How can you make each scene interesting?

Here are some tips to keep in mind when crafting your scenes to make thme more interesting. Ofcourse these are totally based on tips from filmscriptwriting.com.

1. Each and every scene should have a motivated conflict.

No matter how big or small it is conflict which makes a story interesting; conflict drives a story forward. Even small, less exciting, scenes should contain some level of conflict. Even the best of friends have small disagreements and you’ll find that even when two people have the same goal in mind they both have different ways to go about achieving it. In contrast the conflict between two enemies will be much greater, with both characters willing to do anything to defeat the other.

2. Every scene should have a purpose and move the story forward. Every scene should move the story forward in terms of both the plot and character's growth.

3. Make your scenes visual; dont make characters talk to reveal.

4. Consider each scene to be a mini story. Each scene should have a beginning, middle and end.

5. Pace your scenes. Fluctuate the pace depending on the reaction you want from the audiance.

6. Keep throwing obstacle after obstacle at your main character.

7. Finish the scene dramatically.

When you reach the end of the scene you should always aim to leave the main character with some sort of decision or imminent decision. Make the viewer lust after the knowledge of what is going to happen next. Throw them a cliff-hanger, a reversal or a revelation to raise their interest level. This is how you add the twists and turns in a story that make it captivating.

Yet another site on scriptwriting

Here is a nice site that discusses some of the main ideas around scriptwriting. Checkout the section on character development and story structure.
http://www.filmscriptwriting.com/theideafactory.html
You can find some sample scrips too.
Check out the resources page too.

My proff always used to say the following:

1. Define an emotion or mood of the film right from the very begining.


2. Starting scens of a movie should capticate the audience and the following scens should keep them engaged. While it’s perfectly acceptable and even advisable to start a story with a big event to grip the reader/viewer you want to save the biggest and best till the end.

Hers are a few things I liked from that site:

[There] are several types of opening that you can use to start your film. None of these are mutually exclusive, you can choose to mix and match certain elements from each type.

The Blatant Opening Within a few moments you know exactly who the hero is and what the movie will be about. The James Bond series are a great example of this type of opening. In this first ten pages of your script you will introduce the hero, the villain and exactly why they oppose each other. The blatant opening works particular well for action films, a fast, intense opening will hook the reader and keep them flicking through the script.

A Regular Day In this opening you will put over the pace of life in a regular day for your main character. Then an event will happen which breaks the normality of your character’s life, one which they will need to rectify for their life to return to the way it was.

True Beginning The script starts right along with the start of the story for the main character. They might have just been given a million dollars, or landed in a new country.

Dramatic Irony This is the only beginning that won’t contain your main character. Instead you give the audience some information that your main character won’t know and will soon affect his/her life greatly. Dramatic irony allows the audience to be in a superior position and sets up both tension and anticipation.

Foreshadowing This opening takes place before your main story begins and anticipates what is going to happen later in the story. Like the dramatic irony opening the audience is placed in a position to predict what is going to happen. This is often used for doomsday and horror movies.

Narrator The narrator can be the hero, a secondary character or just a stand alone narrator. The narrator tells the story of the events which happened to the main character at a important time in their life. [hmmm... I dont think I would like this style]

Flash forward The flash forward has two stories running side by side simultaneously. The B story has a narrator who tells the main story, which has already happened. At certain points in the story there’s a flash forward to the narrator who continues with his tale. The A story is the main story, the B story is of the narrator looking back.

Montage This is a great type of opening if you have a lot of information to get across before the main story begins. Also known as a shotgun, a collection of short clips accelerate through the information until the story proper begins. Then the speed of the story can slow down to a regular pace. In a matter of minutes you can explain years of your main characters life. [hmmm... montages are powerful but I would probably not use it at the very begining of a movie...]

Giddy-up your creative horses

Do you find it hard to start writing your script? Do you badly want some starting point? Check out these:

• http://www.bmyers.com/public/807.cfm


• http://www.maddogproductions.com/plotomatic.htm

and maybe even this http://web.student.tuwien.ac.at/~e9125168/javas/jtaggen.html?tagline=blog
One of these should triggers your creative side - saddle up and go!

Tester13's GH1 hacks

Wow!! checkout these!!
http://www.mishra.tv/wordpress/?s=tester13
http://www.gh1-hack.info/
http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/16/official-gh1-lenin-hack-project-discussion

AVCHD from GH1 - Pulldown removal with FCP & Compressor.

Do you own a Panasonic GH1? How do you edit the video recorded in FCP? How can you get the 1080/24p "film look"?
I was looking for pulldown removal steps and found this: http://www.hotrodcameras.com/2009/10/gh1compressor-workflow/

Here is the content from the above link (just in case the link does not work anymore).

To Bring in the footage;
1. Open FCP
2. Log and Transfer footage from card into project
3. Highlight all clips in Bin and EXPORT–>Using Compressor
4. When files open up in Compressor
5. Highlight all the clips that have transfered and add pre-existing setting, Apple Prores 422
– Modify by changing frame rate in the Encoder setting to 23.976
–Turn on Frame control and change the deinterlace field to Reverse Telecine
6. Choose target
7. Submit
8. When done, re-import new clips you have created into FCP.
9.Create sequence for Audio sync
10. Add In point to each clip where slate hits and In point on audio clips. Sync.
11. Link both clips
12. Drag to new bin and rename clip according to scene and take number.

Funding your movie through grants

God! How many times have I gone through this vicious cycle - get some funds, make a no budget movie and then get some bridge funds, grants, friends-family-relatives...!!
Again me and my buddy are stuck at the same tight spot - frantically trying to raise funds :(
Today I stumbled on http://www.filmproposals.com/Film-Grants.htm and http://www.caryn.com/indie/film_financing/grants.html - these lists sound too good to be true. Let me know if you really raised some funds using any of these.
In addition, as always there is good info on financing a movie at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_finance

Writing sheet music - again!

After my last post, I learnt that RoseGarden is much easier for what I want to do and it also is integrated with Lilly Pond so still can print sheet music that I always wanted. Check it out! It is available for Windows and Unix flavours. RoseGarden seems to be an exhaustive solution for music composers.