Thans Jim! Not only the advises and tips, and quotes/anecdotes are great and inspiring, but also this videos, the tweets and obviously your movies by themselves are a great source of motivation Thanks again!!
As a young filmmaker this series makes me so happy. I've struggled to get advice or have a back and forth with more experienced directors/producers so a series like this is great for us that don't really know more experienced filmmakers. Hope to see more 😁
Thanks for the vid Jim! My question is about writing. How do you get into a habit of writing everyday when you don’t necessarily always have good ideas to write about or any ideas at all?
Hello Jim, you‘re brave to walk through the Heath this time of year where there are not only bees but also pollen that cause allergy. I‘m a designer from Germany and interested in a longer movie. It’s a love story. What you said reminded me, that I used to like the movie „The Snows of Kilimanjaro“ as a child and very much later discovered that it‘s a Short Story of Hemingway. I have a collection of Čechov’s love stories I like. It‘s not a comedy, but shouldn‘t be too severe.
Great tips, Jim! And a very good point about long credits. I also think that too many short films have credits at the beginning. Unless a filmmaker is already well established in a given niche, audiences will not care about names. It's not like you've got them in a dark room with a ticker that they paid for. They can leave at any moment so opening credits are very often redundant. PS.: Bees are friendly as long as you're friendly ;) I do respect it about them :D
thanks jim!!! it’s so easy to get lost in the sauce when you’re making something and just forget about how the audience is gonna respond/whats gonna make YOUR film stand out. respect for taking time to help smaller filmmakers out.
Hey Jim! Great tips, you're a huge inspiration of mine and you completely changed my views on filmmaking forever in the best way imaginable. Just one question, do you have any advice for young poor-ish aspiring filmmakers that are looking for a way to effectively practice screenwriting and study filmmaking over time (with no film school)? Thanks! Super excited for The Beta Test!
Hey Jim! I’m currently a student at your alma mater, Emerson College. And I think it’s fair to say that you are huge inspiration to everyone in the Film program. I would love to hear stories about your time at Emerson and how you navigated the competitive environment of an arts college. And I’d love to hear about your experiences in the Boston film scene (if that exists!) Really excited for this series!
Hey Jim, I appreciate the tips. I think this series here could be cool for something similar to 'Hiking With Kevin' on RU-vid. Where you could have casual conversations with directors, actors, and producers. I would also love to see you make some videos that focus on a specific experiences you've had as a filmmaker and what you learned from it. Some ideas for videos that quickly come to mind are 'What I Learned Directing My First Feature', "How I Write Characters', 'How I Take Criticism', "How I Successfully Pitched a Movie". Just some thoughts :) PS Thanks for all the motivation you've given me to believe in myself and become a filmmaker!
Hey Now Jim! Great tips! We just finished watching 'Thunder Road', fantastic work. That funeral scene had one of the most cringeworthily funny eulogies I have ever seen on film, maybe only topped by Larry David's '3 Wood' Curby episode. Your Jim could be Napoleon Dynamite's cousin, I kept waiting for a "GOSH!!" My wife is a former school teacher, so she related to Jim's parent/teacher conference debacle. We loved the ole scissors in the pocket ploy...hilarious! BTW, I just finished a project with a recent Emerson film grad. who seems to have the potential to follow in your footsteps...time will tell. Speaking of Emerson, I watched your scathing senior doc. on Emerson's film program, it was quite something...Did admin. use that piece in their online brochure?...:) My son is a current grad. student at Da Cuse's Newhouse school and is in post for his final short film, I am going to pass along these tips to him which I'm sure they will help him mold his finished product. In his film I played Jim, a cop, who receives total conciousness...so we have that in common goin for us...which is nice. I am looking forward to watching your other work and here's wishing you best of luck in the future...CUT! and Peace Out!
@@coolandhappy Big-Time!...Just wondering, have you seen "American Movie" by Chris Smith? If not, check it out, you will love it...ie..Uncle Bill..."It's alright, It's OK...there's something to live for...Jesus told me sooooo"...classic. Cheers!
