Indy Mogul - DIY filmmaking

Youtube/ Indy Mogul MeetUp in London!!!

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 17:29:26 EDT

Come meet Erik and Justin from Indy Mogul as well as lots of Youtube stars at the YouTube Fan and Partner Meetup!!! It's free and here are the details!!

This Thursday, September 15th,

7:00pm-10:00pm
(19:00-21:00)

Concrete @ Pizza East
Lower Ground Floor
56 Shoreditch High Street
London, E1 6JJ, UK

Please be advised all fans under the age of 16 years old must be accompanied by an adult. Hope to see you all there!!

Portal Gun Stuff!

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:18:17 EDT

Hey guys! Here's the references I used thatnks to Harrison Krix!

http://volpinprops.blogspot.com/2009/01/testing.html

http://volpinprops.blogspot.com/2010/11/portal-gun-for-childs-play_22.html

And here are the blueprints I used:

Hope that helps!

-Zack

Sci-Fi Armor Test Film Update!

Sat, 21 May 2011 00:07:57 EDT

Just want to drop in here and say that after a talk with Erik, we're holding off on airing the Sci-Fi armor test film until the middle of next week. We're making sure it get's as much push as it deserves.

In the meantime, here's an epic trailer for the short that is clocking in at 12 minutes long!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmJAEA8FuDU

5mmh ep. 40 - "Superpowers"

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 22:16:43 EDT

This week's winner is Dead Right Hand Productions's comedy short "Superpowers", check it out! If you'd like your own film featured here on on the blog submit it over at the 5 Minutes Movie House thread over in the Indy Mogul Forums!

Wesley's Weekly WriteHOW: Doing Research

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 18:33:15 EDT

So you want to write your story, but maybe it's about a topic that you're not 100% familiar with, what do you do when you want to write about stuff you DON'T know? Well you have to do some degree of research, but how do you do it, and how much research is enough? Well let's find out, this week is about doing research!

Step 1: Decide what you have to research

First you'll have to make a list of topics that would do you well to research. Are you writing a western perhaps? Decide what time period you want to write it in, think about what section of the world you might like to set it in, flesh out stuff you'd like to include into the story and jump off from there.

Once you know the when and where, that is a good majority of the things you have to research there. Then you can start doing research into props of the period, how people dressed and talked, popular music, and cultural references that the characters would know.

Are you writing a character that is very different from yourself? (Different gender or ethnicity perhaps?), doing research about what life was like, especially for people who may have had a very different life from what you are used to can help add a lot of realism to your character, and make their situation seem unique to them, rather than seeming like how you or they might be treated in the modern era.

So go down the list and just try to brainstorm things that you feel are necessary to research, and think about all of the things you'll need in your story based on your outline.

Step 2: Wiki It

Don't underestimate the power of the Wiki. Wikipedia has an amazing amount of articles, and they'll most likely have an article on exactly what you're trying to research. While a lot of people have brought up issues about accuracy and bias issues on Wikipedia, it's WAY more useful as a jumping off point, rather than taking EVERY article at face value. A great thing to do is to go down to the references at the bottom of the page and go read the primary sources it cites, a lot of them will be from trustworthy sources and provide you with a lot of different information on whatever you're researching.

So see how much of the things you want to know are in Wiki, and start making a database of it's sources so you can start organizing them and start checking them out. This is a good starting off point and can help get you headed in the right direction.

Step 3: Go to your library

Takes your list of sources (primarily your book and journal sources), and see how many you can track down at your local library. The library has a awesome amount of information that may not necessarily be on the internet yet, and can help you delve deeper into the subject. Start going through and finding all the sources, and see if you can find additional books that are of releated topics (they will usually be nearby since they will be organized by topic).

Even if you can't find all of your sources, you will most likely find some good ones and have a good starting off point to begin doing your research and delving more deeply into it.

Also, make sure to check your sources, most of what you find in a library will be of good value, but there are almost alternative voices, and not everyone who writes a book may have the same credentials, so if you're afraid you are not getting the full story, check up on the background of your authors and see if they are an expert or professor at respected University or perhaps just a pop history author. This is generally not a significant concern, especially if you're looking at research from multiple people, but be aware that not everything you read may necessarily be accurate.

Step 4: Look at what other stories have done

By NO MEANS is this a suggestion to steal or plagarize from others, I am not saying that, but getting a good grasp of what the genre has done before, and what other Authors have done can be a good research all of itself. See what other writers who have done similar works (either in period or place, not necessarily in theme), and see how their characters spoke and dressed and acted. Oftentimes this will have been based on some degree of personal research on their part, and can be a good intro to the conventions of whatever genre you might be working in (or might be looking to mess with), and can help you along.

So don't be afraid to see what other books or movies have done with similar settings, even if they weren't accurate at least you'll see where others have been before.

Step 5: Have a set amount of time to research then STOP

How much research SHOULD you do? Honestly, unless you're doing historical reenactments, it is better to fudge the details a little and get your story done, rather than try to be a historical zealot and feel like you're too inaccurate, or that you simply don't know enough about it yet. You can ALWAYS do additional research if you think a detail needs to be fleshed out, and you can ALWAYS do rewrites, but that's ONLY if you've actually finished your story!

So I say, set aside a decent amount of time to just do research, a couple of weeks is generally a good start for me (Some people need a little longer, some less), set aside at least a couple of hours each day to just sit and read and watch the sources you've assembled, THEN, after the period is up WRITE. I don't care if you're not done, you can do more research after the fact, but now you have to write, and you HAVE to get it done.

Better to have a finished story that has details that could use sharpening, rather than to have no story at all. And remember you DO NOT have to be completely accurate with every detail, most of you are doing fiction. In fiction you are allowed to be a little off on details, BUT if it's not interesting that's something that can't be as easily be forgiven.

"Captain America: The Fighting Avenger" posters!

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 14:54:31 EDT

Hey guys, just wanted to toss these out here and show you that I made a few movie posters for this Epic Test Film!

Hope you like them!

-Zack

Wesley's Weekly WriteHow: Editing

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 11:34:14 EDT

So you finished, you did something that to few who begin to write somethingare able to accomplish, so you're done, correct? Time to move onto the new work? No, not at all, it's time to edit your work, and sharpen it into what you truly want it to be. This week we are talking about editing.

So lets talk about the first step you have to take in the editing process...

STEP 1: WALK AWAY

You need time away from your work so you can effectively edit it, it might take a few days, but for me a solid 2 weeks of not thinking or looking at the work at all is what I need to come back to it with fresh eyes. This doesn't mean you don't do ANYTHING for those 2 weeks, work on other projects, flesh out other things, but I think you HAVE to empty your mind of the story to come back to it with new eyes.

Being to close to the work will hurt you because it gives you a distorted views both of the merits and flaws of the work, after having a chance to step away and come back to the work, you'll have a much more honest eye, and be able to approach it freshly and hopefully with a renewed interest. This will allow you to appreciate it less like it's your own work, and more like it's a newer work, and it'll help you see the flaws and know what needs to change more easily.

STEP 2: Read the whole thing front-to-back

After you've properly cleared your mind, sit down and take your time reading it completely. I say you have to fight the urge to read it broken up, especially when you get to parts that you think are written badly, because you need to experience the entire story as singularly as possible. This is a step you can't avoid, because you have to take the time to really be able to focus on your story and see the problems.

So get your script, sit down, and read the whole thing, but don't get passive about it because you also have to...

STEP 3: Take Notes

When you read your story you CAN'T do it passively, while you're reading you're going to be thinking about every mistake you make, about everything you'd like to move around, about all the other changes you'd like to make, and if you don't take notes it's not going to be impossible, but it is sure going to be more difficult, and why do you want to make things harder on yourself?

So while you're writing take precise notes, write everything you are thinking about the story down, and mark down what pages you find mistakes on, even mark up your script. So when you start working on your second draft you know exactly what pages things you want to fix are on, and exactly how you should procede.

Having your notes and a plan all written down is a much better idea than trying to keep it all organized in your head, so go the easier route.

STEP 4: Get a reading partner

Something that has personally helped me is after I get it worked out a little, I like showing things to a friend or family member whose taste I trust (And remember, in context a friend who likes horror is probably going to be able to judge your script a bit better than your Grandmother).

Your friends will be even further removed from your story than you are, and can be your first "test-audience", they might notice plotholes (or things that appear to be plotholes if they haven't been explained properly in the story), and inconsistencies that you might not have noticed even with your forced distance from the story, so don't underestimate the value of letting someone else read your work before you think you're absolutely done with it.

Good luck and keep writing!

5mmh ep. 39 - "Dr. Otka"

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 15:10:36 EDT

Here is this week's 5MMH winner, "Dr. Otka", by Ross Peacock and April Choi, check it out I think it was a neat Sci-Fi short. If you'd like to submit your own film for the blog head over to the 5 Minute Movie House thread on the forums and submit your films!

Polcan Filmmaking Tutorial pt. 18

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 15:47:34 EDT

This week is another tutorial that involves various tips in regards to in field filmmaking, and documentary-style shooting.

5MMH ep. 38 - "People of the Mist"

Sat, 16 Apr 2011 16:43:02 EDT

This week's winner is DF10 Productions "People of the Mist", check it out. and if you'd like to submit your own video for the blog, post it over at the 5 Minute Movie House thread in the Indy Mogul forums!

