Filmmaking / Directing

the link expired? :(

Okay, Johnny, you posted a link no one, other than an InkTip subscriber can view.

If you have hopes of landing a six-figure screenplay deal, you'll find the minnows who swim in the shallow pockets of InkTip, will have to lop-off a couple of zeros. Some of the so-called 'film makers' are film students searching for a cheap script. That said, they tout their success stories. I was on the site for a couple of months. Met with a producer who L-O-V-E-D one of my scripts. He asked me if I'd be open to rewriting it so it could be produced for a million, rather than the $25 to $40 million estimate he thought it would cost. My belief is he was looking to hire a writer.

Good luck.

Hello! It’s great to connect with you. I noticed you shared the InkTip script library link, which is a valuable resource for researching current projects, pitches, and the types of scripts attracting industry attention.

What project are you currently planning to work on? If possible, please share a brief overview of the concept, genre, and where you are in the development process. This will help me better understand the project and determine the best way to move forward.

Sorry, that link only works if you have an account.

Sorry about that. It looks like the link requires you to have an account to access it. Please let me know if there’s another way I can share the information with you.

you can also accept my friend request as well so we can talk better

Peter D. Marshall The guilt/remorse and power dynamics questions especially stood out, those add so much depth when woven into character choices. Looking forward to the next article

The success of a dramatic work truly hinges on the music. However, an important point must be made: if you have a simple yet masterfully crafted cinematic score that harmonizes perfectly with the scene, there is no need to purchase the most expensive piece of music. Conversely, if you use famous music that draws attention but fails to align with the director's vision for the shot, the viewer will not enjoy the experience; ultimately, the entire matter depends on the director's vision for the final work.

Doug Kayne Thanks! I can definitely see why it made sense for that particular series, especially if the songs were part of the show's identity rather than just mood-setting.

And yes, the soundtrack angle is interesting. If the music becomes genuinely connected to the world of the series, it can become an extension of the project rather than simply something playing underneath it. The challenge is making sure the story works just as well even if some of those specific tracks eventually have to change for budget or rights reasons.

If the songs are doing both narrative and branding work, though, I can see the argument for keeping them in the pitch.

Absolutely! I’d be happy to explore that possibility. It would be great to find the right project where our creative strengths could come together. Let’s stay connected, and hopefully an opportunity to collaborate comes along in the future.

I was actually just reading about the legalities of doing so in prose the other day. It is a little more restraining then I thought it might be actually. But yes, music finds it's way in to everything I write.

i would normally put my own music in my script. Call it extraneous, unnecessary or even distracting, for me it enhances my voice and vision .Music also adds more substance to how it resonates to my audience. I prefer as much as possible to use known melodies to a minimum (to avoid fees and banality) and instead, use my own melodies and lyrics to deepen or heighten or even give the story a multidimensional impact that hopefully could not be forgotten.

I can't wait for this class! We're going to have a lot of fun and get our learn on!

Hi! I'm Emma. I'm a filmmaker and screenplay writer in Connecticut, about 30 mins out from New York. So excited to learn and bulk up on these directing skills!!

Hi Emma! Looking forward to meeting you!

Thank you Heath!!

See everyone soon in class!

Please I have the most sweet script have been written since please can you help me I need someone to give an find me small change to take care myself I can also work with you later I have many ideas my contact mail

realsofzino@gmail.com

Set consistency is very difficult to keep right during a scene, from different angles.

I don't do AI films, because I'm not director, and I think only a director can do it well, choosing the shoots, and speaking the visual language of filmaking. Then editing the whole, it's a lot of work. Nothing like people imagine "click a button and it's done". For someone without budget and who anyway the movie will never be produced, it's a way to do it.

I just do few AI pictures for my visual screenplay, as I don't have much choice than doing that with AI. Few years ago I was doing photo-montages, but they weren't of good quality.

I completely agree, Enchanteur W. Set consistency from different angles is one of the hardest parts for me too. A room can look perfect in one shot, and then the next angle suddenly changes the position of a door, window, furniture, lighting and that immediately breaks the illusion.

