Expert: Taylor Sheppard - 5/13/2010

Question
QUESTION: i am 17.i am very much interested in film making specially in direction.i had written many scripts.my doubt is that is i am old enough to do film making courses or i need to complete graduation.i read that film making schools will give preference to those people who had completed graduation.

ANSWER: Hi Abhimitra,

Yes, you are young, but I have never read a rule anywhere that says how old you have to be to get started. Many times I have heard of filmmakers who started learning the craft by getting a camera and filming friends as children. of course, in those days, it was a lot harder getting hands on equipment and then they had to have the film developed. Also, prying the camera from their father's hands wasn't easy unless they were a wealthy family. With the advent of the digital handycam, all that changed. Now you can film something, dump it to your pc and using editing and titling software, you can put it together and tweek the color, etc. to get it right. Of course you want to get it looking the best you can BEFORE doing the correction, if possible.

By creating your own stuff, you can get a jump start on film school, which I recommend whole-heartedly. You are right, you get networked by going to school and meeting fellow students and teacher/mentors. You also have a diploma that people take seriously when you begin trying to get projects. While you may accidentally get attention from a Youtube effort or such, why leave it to chance? Studios provide financial backing and distribution. That requires they have faith in your abilities, because, afterall, we are talking serious dollars! Just the cameras are worth more than most peoples homes. Lenses are about as expensive as a high-end car. Crew and all the other expenses aren't cheap either.

One thing you really should do is head down to your library or bookstore and start looking for books on directing and filmmaking. It will also get you prepared for schooling. You will learn why you always have action going right to left (or left to right) and about the half-circle that you stick to when filming. That's one of the first things Matt McConoughey an I talked about the day we met. He went to the University of Texas to study RTF, or Radio, TV and Film. Probably the best film school is USC in California, but there ae several good schools. UT has had a fair share of grads do well. The three Wilson brothers made their first film, "Bottlerocket" there. It is interesting to note that there were two "Bottlerocket"s -the first was their independent effort which brought rave reviews, their second version was re-made, backed by a studio...it sank!

Another Austin director, Robert Rodriguez, ("El Mariachi", "Desperado" and the "Spy Kids" movies) actually filmed his first, "El Mariachi" by scraping money together and filming in Mexico. He went to a local pharmaceutical test clinic and stayed as a paid volunteer test subject to get, I think, $5,000. seed money. It went on to do great at the film festivals and he got the movie sold and studio connections. He is very talented. He writes, directs and edits all his films himself. His now ex-wife is still his producer. A family affair. I worked on one of the Spy Kids movies and I can tell you, he is a down to earth, nice guy. He is very involved in hiring Hispanic actors to promote their careers.

Hope this gives you some insight. Maybe I will munch some popcorn someday soon and enjoy one of your movies!

Best,

Taylor

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thanks for your response.i don't know the rules about how to write a script.    
and it is compulsory to join a film making school to get experience in direction

Answer
Hi again,

There are books galore to read on direction and director's styles as well as screenwriting. For instance, "Screenwriting For Dummies" is one.  There are also programs for the computer to help you format correctly. Nothing looks worse than a script where the writer puts things down that shouldn't be there (things like directing notes), doesn't know how to correctly write he script, or misspells script, etc. Now, the software doesn't write the script for you, but it saves on having to put in quote marks, centering, titles, etc. One is Final draft. Thing is, they have classes for this to teach you about composition (Beginning, conflict, climax, resolution.) do you know that 3 of those elements are not only in the whole script, but EACH scene? I took a screenwriting class as a continuing education course in the evening at the University of Texas. They are open to people who are not regular students of the college. I eas given great advice. We have a yearly Film and Music conference in Austin, South by Southwest. Sort of like the Tribecca in New York, etc. They get lots of volunteers to help. One job that helped was being a script reader. This is a person who reads scripts and then gives them a thumbs up or down to be read by busier, more important judges in the fest. They have these in Hollywood. It really gets you used to reading them and seeing what makes a script good or amateurish or CRAP! You can read lots of scripts for movies you know on the net and books.

I have no idea where you would get hands on experience in directing without some sort of schooling. Maybe you could get lucky and become friends with a director.

A HUGE piece of advice? You are young, so you haven't had a lot of life experiences. You will hear stories about people who got huge rewards by doing nothing. 99.9% of the stories are fiction. It sounds better to tell a tale of an "overnight success" than to mention the fact that the person worked on what they did in their evenings and weekends after work until one day it paid off?
Seriously, don't count on miracles or being "the chosen one". THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS TO SUCCESS! Thomas Jefferson said it best: "I believe in luck. I have found the harder I work, the more luck I have". Do the work. Take the classes. You have time. You can spend more time looking for that magic shortcut than if you just do it right the first time. You are nearly 18. There are student loans and grants for college. Ask your school counselor for assistance on applying....

Best,

Taylor