Rex Provost is an award-winning writer/director based in New York. When he’s not making movies he’s writing about them.
Storyboards can be a crucial backbone in the filmmaking process. Understanding what you’ll be shooting on a given day, and making sure that your crew does as well, often makes the production process much smoother and more efficient. In this post, we’ll look at how to make a storyboard template so that you can hit the ground running for your next shoot. Continue reading How to Make a Storyboard Template — A Step-by-Step Guide
Narrative films are made up of scenes. It should come as no surprise that a screenwriter needs to know how to write a scene. Every great scene carries emotional weight, character change, and story propulsion. If you can’t write a good scene, you can’t write a good movie. So, what are some of the fundamental elements of a great scene? How can you incorporate them into your script? Time to break down how to write a scene, and look at some scene examples.Continue reading How to Write a Scene — Elements of a Great Scene Explained
The world would be a lot more boring without figurative language. Look at your favorite novel, essay, monologue, script– you’re guaranteed to find at least a few figurative language examples. But what is figurative language? And what are its different types? We’re going to answer those questions by outlining a figurative language definition alongside a myriad of examples. Now, let’s define figurative language, see what forms it can take, and how it can be used! Continue reading 7 Types of Figurative Language (With Examples)
Montages are crucial to the filmmaking language. A great montage can last in your audience’s head long after they’ve left a theater or turned off their television. But creating a great montage requires planning– how are your shots going to interact? In this post, we’ll look at how to storyboard montage sequences to know how they will look before even arriving on set.Continue reading Storyboard Montage — A Guide to Pre-Visualizing a Montage
In narrative filmmaking, the relationship between the director and the actors is arguably the most important relationship on set. And yet, for many directors beginning their careers, the process of working with an actor can seem mystifying. No one director collaborates with actors the same way, and yet many of the most celebrated actors’ directors follow certain tenets. Study up, and you can help create a great performance.Continue reading Directing Actors — How to Get the Best Performances
A screenplay is an entirely different beast than a novel, essay, or poem. Instead of a finished work of art, a screenplay is a blueprint for a final product — and yet it still requires artistry. The modern screenplay has strict formatting requirements and conventions. Before you become the next great screenwriter, you need to know the rules of the medium, where they come from, what forms they take, and how they’re used. In this ultimate guide, we'll cover the history of screenplays, their elements, and their types. Let's jump in.Continue reading What is a Screenplay — The Ultimate Guide…
This opening paragraph is a hook to get you to keep reading. And just as a blog post needs to quickly capture the interest of a reader, a screenplay needs to grab the attention of its audience. Scripts with great hooks are more likely to be read all the way through, and scripts that are read all the way through are more likely to turn into movies. In this post, we teach you how to write the first ten pages of a screenplay. Are you hooked?Continue reading How to Write the First Ten Pages of a Screenplay
Production call sheets are arguably the backbone of a well-run film production. They provide all the crucial information everyone needs to know before they show up on set. Without a call sheet, it is exponentially more difficult to maintain professionalism, organization, and efficiency during your shoot. Let’s look at what call sheets do, why they're important, and what you need to know to make one.Continue reading How to Make a Production Call Sheet From Start to Finish
Humans are multitaskers. We can listen to the news while doing dishes; we can pat our heads and rub our stomachs; and we can walk and talk. Humans in movies and TV especially love to do the last option. The walk and talk is a strategy used by directors in countless shows and films. Let’s look at how the walk and talk works, where it shows up, and why you may want to use it.Continue reading The Walk and Talk in Film & TV — Writing & Shooting Tips
There’s no one way to make a movie. In fact, there’s an infinite number of ways to make one. But in Hollywood, the general contours of a film’s creation hit similar story beats (to borrow a screenwriting term). Whether you are helming a massive studio blockbuster or grinding away at a microbudget indie film, the stages of film production often are the same.Continue reading Stages of Film Production — Overview of the Entire Process
