So…
I want to become a director when I’m grown up. I’ve decided this is what I want to do with my life. I have alot of ideas for movies, and one I can’t stop thinking about. I’m thinking I might even write a screenplay soon. But, how do I prepare myself so I can pursue this as a career? I know first I have to work in a Video Store (joke…lulz). Any suggestions?
There are no recipe to become a director. You can either enter a filmschool, either not and find shootings on your own. You can shoot movies with your mini-DV camera, either not and wait for a producer to give you money to direct a proper 16mm or 35mm short or length feature. You can either bu rich, lucky, talented, carreerist…
Study the art and do your best to make friends with people who share your passion. I think your best bet is to get whatever camera you can and just start filming things. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a short film or anything like that, just get used to seeing through a lens. Like cyber-lili said though, there’s no magic recipe for breaking into the business.
As far as writing a screenplay goes there’s tons of sites that’ll teach you how to write them. My personal favorite is screenwriting.info but there’s a thread in here with a bunch of links. <LINK_TEXT text=“http://www.tarantino.info/forum/index.p … 798.0.html”>http://www.tarantino.info/forum/index.php/topic,8798.0.html</LINK_TEXT>
well right now, I’m only 15 and the closest I have to any of the things you two just said is making youtube videos with my freinds (skecth comedy sort of thing). BUt, is there anything i can do now to prepare? Like taking some certain classes in High School?
Creative writing is a good class to take, if your school offers it. Speech, or public speaking is also very good for someone that wants to direct, and wants to be able to sell their work to studios/producers. Art classes don’t hurt either. If you can make your own storyboards, it’s a very convenient skill to have.
You should order a couple of screenwriting books. Or go to the library, I’m sure they have some. Just to help you learn proper format. However, if you’re going to write/direct, then you can even do it without a properly formatted screenplay.
Just do what you can with your camera now. And make sure you keep your grades up in school so that you can have a good shot at getting into a film school after you graduate.
[quote=“Mister Green”]
well right now, I’m only 15 and the closest I have to any of the things you two just said is making youtube videos with my freinds (skecth comedy sort of thing). BUt, is there anything i can do now to prepare? Like taking some certain classes in High School?
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That’s not a bad start. Just getting out there and doing stuff is a great way to learn. Not sure what courses your high school has but I remember back in my day we had a class where our final project was making a short film. I think it was called Multimedia Art or something like that.
www.wordplayer.com
a screenwriting column, i’m not sure it’s very usefull, but it’s fun reading though.
Well, next year in my sophmore year I plan on taking Speech/Debate and then in junior year Im taking Creative Writing for sure, maybe even sophmore year if it’s possible I can change it. And about the camera…I don’t have one just yet. When me and my freinds did the youtube stuff, we worked on a pretty shitty camera. I’m hopfully going to start a screenplay/script sort of thing soon ;D
And thanks to you guys for the help…it’s been more help then my parents, lol.
Dont Wait man I’m 19 and I shot 3 short film by now. I take Tarantino as my model , so you dont need to working Video Store Market or anything else. Every Short Film of you is a step of the long ladder man when you reach final step you can become a director so contiune shooting with your Mini-Dv camera
As long as you have a vision, a style and an idea you’re a director. Don’t listen to people telling you you have to shoot big studio projects to be considered a director. Like everyone will tell you, buy a camera, write a script and shoot. The easiest thing in the world is finding actors. Read books, get into the head of filmmakers who influence you, find your own style, don’t be a carbon copy of any director, watch movies and you’ll find your voice.
i just started on a script. Hopefully i’ll follow through and finish it all. and thank you all for the advice!
What’s the premise?
well, i dont want to seem like a dick, but im keeping the whole scrpit thing private. not just from people on this site, but pretty much from my family and freinds. In fact, i even have a flash drive that i save it on, and then i hide it…lol is that werid?
i will tell you im using True Romace kind of as an inspiration.
[quote=“Mister Green”]
well, i dont want to seem like a dick, but im keeping the whole scrpit thing private. not just from people on this site, but pretty much from my family and freinds. In fact, i even have a flash drive that i save it on, and then i hide it…lol is that werid?
i will tell you im using True Romace kind of as an inspiration.
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Not at all, I can be secretive about my writing, but I’ve learned that it’s not helpful to the process. No matter how hard you may try you cannot see your work objectively, it’s one of the reasons a lot of crap is put out. And a word of advice, if you’re using True Romance as an inspiration, make sure your own ideas are the forefront and not shunted aside otherwise you end up like one of the many Tarantino mimics who came out of the woodworks in the 90’s.
Yeah, I hide like ALL my shit, dude. I don’t even let my friends read it. And my family doesn’t care, cept for my dad. But he’s a brilliant writer, and I’m scared of what he’ll say about it, so I don’t let him read it either. But, definitely keep it under wraps.
[quote=“Geoi”]
Yeah, I hide like ALL my shit, dude. I don’t even let my friends read it. And my family doesn’t care, cept for my dad. But he’s a brilliant writer, and I’m scared of what he’ll say about it, so I don’t let him read it either. But, definitely keep it under wraps.
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Doesn’t it make it kind of pointless to write but not to let others read it? I mean, if you’re not comfortable with the quality that’s one thing, but if you care about what others might think, you should get into a new field. Unless of course your writing is just personal, you know, cathartic
Haha, right you are, sir. I don’t feel that what I’ve written, in the form of scripts, is anything special. I usually start out so proud and excited about it, then lose it somewhere along the line and start another one. I am so working on something special right now though! ;D ;D ;D
(And yes, most of it is just therapeutic… But not all of it)
I’m pretty sure all my scripts would be as shitty as the first one was if I hadn’t joined various writing communities and let them tell me how shitty it was. It’s really the only way to learn, because it’s very hard to look at your own work objectively.
My problem is just finishing something correctly. I mean, they all start off fairly good, but like I said, I lose interest, or get distracted by another project. The ones I have finished are mostly shite because you can totally tell that I just quit caring, and just wrote shit down to get it done. But I agree, writing groups are good. I’ve hung around them a lot in the past.
[quote=“Geoi”]
My problem is just finishing something correctly. I mean, they all start off fairly good, but like I said, I lose interest, or get distracted by another project. The ones I have finished are mostly shite because you can totally tell that I just quit caring, and just wrote shit down to get it done. But I agree, writing groups are good. I’ve hung around them a lot in the past.
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Just watched True Romance with the Tarantino commentary and he said the same thing used to happen to him, happens to me too. It really stems from people wanting to just write, not to tell a specific story that they’re burning to tell.