Production Classes

[waynehazle]

While you don't necessarily need to go to film school and get a degree, I strongly recommend taking classes on screenwriting and production to get yourself started.

Not everyone wants to be a writer, but knowing what makes a good screenplays is essential to a future filmmaker. It all starts with the screenplay!

But knowing what it takes to make a movie out of that screenplay is also critical. I would love to hear from people out there on classes they have taken and schools they have went to. What has your experience been?

[ashras99]

Well said... waynehazle, I agree with you...infact there are 5 guideline for a existing and aspiring directors

5 Guidelines for all the directors:

1) No one walked out of the theater demanding their money back because of the way it looked. The story worked, the audience was there for the story. If the story is bad no one will sit through a great projection of a great looking image and that is the way it's always going to be. But that doesn't mean you don't concentrate on Cinematography, Direction, Music, VFX, Editing etc.

2) Pre-Vis as much as possible. Pre-vis puts them at ease. It keeps you out of the "How-Come" room later on.

3) Don't be late for anything. A lot of eccentric behavior is tolerated but there is no excuse for wasting people's time. Punctuality is the Politeness of Princes. Everyone is late sometimes, and if you have a history of being cheerfully punctual your inevitable tardiness is more easily overlooked.

4) Hire a great team. This profession is not about 1 person. You will be judged by the people on your team and you may loose your job because of something someone did, said, or didn't do or say. You will also get jobs because of those same talented people. So don't be a dickhead. But that doesn't mean you don't give chance to newcomers in any field.

5) Last but not the least, try something different but not gone over the head of the viewer.

[waynehazle]

"4) Hire a great team. "

Agreed. The publicists try to create this idea that the director just spawns the whole film out of his head all by himself.

A director has great people around him or her that all make the film good.

I just read that one of Hitchcock's main cinematographers just died. You can bet that as much of a genius as Alfred Hitchcock was, he listened to his D.P.