How to make your first feature film

I read your 2 page "book" and it's pretty funny. It's unfortunate that you think Star Wars was the picture of the century when it was pretty much a tongue-in-cheek funny feature film made for children growing up in the 1980's. Today, it's been replaced with Harry Potter.

Please take a look at some major films of the 1900's starting with Charlie Chaplin "Modern Times" and other silent gems. Then progress thru 1930 & 40's with Gone With The Wind, The Wizard of Oz, & Citizen Kane. Go through each decade and study the best films. Come up to date with a host of others paying close attention to what all the major film and media organizations awarded over the years. There wouldn't be enough room here to mention all the incredible talent and techniques "behind the scenes".

I saw myself in your book as a tiny child playing with my father's reel-to-reel (that's a tape recorder). The play and record buttons were so stiff, my tiny fingers couldn't push them down.

Your book could be made a lot better by approaching it as a teacher. You could divvy up what you've written into much much smaller lesson plans adding much more fact and instruction and a lot less personal history (read: comedy) to the lessons.

For example, Lesson 1 would be, "How to write an basic screenplay using freeware" using 10-15 pages to demonstrate how exactly this would be done for a feature. You can add your personal flavor etc to each lesson. Lesson 2 would be, "How to find equipment", etc, where you can add, again, your personal comedic history.

Good job and HTH...but your true calling may be writing...of which there's also a huge industry
 
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Today, it's been replaced with Harry Potter.
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Harry Potter has nothing on Star Wars. (Good films, but nowhere near as powerful or interesting as SW IMO)

Interesting read. I think for something like this to be truly helpful it would have to be a lot more in depth as zoob mentioned. A good thing for people to read if they'e just starting out.
 
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Lesson 1 would be, "How to write an basic screenplay using freeware" using 10-15 pages to demonstrate how exactly this would be done for a feature. You can add your personal flavor etc to each lesson. Lesson 2 would be, "How to find equipment", etc, where you can add, again, your personal comedic history.
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Yeah, I'll be adding a little more detail, but the overall point was to simplify the process so someone brand new could follow along. I think a lot of times we try to over complicate our art, and it scares off some of the newcomers. Yes, I have seen all the movies you mentioned. Personally, I can't stand the potter flicks. I'm not saying SW is the greatest thing of all time, but it's an example most people have seen.

ChrisHurn, what do you think should be expanded on?
 
ChrisHurn, what do you think should be expanded on?
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Sorry - forgot to get back to this! I think you could expand on just about anything, whatever you feel like. At the end of the day, you could write a shelf of books on each topic alone, and still have more to talk about!

You certainly can write well, and it's easy to follow. Basically you want to get each section to the point where the beginner can see the basic idea, and then be pointed in the right direction for more information. Links to other articles etc. FilmmakerIQ.com has some awesome lists of links and articles, videos, etc.

So that once the reader has taken in that basic theory, they can spend hours and hours more digging into each subject.
 
Oh yeah! FilmmakerIQ.com is a great site. Definitely need to add that. Thanks for your input, I'll work on revising it when I'm done with my new feature.
 
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