Camera:
Panasonic's AG-DVX100a MiniDV List Price ~ $ 3,000

Machine:
Apple G5 Dual 2 GIG, w/4 gigs of RAM and 1 terabyte storage

S/w:
Final Cut Pro HD
Apple's Shake

Short's for reference:
PLEASE!
10 Minutes
Cash Back
Coops Night In

Trivia:

The Filmmaking Process: A Brief Primer

DUMPS : Directing Unsuccesful Motion Picture Shorts

IMDbPro

Short Film Festivals 2007

articles on cameras and film to DV conversion Tips

1.Should be flowing at a pace that keeps the audience at the
edge of their seats but still be very comprehensible.

2.If it's a thriller, it should keep the audience guessing, but fooling the audience for too long is not the trick either, keep revealing some, you have to show them Quite early that you indeed are taking them somewhere.

3.Comedy, is always a major component, there should always be a space for that
in your script.A Character, need not be clown to make your audience laugh.
It's the situations that you create using these characters that are funny or hilarious.
but make sure the humor clicks, experiment your jokes before you try them out in your scripts with in different circles. or observe the traits of comedy that are universally appealing ( always keep in mind the breadth of the audience)

4.The slang, plays an important role in shaping the character, and giving him a colloquial touch.Not only the slang or accent gives the character a touch of reality but also at times it appeals to a wide set of audience. (afro-american asian mexican, Texan, italian, indian )

5. Characters, should be identifiable, they don't necessarily have to be doing things that are identifiable, but the layers of their personalities should reveal the humaneness in them.( Even a super-man clicks only if he's shown as a geek )

to be continued...

Sideways.. a Hilarious comedy.. with a modest cast of actors and
a script well structured to fit the budget.
It's a story of two friends, Jack (Thomas Hayden church) and Miles ( Paul Giamatti )
who go out on a roadtrip which is kind of a part of Jack's bachelor party, with all the
right intentions of getting laid on the freeway before he is subjected to the eternal bondage.
The whole movie is about how this trip changes the lives of these two friends, how they
help out each other to realize what they actually want. Not much of an eye opener, but
more effectively a good-break from the regular stream of life that can change their
perspectives for ever.
Characters...
The main character of the story, Miles is a Highschool teacher, who aspires to be a
writer, and gets as close as a struggling writer, who's been rejected his entire life
is someone who is usually mistaken to be a loser. He had a bad break-up with his
wife two years ago and since then landed up in a depression and these rejections
just add up to his negativity. As, the movie progresses the script starts unvieling the
shades of his character and the his addiction to "wine" and his latent traits of depression.

Jack's..character on the other hand is quite opposite to Miles, it's a regular formula
for comic flicks, when you put two characters that are so unlike each other, every
contrasting opinion or situation they encounter can have a lot of humour.
For instance
In "Mid Night Cowboy", the straight forward country kid "john void" and the
complicated thief "Dustin Hoffman".
In Butch cassidy and sundace Kid, "Robert Redford" as the calm, quick handed "sundace",
"Paul Newman" being the talkative, ebullient and smart "butch"
This formula when put in to use effectively is a great tool to generate on screen humour and
after a point when audience are aware of these contrast even a normal scene which
doesn't have any contrasting opinions will look funny.
So, Jack's character is one of those soap-opera regulars who now is doing add films
and fishing for new contracts, an easy going, adventerous and slighlty dumb actor.

The writer, uses his knowledge of Wine's to create so many scenes and portraying Jack as
a person who just wants to drink the whole bottle rather than being a connosieur like Miles
which just exposes the contrast again.

"Maya's"(Virginia Madsen) character.. She is a middle single women, who works as a waitress
in a bar and also takes college to graduate in 'Horti culture". She becomes the love interest of
Miles, and the author shows how difficult it is for miles, who's portrayed as a born looser, to consider "Moving-On" In life as an option. His inhibitions, add to so much humor and paul has done a great job in portraying this character.

All in all, a good movie, with so much to learn from the script.
It just shows how a good concept can nullify the need for big time stars and
Hi-fi Sets...

They say you have to learn to walk before you learn to fly.
so, here i am taking my first steps in screen writing.
There is a lot of this crap on the internet saying
how things were, how things are supposed to be and how
things will be. I'll change em all but to get the intial
million dollar production i got to "do the Roman".

Groud Rules
Keywords : Slugline:
This is where the writer sets up the scene, fixes the time of the
day ( may mean a disaster if the production guys find it infeasible )
this may change a 100 times if the writer is not the director
for instance imagine a production in California Summer heat that needs a
EXT snowy winter morning
It's gonna cost a lot of bucks to create such a set :p.
Let's hit the rock bottom and copy some text from the internet


SLUGLINE:

THIS ELEMENT ESTABLISHES
LOCATION, TIME OF DAY AND, OCCASIONALLY,
OTHER EFFECTS SUCH AS INSERT, MONTAGE
OR FADE IN.

INT. SMALL COURTROOM - DAY

ACTION:

THIS ELEMENT INCLUDES ALL DESCRIPTIONS OF CHARACTERS, APPEARANCES, LOCATIONS, EVENTS AND ACTIONS. REMEMBER - YOU CAN ONLY INCLUDE IN ACTION WHAT CAN BE SEEN. FILM IS A STRICTLY VISUAL MEDIUM. YOU CANNOT INCLUDE OMNISCIENT ( Essentially means no fictional metaphorical crap )NARRATION IN ACTION.


A late middle aged JUDGE stares at sets of papers before him with sad, sincere eyes. Before him sit David and his lawyer on one side, with Jennifer and her lawyer on the opposite side of the aisle.
JUDGE
Blah Blah Blah
ACTION:
JUDGE ( Cont'd )
WHEN DIALOGUE IS INTERRUPTED BY ACTION, THE CHARACTER'S NAME SHOULD WEAR A "CONT'D."
My heart goes out to both of you for the loss of young Eddie.
(beat)
PARENTHETICAL: THIS ELEMENT SHOULD SUGGEST A READ FOR THE SPECIFIC LINE OF DIALOGUE FOLLOWING IT. A WRITER CAN SUGGEST EMPHASIS, EMOTION OR PACING. THESE SHOULD BE USED SPARINGLY AS DIRECTORS AND ACTORS RARELY APPRECIATE YOUR SUGGESTIONS.

CUT TO:


source:http://www.screenwritingsecrets.com/script-format-sample.html

(:p it's a crazy country people can sue you for using their toilet )

Trigger:
Watching the Director's comments and making of the "Signs"
day - 20th Oct 2005 ' I turned 22 '

why him ?

What can be more inspiring, than to see a indian born Director
living your dream..!
Some TRIVIA: ( http://imdb.com)

Born in India but raised in posh suburban Penn Valley area of Philadelphia, the son of two doctors. Had a very early passion for filmmaking when given a Super-8 camera by age 8, modeling his career, even at that young age, to hero Steven Spielberg. His first film, 'Praying with Anger' was based somewhat on his own trip back to visit the India of his birth. This critical success was achieved as Shyamalan raised all the necessary funds in this project which he starred in, directed, produced. "Wide Awake." the second film which he wrote and directed, was actually shot in the Phila.-area Catholic school he once attended, which his parents sent him to for its strict discipline, even though they had raised him in a different religion.

what can i learn from him ?

1) Screen play - Where has he learnt the tricks of trade ??

Graduate of Waldron and Episcopal academies; NYU (1992) Tisch School of the Arts.

Damn.. I should have Apped to NYU.. So Close.. ! But it's not too far..

Sites to look forward

http://www.creativescreenwriting.com/

http://www.ign.com