Story Generation and the Creative Process

 Post:  Driving in the Outback can be inspiring.

Valeska and I took off for about ten days and went to outback NSW and rambled from town to town, going with the flow and only moving when we felt like it. We did not see a drop of rain and loved  the constant blue skies.

Before you ask, “How can you go to a part of the world that has temperatures hitting the 40C mark (105 F)”, please let me explain.

Well I did have a mission. I wanted to come up with a great story outline and treatment for our next screenplay.  I love the great open spaces of the outback and country New South Wales. Very inspiring. No tourists are crazy enough to go out here in the heat of summer and that is exactly why I love it. It feels like the real deal,  like a road movie.

Our goal was to create an awesome story outline  and utilize the passing scenery and all the quirky cooky and very friendly characters we met on the way.

Idea after idea flowed and nothing seemed to gel. We would come up with one story outline after another and then trash them.  We could only find enough for B Grade film.  Story after story idea was tossed around and then trashed.

Even  at Lightning Ridge where black opals are mined, we could not get a story outline that was a winner.  All the story ideas, we came up with in the first eight days of traveling just seemed to be a cliche and stale.  From Coonabarabran to Gundegai to  Lightening Ridge to Bourke to St George , we created only garbage. Our characters seemed to be just flat.

Exasperated, I was about to give up on Day 8 and just enjoy the rest of our road trip, when it happened. We were approaching Moree when something on the radio sparked me off. Suddenly an amazing idea floated into my head. I got out my IPhone recorder and started flowing with a story that would prove to be so cool and original and dare I say it “Fresh”

Valeska and I then started talking about the story and more flowed. Out of that amazing creative dimension called creativity,  scenes spouted out at a faster rate than we could record them.

There was an excitement about this idea that was missing from all previous ideas. We were suddenly on fire.

The next day we went back to the story and it still seemed like a really fresh story.  More ideas and more scenes appeared to us and we felt that sense of flow that happens when you hit oil. I reflected on inspiration and what happens when a story truly appears.

Here are some of my thoughts:  I believe that finding a great story is like searching for gold. You have to shift a lot of dirt to get to gold but when it happens it’s priceless. Then it’s like striking oil. Ideas and scenes spew out at an alarming rate faster than you can process them.  To get to this point I believe  that you need to trash bad story outlines as soon as you know it. This saves you so much time and stress later.

Today I am knocking out a 20  page treatment of the story that will encapsulate the whole film from beginning to end. Then the story is submitted to my 3 week test. In other words, will the story be as strong at  the end of Janaury as it is now. If so, I will fully comit and move on to producing and developing the story as a  film.

What is the movie called ,   “Hot Streak”.   30% of the film takes place in California and the other 70% in Australian outback towns. Our lead character is American and most of the supports are Australian. Anyone interested in investing, get in early.

If you are interested in creating a really cool story, look at our
4 month Film School in Sydney . The first two weeks is all about developing a story and writing a screenplay or please look at our Weekend Film Schools in Adelaide and Melbourne 

 

Till next time, have a great one.

 

Colm O’Murchu

Shooting with the Panasonic AF 100. This is an awesome camera

It has been some weeks since I last wrote a post. In that time I have been busy travelling to Europe where I spent some time in Ireland and England and France.  We had our very first Weekend Film School in London, which I very much enjoyed presenting. We had the course just off the famous Brick Lane. It was only ten days after the riots so London was still in recovery mode. The weather was very warm and August is definitely one of the best times to be in Europe. What can I say about Paris except it is truly one of the most beautiful cities.  The Food  and the restaurants and the the french language . Beautiful.

So now that I am back in Sydney, I want to rave about the wonderful film shoot I DOP in the last week.  Last week I shot a film written and directed by a former film student of mine,  Matt Smith. It was great to see how much he has progressed from his first film . He is now

gaining the confidence of a film director and is now clearly communicating his vision for the story to crew and cast. The Director’s  confidence takes practice and experience. The more films you direct the more confidence you gain.

