Category Archives: Training and Networking

Review: Steal Like an Artist

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I just read Austin Kleon‘s short book Steal Like an Artist.

It’s short at 140 pages, with lots of pictures, so it’s an easy read.

There are ten ‘chapters’:

  1. Steal like an artist
  2. Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started
  3. Write the book you want to read
  4. Use your hands
  5. Side projects and hobbies are important
  6. The secret: do good work and share it with people
  7. Geography is no longer our master
  8. Be nice (the world is a small town)
  9. Be boring (it’s the only way to get work done)
  10. Creativity is subtraction

Austin begins:

“All advice is autobiographical. It’s one of my theories that when people give you advice, they’re really just talking to themselves in the past. This book is me talking to a previous version of myself…. These ideas apply to anyone who’s trying to inject some creativity into their lives and their work.”

It’s peppered with quotes by famous artists like ‘Art is theft.’ Pablo Picasso.

Austin’s central tenet is that since no ideas are original we are free to remix or mashup other ideas to create new ones.

He then explores ways to do that.

Austin’s call to action:

“The manifesto is this: Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use — do the work you want to see done.”

My take: I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Would make a great gift. Hint hint.

Writersandfilmmakers.com uses the crowd to produce films

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Toronto-based Writersandfilmmakers.com has a different approach to short and feature film funding.

I call it a mashup of merit and crowd sourcing.

They’re running two competitions, one for shorts and one for features. Up to 1,000 writers or filmmakers sign up to judge each other’s work. The top filmmaker then gets to select one of the ten top scripts, pays the writer and makes her film.

I asked Jonathan Krimer, via email, why he started this venture:

“As a writer, I recognized that the number one barrier to making a film was funding. Sitting down and writing isn’t too expensive. But making a film is. No matter how much gear you or your friends have, you still need funding. I thought if people could come together and assess each other’s work we would be able to decide which projects to move forward on as a community. Let’s create a community where the participants want the best of the other group. Its a Win-Win-WIN. The last win is the funding.”

The funding comes from the entry fees. When each competition reaches 900-1,000 entrants, fees of $50 for the short film competition and $100 for the feature film competition become payable. The winning short film-maker gets $10,000 to pay the writer of the script they select, $15,000 for principal photography and $10,000 for completion. The winning feature film-maker gets $20,000 to pay the writer of the script they select, $30,000 for principal photography and $20,000 for completion. Writersandfilmmakers.com keeps the remaining fees to cover their overhead.

When each competition begins, each entrant must complete assignments. Filmmakers read and judge scripts. Writers watch and rate films. Writersandfilmmakers.com crunches the numbers to determine the winning filmmaker and the top ten scrips.

Which competition will happen first, short or feature? Any idea when?

“I am predicting the short film competition will occur first because the funding is absolutely insane! 10K for a short script and 25K for a short film?! THAT’S AMAZING! In addition, we have a two to one ratio of short film entries versus feature film entries. As for when, that’s a difficult one to predict. Our current rate of entries is seeing incredible spikes here and there. One day we have 20 entries, the next day we have one. What’s interesting about this competition is the more the word spreads, and the more the community helps spread the word, the faster we can start assessing each others work and funding a film.”

My take: I applaud this venture because it relies purely on writers and filmmakers, and not on funding bodies. Using the crowd to create a meritocracy is laudable. I like that it totally sidesteps issues of commercialization and focusses wholly on scripts and indie filmmaking. The writer prizes are very rich! Given the low entry fees (which are not payable until the competitions reach critical mass) I say go ahead and enter! I only wish there was a way to create communities of writers and directors through this who could collaborate on future projects, perhaps by location, as this is garnering entrants from cities around the world.

Victoria represents at Storyhive!

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Following up on my recent post about Storyhive, here’s a list of all the projects from Victoria, B.C.:

Best of luck, everyone!

My take: If you think of projects as stores, these would be funky shops in a fashion-forward mall. Indy films would be independent retailers. TV offerings would be chain stores. Hollywood fare would be big box stores. Ask yourself, where do you like to shop for your entertainment?

$60K up for a web series in BC or Alberta

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Storyhive is changing things up and looking for web series for its next round.

Season two is open to creators in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. Fifteen teams in each province will receive $10,000 to produce the pilot episode of their web series. One winner will be chosen and receive $50,000 funding for the remaining episodes. Everything gets streamed on TELUS Optik TV On Demand.

The deadline to submit is November 3, 2014. See the FAQ.

My take: this is a derivative of CineCoup, without the on-going missions. I think one of the most interesting aspects of Storyhive is the Creator Directory. This has a great potential to build collaborations between artists.

Infographic: What’s wrong with your script

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What scripts get positive notes?

An anonymous script reader has crunched the numbers and summarized the results in a fascinating screenwriting infographic.

profound_whatever goes on to explain it all in this reddit post: I’ve covered 300 spec scripts for 5 different companies and assembled my findings into a snazzy infographic.

“I give a RECOMMEND if I can’t find anything to criticize. The script has a great idea (or a great execution of an okay idea) and took chances. A RECOMMEND script doesn’t have to buck the tropes; it just has to use them well, and has to have some self-awareness as it’s using them. Edgar Wright and Rian Johnson are both aware of the tropes of their genres (film noir, cop movie, caper flick, zombie movie, sci-fi), but know how to use them in a fresh way. Tropes are tropes for a reason: they work.”