Wesley's Weekly WriteHOW: Staying Focused

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 21:06:10 EDT

A lot of us don't have problems writing, we enjoy writing, and it comes easily... But there is a problem that many of us who like to write also suffer from, and that is the issue is losing our focus, or losing our trust in the work.

Focusing on your writing, and finishing a work is important, it's as important as doing everything correctly, because if you write, then never finish anything, that is only barely better than never having started at all. Finishing SOMETHING should be your primary goal, because finished works are what everyone wants, no one wants something unfinished of yours unless you're already famous. So how to stay focused on your projects and finish it even if you get discouraged?

1. Set realistic goals

Set goals for yourself that fit with what you're capable of accomplishing. If you know that you can only write 1 or 2 good pages a day, NO PRESSURE, set a goal for a page or 2 a day, and that is fine. Remember most of us aren't working on deadlines yet, so don't act like it'll be the end of the world if you can't finish it as quickly as you wanted. Most of us are just starting out, and unless you're a prodigy most of us are only capable of writing a small amount a day. Someone like Stephen King who can sit down and knock out a dozen pages a day, gets that way because he's spent 40 years writing, once you spend 4 decades writing EVERY SINGLE DAY, you might get that fast too, until then be comfortable with aiming small.

Completing a work in 2 months is better than trying to hammer out something in 5 days, getting mad because it's not flowing, then giving up on it.

2. Use a Calender

A tactic that really helps for me is to have a physical calender or planner that I can look at every day. It helps me keep track of my progress better, and it gives me something tangible to keep in my head.

Something I like doing is making a check on it everyday that I work, that way I can see gaps in my progress, and it's a little bit more important than an "Oh I can just do it later"-feeling. I see the days that I missed out and I go, "Well now I know I have to work harder to try to make up for my lost time."

Calenders really help me stay focused, and might help you so try it out.

3. Take breaks

For me, I have a few different schedules that really help me, and something that helps me is taking breaks. It gives me a set of objectives to accomplish, and lets me cool it a little and think before I jump back into the fray. It helps me stay focused because it gives me something to work towards.

This might help you, or it may not, but try it out. I usually go with a 30 minutes on, 30 minutes off system, but i've also worked well with an hour on and a half hour off when I am really busy and I am writing easily. So just try it, remember to just stay cool and let it flow, and that will be much easier than trying to force it out.

4. Stop telling yourself it isn't good

You aren't done yet, and you are constantly disparaging yourself instead of moving forward. Finish the work, making it "good" can come in the editing phase. The important part is getting the first draft out and getting it FINISHED, then you can worry about how good or bad it is.

AND, even if you don't like it, and it really is bad, you STILL got the experience of writing it, and got it out, and learned things. Sometimes we have to write a few really bad works until we can get to something that we think is deserving. Your first work will probably be not that great, but the important thing is finishing it.

The important idea behind staying focused is reminding yourself to just get it out, take time each day to set aside and write a little, and as you write more and more, it really does get easier.

If you just remind yourself that every other writer started in just about the same position, it really helps you to move on and write how you really want to instead of feeling trapped by a blank page.

Good luck!

UPDATED! .30 Cal Machine Gun stuff!

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 05:54:03 EDT

Here's all the reference pics I used, and a simple template for the pieces I cut that you can see in the video above!

5MMH ep. 37 - "The Little Things"

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 16:24:24 EDT

Here is an experimental short from David Osswald, check it out. If you'd like to have a chance for your own short to be featured here on the blog, submit it here in the 5MMH thread in Mogulville.

Confessions of an Indie Filmmaker Pt. 39

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 16:15:55 EDT

Here is the latest video from Confessions of an Indie Filmmaker about trying to get the production started up and organized.

Filmmaking Tutorial pt. 17

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 10:19:06 EDT

Here is another tutorial from YouTube user Polcan99 about the rule of thirds, and angles. Check it out.

5MMH ep. 36 - "Snuggie"

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 09:19:27 EDT

This week's featured video is the comedy short "Snuggie" by Studio595, if you'd like your own film featured here on the blog, submit it to the 5 Minute Movie House thread in Mogulville.

Wesley's Weekly WriteHOW: Write a Script for April!

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:02:46 EDT

Well I have been doing this writing advice for a while now, so I want everyone to try to apply everything they've hopefully learned to writing a script for April. Why April? Because April is SCRIPT FRENZY! And everyone out there SHOULD participate. It's your chance to finally have an excuse to get off your butt and hammer out that screenplay, It doesn't even need to be a great one, you just need to sit down, and hammer it out, you can fix it in the first draft. Today everyone needs to sit down, take some time, and at minimum do a single page.

This month I want to offer encouragement and advice to my fellow writers, I will be haunting the writeHOW thread and the April Script Writing thread in Mogulville, so if you need any help or encouragement, just drop by and there is a community of great writers here who are more than happy to help you out. I will try to stay topical this month, so any issues you're having swing on by, and we'll try to offer any help we can, and i'll cover it all in the blog.

So get out there and write!

War Movie Month Contest : THE FINE PRINT!

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:53:37 EDT

Official Rules

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE DOES NOT IMPROVE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING.

Contest may only be entered in or from the 50 United States and the District of Columbia and entries originating from any other jurisdiction are not eligible for entry. This Contest is governed exclusively by the laws of the United States. You are not authorized to participate in the Contest if you are not located within the United States.

1. How to Enter. To enter the Indy Mogul “War Movie Month” contest (“Contest”), go to www.indymogul.com/contest (“Site”), read the Official Rules, complete the online entry form (including your name and email address), upload your video submission (“Video”) to www.indymogul.com/submit and click the “submit” button. All entry information and Videos shall be collectively referred to herein as the “Submissions” or each as a “Submission.” Submissions must comply with the Guidelines and Restrictions defined below. Sponsor reserves the right to cancel or modify this Contest in the event an insufficient number of entries are received that meet the minimum judging criteria. There is no limit on the number of Submissions you can submit; provided each Submission is materially different, as determined by Sponsor, in its sole and absolute discretion.

By entering, each entrant warrants and represents the following with respect to his/her Submission: (a) entrant is the sole and exclusive owner of the Submission; (b) the Submission is entrant’s own creation and is 100% original; (c) the Submission will not infringe on any rights of any third party, including but not limited to copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity and/or any other ownership or intellectual property right; (d) the Submission does not violate any third party agreement (including any employment agreements); (e) the Submission complies with the Guidelines and Restrictions (defined below); and (f) the Submission has not won any kind of award, competition or contest.

All entrants must have a valid email address. No automated entry devices and/or programs permitted. All entries, including Submissions, become the sole and exclusive property of the Sponsor and receipt of entries will not be acknowledged or returned. Sponsor is not responsible for lost, late, illegible, stolen, incomplete, invalid, unintelligible, postage-due, misdirected, technically corrupted or garbled entries, which will be disqualified, or for problems of any kind whether mechanical, human or electronic. Only fully completed entry forms are eligible. Proof of submission will not be deemed to be proof of receipt by Sponsor.

2. Contest Start/End Dates. Contest entry period begins at 10:00:01 am Eastern Time (“ET”) on March 28, 2011 and ends at 11:59:59 pm on April 22, 2011 (“Contest Period”).

3. Eligibility. Participation open only to legal residents of the fifty United States or the District of Columbia, who are 18 or older as of date of entry. Void outside of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, and where prohibited, taxed or restricted by law. Employees, officers and directors of Next New Networks, Inc. (“Sponsor”), Google Inc., and their respective parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, partners, advertising and promotion agencies, manufacturers or distributors of Contest materials and their immediate families (parents, children, siblings, spouse) or members of the same household (whether related or not) of such employees/officers/directors are not eligible to enter. You are not authorized to participate in the Contest if you are not located within the United States or the District of Columbia. All federal, state and local laws and regulations apply.

4. Submission Guidelines and Content Restrictions: By entering, each entrant agrees that his or her Submission conforms to the Submission Guidelines and Content Restrictions as defined below (collectively, the “Guidelines and Restrictions”) and that Sponsor, in its sole discretion, may remove any Submission and disqualify an entrant from the Project if it believes, in its sole discretion, that the entrant’s Submission fails to conform to the Guidelines and Restrictions.

Submission Guidelines:

· The Video Submission must (i) reflect the theme of this Contest -- “War Movies” (“Contest Theme”) -- and (ii) must include the following:

(a) the dialogue “covering fire”,

(b) one grenade as a prop, and

Content Restrictions:

· The Submission must not contain material that violates or infringes any rights of any other party, including but not limited to copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity or any other intellectual property rights;

· The Submission must not in any way disparage Sponsor, Google Inc., any other person or party affiliated with the promotion and administration of this Contest;

· The Submission must not contain footage, images or artwork not created by entrant;

· The Submission must not contain material that is inappropriate, indecent, obscene hateful, tortious, defamatory, slanderous or libelous;

· The Submission must not contain material that promotes bigotry, racism, hatred or harm against any group or individual or promotes discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age; and

· The Submission must not contain material that is unlawful, in violation of or contrary to the laws or regulations of the United States or of any jurisdiction where Submission is created.

· The Submission must be consistent with the image and values of Sponsor and be consistent with and satisfy the purpose of the Contest.

Each entrant acknowledges that other entrants may have used ideas and/or concepts in their Submission that may be similar in idea or concept to what is included in entrant’s Submission. Each entrant understands and agrees that he/she shall not have any claim against any other entrant or Sponsor arising out any such similarity or be entitled to any compensation because of any such similarity.