That’s also why I think the “click a button and the film is done” idea is so far from reality. Generating an image is easy. Building a coherent sequence where the camera language, geography, characters, performances, lighting, and continuity all belong to the same film is something completely different.

And I think you touched on something important: for people without access to a traditional production budget, AI can give a story a chance to exist visually when otherwise it might remain only on the page.

Using AI images for a visual screenplay makes a lot of sense for exactly that reason, even if the final production is traditional, you can communicate much more clearly what you’re seeing in your head.

Val Chiper IMO there is far, far too much talk on this, and most of it is nonsense. Gen AI, to the extent it can be used commercially, is an animation tool. So as a director, your position is the exact same as in animation. It's not useful as a story-telling tool in any manner differently than regular animation, either cel or digital. The real question is what is the marketing and revenue plan for your Gen AI production? No one seems to want to recognize that access to any market is restricted in the first place, and that the current trend for audiences is exceptional hostility to the idea of paying for something they are told even they can create for pennies.

I think you’re raising two different questions, Shadow Dragu-Mihai , and both matter.

I agree that from a production standpoint, generative AI can be viewed as another form of animation technology. And I also agree that the harder question for many AI filmmakers may eventually be distribution, audience trust, and revenue, not whether the tool can technically produce a film.

Where I’d push back slightly is on the idea that the directing discussion is therefore unnecessary.

The workflow changes the way decisions are executed. Instead of communicating with actors, cinematographers, animators, and departments, an AI filmmaker may be making many of those decisions directly through references, prompting, iteration, selection, compositing, editing, and rejection. The underlying directing principles may be familiar, but the practical language of directing is evolving.

And your market point is important. Being able to make something cheaply does not automatically create demand for it. If audiences see AI work as disposable because “anyone can make it,” then the filmmaker has to prove value through the story, execution, identity, and final experience, not through the technology itself.

For me, that’s actually a healthy pressure. The fact that AI can generate an image isn’t interesting anymore. The question is whether I can turn those images into a film someone genuinely cares about. The revenue side is probably worth a separate discussion entirely, because I think that may become an even harder problem than production.

Val Chiper I really relate to the "ten ideas, one lane open" feeling — I think most writers carry that tension no matter what stage they're at. The imagination doesn't wait for the schedule to clear up.

What's helped me is treating the ideas I can't get to yet as inventory, not loss. If I write down the core of an idea — a character, a premise, a scene that won't leave me alone — even in a few lines, it stops competing for headspace with the thing I'm actually working on. The idea gets to exist without needing to be produced right now, and I trust that the ones with real weight will still be there when I have room for them.

On energy: I've found the exhausted-after-work sessions actually go better with small, defined tasks rather than trying to "write a scene" when I'm running on empty. Revising three pages, outlining one beat, fixing one piece of dialogue — momentum on a bad-energy day still counts, and it keeps the project alive even when the day job wins most of the hours.

The fact that you're already thinking about message and not just output — wanting the work to explore identity, fear, failure — tells me the instinct driving this is solid. That's usually the part that doesn't run out, even when time and money do.

Curious if you've found any specific systems (notes app, voice memos, a certain time of day) that actually work for capturing ideas before life pulls you away from them?

I really like the way you describe those ideas as "inventory, not loss, Joseph Biro. That’s a useful way to look at it.

For me, there’s another layer to it because I have ADHD and autism (AuDHD). That can be both an advantage and a challenge creatively. When an idea hits me and I feel there’s something strong in it, my brain doesn’t really let it go. I have to write it down immediately, because otherwise I’m afraid I’ll lose a detail, a line, a scene, or the exact feeling that made the idea interesting in the first place.

The advantage is that I can become extremely focused on an idea and keep digging into it. The disadvantage is that several ideas can start demanding attention at the same time, which makes the “ten ideas, one lane open” problem very real.

