Hi

I Live in toronto. i'm interested in direction but with no prior experience and eduction related to films.

I wanted to gain hands on experience in making films and screen writing , I'm working in toronto and wanted to do this on weekends . can any one give me good advise?

Hey neelu,

Here's my advice. A lot of it is self-explanatory, but still worth saying:

1) Watch as many movies as you can. You have the good fortune of living in a great film city, both for production and for moviegoing. Go to see at least one movie in the theater every week. Or two. Or three. Being a filmmaker is about being fully conversant with the language of film, so make an effort to watch as many different types of movies as you can so you can know exactly how to communicate what you want to communicate with film. Watching lots of movies is an essential part of any informal education in film production.

2) Read 'On Filmmaking' by Alexander Mackendrick - the single greatest book ever written on the craft of being a director written by one of the consummate craft filmmakers - working with actors, understanding how to convey mood, how to parse the underlying structures and motifs of a script. It's also a fantastic screenwriting guide, though to supplement that, you will want to look at David Trottier's The Screenwriter's Bible - Trottier isn't a screenwriting 'guru' (read: hack/idiot) like Syd Field or Bob McKee - he tells you the very basics of what you need to know about formatting, about spec structure, and about what goes in a screenplay, but he doesn't lie to you that there's a formula to writing a script. These two books are treasures, and they should be on the shelf of anyone who wants to make movies.

3) Look on Craigslist to see what's going on as far as upcoming shoots. Respond to anyone looking for PAs, and go onto the sets and meet people and become friends with other people who are interested in filmmaking. You'll find that at first you aren't doing a whole hell of a lot, especially if you're working on a production with a budget - being a PA often means sitting in a cube truck for hours and making sure no one walks off with its contents, but eventually you'll work your way up and meet people and have the opportunity to do new things. All the while observe anything you can about how the professionals on your sets work.

4) Buy a video camera. A really cheap one. And download Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere off some torrent site. Film stuff. Go out to the park and figure out the best way to make a tree look good. Invite a friend along and film them. Write little stories and shoot those. You gotta get practice if you want to be any good - it's like the Malcolm Gladwell thing about if you do 10,000 hours of practice, you'll become a master at whatever it is you're working on. But make sure your practice is educated and informed by the things you glean from watching movies, from reading about the craft of filmmaking and screenwriting, and from what you observe on others' sets.

Hope this helps.

@ brendonb,

awesome advice,esp 3rd point.What are you doing now btw?

seriously awesome advise,, thanks a lot