Each entrant understands and agrees that Sponsor’s use of independently developed material that may be similar to or identical with any Submission or pre-existing design of Sponsor’s, or that contains features or elements similar to or identical with those contained in any Submission, will not obligate Sponsor to negotiate with or secure any rights from entrant, nor will it entitle entrant to any compensation of any kind. Each entrant agrees and acknowledges that nothing herein shall preclude Sponsor from using any material in or similar to the Submission without obligation to entrant, including, but not limited to, if Sponsor has or has determined that it has an independent legal right to use such other material, including without limitation, because such features or elements were not new or novel, or were not originated by entrant, or were or may hereafter be independently created by or submitted to Sponsor.

Sponsor’s decisions are final and binding in all matters relating to this Contest, including, but not limited to, interpretation and application of these Official Rules. By entering the Contest, entrants fully and unconditionally agree to be bound by these rules and the decisions of the judges, which will be final and binding in all matters relating to the Contest.

5. Judging Panel/Judging Criteria. On or about April 24, 2011, all eligible Submissions will be judged by a panel of judges (“Judging Panel”) that have the required knowledge and experience to apply the Judging Panel Judging Criteria (defined below). All Submissions will be judged based on the following equally-weighted judging criteria (“Judging Panel Criteria”): (a) creativity; (b) originality; and (c) style. The Judging Panel will select one (1) Grand Prize winner based on the Judging Panel Criteria. All judges’ decisions are final. Winners will be announced on www.indymogul.com on April 25, 2011 (which may be subject to change as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion).

6. Prize. One (1) Grand Prize winner will each receive ten (10) war movies on DVD and one (1) book on the best war movies. The approximate retail value (“ARV”) of the Grand Prize: $160.00.

Prizes are non-transferable. No substitutions or cash redemptions. In the case of unavailability of any prize, Sponsor reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value. All prize details are at Sponsor’s sole discretion. All expenses not specifically listed herein are the responsibility of winners.

7. Notification. The Winner will be notified by e-mail on or about April 25, 2011. Winners may be required to sign and return, where legal, an Affidavit of Eligibility, Liability/Publicity Release and/or rights transfer document within five (5) days of prize notification. If any winner is considered a minor in his/her jurisdiction of residence, Affidavit of Eligibility, Liability/Publicity and rights transfer document must be signed by his/her parent or legal guardian. If any winner cannot be contacted within five (5) calendar days of first notification attempt, if any prize or prize notification is returned as undeliverable, if any winner rejects his/her prize or in the event of noncompliance with these Contest rules and requirements, such prize will be forfeited and may be awarded to the Submission with the next highest score. Upon prize forfeiture, no compensation will be given.

8. Conditions. Submissions may be cut, edited, reformatted, rearranged, combined with other materials and/or otherwise modified, in Sponsor’s sole and absolute discretion. Any and all federal, state and local taxes are the sole responsibility of the winners. Participation in Contest and acceptance of prize constitutes each winner’s permission for Sponsor to use his/her name, address (city and state), likeness, photograph, picture, portrait, voice, biographical information, Submission and/or any statements made by each winner regarding the Contest or Sponsor for advertising and promotional purposes without notice or additional compensation, except where prohibited by law. By participating, entrants and winners agree to release and hold harmless Sponsor, Next New Networks, Inc., and their respective advertising and promotion agencies and their respective parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, partners, representatives, agents, successors, assigns, employees, officers and directors (collectively, “Released Entities”), from any and all liability, for loss, harm, damage, injury, cost or expense whatsoever including without limitation, property damage, personal injury and/or death which may occur in connection with, preparation for, travel to, or participation in Contest, or possession, acceptance and/or use or misuse of prize or participation in any Contest-related activity and for any claims based on publicity rights, defamation, invasion of privacy, copyright infringement, trademark infringement or any other intellectual property-related cause of action. Entrants who do not comply with these Official Rules, or attempt to interfere with this Contest in any way shall be disqualified. Sponsor is not responsible if Contest cannot take place or if any prize cannot be awarded due to travel cancellations, delays or interruptions due to acts of God, acts of war, natural disasters, weather or acts of terrorism.

9. Additional Terms. Any attempted form of entry other than as set forth in Section 1 above is prohibited; no automatic, programmed; robotic or similar means of entry are permitted. Sponsor, its affiliates, partners and promotion and advertising agencies are not responsible for technical, hardware, software, telephone or other communications malfunctions, errors or failures of any kind, lost or unavailable network connections, web site, Internet, or ISP availability, unauthorized human intervention, traffic congestion, incomplete or inaccurate capture of entry information (regardless of cause) or failed, incomplete, garbled, jumbled or delayed computer transmissions which may limit one’s ability to enter the Contest, including any injury or damage to participant’s or any other person’s computer relating to or resulting from participating in this Contest or downloading any materials in this Contest. Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel, terminate, modify, extend or suspend this Contest should (in its sole discretion) virus, bugs, non-authorized human intervention, fraud or other causes beyond its control corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness or proper conduct of the Contest. In such case, Sponsor will select the winners from all eligible entries received prior to and/or after (if appropriate) the action taken by Sponsor. Sponsor reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual it finds, in its sole discretion, to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the Contest or web site. Sponsor may prohibit an entrant from participating in the Contest or winning a prize if, in its sole discretion, it determines that said entrant is attempting to undermine the legitimate operation of the Contest by cheating, hacking, deception, or other unfair playing practices (including the use of automated quick entry programs) or intending to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other entrants or Sponsor representatives.

CAUTION: ANY ATTEMPT BY AN ENTRANT TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE ANY WEB SITE OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE CONTEST MAY BE A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, THE SPONSOR RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES FROM ANY SUCH PERSON TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

10. Limitation of Liability; Disclaimer of Warranties. IN NO EVENT WILL THE RELEASED ENTITIES BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OR LOSSES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF YOUR ACCESS TO AND USE OF THE SERVICE AND/OR THE CONTEST, DOWNLOADING FROM AND/OR PRINTING MATERIAL DOWNLOADED FROM ANY WEBSITES ASSOCIATES WITH THE CONTEST. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE RELEASED ENTITIES’ TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL DAMAGES, LOSSES, OR CAUSES OF ACTION EXCEED $100. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, THIS CONTEST AND ALL PRIZES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. SOME JURISDICTIONS MAY NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES SO SOME OF THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. CHECK YOUR LOCAL LAWS FOR ANY RESTRICTIONS OR LIMITATIONS REGARDING THESE LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSIONS.

11. Disputes; Governing Law. The parties waive all rights to trial in any action or proceeding instituted in connection with these Official Rules, including, without limitation, the Contest. Any controversy or claim arising out of or relating to these Official Rules and/or the Contest shall be settled by binding arbitration in accordance with the commercial arbitration rules of the American Arbitration Association. Any such controversy or claim shall be arbitrated on an individual basis, and shall not be consolidated in any arbitration with any claim or controversy of any other party. The arbitration shall be conducted in the State of New York, City of New York.

THESE OFFICIAL RULES AND THE INTERPRETATION OF ITS TERMS SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK WITHOUT REGARD TO ITS CONFLICTS OF LAWS RULES. For any matters which are not subject to arbitration as set forth in these Official Rules and/or in connection with the entering of any judgment on an arbitration award in connection with these Official Rules and/or the Contest, the parties irrevocably submit and consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in or closest to the County of New York in the State of New York. The parties agree not to raise the defense of forum non conveniens.

12. Use of Data. Sponsor will be collecting personal data about entrants online, in accordance with its privacy policy. Please review the Sponsor’s privacy policy at http://www.indymogul.com/privacy_policy. By participating in the Contest, entrants hereby agree to Sponsor’s collection and usage of their personal information and acknowledge that they have read and accepted Sponsor’s privacy policy.

13. List of Winners. To obtain a list of winners, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope by September 1, 2011, Indy Mogul Contest, Next New Networks, Inc. 22 West 21^st Street, 10^th Floor, New York, NY 10010.

14. Sponsor. Next New Networks, Inc., 22 West 21^st Street, 10th Fl., New York, NY 10010.

5MMH ep. 35 - "Paranoia"

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 15:02:18 EDT

This weeks featured video is JacComedy's Horror-thriller "Paranoia", if you want your own video featured here on the thread submit it here to the 5 Minute Movie House thread in Mogulville.

Wesley's Weekly WriteHOW: Writing Actions

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 18:17:17 EDT

Last week I talked a little bit about how you can improve dialogue in your stories, but i've gotten a few questions about writing dynamic action and how to express that in a script, so I thought I would cover some ways that is done in scripts, and how to try to make your scenes better. Action isn't just the stuff that happens between plot points, but how you actually describe what the characters do in the story. It must be clearly expressed, and in detailed enough manner as to paint a deeper picture of the scene. So for this, I won't just be talking about how to write actual action scenes, but also how to make your descriptions of the characters actions more to the point to better express story elements.

SHOW, DON'T TELL

This is a platitude that you'll hear time and time again in a large variety of writing literature, and it's right, you want to try to show the audience what is happening rather than telling them. A large component of film is it's visualness, so you have to remember you can SHOW the audience things, that's why films can get by without a narrator at all, in fact a narrator, or exposition are totally unnecessary and just there to condense things. Exposition and narration (Telling), is far more efficient, as you can come out and say directly to the audience, "Sandy was an unhappy woman", which can be completed a bit more quickly than doing a pan of pictures on her mantle showing how she used to be happy, then going to a shot of her doing her laundry while frowning, then sitting and eating breakfast alone, and showing her going to work and working a boring souless job, all while lighting it bleakly, and playing sad music (Showing).