On the shoot, we used The Panasonic AF- 100. (please see clip below) This camera had been on my radar for about the last 10 months so I was very much looking forward to shooting with this camera. I have to say this is a remarkable camera. It shoots in 1920 x 1080 HD with interchangable lens. It also shoots amazingly good slow motion. All I can say is Rave Rave Rave.

For  value for money at $ 4,700, for the camera body, this camera really punches above its weight. You can get a set of prime Zeiss Lens for about a further $4000 and a Zoom for about $70o All up you get a great camera for shooting short films and micro budget feature films. The depth of field is wonderful and the  image quality is superb. All up your film will look very professional.

This is a clip from the film “Repressed that I shot last week on the Panasonic AF- 100

I liked the camera so much that  I have now decided to buy the camera.

If you would like to learn more about making your own films, please look at our courses that we are presenting at the moment. The courses always change peoples year for the better. If you want to break into film, this is the quickest way to make it in the film world.

 

Current Film Courses September-December  2011

 

The Auckland Weekend Film School
October 29th, 30th 2011, AUT Univeristy, 55 Wellesley Street East Auckland

 The Sydney Weekend Film School 2011
Saturday & Sunday December 10th 11th, NSW University Anzac Parade Kensington

The Melbourne Three Month Film School
September – December 2011
Trinity College  Parkville Melbourne VIC

The  Gold Coast Film Director’s School
December Tuesday 13th – Sunday 18th 2011
Twin Towns Clubs and Resorts
Coolangatta, Queensland

The Online FIlm School
Anytime you can start now.  Start Today.

 

Five reasons to enroll on a high quality Film Courses.

Here are five reasons to enroll on a high quality Film Courses.

1 You learn how to make films professionally.

Many people try to do it all on their own and they end up making the same amateur mistakes. These mistakes tend to make their film efforts look amateur. I see it time and time again. Film Makers who make film after film and wonder why they are never getting into A List film festivals or getting a great reaction from their audience. Without the correct instruction, this film maker can end up permanently grounded.

The main problem areas are

• Sound
• Poor Acting
• Shot narrative
• Post Production

2  The second reason to enroll on a Film Course is the networking. You meet like minded people and

this will accelerate your progress dramatically. There is nothing like meeting people with a similar passion. Many people on our courses end up collaborating on film projects after the course. One person ends up as the producer while the other is the Director and another person ends up writing the film. These people create a core film production entity. There is so much power in these combinations.

I remember when I was in Film School years ago, three of us got together and in record time we had a $25,000 budget and  a 20 minute short film produced. Back then,  it was hard to raise the budgets needed to make films. You had to shoot on Super 16 mm film stock and edit on steenbacks using film print. You had to hire a negative matcher who cut your negative using your edit decisions from your work print. All in all it was an expensive process back in 1992.

Somehow within six months we had made a film with a very big cast. There was a Grip and Gaffer Crew and as a young film maker, I thought all my Christmases had come at once. We had Cranes and Tracks and basically all the frills of a big budget film shoot. and this was all as a result of two other people I met on a Film Course.

Today,  the Camera Lights and Sound and Grips Equipment has come very inexpensive.  Today everything has changed.

3  Knowlege of what Film Equipment you need.

This is the third reason you need to attend a Film Course. You need to know what equipment to use. You need to know what the best lowest priced equipment you need for your film shoots after the Film Course ends. This part saves you thousands of dollars.

You need to know what the best Camera is to use on your shoot. You need to know the best sound equipment to obtain. You need to know the best lighting combinations.  There is a lot to learn but it can be learned very quickly on a high quality film course.

When you attend a course like ours, you learn all about the best equipment to use and whether you should buy or rent after the Film Course.

4 Training

This is one of the most important reasons to attend a film course. You learn how to make a film using our FIlm Equipment.

You learn how to

• operate a Film Camera
• create a Shot list
• how to direct actors
• how to get the best location sound
• how to light a set effectively.
• and much more

On a really good film course like ours, you learn how to make a film by actually shooting a real film. You get to do all the crew roles and get some experience in all the areas. This ultimately makes you a better producer or director or writer.

5 The Accelerator.

A really good film school accelerates your film career dramatically. You learn how to make a film ten times faster meaning that over a six month period  you gain years on the competition and put yourself years ahead of the people who are trying to do it all on their own.

