movies submitted to a film festival probably have a 0% chance of getting in because of how bad they are. They mostly come from filmmakers who were not honest with themselves about how good their movie was. It's like the contestants on American Idol that are just horrible singers, but they thought they were good because their mom, dad and sister told them they were. So if 80% of the movies submitted have 0% chance of getting in, then the other 20% are the ones that you actually have to stack up against. So If you're one of the 20% that made a good movie, your odds of getting into a festival are closer to 100% depending on how much programming they need. If you are getting turned down again and again by festival after festival, consider that maybe your movie isn't as good as you thought and maybe it's time to go back and try again.

You can't be a filmmaker, or by any means become a better one, if you don't get out there and make movies. Learn from every movie you make. Make sure you improve every time you make a new one. Pinpoint what's wrong with even your favorite work and try to do better next time. You will either reach your full potential as a filmmaker one day and you'll never see any improvement, or you'll continuously get better with every project. Any chance to make something is a chance to learn something. Even if you're going to shoot a wedding video, try a new technique or piece of equipment. Learn something every time you turn on a camera or sit down to edit.