So you have to remember that actions your characters do, and HOW they do these actions all convey meaning, for instance...

"GREG walked across the room and drinks the orange juice, he this exits the room."

OR...

"GREG races across the room, skipping over piles of notebooks and papers covering his crowded office, snatching up the orange juice and chugging it down, before grabbing his briefcase and dashing out the door."

Greg has different motivations and a totally different emotional state, but does the same thing, walks across a room, drinks some juice, then exits the scene. HOW a chracter moves across a room, how a character picks something up, and how a chracter acts should be expressed, because you want to constantly be painting a picture of your characters states, and what they are doing.

Be wary if overdoing this though, you don't need to paint the most vivid picture in the world, screenplays give you a lot of room to write very minimally because you can hammer out additional details (if you're making the film yourself), during the storyboarding stage, and over read-throughs with your actors. So you have to keep it in mind that you have to write visually, and in a detailed manner, but not to over-do it, and that if you're writing a screenplay it offers you a little more leeway.

STRUCTURE & MOTIVATION

All actions in the story are based on motivation, so you have to keep that in mind. If you have characters doing things without motivation, it's confusing or unrealistic to the audience. (RULE BREAKER: It's totally fine to have a character that lacks real direction, and that can be the thing they have to change during their character arc. Or if you have a character that is crazy in some way, it's fine for his motivations and actions to not quite sync up. You can have characters without a definite logic behind their motivations and actions, but those characters are rarer.) So when you're writing actions for them to take, you have to think about what they want, what their personality is, what kind of state they are in, and what kind of action those factors are going to inspire certain action. So the actions should be organized pretty easily between wants, actions, and reactions.

So just remember when you're writing anything, your character has a want, their personality is going to influence their action, they will take action, and then others will react to it. If for instance your character is hungry, they may be a lazy character (or just tired) and order take-out, if your character who is lazy or tired whips up a huge meal, that's an action that seems contradictory to what kind of character or state they are in, so just remember (even though that was a vastly simplistic example) that there is a constant connection between your characters personality, their state, and the actions they are willing and capable of taking.

KEEP THE STORY MOVING

This is connected to the concept of "SHOW, DON'T TELL", but you have to remember this, make sure the actions are moving the story forward. If your character is just doing normal things the whole story without purpose, it'll be boring, you have actual objectives to accomplish in the story, but your character's actions must be guided towards your means. So remember to try to condense meaning into actions as often as possible, you must strive to balance the interactions of the characters in a semi-realistic manner, with fitting the actions to your means and purposes.

So remember, each scene of action should have a purpose of moving your story along, telling you something about the characters, or changing the direction of the plot. A character washing dishes tells us nothing, a character looking out the window wistfully as they slowly scrub dishes in a distracted manner tells us a lot more, so don't let a mundance action go by without movie the story forward and telling us something.

Good luck, if you have any questions, or want to request topics, check out the writeHOW thread in Mogulville.

Lightworks: Free open-source editor

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:23:50 EDT

I recently read about this new editor called Lightworks, it's supposed to be very flexible, open-source, have a lot of features, and the best part is the price-point FREE. Check it out, it could be a great upgrade if you currently lack a NLE beyond Windows Movie Maker, since this has a ton of advanced features, including being able to edit HD, and being able to handle many different codecs, it can't hurt to at least try it out. So go check it out, or just head here and download it directly.

Lifehacker: Basics of Video Editing

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 23:56:55 EDT

I am liking this intro-to-editing series that Lifehacker is putting out right now, so i'll be posting them on the blog, hope you enjoy it.

YouTube Creator Institute

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 21:09:20 EDT

Here is an annoucement from YouTube about the new YouTube Creator institute, it sounds like a neat new direction to try to help give some of the most talented YouTubers the tools and exposure they need to fulfill their potential. Hurry up and check it out though, deadline is for the ~~25th~~ (It's been moved to the 31st)!

5MMH ep. 34 - "Kayforce the battle for Kapyong"

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 16:02:30 EDT

Here is this week's winner, DF10 Production's "Kayforce the battle for Kapyong". If you'd like to submit your own film to be featured on the blog, submit it over at the 5 Minute Movie House thread in Mogulville!

Wesley's Weekly WriteHOW: Improving Dialogue

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 16:26:18 EDT

Dialogue in your stories is deeply important, how your actors talk, and the phrases they use, and trying to make them sound right is the hardest thing a lot of writers have to master, and it can take a long time for most writers until they have something approaching the kind of dialogue they want in their stories. So I decided to sit down and come up with the easiest way to start writing better dialogue, and improving this basic writing component to make your stories sound closer to how you want them to. So lets get started.

1) Listen to how people talk. Sit and listen to a conversation that some friends and family are having, sit down and really listen to how meaning is conveyed. It may even be a good idea to get out a notepad and transcribe what is being said. Look at the pacing of how people actually talk, and then look at dialogue in scripts, and you'll notice it's almost always totally different. The pacing, the language used, and the speed of it is radically different. The trick is you need to become a master of how dialogue sounds, to understand how to appropriate a more natural sounding dialogue while not being so "natural" as to be boring and indistinguishable for regular real-world dialogue. First you MUST listen to real-world dialogue to help understand the differences. "Normal" dialogue has a lot of disfluencies (Umm, Uhh, Ooh, Hmm, etc.), a lot of pauses that would sound awkward, mostly because just listening to the dialogue itself it cutting out a huge portion of non-verbal conversation with facial expression, stance, and body movements all communicating meaning in day-to-day interactions that are a little harder to convey. Another thing is you'll see a lot more small talk, people in movies rarely answer the phone, or begin conversations in ways that regular people do. Paying attention to what is the same, and what is different is one of the first steps in making your dialogue flow better in the context of a story.

2) Character through dialogue. Here is a quick exercise, take a marker and an extra copy of one of your pages, mark out all of the names, and then give it to a friend, if they can tell who is saying what without getting to confused, you're characters sound like themselves rather than like you. You see, your characters can't all sound the same, an English Pirate from the 1700's isn't going to sound the same as a 12-year old child in the 1960's in America. If someone can't tell something about a character's personality from their tone, the kind of expressions they are using, and how they talk to others, then you need to work on their dialogue, it's important for their character to be expressed in how they are talking.

3) Don't over do it. Unless you are a fan of sounding like Ayn Rand, big blocks of text and exposition are something to be avoided most of the time. There are of course exceptions, like if a character has to give a rousing speech, or you have to have a narration for something, but in general try to avoid blocks of text unless it is absolutely necessary. Try to keep character exchanges as tight as possible, remember the dialogue in a film or story isn't supposed to always sound like real world dialogue, you're generally trying to distill the most interesting parts of the conversation down, and have it flow back and forth as quickly and easily as possible to try to keep your story from growing to big, sometimes a big story is necessary, but trying to keep your writing tight and controlled will provide dialogue that is easier to read and will in general benefit your story a lot.

4) Read it out loud. After writing your dialogue, one of the first things you should do after you finish your first draft is go through the script and read everything out loud, that is why screenplay read throughs are so important, hearing how the dialogue flows when actually spoken is important to tweaking it to get exactly what you want out of your dialogue. Even if you don't have actors yet for a screenplay, just go ahead and get some family or friends together (or just do it yourself) and do a complete run through just to get a feel of how it flows. Do that and take notes along the way and you'll start getting in the flow of the dialogue better.

5) Pay attention to other Writer's dialogue. You should by no means steal other Writer's work or styles, but looking at how they accomplish certain tones with their dialogue, and paying attention to how their characters talk and how their dialogue flows, can be central to improving your own. Read a lot of different writers, and look at how different people do their dialogue, and how they differentiate between different characters, if you really analyze it, it can help give you more insight into your own writing, and help your own dialogue skills grow as your exposed to more solutions for different situations. Also try a lot of different genres, don't narrow yourself to a single different kind of story, or a single writer, seeing how a lot of different people work dialogue can really help expand your horizons than just focusing on a single genre.

Working to improve your dialogue and being aware of what your dialogue is doing and what you're trying to accomplish with it, you'll see the improvement in time if you just work on it. So start out with this basic advice, think about your dialogue, and in time it'll be where you want it.

Zack does a 24 hour Draw-A-Thon for Japan Relief!

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 03:09:11 EDT

Hey Indy Mogulers!

I'm doing a Draw-A-Thon on Tuesday at 12pm (PST) to Wednesday 12pm (PST) for Japan relief! All donations to this link will be donated to The Salvation Army live at the end of the Draw-A-Thon!

You can see my art here: http://zackfinfrock.artworkfolio.com/

I will be drawing what the audience wants the whole time, and many people from BackyardFX (http://www.indymogul.com/backyardFX) and Fallout: Nuka Break (http://www.nukabreak.com) will be stopping by to join in the fun!

I've attached a few banners/posters for the event if you'd like to post them to your blogs/news sites/facebooks/twitters!

The show will be live at http://www.livestream.com/zackdrawsthings . To donate to the Japan Relief, visit this page: http://zackfinfrock.chipin.com/draw-a-thon-for-japan . To donate to me personally, go to this page: http://zackfinfrock.chipin.com/draw-a-thon-for-zack

Thanks, and I look forward to seeing you all there!

-Zack

5MMH ep. 33 - "Cloaked"

Sat, 12 Mar 2011 18:43:39 EST

Here we are at 5MMH again, where we showcase your videos and submissions here on the blog! This week is Whitetiger Filmz short "Cloaked". Check it out, and if you'd like your own film here, submit away in Mogulville!