6 Great Times

I always remember my Film School years fondly. When you were learning how to make films, you are finally living with your passion and moving towards your dreams. Many times we hear from our film students about how profoundly their year has changed. They tell me how many times their lives are transformed by doing something worthwhile and how it is wonderful to live life actively involved in their passion.

7 Mentorship.

When you get involved with professional film makers, many times they will help you and act as a mentor. If you are a talented emerging film maker, your talent will shine and the organizers of the film course will take notice and want to help you.

8 The In Club and Work

When you have successfully completed our film courses, you will be invited to join our In Film Club. Here you will hear of job opportunities and film projects. Here you will also hear of DOPs and other crew and actors that you will need to make your film happen.

So for these 8 reasons, it is a really a great idea to enroll on our top quality Film Course

Once again check the list of Film Courses we have at Australian  Film Base at the moment.

Till next week have a great one

Colm O’Murchu

Director International Film Base

Why you should always have a Casting for your film?

Casting is one of the keys to producing a really good film.  If you run an effective casting, you will put yourself ahead of the competition dramatically.  An Amateur film is always obvious. The big give away  is actors who can not act. So therefore it is imperative that you organize a successful casting. This way your film will look professional.

Why do most emerging film makers ignore casting?

Most emerging film makers feel that they are not experienced enough to cast. Since they are only starting out, they should not deal with experienced actors. So it is much easier to pass and use your friend who is funny after a beer or two in the pub or the actor you have heard about through a friend of a friend. Disaster.

Lets get three facts straight.

1. Most actors are out of work. Most actors are resting. Most actors are working in resteraunts, cafes or bars. If you have a casting for a short film or a feature film, they will be very excited about the propsect of getting in front of the camera.
2. Most actors are used to auditions. If an actor has an agent, they  consistently attend castings for commercials, small parts in TV dramas and very rare feature films. When they are cast for a commercial, they will be paid big money but it will not move their quality career ahead. When they get a 90 word part in a TV drama, they will be very envious of the regular actors working on the TV show. The actor will be very keen to prove themselves in their own acting vehichle.
3. Therefore actors who have not yet made it, (which is nearly all of them) will be very keen to be the leads in a short film or low budget feature film. They will attend your casting and hope to get the part.

On big films castings are more complex.  You have two specific groups of people who work in the casting area.  You have the Actors Agent such as the Ari Gold, the fictional character in the TV show Entourage. He is  based in part on the real-life Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel.  The Actors Agent represents the Actor.

Then you have the Casting Director who represents the Director and the search for the hottest acting talent for your film.   Many top directors will spend months in Casting sessions. This specific person called a Casting Director essentially creates a list of actors for the Director to see. The Casting Director at their Casting Company, will have preliminary castings so as to create a shortlist.  They will call the actors agents and select a list of their actors. This is why every actor has to have  a really good agent if they want to make it in acting. Now, this is how it happens in the big end of town

However the emerging film director and producer need to avoid the expense of the above process. How can you do it for free for your micro budget quality film.

Firstly avoid actors agents, unless you have budget to pay actors. The really good agents will not deal with micro budget film productions.

Secondly, avoid a Casting Director. Do you very own casting in your own casting space. See every single actor who wants to attend. Like a gold prospector, you will shift through all the dross to find the gold. I guarantee you, if you run two to three five hour sessions of castings, you will find gold. You will find some great actors who will lift your film production above the competition.

How do you learn to run an effective casting, I hear you say.  Of course you need to know where to source the actors. Also you need to know how to run an effective Casting. You need to know what are the essentials and that is why we have the solution for you.

Please check out the Online Film School or our Complete list of practical or live  Film Courses.

In our courses, we teach you how to cast and run an effective casting and how to source your actors.

Till next week have a great one.

Colm O’Murchu
Director International Film Base.