So yes, I keep notes constantly. Sometimes just a few sentences, sometimes a scene, sometimes only a title or an image that I know I want to come back to later.

I also like your point about small tasks after work. I’m learning that not every creative session needs to produce something huge. Sometimes keeping the project alive for another day is enough.

Val Chiper Filmmaking is an entirely unregulated profession (apart from the standards and best practices published by the Independent Producers Guild). I won't lie to you, I've been in film since the 1990s and was in music before that and as a lawyer I have worked on the "insides" of several industries. This one is literally the toughest industry, period, that I know of, to make it in. I encourage you, if it is for you, that you do not stop. That you always consider the franchise, marketing and support/fan base that you yourself can gather along the way. It can be a tough grind, but there are days when amazing unexpected things happen... You get those days by sticking with it.

That's a great question, because music can tell the audience what to feel before the characters have even reacted. The best soundtracks add a layer of complexity rather than just underlining the obvious emotion. How do you approach the balance between letting the music guide the audience and trusting the images to carry the weight?

Absolutely, and I really appreciate you sharing that. I agree that knowing when to step back and let the performance breathe is something that can make a scene much more powerful.

I also like your point that this is something we continue learning with every project. Sometimes the most effective creative choice is not adding more, but recognizing when less can say much more. Your thoughts on BROKEN MEN DON’T KNOCK have definitely given me something to think about.

Val Chiper I think the danger is when the music tells the audience exactly what they're supposed to feel before the scene has earned that emotion.

I prefer thinking of music as another layer of meaning rather than an emotional instruction. If the image, performance, editing, and sound design are already doing the work, the music should ideally add something we couldn't get from those elements alone.

I also like the idea of using music almost as a character, especially when the musical language changes as the protagonist changes. A recurring piece can mean something completely different later because the audience's relationship with the character has changed.

One test I like is removing the music and watching the scene again. If the scene completely collapses without it, the music may be doing too much. If the scene still works but feels different or loses an additional layer of meaning, then the music is probably contributing rather than carrying the scene.

For me, the best scores don't tell the audience what to feel. They make the audience feel something they may not have consciously noticed was already there.

That’s exactly the balance I’m still trying to improve, Samantha Rivera.

My approach is to first ask whether the scene already works without music. If the image, performance, and pacing are carrying the emotion, then I try not to make the score repeat what the audience already understands.

When I do use music, I want it to add something underneath the scene, tension, contradiction, atmosphere, or a feeling the character may not be expressing openly.

I don’t think I always got that balance right in BROKEN MEN DON’T KNOCK, and that’s one of the things I’m taking into my next projects: trusting the image more, and using music only when it has something meaningful to add.

I really like that test, Abhijeet Aade. Removing the music and checking whether the scene still stands on its own is such a simple way to expose whether the score is supporting the scene or carrying it.

I also agree with your point about recurring musical ideas changing meaning as the character changes. That’s where music can really become part of the storytelling rather than just atmosphere.

With BROKEN MEN DON’T KNOCK, I learned that I don’t always get that balance right. Sometimes I pushed the music further than the scene actually needed. That’s something I’m becoming much more conscious of now, trusting the image first, then asking what the music can add that isn’t already there.

There's gonna be a battle of the behemoths: "Dune: Part Three" opens the same day as the equally much anticipated "Avengers: Doomsday."

Geoff Hall One of the very few films I might venture into a cinema for these days.

That trailer looks genuinely epic, and Denis Villeneuve has a rare ability to make massive scale feel intimate rather than just overwhelming. What's the most important lesson independent filmmakers can take from the success of these blockbusters without trying to copy their scale?

Geoff Hall I’m definitely excited for Dune: Part Three. Villeneuve has shown that scale can be part of the storytelling itself, rather than spectacle being added simply for spectacle’s sake. The film is also being positioned specifically as a theatrical/IMAX experience, which says a lot about how studios are trying to make audiences feel that certain films are worth leaving home for.