Thank you so much for your generosity and openness with your thoughts on the process! The value of real content like this is priceless, especially when compared to what alot of 'filmmaker' RU-vidrs are doing 👀
Great vid, but can’t help point out that the Longfellow quote you use is actually saying the complete opposite of your point re cutting superfluous dialogue: “what seems but idle show, strengthens and supports the rest” means that what seems superfluous is actually strengthening and supporting what is not. Sorry, I’m a nerd 😇
I’d love some insight into the legal side of filmmaking. (How do you officially establish a production company? Should you make an LLC for just your company, or a new one for each project? Will I get sued if there’s a can of Coke sitting on a table during a dialogue scene, or is that ok depending on the presentation of the product? Etc.) I’m having a hard time finding any useful info on really specific topics regarding legality in the truly independent film scene.
As somebody about to make their first short film, this video was super interesting and I know I'll be taking some of this wisdom into account. Your tips are especially intriguing to me considering how inspiring I find your short films. Thank you!
I’m having a somewhat difficult time trying to write comedy and drama in the same script, something that your excellent film thunder road did perfectly. Any advice on how to merge both genres?
So happy to see you on a different media, with a very cool project in addition ! Maybe you can talk about how you choose your actors idk, I think it can be interesting :)
Very insightful Jim, and actually quite helpful for what I am currently writing. It’s true, a lot of my peers’ films try and tackle monumental existential ideas with no humor and it does come off edgy or ridiculous. Same goes for a plethora of the shorts I have written. I can’t fault them of course as all I’ve done as of now is make a single 3 minute short on my lonesome, they’ve really gone out and collaborated with others which is my current dilemma. So I am an almost done with my senior year of high school and am quite afraid of what direction to take socially and film wise-they both kind of interweave, networking and whatnot. I joined film class a little late in junior year and luckily my film teacher liked my other film enough to boost me two classes ahead, but this year was mostly online and I wasn’t able to build enough of a rapport with my fellow classmates. I dread the idea of college, especially after hearing the (risky but very rewarding) success stories of directors who just went out and did it. I feel that both options could potentially end disappointingly and with regret. One, I go to college and find out it’s not the social haven I was looking for and waste 2-4 years of my life not actually making much of anything, or I don’t go and realize trying to network by my lonesome without peers of my age is a daunting task. I will say however, I do feel optimistic in many ways, coincidentally living in Austin, Texas which has a sizable film hub as you would know. I could certainly use some advice, and I’m sure there are many other scared newbie filmmakers like myself in a similar position who would too. I find this a very crucial point in my life, being the start of my career, and I’d like to start out strong! I feel determined enough to never fully give into doubt, though I could use any help I can get. Thank you so much Jim, you have truly been an inspiration for me in wanting to become a filmmaker.
Hey totally been here before. I'm now out of college now and ended up sadly not finding that social haven but one big tip I would tell my past self is don't just create films for your class projects.create films all the time and as much as possible during college. That film degree really doesn't mean much when you graduate so really use that time to experiment and push your creative boundaries and try as many hats and roles as possible!
Great stuff! I've always been curious about filmmaking, but have never pursued it or read or watched too much about the craft itself. I used to act a bunch and directed/wrote some plays, and often wished I had pursued that or filmmaking. I'd be very curious to learn how you balance directing and acting in the same work, do you get feedback on your performances from anyone else on set or do you have an objective enough eye to know if you've nailed it or not. Thanks for the great content!
Pretty interesting difference in Sketches and Shorts, never really thought of it that way. I'm curious on how you acquire deals in the industry. Are you giving pitches to studios to get budgets, I think I remember that the Wolf of Snow Hollow was a "fund me" type project ? Or maybe I'm remembering you did something with Werewolf Within. If you do give pitches and the such, how do you go about that process?
Wow great content here. I wanna ask you as a producer, what is the most important thing that you notice when some filmmaker pitching to you? Because sometimes i think i had some good ideas, but when i pitched it to some potential producer, they kinda turned it down.