Wesley's Weekly WriteHOW: Character Creation

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 18:25:21 EST

Character creation and development is one of the most important things to consider in your writing, because really it's the character who is central to most stories. (SIDENOTE: YES, IT IS possible to write stories that don't necessarily have a "main chracter", and aren't necessarily about characters at all, but for the sake of brevity, and the fact that most people here are writing more traditionally structured stories, we'll stick to this description). It is the character changing and learning over the course of the story that are the point of everything happening in many cases, and the point of the story.

But first, how do you create a chracter? There isn't any single path to create a character, sometimes the character is symbolic, or a stand-in to represent someone, sometimes the idea of the character comes before the idea of the story, sometimes the story is a morality tale, and the character is just there to serve the greater purpose of the story, so there is a lot of flexibility in the area of where to start in your own character creation process. As long as you're getting your story completed and written, it doesn't really matter how it was done, but here are some things that help me..

First, I start to imagine what the character is like, it helps me to make a little checklist of criteria about the character as I am imagining them both physically and personality-wise, I also engage in some light character history, because all of that can have an influence on what the character is like, and can help flesh them out, before we get all of that, let's talk about initial traits.

Making a Trait List

Lets make a trait list, mostly all of the stuff about the character that can be seen by looking at them, their name, and a few other internal traits that are important.

NAME: The character's name, name can have a big influence on the perception of the character so don't think it's just unimportant. Names can be symbolic, like naming a good character "Luke" (since it means

bright) or giving them a name whose initials are J.C., they can showcase a character trait or skill (Like "Dash" from The Incredibles), or they can predict a future fate or outcome for the character (Like naming someone who is going to turn bad at the end of the story "Cain" or "Damien"). Names can be really important, so make sure you're thinking about the name before you just jump into it. It's easy to find resources about what different names mean, or find lists of them, so don't be afraid to do a little research for something as simple as a name, because it can be really important.

AGE: Age is also important, think about how old the character is, it can have a big influence on everything about them. An older character going on an adventure for the first time has some different reasons why they stayed in their "safe zone" for so long, reasons that are probably different from a younger character not doing it. Luke didn't leave on the call to adventure earlier in the story because his Aunt and Uncle knew a secret about him and were holding him back because they were worried, an older character on the otherhand usually has to have a different reason they haven't moved out of their safe place and ventured away from their home, in the Truman Show it's because (spoiler) the Director is manipulating him to keep him in the fake town, in Psycho it has to do with the hold his mother continues to have over him, in the 40-year old Virgin it's because of bad experiences in the past that has made him choose to not try to have relationships. So thinking about your character's age is something really important to consider, because WHEN they start their story can have implications related to their character, so age is not something that is simply a random variable thrown on a character either.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Come up with a basic idea of what your character looks like, think about what their personality is, what they do in their life, what their age is, and just think about what they look like. This is very helpful especially if you have a specific actor or associate in mind specifically for the role. If you already know who is going to be playing them, then you have a great base to begin with, and you just have to come up with the extra qualities about them, for instance maybe they have facial hair, or glasses, or something different about them. This is also helpful for making wardrobe and make-up choices later on, especially if they character looks different from the actor.

ROLES AND JOBS: What do they do is a simple question that can be just as important. An Artist is going to summon different preconceptions in the audience than a Fighter Pilot, the situations they may get in are also going to be unique, and Artist is a more common character in a Drama and a Romance, a Fighter Pilot is a more common character in War and Action movies. What they do is really important, and can help dictate situations that are likely to happen. An Artist character is unlikely to end up in a bar with a bunch of Air Force guys, then get into a huge brawl with some guys from another branch of the military, in fact this is about as unlikely to happen as there being a touching scene where the Fighter Pilot makes an emotional breakthrough and comes to a surprising conclusion about what he must do to accomplish an amazing piece he's been working on. Not that these things COULDN'T happen, especially if you had a Pilot that was also an Artist, that can add some depth and make them less one-dimensional to have something non-stereotypical about their character, that can be really good. It's simply you have to think about what kind of situations the different jobs your character can have in relation to the story, and how, where they are putting themselves, and what they are doing can have major implications about where they are headed and what they are doing in the story.

WANTS AND NEEDS: Ask yourself what your character wants in the story and what they need. They can be different or the same things. The character may want something very selfish, and part of the story is them growing out of this selfishness and finding what they need. Hammering out what your Character's desires is one of the first things you should think about, so make sure to ask yourself, what does the character want, and how does this cause conflict? Conflict is the stuff that moves the story forward, maybe the antagonist wants or needs the same thing (This happens a lot in the Indiana Jones movies, if the Nazis didn't want the same thing Indy did, it would benefit everybody for them avoid each other's paths. Everyone gets what they want. But that is boring and a bad story.), maybe they are an anti-hero and what they want doesn't vibe with what society deems acceptable, or maybe they are a rebel and they are fighting an oppressive system, or maybe they want true love but have something wrong with them that they'll have to find a way around. Your character has things they want, figure out what those things are and write them down, and if what they need is truly different from what they want.

QUIRKS AND FLAWS: Perfect characters are usually pretty boring, since it's hard to give them a chalenge that is actually challenging. So if your character has some weird quirks that can help flesh out their personality (This is helpful when you have a brilliant character, someone like Monk or House, without their problems and quirks holding them back they'd probably be more effective at their jobs, but then it'd be hard to make complete episodes since the problem would be resolved too quickly.) it can help make them more relatable, and more compelling to the audience. Outright character flaws can also be important, characters that are too nice and perfect all the time can be harder to make dynamic, since if they are already perfect, and they don't have anything they must change, then they are uninteresting, and they are basically already at the end of their development. So think about flaws and quirks your character has, and things that can be changed about them as they move throughout the story.

INTERNAL CHARACTER: This can be tricky, because you've got to think about what is the heart of the character. What is their ethical code? Are they honest? Are they a sharp character who understands things easily, or do they maybe not have a lot of internal awareness? Just think about the internal traits that make your character your character, once you understand what makes your character tick inside, you have your character, and it can make determining how they'd react in your story easier.

BACKSTORY: Write a litle background of your character, you don't have to be really thorough (especially if a lot of the information doesn't come up in the story), but it helps to make a few decisions about maybe where your character grew up, who their parents were, where they went to school, and past experience. That can influence maybe what kind of slang the character uses, what kind of experiences they've had, and things they are familiar with.

Once you get that written, I think you'll have a better internal feel for who your character is, and you might find it a lot easier to find the characters voice and make it different from your own now that you're treating them more like they are a real person. Is it always necessary to write ALL of this? No not at all. But for a lot of people it can be really useful, and even if it isn't, you might get to a point where you might need a little information sheet on your character to quickly recall something about them, so if nothing else making a character description sheet is useful for reference and keeping all of your details in order, so go ahead and make them even if you don't use them, you never know when you might really need it.

Good luck, and if you have any questions post them in the writeHOW thread in Mogulville!

5MMH ep. 32 "Marvel vs Capcom 3 Live Action Short"

Sat, 05 Mar 2011 13:42:44 EST

This week's winner of 5 Minute Movie House is Stritec Productions with their Live-action short based on the fighting game "Marvel vs. Capcom", check it out.

Confessions of an Indie Filmmaker Pt. 38

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:04:43 EST

This week Confessions of an Independent Filmmaker dealing with someone contacting him after having come up with a project with an almost identical name.

Filmmaking Tutorial pt. 16

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 04:01:05 EST

Here is a new tutorial from YouTuber Polcan99 showing how to do a bunch of different lighting tricks. Check it out.

The Danger Report pt. 3

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 03:10:58 EST

Here is another episode of the Danger Report from WestHavenBrook, with John talking about more behind-the-scenes stuff.

Wesley's Weekly WriteHOW: Intro. to The Hero's Journey & Monomyth

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:13:13 EST

This week I want to talk a little more about story structure, specifically one of the better known ones, "The Hero's Journey". The Hero's Journey was a term based on the research of writer and mythologist Joseph Campbell, Campbell studied myth, and was really interested in things in myths that reach across cultural boundaries and that many classic myths and legends share. In looking at these, he discovered a certain story structure in these myths that have come to be called "The Hero's Journey", in summary it is about the patterns that many older myths go through, and how many traditional protagonists change over the course of their adventure.

As a structure analysis, it's really useful, because it can help highlight the points that these stories share, and helps us understand them on a more simple level. It also helps us analyze all of the countless modern stories that have been influenced by the structure, and follow how it's evolved more easily.

So lets get to the basic paraphrased structure...

FIRST STAGE: The Call to Adventure - The main character is in a normal place, going along his normal life, when he is given a glimpse of some kind of bigger world than what he is used to, and is offered a chance to go along with it.

SECOND STAGE: Refusal: - The main character fears this bigger world and the unknown, and at first refuses the call or is kept from this adventure by outside influences.

THIRD STAGE: The Mentor: - The main character meets a Mentor character who has had experiences with this bigger world before, and provides the main character with some kind of aid or encouragement that helps him pass through the refusal stage and move on.

FOURTH STAGE: The Threshold: - The main character is finally pushed out of his normal circumstances and sets off into the bigger world.

FIFTH STAGE: The Trials: - The main character goes through a series of challenges in his journey that force him to change in some way. Usually accumulating new allies or skills along the way.