But I’m not sure the lesson for independent filmmakers is that we need to compete with spectacle. We simply can’t compete with a Dune budget, and trying to imitate that scale would probably weaken an indie project.

I think the opportunity is almost the opposite: find the cinematic experience that only your story can provide. Scale can come from landscape, intimacy, performance, atmosphere, sound, or a strong visual idea not necessarily from massive production design or VFX.

If audiences are increasingly choosing theatrical experiences because they want something they feel needs to be experienced on a big screen, that should be encouraging for independent filmmakers too. The question becomes: what can an indie film give an audience that makes the screen feel essential?

Tayyar Pitthoo Thank you, I appreciate that. I think that combination of physical cost and emotional conflict can give the character much more depth, especially if the two pressures keep influencing each other throughout the story.

I’d be happy to stay connected and follow the screenplay as it develops. I’m always interested in exchanging perspectives with fellow writers, so feel free to reach out anytime. Wishing you the best with the project!

Thank you, Abhijeet! That's a really useful way to frame it I want those two pressures to keep feeding into each other rather than staying separate, so the physical toll pushes him further emotionally, and the emotional conflict pushes him to ignore the physical cost. That interplay is something I'm actively trying to build into the structure.

Would love to stay connected and hear your thoughts as it develops. Thanks again for engaging with it so thoughtfully!

Interesting premise, Tayyar. Since original superhero specs can be challenging to position without existing IP behind them, have you thought about what makes yours stand apart beyond the powers themselves? Is the story primarily driven by the superhero element, or more by the psychological and personal cost of what is happening to him?

That's a sharp question, Zoltán positioning is something I've thought about a lot, precisely because there's no existing IP to lean on. For me, the story is driven primarily by the psychological and personal cost, not the superhero element itself. The powers are almost incidental they're a symptom of something going wrong in his body, not a gift he's chosen. So tonally it sits closer to grounded, character-driven genre work than a typical superhero film less about training montages and more about a slow unraveling of identity and control. That's the differentiator I'm leaning into: it's less about what he can do, and more about what it's costing him to keep doing it.

Tayyar Pitthoo Thanks, Tayyar. That interplay is exactly what I was interested in the physical and emotional pressures shouldn't feel like two separate tracks. If each one makes the other harder to manage, the conflict can keep escalating naturally.

One thing I'd be curious to see as it develops is whether his emotional choices create new physical consequences, rather than the physical cost simply existing alongside the emotional conflict. That could make the connection between the two feel even more inseparable.

Let's definitely stay connected. I'd be interested to see how the screenplay develops.

Watching Christopher Nolan's following and Breaking Bad.

Hi Ashley!

I love this question because it made me realize my filmmaking origin story didn’t begin with a movie.

It began with storytelling.

Growing up in Jamaica, I was always making up stories and jokes to make my family and friends laugh. I remember one day being so hungry that my stomach started rumbling while I was waiting for dinner. Instead of complaining, I announced that the noise was actually two worms trying to climb a very steep hill, and I became the live commentator.

“Ladies and gentlemen… the first worm has almost reached the top… the second worm has stopped for a rest… no, wait… they’re moving again!”

My family was laughing so hard that, for a little while, everyone forgot I was hungry.

Looking back, I realize I wasn’t just telling jokes—I was already creating scenes, characters, and turning ordinary moments into stories.

Years later, films helped me realize that the stories I loved creating could become a career. They showed me that the imagination I enjoyed as a child could grow into feature screenplays and novels.

Today, almost every story I write still begins with two dangerous words:

“What if?”

Looking back, I think my filmmaking origin story started long before I ever opened screenwriting software.

It started with curiosity.

It started with making people laugh.

And it started with discovering that sometimes the best stories begin with the smallest moments.

Thank you for asking such a wonderful question. It reminded me that our first audience is often the people sitting around our dinner table, long before we ever dream of writing for the screen.

I think it's fair to say that, as far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a filmmaker...

