Short Films

Why make them?, how can they help us in our artistic march? how do they differ from the feature? and does every director have a short?

well............

At first because you have no budget to go and do a feature ,so a short sounds perfect, where the actors sometimes might be your mum,dad,cousin ,neighbour, that drunk guy at the bus stop....anyone really.and it requires fewer resources 

Because its Fun and it's good to experiment, ,its all about getting a camera and start filming , try the shot from this angle and then try it from the other .

Because its experience ,even big directors ,gain experience, every time they shoot something new ,wether its short, feature ,tv or tvc.

Of course we should not forget ,that you are making it to tell a story , it doesn't matter what is its

 genre as long as their is something you are trying to deliver.

If you have a feature, you do a short of it, so you can have a vibe of it.

And the most important of all ,is to put your foot in the door, therefore you do a short, and you enter it in short film festival, so you and your work ,can get recognised by others, and by others, i mean producers and money makers!!

Now its not a rule ,that every director must have short film before making a feature ,but i guess all of the directors did so many shorts before hitting their big ones.

VIDEOS OF THIS WEEK

This is the Director KHOA D. LE telling us why he did his very first award wining short film and how he got recognised:

This is DENIAL, his AWARD WINING short film , it is a very interesting film with a twist :

That's all for this week......................................Au revoir

Topic of this week:                            THEMES

MMmmm so what's a theme?




The theme is the moral or the message that the director is trying to deliver through the movie ,sometimes it will not be very clear , or won't be shown until the end of the movie, but every movie has a theme, because it's what puts the entire movie together and what make it go deeper, therefore it should be well considered while writing the script right from the beginning.


                                              what is the moral premise??

The moral premise is a one sentence description of the physical and psychological arcs of the main characters.

which is  :   VICE        leads to   DEFEAT
        and     VIRTUE   leads to   SUCCESS

so next time we are building characters we have to take it into consideration, for example let's take THE MATRIX in regards to NEO:
 
            SELF DOUBT leads to DESTRUCTION
and      BELIEF            leads to LOVE



                                                     Link of this week 



I hope it all make sense but until then i'll introduce you to the link below which will give you a better understanding for what a theme is if you were writing a screenplay (which is a great link really to improve your writing):


http://www.movieoutline.com/screenwriting-blog/index.php/2011/08/does-your-story-have-a-theme/

                                                                       

                                  That's all for this week.,,,,,,,,,,,,,Au revoir

What's all this blog about??

It's a week by week uploading info basis about directing .where each week there is a different topic to talk about ,discussed earlier in my directing class .

Mmmm , what's this week's topic??

what is a director, and what qualities he/she should have?

                              What and Who is a  DIRECTOR

By definition the director is the person who creatively transfer the script into vision or visualized images and sound. He has a strong vision for how the set of images are going to flow together . he is the face of the film and seen as a leader of others as providing a kind of guiding force.therefore he needs to be distinguished for few qualities.

                        Qualities a DIRECTOR should have:

• Good time management.                                     
• Being creative,to define his own style and make the story/film look worth watching.
• Self confidence, he's a leader after all.
• Sociable and open for new ideas ,even if he doesn't want to do it ,at least listen to it and appreciate it ;having an ego is something a director should have (every one of us have one)  but not over do it. no one wants to work with an arrogant boss!
• Passionate and have a clear vision ,which makes it easier for every one on set and better to work with.
• Communication skills:it's all about the way you talk to people,  patience is a virtue...
• Flexible,gives attention to details and have a complete understanding of the process. 

                  

                         "video of this week":

Let's see what the English actress Georgia Groome has to say in this 15 secs video about who's a good director:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE0xusmrPiY&feature=share

                                                     " True Facts:   "

Now we know the importance of the director and what qualities he should possess ,however there was a very well known directors who directed plenty of movies and documentaries but surprisingly they were described by "crazy"or " the worst to work with" like:

       Werner herzog :for the places he used to shoot in ,and the cast who used to film. for example: Klaus Kinski, known as being a raving madman, the five films that Herzog made with Kinski can all be considered miracles for having been made at all!

        Akira Kurosawa: was known to be demanding , and cruel to his cast.he had one technique where he would choose one actor in particular from a cast and berate  and insult him especially .the idea was that seeing him abuse one cast member would motivate the other actors and actresses to give their best performances!!!......that's one crazy director!

That's all for now, until the next blog i'll say,,,,,,,,,,A BIENTOT