Friday, 27 August 2010

The Beautiful Possibilities Of The Next Rental


Is there anything more exciting than 'Awaiting Allocation' ?

The next film could change my life.

Care to share?

Thursday, 26 August 2010

A Way To Shoot Anywhere With No Permission - For Free!

This always works! Whether you turn up with just a camera, or with an eight person crew. Here's what you do.

1) Shoot scenes ANYWHERE YOU WANT.

2) Cheerily begin conversation with the man who comes up to you demanding you stop filming.

3) Give him this PRECISE explanation. "This is actually a test shoot. We're thinking of filming here, and paying of course, so we just want to test how it looks."

Madly enough, this explanation works! The person thinks "oh, that makes sense; you need to check if the location is appropriate," and they let you carry on. I discovered this many years ago, and it has worked for me every time. If they say "So why do you have a make-up artist and sound guy?" you just tell them "Well we need to know if the sound here is viable, and we the make-up artist needs to get an idea of the lighting."

People always buy this! So when someone asks you what you're filming; tell them you're not, you're just location scouting with your crew. Perfect.

Care to share?

Tuesday, 24 August 2010

A Small Example Of Typecasting.

From an email conversation today.

Actor: "Looking forward to getting randomly killed. Again."

Me: "Hahahaha! I always make rom-coms but when I kill people I always call on you!"


I'm off to shoot some stuff. I'll be back after the weekend, when I will share the story of how everything went smoothly with absolutely no problems at all. That's the plan.

Care to share?

Freelancing - How Much Should You Charge?

"How much are you looking for?" says the scary person on the other end of the phone. You get into an absolute panic. Should I work for free? Maybe just charge a little, like 50? But wait, Bryan got paid 400 a day for his job. I think I'm worth at least 300. But maybe their whole budget is 300? I'm confused???

"Hello? Are you there? How much are you looking for?" repeats the scary woman.
"Well uh, y'know," you say, hoping she'll respond with "oooh, you want 600 a day? Sure!"

How much should you charge? How much are you worth? How much do they have? What is the most you could get? How much would others get? How much is too much? How much is so little that they assume you're an amateur?

Care to share?

Sunday, 22 August 2010

Let's All Remember The True Meaning Of Sunday

As most of you will know, Sunday is an important day for billions of people all around the world. That's right, Sunday is traditionally known through many cultures as the day of the movies. Whenever possible, it is important to rest on a Sunday and watch as many films as possible. This will make sure that you are adequately rested, refreshed and inspired for the week ahead.

Today I managed to watch four films. I have provided a screenshot of each film. If you think you can identify each film then email me your answers ASAP. On Monday morning I will be selecting a correct entrant at random - who will be sent SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION on DVD.

Please send your answers to the email address below. Even if you only recognize two or three of the films, feel free to enter; as people don't always get these things right.

Care to share?