Learning Film Making Online

Courtesy of Ken Radio
Great site that provide a real-world education of the complex world of motion picture production through a series of easy-to-understand, yet comprehensive videos, workbooks and resources. By partnering with industry leaders in the creative and technological fields, we strive to teach real, cutting edge techniques to filmmakers around the globe. We also seek to build an online community of filmmakers to help forge long-term connection between filmmakers from all disciplines.
http://www.powerfilmmaking.com

Screenwriting Software and Sooooo Much More

A colleague recently turned me on to celtx, which describes itself as "Integrated Pre-Production".

Wow this software is cool. Not only does it allow you to write scripts/screenplays in a variety of traditional formats, but you can also complete many project chores in the software. Everything from character breakdowns to production schedules, and more.

(As with any open source software - or just creative work in general - I would print out a hard copy every once in a while, just in case. I've had no problems with the software, but my friend has found a couple of bugs here and there.)

When Planning Your Shoot...

Don't forget to check the Weather : "Google Earth Forecasts and Displays Current Weather The recent Google Earth update introduced lots of new layers, but one extremely useful layer that passed under our radar (as it were) at first glance was the addition of a new weather layer. The layer includes radar information, current conditions, and forecasts pulled every 15 minutes from Weather.com and a cloud layer that updates hourly from the Naval Research Laboratory. So if you're already obsessed with Google Earth for its stargazing and live flight tracking features, now you've got one more use for the freeware, cross-platform atlas."

Pre-Production Means Research

In my classroom, video pre-production includes research. Back in the day, this meant hitting the pavement and heading down to the library. Now, students have so much at their fingertips - but I find many of them don't know more than the basics. Here's an article with some tips for taking your google searches to the next level. I pasted the article into Word and made it into a handout that I give to the kids - and keep one at my desk too.

12 Quick Tips To Search Google Like An Expert