26 Screenplays

We are proud to announce our sponsorship of the Filmspotting podcast for a few shows. If you don’t listen to Filmspotting, it is the best film review podcast available.

We are proud to announce that, once a month, we will be donating a copy of the book for educational purposes. If you are instructing a class and would like a sample book, simply visit the Educational Donation page of the web site, and complete the form. You will be submitted in our monthly drawing for a free book. All you have to do is complete the application form once, and you will be entry will carry over to the next drawing if you do not win.

The form asks your position, how many students you plan on having in your class, and how you plan on using the book in a classroom setting.

‘26 Short Screenplays for Independent Filmmakers‘ is an ideal workbook for a film or drama class. If you are an instructor who wants to incorporate the book into your classroom, please apply for a donation. We will even feature the resulting films on the 26 Screenplays when your class concludes.

This week’s episode of This American Life devoted the first quarter of the show to elevator pitches.

Part of the art of filmmaking is film funding. You may have the greatest idea for a movie ever, but no one will pay you to make it unless you can convince them you are worth the investment. What makes it more difficult is that the creative mind and the business mind seem to speak in completely different languages.

The secret is the elevator pitch. The elevator pitch is the idea that you are stuck on an elevator with a potential source of funds. You have a brief period of time to convince that person that he or she should fund your project. And this is where being a filmmaker works for you more than being a business person. Filmmakers know how drama works. Filmmakers know how to hook an audience and take them for a wild ride. Filmmakers know how to keep people interested.

So practice your elevator pitch. You never know when it might come in handy.

Apparently, Amazon.com allows authors to write reviews of their own books. So I wrote one, giving myself a much-deserved five-star rating. Actually, I did this so I could publish the Table of Contents. Amazon gives reviewers more space than they do people writing the book descriptions.

Read the review here, or just scroll down.

Completely unbiased 5-star review from the author.

Many authors review their own books, but they do it in a sneaky way so you can’t really tell the author is writing the review. Not in this case. I am openly acknowledging that I wrote this book and that this book merits five starts because, to put it bluntly, this book changed my life. It could potentially change yours as well.
This book contains 26 short film project scripts released under the Creative Commons Attribution license. All you have to do is put the appropriate credits on your film, and your obligation to the copyright holders is complete. If you make money off your film, you pay no licensing fee. If you expand one of these scripts into a feature film, more power to you. If somehow you are able to take one of these script ideas and manage to turn it into a reality television show, then, by golly, you deserve everything you get.
The 26 short film project scripts are classified as follows:
-Monologue 1
-Monologue 2
-Dialogue 1
-Dialogue 2
-The Public Service Announcement (PSA)
-Pseudo-Documentary Style 1
-Pseudo-Documentary Style 2
-Showcasing Two Actors
-The Meet Cute Scene
-The Silent Film
-The Dining Scene
-The Car Chase
-The Bank Robbery
-The Montage
-The Party Scene
-The Long Single Take
-The Meta Film
-Showcase an Actor
-Showcase an Actress
-Science Fiction Short
-Animated Short
-The Dramatic Short
-The Therapy Short
-The Horror Short
-The Satirical Short
-The High-Concept Short
Each of these projects have cast lists and setting lists. They also have ideas for customizing the script or tweaking it to match your resources. Some scripts even have storyboards to help you visualize the movie.
This is a great book for someone who wants to try experimenting with film making or for a professional who wants to expand his or her portfolio. It is well worth it.

I fully recognize that purchasing a book sight unseen is a little daunting. While I don’t feel comfortable posting the entire book for free on the internet, I do feel comfortable posting portions of the book for free on the internet.

With that in mind, you can now download the table of contents and the introductory material here.

If you have been downloading the fake trailer scripts (here and here) you will notice that some of the material looks familiar. That is the point, to get yourself familiar with the book and its contents. Hope you enjoy the free downloads.

This weekend’s On the Media had not only one, but two stories about copyright.

Here they are:

You can’t copyright jokes, just like you can’t copyright cooking recipes.

You can, however, copyright performances and comedic personalities and collections of recipes. This means that people can steal jokes as long as they are not copying comedic personalities. This makes for a more robust and thriving creative environment. Even if someone “steals” another person’s work, the creative community enforces standards and keeps people honest.

Which leads to the discussion about Carlos Mencia. The reason comedians seem so upset with Carlos Mencia is that he doesn’t not give credit where credit is due. There are dozens of comedians who crib from each other, but they are honest about where they got the jokes from. Some comedians, like Milton Berle, even make jokes about cribbing.

This is one of the reasons the book was released under Creative Commons Attributions license is that I want people to steal the material in the book. Just put my name in the credits and everything will be fine. Don’t be a Carlos Mencia; be a Milton Berle.

How many times have you said, “I love you”?

How many things have you meant when you said it? I desire you. I want you to feel guilty. Will you make me a sandwich?

Words, particularly written words, are the surface of a larger meaning. A particular director working with a particular set of actors can interpret a script many ways. Stage plays stand the test of time because they are constantly being renewed and redefined for the current generation. Ibsen might have written a play about people dying of syphilis, but it can easily be updated to refer to people dying of AIDS.

The flexibility of art is key to the longevity of art.

The screenplays in the book are designed to be taken apart, updated, and revised to meet the needs of a particular project. Each one holds interpretive surprises that are beyond what I, as the author, could ever dream of. That is part of what makes this project so exciting.

And, as a bonus, each film made from the book gets an “I love you” from me.

After much paperwork and emailing, the book, 26 Short Screenplays for Independent Filmmakers, is available on Amazon.com.

This should make for much easier for ordering.

Here is the link.

The purchasing links on the website will be updated with the Amazon listing shortly.

Thanks for your support!

In an effort to market the book, I have this reluctance to post chapter samples or other pieces of content for free on the website. Because the book is centered around a generous Creative Commons license, the contents are very close to public domain. Because of this, I live in the fear that making electronic versions available for free will cut into some of the book revenue.

However, the concepts behind the book, the idea and the structure of it are adaptable to a variety of scripts. With that in mind, I plan to spend 2010 writing and publishing (for free) 26 Fake Trailer screenplays on the website. These scripts use the format of the book and give people an idea of what to expect for their $26.00.

I am posting these on the 26 Screenplays message board in the Fake Trailer section. The first one – The Exploitation Film Trailer – is up now and can be downloaded here.

When all 26 of these are completed, they will be collected into a free eBook available on the site. This eBook should give people an idea of what they’re getting into when they buy the book.

The Radiolab podcast featured this video.

I have no idea what makes videos go viral. Usually the ones that dominate the internet have something interesting about them, but they do not necessarily show the craftsmanship of filmmaking the way this one does.

This film is a beautiful example of the cinematic language. The images do not have an inherent narrative to them. Only by the juxtaposition of the images through editing does something larger emerge. There is a question at the beginning, “What is a moment?” a failed attempt to answer it with words, and then an attempt to capture the power of a moment with images.

There is a rhythm and a pacing to this film. The screen strobes through a series of images and then lulls the mind into a meditative state by lingering on certain images. Few of these images are in and of themselves remarkable, but when they are stung together, they form a greater context that celebrates the ordinary moment and becomes both wonderful and heartbreaking all at once.

I wish more videos like this go viral.