I was lucky enough to spend some of todays session speaking to an award winning director from California.
Ellen Perry, director of a new movie with a Liverpool FC theme was in town to promote the premiere of 'Will'.
The film is based upon the central child character will's obsession with Liverpool FC and the relationship he has with his father, around the time of the UEFA champions league final in Istanbul (2005).
Ellen kindly took time out to answer questions from students and it was an eye-opening experience having the opportunity to speak to a successful fiction film maker for the first time - who incidentally also started out at Screen School. (USC)
Amongst other things, I used this amazing opportunity to obtain some great advice relating to film making.
"Know your genre"
"I can't emphasise enough how important planning is"
"Its possible to tell a story successfully in 10 seconds".
"Learn your craft first no matter what type of film maker you intend to be, documentaries or fiction"
"As a director, always have the final say with casting choices, you will know who the right person is"
I explained that our production team had been given the following brief:
Produce a 2 minute short entitled 'People On The Move".
Both myself and fellow student/group member Tommy pitched our very early ideas to Ellen, who described our situation as: "One of you is trying to do Chaplin, while the other one does Buster Keaton". How very hollywood! :)
To think Ellen started out at film school just like me is such an achievement and certainly something to asipre towards. Here's hoping...
To learn more about Ellen and her new film, 'Will', check out the link below:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1788079/
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