SIXTH STAGE: The Travel: - The main character and any compatriots moves through their journey and eventually discover what they have to do to accomplish the final goal.

SEVENTH STAGE: The Conflict: - The main character faces a major challenge, such as a primary antagonist, the death of an ally, or their own major fears or problems.

EIGHTH STAGE: The Bounty: - Something is gained from this conflict, in the form of some kind of realization, skill, salvation, or treasure.

NINTH STAGE: The Return: - The main character begins the journey home. This can often follow a desire to not leave, or being chased away from the Journey by outside forces.

TENTH STAGE: The Final Conflict: - The main character faces the final challenge, such as overcoming or avoiding death, and defeats the final obstacle standing in their way.

ELEVENTH STAGE: Journey Finished: - The main character returns to their old world, changed in some way. This is of course the basic structure, and it can get a little bit more complicated and in-depth depending on the style, but you can see these same story rhythms in countless stories, especially large-scale fantasy or science-fiction stories such as The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, and (one of the biggest admitted adaptations of the cycle) Star Wars.

Your story obviously doesn't have to follow these rhythms, and it doesn't have to be in those genres, but understanding how many of these stories work can be an important step in understanding different types of ideas about story structure, and how to better structure your own story. If you have any questions, or suggestions for subjects you'd like to know more about, please post on the thread in Mogulville.

Confessions of an Indie Filmmaker pt. 37

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 12:34:49 EST

Here is the latest video from Confessions of an Independent Filmmaker, talking about dealing with finding a movie that is exactly like one he is writing, and how he deals with it.

Filmmaking Tutorial pt. 15

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:26:09 EST

Here is another tutorial from YouTube user Polcan99, that involves a deeper exploration of Depth of Field and how to use it.

Wesley's Weekly WriteHOW: Intro. to Formatting

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 21:18:15 EST

The ever present spector of FORMATTING, trying to remember all of the rules can be a big pain, and you always worry about messing something up and your script getting ditches because you made something look unprofessional, so how do you learn formatting, and what's the best way to make sure you're following all the rules? Well today lets break that down..

First of all, here are the basics criteria you have to follow for your page set-up before you do anything else..

FONT: 12-point Courier with 10 point pitch.

PAGE SIZE: 8.5 x 11 standard printer paper, or A4.

MARGINS (from the left)-

SCENE HEADING: 1.75 inches/4.4 cm or 19 spaces

SCENE DESCRIPTION/ACTION: 1.75 inches/4.4 cm or 19 spaces.

CHARACTER'S NAME: Center on page, 43 spaces in.

DIALOGUE: 2.75 inches/6.98 cm or 29 spaces.

PARANTHETICAL DIRECTION: 3.5 inches/8.89 cm or 36 spaces.

And here is a sample of some text following these criteria. So what ARE all of these things exactly, and why do they matter?

The Scene Heading: That is the first line in the example, that is where you explain the setting of the scene. It will always begin with either INT. or EXT. for Interior and Exterior. The name of the place (Suburban Bedroom, Grassy Field, Hospital Operating Room, etc.), and then what time of the day it is. This is primarily so that the people who have to set up the lighting and build the sets know what they have to be doing, but ALSO for organizational purposes, so you can break down all the scenes by location, and film all the same things in all the same places. So for instance all the scenes that take place in the main characters bedroom can possibly be filmed in a row, so you don't waste time moving between locations. It's important for setting the scene, and for keeping things organized.

The Scene Description: This is the next line, this describes both what is happening during the scene, AND what the scene is like. So instead of saying EXT. SUNNY GRASSY FIELD - DAY, you would just say EXT. GRASSY FIELD - DAY and describe it as sunny there. You describe what the characters are doing and where they are, in my example, the main character Dave is digging a hole. When a speaking character is mentioned in the Scene Description for the first time, put their name in all caps. If a character doesn't have a speaking role you don't have to introduce them, like if your character bumps into someone on the street and gets knocked over, you don't have to give that character a name in the description it can just be "man" or "woman" or whoever. Important sounds should also be capitalized. Also, consideration, for spec scripts and drafts keep camera directions out, that is between the Director and the DP. If you're the Director and you're doing a shooting script for yourself, throw all of them that you want in there, but they are usually not included (if at all), until later, or unless the director wrote the script.

CHARACTER'S NAME: Put that characters name in all caps in the center of the page. Do this for each character before they speak.

DIALOGUE: This is where you type the character's dialogue.

DIRECTION: When you want to make a character do something specific, or say something in a particular way put it in paranthetical direction, for the second one, put the direction between the name and the dialogue so like...

DAVE

(yelling)

GIVE ME THE REMOTE!

You can also use it to make a character keep talking over an interruption or pause like...

DAVE

(whispering)

Hey, what time is it?

PETE

Umm.. 12:3-

DAVE (CONT'D)

(whispering)

Because I really need to get out of here.

It can also be used to continue dialogue between actions.

DAVE

Stay away from my cat!

Dave swings the baseball bat, cracking it upside the Closet Troll's head.

DAVE (CONT'D)

NO ONE TOUCHES MY PETS AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!

And that is all you really need to know to get started with formatting your script, get the right font, and get it in these formats, and you'll have something that'll (most of the time), be totally professional looking under most circumstances. Something that I find that REALLY helps is to read professional scripts, and just see and remember how they do it! Looks at how professional scripts are formatted are one of the best ways to learn, if the way they formatted their script worked for them, obviously it'll work for you.

SCREENPLAY WEBSITES AND DIRECTORIES:

http://www.simplyscripts.com/movie.html

http://www.script-o-rama.com/

http://www.imsdb.com/

Reading scripts is one of the easiest ways to learn how professional things are done, so take the time to do that.

Also, here is a really important FREE tool that will help you, we have talked about how useful Celtx is before, but it's a really great FREE program that has proper screenplay formatting built in, and a lot of tools that can help you with your production.

Download Celtx here: http://celtx.com/

Submit additional formatting question you might have in the Wesley's WriteHOW section in Mogulville!

Confessions of an Indie Filmmaker pt. 36

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:45:09 EST

Here is part 36 of Confessions of an Indie Filmmaker, talking about dealing with the waiting of not knowing when his film is going to potentially go into production.

No BFX on Feburary 14th.

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 18:34:00 EST

Sorry about that guys! We'll be back next week with a normal BFX episode!

Happy Valentines Day!

-Zack

5MMH Special "Axe Cop: The Movie" & Interview

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 22:33:15 EST

Axe Cop: The Movie - Part 1 from Peter Muehlenberg on Vimeo.

This week I have a special treat for 5MMH, "Axe Cop: The Movie", this has been getting passed around a lot lately, owing to the popularity of the webcomic it's based on, but I thought it would be a great fit, and along with the film above, I also got an interview with the Director Peter Muehlenberg, so check out the film, then check out the interview below.

____________________

WES: When did you first hear about Axe Cop, and when did you first come up with the idea for a Fan Film?

PETER: I first heard about Axe Cop about a year ago when only the first few episodes had been released. I was in film-school, and already had another movie planned as my final year project. I read it, and my mind exploded. So I thought I should make it before someone else did.

W: How long did it take you to finish the project to concept to final?

P: The whole project took about a year to complete. The pre-production took the longest, though it was very spread out and I was working other projects at the same time. It took a few days to shoot, and a week to edit and do all of the effects.

W: How closely did you work with Ethan Nicolle, and when did you contact him about it? Like was it in the beginning, or did you send him the final project and just hope he'd like it?

P: I got permission from Ethan to do the movie before we stared pre-production, but that's about the extent that he was involved. It's just a fan film, not an official axe cop product. Though since its release, Ethan’s promotional efforts have really helped it along.

W: Was it easier for you basically having storyboards to work off of, or did it make it difficult since you had to match the comic panels so accurately?

P: Working from the comic as carefully as I did probably made it harder. Unlike other films, if something isn’t working on set, we couldn’t just change it or compromise. That would betray what we were trying to do. We had to make it work. Usually half the problem-solving for a film happens on set (in student films anyway). So that’s why thorough preparation for the shoot was paramount.

W: How hard was it finding someone who could fill the shoes of Axe Cop? Did you have an audition, or did you pick it knowing you'd use him for Axe Cop?

P: It wasn’t too hard finding a suitable actor. William Emmons was the man I used. I found Williams profile on a website for recruiting actors (Starnow if you’re allowed to name-drop). So I recruited him, for he had all the makings of an axe cop – he looked like him, was an actor, and was American.

W: Did you think that the film would be this popular?

P: I had a feeling that if it was done right it would be popular. Especially with axe cops already extensive following.

W: What was the hardest and easiest thing to replicate in the move from comics to film?

P: Nothing was especially hard or easy to replicate – it was really all about the same. I wasn’t going to go in and film things without knowing exactly how I was going to do each thing. But I guess the easiest thing was the axe and flute props – cause in the comic they are just a hatchet and a recorder. How to do the dinosaurs were probably the things I gave the most thought to.

W: Could you tell us about the Axe Cop theme song we hear at the end?

P: The theme song (by Stepdad) was originally for the Axe Cop motion comics. Ethan kindly allowed us to use it for the film.

W: What did you shoot it on? How long did it take to composite all the different elements together for the film?

P: Shot on Cannon 7D. With some lenses! I think they were Nikon primes, and some kind of zoom lens. It took a week to do all the effects and compositing. I’d never used After Effects before that. It was a long week.

W: So when can we expect the next "episode" and where can people go to check it out?

