Today's digital technology allows teens to produce short films with enviable accessibility. But there is a darker side to today's technology, too: the expectation to live and share your life online, to become an instant success with your first creations. Imagine being free to experiment and play with the medi-um, with a mentor beside you helping you craft solid, professional work that never looks like a home movie. Industry pro Deborah Patz is that mentor. Much like writers pen journals they don't publish (aka "writing practice," as taught by Natalie Gold-berg), Write! Shoot! Edit! mentors teens in "first film-making" -- crafting complete, scripted movies in a safe place free from public exhibition and scrutiny, experimenting with the medium, and discovering one's own visual storytelling voice. You want to direct and edit, but your friend wants to write? Not a problem. Don't read the book in order! Just follow the path. Write! Shoot! Edit! is written in three distinct and intertwining paths, so you can experience the book as you want to: as a writer, director / DOP, or editor. Start making scripted films today so that you can be the overnight success of tomorrow!

Making a Winning Short is the first book to give hands-on instruction on how to write, direct, edit, and produce a fictional short in film or video. Edmond Levy guides the beginning filmmaker step-by-step through the stages of making a short: writing the script (from developing the idea to fine-tuning the final draft), launching production, casting, and working with the actors, working with the crew, directing the camera, editing, and other aspects of post-production. He devotes a separate chapter to Hi-8 video and gives a list of short-film festivals, both domestic and international.

Shows teenage filmmakers how to experience filmmaking as a writer, director, and editor.

Veteran editor Don McNair lays out an easy-to-follow and systematic method for clearing up foggy writing--writing that's full of extra, misused, and overused words--in this guide to producing sparkling copy that attracts readers, agents, editors, and sales. McNair explains the common mistakes made by most writers and shows how eliminating unnecessary words strengthens action, shorten sentences, and makes writing crackle with life. Containing 21 simple, straightforward principles, ""Editor-Proof Your Writing"" teaches how to edit weak verb forms, strip away author intrusions, ban redundancies, eliminate foggy phrases, correct passive-voice sentences, slash misused and overused words, and fix other writing mistakes. A superb addition to any writer's toolkit, this book will not only make writing clearer and more grammatical, it will also make it more concise, entertaining, and appealing to publishers.

Filmmaking is entering a new era. Mini-DV filmmaking is the new folk music, the new punk rock, the new medium in which anyone can tell their story. "$30 Dollar Film School, Second Edition" is an alternative to spending four years and a hundred-thousand dollars to learn the filmmaking trade. It is influenced by punk rock's "Do-it-Yourself" spirit of just learning the basics and then jumping up on a stage and making a point; and by the essence of the American work ethic. This new edition of the bestselling title includes new, improved, and updated chapters on video and audio editing, plus a companion DVD-Rom loaded with movies, shorts, and trailers from "graduates" of the first edition.

Paperback Matte Cover Blank Lined Paper 110 Pages 6x9 Inches

Documentary films have enjoyed a huge resurgence over the last few years, and there's a new generation of filmmakers wanting to get involved. In addition, the digital revolution has made documentaries even more accessible to the general filmmaker. Documentary films can now be shot professionally using cheaper equipment, and smaller cameras enable the documentarian to be less intrusive and therefore more intimate in the subjects' lives. With an increasing number of documentaries making it to the big screen (and enjoying ongoing sales on DVD), the time is right for an information-packed handbook that will guide new filmmakers towards potential artistic and commercial success. The Documentary Film Makers Handbook features incisive and helpful interviews with dozens of industry professionals, on subjects as diverse as interview techniques, the NBC News Archive, music rights, setting up your own company, the Film Arts Foundation, pitching your proposal, the Sundance Documentary Fund, the Documentary Channel, the British Film Council, camera hire, filmmaking ethics, working with kids, editing your documentary, and DVD distribution. The book also includes in-depth case studies of some of the most successful and acclaimed documentary films of recent years, including Mad Hot Ballroom, Born Into Brothels, Touching the Void, Beneath the Veil,and Amandla! The Documentary Film Makers Handbook will be an essential resource for anyone who wants to know more about breaking into this exciting field.