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.

Movie-making Freeware

This is really great!
Checkout http://www.rewardprograms.org/thefreegeek/features/15_musthave_freeware_programs_for_filmmakers.html
Seems like a few links are broken....
Jahshaka can be found at http://jahshaka.en.softonic.com/images
See https://www.entertainmentpartners.com/Content/Products/Products.aspx
If you are serious about story boarding you might want to checkout Google http://sketchup.google.com/intl/en/index.html
Here is the best (I wont say what this is but is really intersting): https://www.entertainmentpartners.com/Content/Support/support_files/EP_IncentivesOverview.pdf

The Look-and-Feel of a Movie

How do you convey feeling using visual elements alone? I have mused about this many times. Once you master this you can convey the required feeling visually. So I started exploring to see what elements can be used to convey feelings:

• Colors (http://www.joehallock.com/edu/COM498/associations.html)
  
• Non-verbal communication (http://helpguide.org/mental/eq6_nonverbal_communication.htm)

Of course sound design also plays a major part but am leaving it out of the mix for now.

You can definitely use color in your set design and lighting design. For example to picture childhood scenes you can use these colors - red, blue, green, violet, orange, and yellow. Again you have to experiment to see if you get the right mood.

Here is another website that talks about something similar - http://www.tc.umn.edu/~jewel001/humanities/book/9elements.htm


Here are some elements of non-verbal communication that you can intertwine in your characters in each of your scenes (taken from the above website):

Eye contact	Is this source of connection missing, too intense, or just right in yourself or in the person you are looking at?
Facial expression	What is your face showing? Is it mask like and inexpressive, or emotionally present and filled with interest? What do you see as you look into the faces of others?
Tone of voice	Does your voice project warmth, confidence, and delight, or is it strained and blocked? What do you hear as you listen to other people?
Posture and gesture	Does your body look still and immobile, or relaxed? Sensing the degree of tension in your shoulders and jaw answers this question. What do you observe about the degree of tension or relaxation in the body of the person you are speaking to?
Touch	Remember, what feels good is relative. How do you like to be touched? Who do you like to have touching you? Is the difference between what you like and what the other person likes obvious to you?
Intensity	Do you or the person you are communicating with seem flat, cool, and disinterested, or over-the-top and melodramatic? Again, this has as much to do with what feels good to the other person as it does with what you personally prefer.
Timing and pace	What happens when you or someone you care about makes an important statement? Does a response—not necessarily verbal—come too quickly or too slowly? Is there an easy flow of information back and forth?
Sounds	Do you use sounds to indicate that you are attending to the other person? Do you pick up on sounds from others that indicate their caring or concern for you?
Source: The Language of Emotional Intelligence, by Jeanne Segal, Ph.D.

(Here is something I want to read more about - http://www.suite101.com/content/how-movies-are-designed-a254964 and http://www.wwnorton.com/college/film/movies2/welcome.aspx)