P: The next episode! Hopefully soon, this year sometime. We’ve just started coming up with ideas. Episode 2 is twice as big as episode 1 though. It will be on Vimeo and YouTube once it’s done.

Thanks again very much to Peter again for the great interview! Can't wait to see the 2nd episode.

Wesley's Weekly WriteHOW: Treatments and Planning

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 20:00:00 EST

Here we are, another week, and another chapter in Wesley's Weekly WriteHOW, where I offer advice on ways you can help get yourself started, and get your writing on the page. Our focus here at Indy Mogul is to help you with every stage of the filmmaking process, and the story is central to any film, so if you have a question about writing, or about a story you're working on, head on over to the WriteHow thread in Mogulville, and ask away, now to this weeks focus.

One of the most important things you have to do before you start writing, is to actually plan out your story. (...barring a stream-of-consciousness beat poetry thing, but scripts are rarely such) Without planning, or outlines, many of us can get lost in the story, jump right into it, and sometimes get lost along the way. So how exactly do you PLAN your story? Well there are a lot of ways to do it, but here is a way that works for me...

STEP 1: Identify what your story is about, and what your idea is exactly.

Is it a Hero's journey? Is it a Romantic-Comedy? Is it a Sci-Fi Space Opera epic? Or is it hard to pin down to a genre? Whatever it is, think about what some of your influences are, do some research in the genre, and learn a little about it, figure out exactly what your idea is and try to hammer the plot down in a few paragraphs, explaining to yourself exactly what you're doing can be really helpful when you start thinking about the intricacies of the plot. Once you identify to yourself what exactly your story is about, and what kind of genre might apply to it (or multiple genres), now you move on to the research stage...

STEP 2: Research your project and become versed with what others have done with it.

So lets say you figured out you're doing a Western? Go and rent a few books about the history of the Old West, watch The Seachers and Shane and Rio Bravo and The Dollars Trilogy and some of the other films that pop up on most critics "essential Westerns" lists, maybe read some of the novels that some of the Westerns are based on, look at how some people have mixed up the genre and combined it with other genres (Such as Sci-Fi in the case of Cowboy Bebop, and Firefly), look at how it's mutated over the years, and try to get a feel of what ways the genre has been tread? There is nothing wrong with doing a story that someone else has done before, a conventional story done well is almost always better than an unconventional story done poorly, so don't get caught up with finding out that someone did a very similar idea to something you wanted to do. It's a lot more useful to find out WHY they went a similar direction, and what the appeal is to the similar elements that speaks to people, rather than approaching it from a way to do it different.

You should be doing a story you WANT to do, you shouldn't let other people decide what story you're going to do, and try to be a non-conformist just for the sake of being different. If you WANT to veer off and do something totally original and crazy, let it be on your terms and because that's what YOU WANT out of your story, NOT because you feel like it's your only option.

STEP 3: Thinking about your characters, and do an outline.

So you know what you want your story to be about, you know what your genre is, you know what other people have done with related stories, so what's the next step? Well lets hammer out your characters. This is the place where everyone's process can be different, some people close their eyes and imagine the characters, someone base the characters on specific actors and write the characters for them, some hammer out archtypes, some base it on people they know personally or their own experiences, but think about your characters, and flesh them out a little. I feel like this is an important step, because remember your characters aren't just sockpuppets for you, they are their own thing, and a Samurai warrior, a Swedish Nuclear Physicist, and a 1920's Wallstreet Mogul are all different people that are going to act as differently from one another as they will from you. So hammer out some basic facts, some of your characters will have families that they love dearly, some won't believe in having a family, some will have radically different religious beliefs, or politics than you, or some might be very much like you, you won't really know until you hammer some basic facts about your character. You DON'T have to get indepth and go Fantasy epic on it and have their entire family tree for 3 generations sketched out, but just have some basic ideas about who they are, and the era they live in.

Once you have your characters hammered out, and you know a little about them, write out an outline, which is you take all the events in your story, and put them in order, you don't have to expand on them, or add details, just basic, "They attack the enemy compound and recover the Crown Jewels", you don't need to have every detail of the segment, just the basic overriding events, outlines generally shouldn't fill up more than a few pages of lined paper at most, so if they start filling up a small pamphlet, you're most likely being too intricate. Remember, no dialogue, no real details, just basic overriding events of each story element, and how that leads to the next part.

STEP 4: Writing the treatment.

Something that is really useful to me, but isn't necessarily a REQUIRED step, is to write a treatment. Which is taking your outline, and fleshing it out. You'll say, "Well why not just write the treatment to begin with?", and that's a good question. My answer would most likely be "Well you COULD go ahead and write the treatment to begin with, if you know exactly where you're headed, have all of that already in your head, and you're experience and dedicated to writing longer things without outlining it before hand.", basically it's a good idea to have your story outlined simply, so you don't get distracted and bogged down with the little details, it's a good idea to work with the larger elements and get them out and on paper, before you get caught up with the smaller details.

Basically, going from summary, to outline, to treatment, to your rough draft, for me helps keep the story organized better, and can really be helpful for a beginner writer. Do you have to follow every little step precisely? No, of course not. If you are just starting out though, I feel like working from a small summary, to stretching it out further, and fleshing it out more and more with each iteration is a much easier way to keep your ideas organized and not get bogged down with your story. If you keep it organized and grow more slowly, it'll be far easier to keep your story in order and keep writing, especially if you know where it's headed (and you may indeed known where it's headed, BUT that still leaves it open for you to go into other directions with the story if you feel differently, that's what re-writes are for.)

You just have to sit down, and try to dedicate some time each day, and flesh out your idea, generally treatments for a feature length script usually clock in between 5 and 20 pages, sometimes they've been smaller, sometimes longer, but what's important is getting your outline and fleshing it out with actual narrative, and more detail.

STEP 5: DON'T over-research, DON'T over-rewrite.

Beginner writers (and experienced writers too for that matter) generally fall into two camps, the people who research and re-write too little, and come out with shoddy stories, OR the people who use researching and re-writing as an excuse to NOT start, usually because they are afraid of their writing abilities.

You MUST be aware of the pitfalls of either camp, you have to find a place where you're willing to go, "I don't need any more research", and you actually START writing. If you are aware of behavior that is preventing you from writing, then you can better avoid it, beind aware of the problem is the first step to fixing it.

So set a date to stop research, start writing, and then sit down and get in the habit of working on it a little every day. Get it into the habit of it and it gets easier and easier with every day, and then you'll be on the way to much better writing.

Filmmaking Tutorials pt. 14

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 13:24:18 EST

Here is another tutorial from YouTuber Polcan99, this week it's all about framing and composition, check it out.

The Danger Report pt. 2

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 03:23:28 EST

Here is another Danger Report from WestHavenBrook, check it out.

Confessions of an Indie Filmmaker pt. 35

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 22:23:10 EST

Here is a really interesting episode, he finally reveals all the production materials for the film, very cool to see the idea move from concept, to sketches, to full motion animation. Worth checking out.

5MMH ep. 31 "Arca"

Sat, 05 Feb 2011 22:26:25 EST

Hey everybody, here is a new short from long time Moguler James Willis, this is a short silent film he shot, so check it out. If you'd like your own film featured here on the blog submit your shorts over at the 5 Minute Movie House thread in Mogulville!

Wesley's Weekly WriteHow: 3-Act Structure

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 22:44:37 EST

So here we are at another week, where you send in your questions and scripts (at the Mogulville writeHow thread) and I answer them. I want to try to make this as easy as possible so we're going to be moving ahead slowly, starting with the simplest topics first, and then progressing into more and more complex subjects. Last week we covered some advice on how to get started writing, and keeping your ideas around, but what about structure? How does a story actually work? This week I am going to cover the basics, 3-Act structure.

3-Act structure is less of a "formula" to follow (you should generally avoid them), and more useful as an anaylsis tool, to understand how a story works. It helps simplify a story down to it's most basic turning points, allowing you to understand how the story works. Once you understand how storys work on a very basic level, it really helps you understand some things about pacing, and plot points, and keeping the story moving forward, instead of moving in circles (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but we'll get to that later).

Before we delve more into the usefulness of the 3-Act structure, or it's purpose, lets talk about what it's actually composed of...

Most every story is composed of three basic components, the Beginning, the Middle, and The End.

1. The beginning which can also be called the introduction or setup, is where you introduce the audience to your story, and what they are to expect from it.

2. Then there is the inciting incident, the thing that kicks off the story, and then that leads into the confrontation, which is the main "meat" of the story, where all the challenges that the characters must deal with are introduced and dealt with.

3. Then there is the final confrontation, the climax of the story, and then finally, the decline in action, and the resolution. It's all about "rising action" throughout the story, which leads to the confrontation, and eventually the resolution. For instance let's plug something really well known like The Wizard of Oz into the film...

1. You're introduced to Dorthy on the family farm in Kansas, she is a dreamer and is bored with her life there.

2. She is met with an inciting incident, the mean teacher accuses her dog of being a troublemaker and wants it put down.

3. She runs away to protect her dog, and meets a traveling magician who gives her some advice.

4. A twister happens and throws her to Oz. When she gets there she goes on a quest to return home, and is face with conflict on the way.

5. She is ordered to kill the Witch, and has a final confrontation with her where Dorthy and friends are victorious.

6. The resolution is that she is returned home, i.e. by discovering it was all a dream. She returns wiser and better prepared to deal with the problem from the beginning of the story.

