Few tips from John Truby

Let each of your lead characters have the weakness, problem, need, ghost and self-revelation... and also an inciting event...

Tricksters typically have a weakness, which is that they lie, steal and cheat to get what they want. But this seldom comes across as a weakness to the audience because the trickster is always fooling unjust authority figures.

Traveling angel stories are famous for having dual main characters: one character has the weakness, need, etc. while the perfect traveling angel character drives the action.

As for opponents, in love stories the first opponent is the lover.
The secondary opponents are the family members, like fiancé and mother etc.

John Truby's Story Techniques

I stumbled on John Truby's blog on some story techniques. He has some interesting tips on how one can combine a few genres which seems to be the Hollywood strategy nowadays.
John Turby's blog has quite a few good articles which you might want to read through. See this one too which is very interesting.
See this http://www.dramatica.com/downloads/Dramatica%20paradigms-0707.pdf which talks about the story paradigms of the following "story gurus":

• Syd Field


• Michael Hauge


• Robert McKee


• Linda Seger


• John Truby


• Christopher Vogler

Here is another web site that I found interesting.

Why write?

If you are a writer and want to write stories first before converting them into screen plays you might like http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter.html. Check it out!
Of course http://celtx.com/ is absolutely the best tool for screen plays.

Edited: 28 mar 2015
Of course I thought Celtx was cool until I discovered Trelby
I now like Trelby; I think it is the best free tool for screen plays - check it out.

(I am not affiliated with Trebly or Celtx)

Distribution Tips

Here is a really valuable tip from the book "What They Don't Teach You at Film School"
The authors recommend the film maker to approach Producer's rep and the publicist for distributing your films. The authors drop the name of one Laura Kim publicist at L.A.'s mPRm who is well admired in the movie circle. One can fine the names of producer's rep and publicist through independent filmmaking support organizations like Independent Feature Project (IFP). Have a cut of your film handy so they can watch and then talk with you.
If however you are aiming to get an audience through a NY or LA premiere, then you have to work ahead of time to secure a reasonably priced - say $500 - show (morning or midnight) at the prestigious Nu Art at LA or the Laemmele's.

All the Short-film Festivals...

Check out the following for a list of short-film festivals around the world:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_festivals
• http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/rules/shortsfestivals.html
• http://www.festivalfocus.org
• http://www.imdb.com/festivals/
• http://worldfilm.about.com/od/filmfestivals/Film_Festivals.htm
  

Here is a list of no entry fee film festivals: http://www.filmmaker.com/node/19244

http://jasonbkohl.com/archives/2011/short-film-festival-strategy/ lists a few festivals most of which you can find in the bullet list.