film tutorials
If a career homeless bum, started a film school, what would it look like?
In 2004 I was sleeping in a parking lot in Downtown Los Angeles, when I came to the realization that you make a feature length film with almost nothing. Movie Technology had come down to the masses in the form of Apple's iMovie and the new one and three chip digital video cameras. There were no longer any insurmountable financial obstacles to over come. To the point where even someone who was homeless, penniless, and uneducated as myself was capable of making a movie.
So thats what I went about doing. Piece by piece, 5 minutes here, 3 minutes there, frame by 29.98 digital frame at a time. From the day I thought up the idea to the day I finished my 2 1/2 hour movie it took me three years almost exactly to the day. I called it "Sketches of Nothing by a Complete Nobody".
I found out the hard way and three years later, that one person can not make a feature film. So how did I do it? I did it because I didnt know it was impossible while I was doing it.
Now I want to teach what I do know. I didnt go to film school before I started making my film. In fact I dropped out of school after the 7th grade, and I had never seriously looked through a video camera before I started. I learned everything along the way.
Did I really do it? Yes. How? I will explain that as I go along.
Was it any good? No. Was it watchable..Yes. How? Because I did learn the basic rules of film grammar.
I'm not trying tell you I know how to teach you to make a great film. I don’t know how to do that because I've never made a great film myself. But if you follow these laws of film grammar, I do guarantee you will make a watchable film. Whether that will actually be good or great film will hinge on circumstances beyond anyone’s control save God. Make no mistake.... The fact that any truly great film gets made is not an accomplishment, but a metaphysical miracle. That you will have to learn somewhere else....but a film class I can teach.
Was it a waste of time? No. Because I accomplished something very few people in this world have ever done: I made a feature film. I made my mark on the world. And if I can do it...then you have no excuse.
Bumdog Torres writer, filmmaker and a career homeless bum. now adds "Professor of Film" to his resume.
Finally a Film School for people who know nothing about film...Taught by someone who knows nothing about film.