In here, 1-2 deals with the introduction, the first act. 3-4 are the "meat" of the story, where she meets her companions, and travels through Oz. 5-6 are the Climax and Resolution where the story is brought to a close, and the problems solved.

You can see this basic pattern in most every traditionally structured film, there is a character you're introduced to, they have a problem, they are thrown into a conflict, they go through the conflict, which leads them to the final climax, and eventually the resolution. That's the basic pattern of many, many stories. Notice I said PATTERN, and not FORMULA.

The thing is to many people take the 3-Act structure as something that cannot be deviated from or modified, and they try to hammer their story into it, instead of moving naturally. You should progress your story naturally, if you're making a traditional story, you should internalize how stories work and move forward from there. Part of internalizing the beats of story, and structure, is that you don't need formula after you've studied structure enough. Structure gives you an understanding of how stories work, but it doesn't tell you how your story SHOULD work, and it doesn't save you from bad writing, or bad dialogue, or bad characters that no one likes. You can have the best structured story in the world, and if everything else doesn't work, people still won't like it.

3-Act structure is something that is very useful in helping you breakdown stories, and understand them, but it is not something that should be slavishly followed, doing so you'll undermine your own story, and yourself. The 3-Act structure is a tool, not a rule, and that should be remembered, it's NOT something that you're controlled by. There are plenty of other structures that can work just as well, there are 1-Act plays, there are 2-Act stories, Roman plays often had 5-Acts, this isn't the only structure to follow, and is very much a tool to help you break down the story and understand how to construct your story further.

See you next week! If you have more questions or discussion you'd like to undertake about 3-Act structure, do it here in Mogulville.

Filmmaking Tutorials pt. 13

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 05:25:30 EST

Here is another filmmaking tutorial from YouTube user Polcan99, this one is another design for a DIY Dolly.

The Danger Report pt. 1

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 13:04:11 EST

Here is a report from out friends over at WestHavenBrook where they are talking about the production of their series "The Danger Element". Check it out.

Confessions of an Indie Filmmaker pt. 34

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:30:07 EST

Here is part 34 of Confessions of an Indie Filmmaker, where he talks about the process of rewriting the script.

5MMH ep. 30 "Clean Livin' "

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 22:25:11 EST

Here is this weeks winner of 5 Minute Movie House, Dave B. with this episode of his webseries "Clean Livin'", if you'd like to submit your own film submit it here in the Mogulville thread for 5MMH.

Wesley's Weekly WriteHOW: Write your ideas down

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 22:34:45 EST

Hey there, I guess this being the beginning of this and all, I should explain it a little. I want to start a new weekly (or bi-weekly, this can be a little tougher to do justice), blog on screenwriting, it'll coer, how to write, tips on improving your writing, story structure, formatting, and critiques and analysis on how to improve your scripts. I want to try to provide the simplest advice possible to begin with, so that people that may not be experienced as some of the more talented writers in Mogulville can figure out how they are supposed to get started with all of this writing stuff.

So how DO you get started? What makes you so different from someone who is putting down six or seven figures for every screenplay they hammer out? Well a lot of things probably, but I can promise you one of the big things that seperates most bad writers from most good writers is one of these...

The thing is, people are NATURAL storytellers, even the planest most uncreative person on the planet knows how a story works if they've every listened to a bedtime story, or seen a TV show. You internalize how story works, and almost anyone can hammer one out. BUT the difference between writers and storytellers and people that DON'T get paid to write, is that you'll find quite a few (I would put my money on most), WRITE ALL OF THEIR STORY IDEAS DOWN. In a single day, the average person probably gets a minimum of three story ideas. Now a caveat, these ideas WILL suck 99% of the time, hardly anyone gets a "OMG! That's the best idea for a story ever!" ideas that totally bowl them over, and that they are supernaturally compelled to hammer out in three days and sell immediately for a million bucks. You might THINK that you have had an idea like that, but I can promise you that's a trick, almost every story idea you've ever had has most likely been roosting in your subconscious for a long time, and you finally put the pieces together in your mind and have the story idea. If you WRITE all of your ideas down, you are able to pick and choose between the best ideas you have, but it lets you get them OUT of your head, so you can step back and really start thinking about the idea.

You need to start building up your ideas, write them down and keep them organized. You also don't know exactly when an idea will hit you so make sure you have some way to record your idea, it doesn't necessarily HAVE to be a notebook, I know writers who have voice recorders, who use their memo function on their phone, or who even write it on their arm when they have nothing else to record on. The important part is getting the idea down, because then it takes the first step from a mental abstract, to something with structure there on the paper.

Putting your idea down is the first step to taking that big scary step, that most people never ever take. Most people think, "Oh hey, Wouldn't it be cool if a Samurai was sent through time and had to fight a Cowboy?", and then forget about it and never think about it again, and it fades into nothingness.

At which point you're probably saying, "Well yea, because that sounds like it would suck, and that was totally done in _________ movie, and blah, blah.", To which I would say, YEA it probably would, but you've got no idea what it could turn into unless you write it down, and remember it, really, lets talk about worth here, what's worth less? A bad script, or no script at all?

A bad script can be improved, a none existent script doesn't miraculously transubstantiate into a existent script, much less a bad one. So what's better, a bad script you can improve? Or the ghosts of stories that could of existed but didn't?

So here is your first advice, WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN, you don't know how long down the road you might need your treasure trove of ideas, so start storing them away now, a bunch of bad ideas with an occasional one that can turn into a great idea is far better than an no ideas at all.

If you'd like me to join in on the Writers thread over in Mogulville jump right in here. See you next week!

SyFy Face Off Contest!

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 23:17:27 EST

Hey gang, being a website that loves what our fans have shown they can accomplish, we know that we've got a lot of great effects artists in our community, so this was just something that I felt had to be passed on. The SyFy channel is about to premiere a new show called Face Off, where a bunch of talented up-coming artists will compete to see who is the best, and who will end up getting a career deal. It sounds like a great show for anyone interested in effects work and i'll be checking it out, BUT in the meantime, they are organizing a contest open to the public!

You can read the full rules over at the SyFy Face Off challenge website, but the basics are, do your BEST make-up effect, take video of it, then submit it to SyFy before Feburary 10th, 2011, and you'll be in the running to win a New MacBook, ZBrush sculpting software, a computer tablet, a make-up case, and a professional brush set. It sounds really cool, and I think everybody should definitely consider submitting! Good luck!

Confessions of an Independent Filmmaker pt. 33

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 23:14:08 EST

Here is part 33 of Confessions of an Independent Filmmaker, talking about the stress of waiting to see what happens with the project, and hoping that someone else doesn't beat him to the punch and release a project that is too similar to his idea.

5MMH ep. 29 "Confederate Zombie"

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 12:18:18 EST

Confederate Zombie: Trail of Blood from Stephen Gilliam on Vimeo.

Welcome to another week of 5MMH, this week is the horror short "Confederate Zombie: Trail of Blood" by Stephen Gilliam. It's pretty cool and worth the look. If you'd like to submit your own film for 5MMH submit at the 5MMH thread in Mogulville.

Confessions of an Independent Filmmaker pt. 32

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 23:12:38 EST

Here is a new video from Confessions of an Independent Filmmaker, check it out.

5MMH ep. 28 "Seesaw"

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 23:24:04 EST

Happy New Year everybody! And 5MMH is back again, the first entry of the new year is Jake Wood's short comedy "Seesaw". If you wanted to sumbit your own film for the blog, go over to the 5 Minute Movie House thread in Mogulville and submit away!

Direct a music video for the Foo Fighters!

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 12:30:18 EST

This is a pretty cool contest we just came across - and pretty simple. All ya gotta do is submit your reel for a chance to get flown out to NYC and potentially direct a Foo Fighters music video!

Learn more here.

It's time to get an Online Video Contests account!

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 13:05:24 EST

Hey Mogulers,

We just launched Facebook Connect on my site Online Video Contests - the #1 site on the 'net for filmmakers to find, track, and win video contests.

This means, with a couple clicks, you'll be quickly on your way to finding the perfect contest out there for you to take home some cash or prizes!

Do it for America! (or whatever country you're from)

BTTF Hoverboard References!

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 04:00:43 EST

Here's all the stuff you'll need for the BTTF Hoverboard build!

The board decals!

And here are some reference pictures from the movie!

5MMH ep. 27 "Snoballs"

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 21:34:17 EST

Snoballs from Raul Zambrano on Vimeo.

Hey guys, here is another week of 5 Minute Movie House, check out this short from Moguler Raul Zambrano called "Snoballs", if you'd like to have your own films featured here on the blog submit them at the 5MMH thread in Mogulville.

Cinematography and Lighting tutorial pt. 12

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 04:26:25 EST

This time Polcan99 talks about a lighting kit he used to get a "movie theater" look during a scene.

Confessions of an Independent Filmmaker pt. 31

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 10:21:15 EST

Here is part 31 of the "Confessions of an Independent Filmmaker". This week he has two guest "confessers" in his layer discussing their own experiences.

5MMH ep. 26 "Our Last Day as Children"

Sat, 11 Dec 2010 12:16:13 EST

Our Last Day as Children from Mitchell Stafiej on Vimeo.

Here is Moguler Mitchell Stafiej's submission this week, "Our Last Day as Children", a scary horror film shot in 16mm, check it out. If you'd like your own film featured here on the blog, submit over at the 5 Minute Movie House thread in Mogulville!

Danger Element's Directors Commentary Ep. 3

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 12:16:02 EST

Here is another episode of John Soares directors commentary on his film The Danger Element.