FILM FESTIVALS AND FRUSTRATION THAT ARE IRREVOCABLY PART OF THIS PROCESS As some of you probably know by now, film festivals are a costly part of the filmmaking business. I have submitted Anna to over 30 festivals and didn’t get accepted to even one.Yes, it was depressing, frustrating and hard to take at times. Some…
Filmmaking and Writing
Why Should You Pitch Your Screenplay Idea Before You Start Writing the Screenplay?
Every screenwriter is hopeful that their story can be turned into a multi-million-dollar franchise. It has happened before, but this delightful miracle is as likely as winning a lottery or maybe even less; hmmm…? However, if you are still certain and not discouraged in the slightest, the first thing you will need to do to…
How Did the Post-Production of My Feature Film “Anna and Modern Day Slavery” Go?
MARKETING & PROMOTION At first, I tried to keep everyone who was directly involved, or who contributed to my film, in the loop with emails, tweets and FB posts. But when life demands started crowding me, I needed to focus on my main priority. At that time it was delivering the final cut. During the…
How to Come up With a Hook for Your Screenplay?
For a reader, filmmaker, producer or an agent to become interested in your screenplay, you need to find a “magical” way to grab their attention. In reality, no one will devote even five minutes of their time to your project if their interest hasn’t been tickled. And, the easiest and the fastest way to do…
What Is a Screenplay?
The screenplay has a very different structure to the structure authors use for writing books. The script for a fiction film (documentarians work in their ways and don’t always work from a script while making a documentary) is divided into scenes, which move the action from one location to another. Change of scene happens every…
What Happened After I Shoot My Low Budget Feature Film?
As after every shoot, I was pretty high for a few days before I hit the brick wall and slept for a couple of days straight.I usually get pretty depressed after the shoot is over, and this time wasn’t any different.The immense sadness lasted for a few days. But once my gloomy mood was over,…
On the Set of My Micro-Budget Feature Film “Anna & Modern Day Slavery”
PRODUCTION Unforeseen forces can both help you or screw things up (the weather, conflicting schedules, etc.). For us, our biggest challenge wasn’t having one of our leading actors available for the whole shooting. Oh, and the fact that the camera we hired from Berlin(Germany) didn’t record sound was also a massive problem and a significant…
How Might the Future of Film Festivals Look Like?
In 2020 film festivals had no other choice but began moving their programming online. Covid-19 has already changed the face of many sectors and how the business will be conducted in the future. Will film festivals follow the suit and adjust to changing trends and audience expectations? The sudden move online has already allowed for…
This Is What I Did While Making “Anna and Modern Day Slavery”
I started my IndieGoGo campaign during the first week of March and finished in the middle of April. Towards the end of March, my production designer and I began thinking about building a set while still looking for locations that had all we needed. From the very start, I knew that the actual production would have to…
Choose to Commit to Writing No Matter What
2. You have to be willing to give it as long as it takes. So, commit yourself and don’t pay any attention to attention-grabbing headlines about 20 under 20 etc. This kind of comparison can only have a negative impact. 3. Let yourself burn, let yourself want something bad. It’s a life force. It is…