For me it was always watching star wars, star trek, jaws Indiana Jones aliens the thing which incidentally terrestrial tv would put on every year that really did make me think i would like to be involved. back then it was an ambition now it is a reality. the TV series at the time saw fame magnum pi Miami vice to name a few. little did a relise i woud eventually look after a distribution site that sold DVDs and cds to retailers that printed those film and TV series. now times have changed in the space of the last twenty years.and eventually distribution .shall move on.

I want to be a writer......Nah! doesn't work because it never happened.

Of course there was the whole "I love stories" thought process as I slowly changed from being a child to being a man, but those processes never pointed at being a film writer. They started with looking at all the options available to me as a teenager.

My mother wanted me to "Get a trade!" simply because that is where her world functioned. The whole "teach a man to fish" story-line and of course, she would force me into that eventually because she could not afford to send me off to finish my last year of high school.

During that final year I spent in school, I wrote my first story and got an A+. A little tale of alien tech finding it's way into a sorry little hominid half a million years ago. This story became the foundation of the great work.

Also in that time I realised that if I studied theatre arts and became an actor, ALL trades and more could be within my grasp. So, by the end of the 1970s I was a qualified actor and electrician.

Within three years, I would transfer to the east coast and a thriving film and television industry where I could practice my new art.

Then one night as I leaned on my windowsill listening to the sounds of a sleeping city, I realised that the one thing that appeared to be missing from the Australian film industry was original science fiction. Even though I was wrong in the thought, it still prompted me to start writing and writing I did. Making film? NOPE!, but I did plenty of writing. I wanted a story that NO ONE had ever though of writing. Something that could be a one off, or an ongoing series that would outlive me.

It took forty years for that fist screenplay to win an award for the best science fiction screenplay, but has never been optioned or considered.

What has come out of this has been a series of books that I've been putting down on the computer over the last twenty years. The great science fiction saga that encompasses the entirety of human existence and continues through millions of years into the future. Not one single story although there is that, but the hundreds of stories that are part of that single story. "The Immortal's Tale"

Of course, with that much story, you'd better have some research to back a lot of it up, so there are a couple of technical non-fictional books in there as well. A lot of my story passes through now and I have four books on today called WW3 almost ready to go to the publishers and the technical book already with the publisher and soon to land on the shelves. The tech book is called RIGHTS-NO RIGHTS. Look out for it. If all goes well, the other books should land one a month over the next couple of years.

This is a valuable breakdown. One point I’d add is that emotional triggers become especially powerful when they are revealed through choices and behavior rather than dialogue alone. A character may say they are fine, but their hesitation, silence, avoidance, or reaction to a specific situation can tell the audience something very different.

For writers and directors, the real challenge is not simply identifying an emotion, but creating the circumstances that naturally bring that emotion to the surface. When the audience recognizes the human truth behind a character’s reaction, the scene becomes much more believable and impactful.

Right on, Grace. :)

Peter D. Marshall I really like the point about observing what motivates people. As a writer, those small human behaviors can make characters feel much more authentic and give their actions real emotional weight. Do you think understanding a character’s emotional triggers is more important than the dialogue itself when building a believable performance?

For me, they are both equal. Sometimes, what you can't say in dialogue can happen with body language and facial expressions. The reverse is true as well. However... you also need actors who can do both of these things AND make them believable. So that is why casting the right actors for each part is crucial. :)

That's a great reminder, and observing real life isn't just about gathering material, it's about understanding what motivates people to act. What's the most surprising thing you've observed about human behavior that ended up in a script?

Good question. I directed a lot of episodes of different television series. After I get the script, I go over it and make my "director script notes". Then I sit with the writers and review the script scene-by-scene. If there is a certain emotional beat or a character reaction that I have experienced personally, I discuss this with the writers, and they usually change the beat to fit that experience. This also works with actors on the set. If an actor is having difficulty with a scene or an emotional moment in the scene, and I have had the exact feeling at some time, I talk to them about what I felt during that same kind of moment. Actors have to be vulnerable to do good work - and so do directors! :) :) :)