I WANT TO MAKE MOVIES!

Develop characters- they can be based primarily and easily of folks you’ve already encountered depending on your experience.

Write some non-secular scenes- Get these characters talking and mingling together in a scene, and have them talk about a current event. This exercise may not give you lasting scenes to develop into the final screenplay, but will give you an idea how these characters will breathe.

Research, but don’t be afraid to make things up, Stephen King often made up names of towns, but always was quick with the pop culture reference, and this draws the viewer in, and allows them to relate all their knowledge and love for music, art, movies, or situations and helps them relate. Talk about a twinkie, talk about Gordon Lightfoot, talk about Steve Mcqueen, or Milli Vanilli, the context and opinions regarding them are all your characters’ traits, but just the sheer mention draws me in for sure. When I’m looking ot be entertained, I like a balance of common or popular knowledege and lesson or story-based notion.

@Tony

Making movies has been my thing for a long time, and I can tell you the whole process can be pretty damn overwhelming, especially starting out. But the payoff is beyond amazing.

When you say making movies, do you want to write them? direct them? film them? act in them? edit them? all the above?

I’d normally suggest HE isn’t the best place to go for this advice… but here I am lol.

Write a feature length that’s doable with the resources surrounding you. By resources I mean friends as extras, locations that would be free, but make sure its at least visually appealing, etc. For the main characters, don’t skimp out on the actors. You’l have to have a casting session. Depending where you live, the closer to the city the better, you’ll find semi-professional actors. These guys will do it for free as long as they get fed everyday. Why? Because their looking to team up with a talented director that will make them both big and to gain overall experience. Deniro and Scorsesse met in film school. All these guys meet young and make it to fame with a strong actor/director relationship. You gotta find that gem, and remember a bad actor is not a result of bad acting, it’s a result of bad directing. Hold a casting call for the main actors, see which actors you could have a strong relationship with, and have casting with multiple actors, that way you can see their “on screen relationship” with one another.

Make sure you can atleast put $10,000 into it . This would be used to:

Pay the Make Up artist
Buy the Main actor’s lunch
Locations that you arent getting for free
Props that you arent getting for free
Set dec that you arent getting for free
Wardrobe that you arent getting for free.

RENTING EQUIPMENT

If you are independently writing/directing this, your going to have to put in so much more work then writing and directing. You’ll take on the role of the producer, often 1st AD, and if your really shit out of luck with resources and people, then DOP and Art. This is your baby, and people are helping you, but if your going cheap about it, which you have no choice in the matter, then they’re only going to help so much. Right now, write the script get the writing out of the way, once this is done send me an email and we’ll get through pre production! Directing and writing are they’re own separate breeds. Worry about getting the final draft of that script complete

Oh ya, and everything I just said goes for a short film too haha