Author Details: Colm O’Murchu is the owner of International Film Base in Sydney Australia. ?He is currently written directed and produced The Makeover Feature Film. The Film screened at the recent Cannes Independent Film Festival in France and won Best Film at the New York City Film Festival. The Film is currently on release in Australia and has sold to Pay TV in Europe. Colm has created the Online Film School and practical or live  Film Courses. that helps emerging film makers produce their own films with no budget. For more about Colm O’Murchu please go to International Film Base

Four Tips for Finding the Best Location

Location Location

I am very much looking forward to presenting the Weekend Film School in Sydney on  this Saturday and Sunday May 21st, 22nd. One of my favourite parts of the Weekend Film School is how we get people to meet each other and network.  On Sunday Afternoon, we launch film projects that then get produced over the following three months. If you are in town and have next weekend free,  please enroll on one of the very best film making weekends, The Sydney Weekend Film School

What I want to talk about this week is Locations. Finding locations for your film is one of the easiest part of preproduction.

Tip One Do not be afraid to write as many locations into your script as you need for your story to be told. I love beautiful locationsand finding the best locations in your city is rather easy. There is an old adage in low budget film making that says “Shoot in a one loacation for three weeks and never move out of there. Yes that is called a play and there is nothing wrong with plays. But if you are shooting a movie, make the movie visual. One can do this by having appropriate locations in your film.

Tip Two . Only have one location move per day and do your best to to schedule only one location for a full shooting day. Over a 30 day shoot, you could have 30 locations. Moving in the middle of the day chews up time. I remember supervising a student short film called Money We only had a one day shoot and we had five locations to shoot in. We spent half the day in the car driving from one location to the other.  If you have to change locations,  only move once on the day. I know this seems contrary to what Tip One outlines. It is important to find the balance.

Tip Three: Make sure that you have a written agreement with the location owner. Most locations are free and are contributions to the film. Still it is very important to have an agreement. with the owner about the hours and day the location is needed for. Also outline

• Will the location get an end credit in the film?
• Will the location signage be seen in the film?
• Make sure that the location is free of all external people or customers. There is nothing worse than shooting in a cafe that is still open to the public. If the location has external people, pack up and go home.

Tip Four. Clean up the location after the shoot and make it cleaner than before you arrived. This is very important and I know I am stating the obvious.

If you get the owner excited about your film in advance of shooting and then when you leave the location,  the owner is  happy , you will help future film makers have an easy time. That could be you again. Invite the Location Owner to all parties and screenings. Leave a great impression.

Of the 55 locations that we found for The Makeover Feature Film, 44 of them were free. When an owner, contributes a location to your film, they are in a way an investor in your project.

On our courses, we teach you how to find locations with ease and for free. Find out more about our courses by clicking on an interesting course on our home page

16 Steps to make your film happen now

What’s the best Camera to use on your film shoot?

Post

In many of our film Schools, people always want to know what camera they should buy or rent. They also want to know whether their $1500 camera can shoot a film.

There is now a mobile Film Festival that screens only films shot on a mobile phone.

In one sense, I guess that proves that one can shoot a film on any camera.

So if you have nothing better than a mobile phone to shoot your film on, well you may as well get out there and shoot something. But that is all it is….. Something and possibly practice at best.

In the final analysis, we all want the same thing. Films that sell and get seen by an audience. We also want quality films that sell. I still love going to the cinema and seeing a properly produced quality film on the big screen. I believe therefore there is a certain quality camera that one should shoot on and the best low priced camera starts about $4,000.

One can buy the high end cameras that cost about $50k – $250k , but these days you can get excellent results on some of the lower end cameras for around $4k – $15K.

It is very difficult to work out exactly what one needs and what one should pay for their equipment. What to buy and where to buy your camera?

Should one rent the gear?  Knowledge can save you thousands of Dollars in costly expensive mistakes. Also how does one use this equipment?

For example, Australian Film Base can get you all the professional $10K Cameras, Tripods, Lights and  Sound Equipment and tracks with a dolly for $500 rental  for a two day shoot   But you must know how to use the equipment and what is the best equipment to use.

That is why we have created the Weekend Film Schools now happening in Brisbane Sydney and Melbourne.   This is to help the emerging enthusiastic film maker learn how to make their own films.  Please check out our Film Schools in the links at the top of the page. There is a special price of only $195 for the Weekend Film School. But the special ends today.