In descending order, the problems are:

  1. The story begins too late in the script
  2. The scenes are void of meaningful conflict
  3. The script has a by-the-numbers execution
  4. The story is too thin
  5. The villains are cartoonish, evil-for-the-sake-of-evil
  6. The character logic is muddy
  7. The female part is underwritten
  8. The narrative falls into a repetitive pattern
  9. The conflict is inconsequential, flash-in-the-pan
  10. The protagonist is a standard issue hero
  11. The script favors style over substance
  12. The ending is completely anti-climactic
  13. The characters are all stereotypes
  14. The script suffers from arbitrary complexity
  15. The script goes off the rails in the third act
  16. The script’s questions are left unanswered
  17. The story is a string of unrelated vignettes
  18. The plot unravels through convenience/contrivance
  19. The script is tonally confused
  20. The script is stoic to a fault
  21. The protagonist is not as strong as need be
  22. The premise is a transparent excuse for action
  23. The character backstories are irrelevant/useless
  24. Supernatural element is too undefined
  25. The plot is dragged down by disruptive lulls
  26. The ending is a case of deus ex machina
  27. The characters are indistinguishable from each other
  28. The story is one big shrug
  29. The dialogue is cheesy, pulpy, action movie cliches
  30. The script is a potboiler
  31. The drama/conflict is told but not shown
  32. The great setting isn’t utilized
  33. The emotional element is exaggerated
  34. The dialogue is stilted and unnecessarily verbose
  35. The emotional element is neglected
  36. The script is a writer ego trip
  37. The script makes a reference, but not a joke
  38. The message overshadows the story

My take: this makes a great list to check your script against.

Web Series Best Practices

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Canada’s Independent Production Fund has just published the Guide to Web Series Best Practices.

In many ways, this 30-page PDF is a good primer for any digital production: web series, short or feature.

The dozen chapters range from financing, to working with micro-budget crews, to marketing and to distribution platforms.

The tone is even-handed and not sky’s-the-limit. A sample:

“Always think of your audience and what makes sense for them – will this be interesting for them? Will it be a positive addition to their overall consumption? Will they share it? If it doesn’t make sense and there isn’t a “yes” to these types of questions, it may not be a good use of your time, money and resources.”

My take: listen to this IPF advice; they fund web series!

 

$10K to show ‘Movies Matter’

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The CFC‘s Reel Challenge is back.

This year they want you to show how movies matter to Canada.

“In 2011, the film and television sector supported 262,700 full time equivalent jobs, while contributing over $5 billion to the Canadian economy through production and distribution alone. From special effects studios and soundstages that create jobs, to film festivals that bring in tourists and all of the jobs and people that are supported by the film industry, movies are more than just entertainment.”

The rules: keep it clean and under 60 seconds. There are no categories this time.

The prize: $10K to the winner, $5K to the runner up.

The deadline: Sunday, January 26 at 11:59 PM EST.

The details: here.

My take: Always fun! Nice that they’ve limited them to one minute. Enter if you’ve got the chops. Disclosure: I am not bitter for not winning with my animation: Right to Copy.

The new 10 commandments of low budget filmmaking

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Elliot Grove and the Raindance Film Festival have issued ten new commandments of low (no) budget filmmaking.

They are:

  1. Thou shalt have a fantastic screenplay.
  2. Thou shalt understand keywords and SEO tools.
  3. Thou shalt secure some development finance.
  4. Thou shalt spend proper time in pre-production.
  5. Thou shalt understand the shoot and exploit it to maximum advantage.
  6. Thou shalt not fix it in Post-Production.
  7. Thou shalt clear all music in your film.
  8. Thou shalt prepare professional publicity and marketing materials.
  9. Thou shalt use film festivals to launch your film.
  10. Thou shalt create a distribution strategy.

See the annotated version.

My take: I can get behind all of these except number nine. Seems to me that’s really part of number 10. Not having much, if any success, at film festivals, I’m not convinced. I guess what I really need is a paid-for-performance film festival agent. Any suggestions?

Maureen Bradley blogs about micro-budget feature production

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CineVic recently invited Maureen Bradley to speak about her micro-budget feature project, Two 4 One.

She’s cobbling the $250,000 budget together from a number of sources: the Telefilm Micro-Budget Program, the BC Arts Council, the Jim Murphy Filmmkakers Bursary, an IndieGoGo campaign and private sources, for a February 2014 shoot.

She’s blogging about the experience at microbudget.org where she gives a more detailed answer to one of my questions on Saturday.

Regarding this year’s Telefilm Micro-Budget Feature competiton, Maureen’s advice was: have a great story and really think through an innovative digital platform strategy.

My take: Thank you, Maureen, for sharing your knowledge and experience and — your insights! It occurs to me that Telefilm is in the business of making million-dollar movies, so they’re really taking a flyer with eight to ten projects for one million, and hoping that one breaks out. In the old model, a film’s profile was amassed through festival exposure, critical reviews and box office, to be augmented by media coverage as it worked its way through the standard windows. Today, a project’s profile starts with the first online exposure, carries on through the pre-production, crowd-funding, production and post-production stages and hopefully snowballs when more people can actually pay for it. The old model was mediated by distributors, whereas with the new model, the producer does it all. I foresee more creative cooperatives coming together: teams of producers, each specialized in different parts of the new paradigm — concept, marketing, social media, production, exploitation.

Emerging Producers: Apply for Rotterdam Lab 2014

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Telefilm is inviting emerging feature film producers to apply to CineMart‘s Rotterdam Lab 2014.

“The aim of the Rotterdam Lab, a 5-day training workshop, is to give starting producers the opportunity to develop international market experience and knowledge through privileged access to CineMart participants (sales agents, producers, distributors, television buyers, private investors and national funds).”

Telefilm will choose three producers. The trio will receive accreditation to CineMart and the 43rd International Film Festival Rotterdam and five nights accommodation but must arrange their own travel and food.

The deadline is October 25, 2013. Apply through Telefilm.

My take: if you have a feature in development that could be an international co-production, you should check this out.