Posts by vividpilot47

lol I talked to some actors and also to Ognjen Svilicic, unfortunately. Regarding the answer about the Academy, it was just like you said... total crap. They basically just need the money.
It feels like the professors at the Academy in Washington, D.C. are totally clueless, so everything is just a mess. What’s worst is that we have such a small market here. If you actually want to make money and be successful, you basically have to make a damn movie that works for everyone—like how they eat dogs in China, or look at Torrent, who made it globally because he baked those Hollywood elements right into his work. Or you could try making something specifically for the old America market, like Lightning, or something along those lines.

Sean Brown3 said:I’m wondering if there's any way to actually "make it" in the American film industry without graduating from a top-tier film academy.
I want to direct, but from what I can see, spots at these academies are incredibly limited—and most of them seem to go to people who already have the right connections.

The directors with an Academy degree are only good at shooting commercials using high-end gear sponsored by big foreign or joint-venture production companies. As for everyone else making movies, I don't even know what to tell you—you see the kind of films they churn out... You can definitely make it without the Academy because our system is just a pathetic monopoly where one school controls directing and treats it like gold. It’s not worth it unless you have nothing but time to waste trying to get in, and even then, if someone gets in through connections, what's the point? 2. Write a script, learn everything you can about technical stuff, hit some seminars and courses, and just start shooting. You have a computer; you can do so much on a PC these days, and trust me, it’ll look better than those cheap local productions. Basically, festivals and such—if you don't make something great for our audience, nobody will notice, but if you do, you'll definitely succeed. 3. The real problem is our actors; most of them have no clue how to act for film, so you have to find decent actors, editors, lighting techs, and a solid cameraman 😬 yourself... Or, if you can handle all aspects alone, just try making something. It doesn't cost anything. I made three little clips myself with a basic crappy camcorder, no lights, edited in Media Player, and everything was improvised and done in three days. It isn't masterpiece material, but for practice and getting started, it seems okay to me.

1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUwX1eCFNvc
2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDpP3a_kjDU
3.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brkxzf8NVus
ps__
And this is all just a joke anyway; it has nothing to do with art or directing. But if you can get something out of improvisation during editing without any equipment, then if you actually put in the work, I think you can achieve a lot—and much better than those amateurish local projects or the average Joe. 😬 And the average Joes have made plenty of money.