Pre-Production:
Movie Outline Software http://www.movieoutline.com – It is essential to make a detailed outline of your film before you do anything. It will help you understand your story better which will help you move to the next step of writing the script. This software will help you to quickly and easily create an outline for your film projects. I’ve even written an entire script in this program (not what the software is for). The price has gone up significantly since I first purchased it so I can only recommend it if you really really need it.

Celtx Software http://celtx.com – This is thee software to have if you are an independent filmmaker. It is the one stop shop for all your filmmaking needs (wow that’s corny… but true). I use this program exclusively for writing outlines, scripts, creating lists of cast, crew, props, and sets, putting together my shooting schedules and much more! And best of all… It’s FREE!

Production:
I don’t have anything to add as a resource during the production phase because all I’m concerned about during this time is shooting. I’m not logging any tapes, filling out any forms or any other paper work. I’m shooting my scenes according to my shooting schedule, making changes to my script on the fly and watching the tapes after each shoot to catch any issues that need to be addressed by re-shooting.

Post-Production:
I’ll also keep this section simple because I don’t want you to get hung up on what tools to use for editing your film if you decide to edit the films yourself (I don’t plan to edit my films anymore.) You do need professional tools for editing; not necessarily for trimming and ordering but definitely for color correction, effects, transitions, and audio processing. I use Adobe Premier because it’s very easy to use. I use it to trim my footage, put the film together in the sequence it’s going to be in, and arrange the audio for the film. I use Adobe After Effects for everything else (for the video only. I never import the audio.), such as color correction (the first thing I worry about), and any other necessary effects like camera movements and transitions. Lastly, I use Adobe Audition to process any problematic audio (I try my best to shoot perfect audio so it is not something I have to “fix” when editing). Once I’ve corrected problematic audio in Adobe Audition, I import it back into Adobe Premier. Adobe Premier automatically links to Adobe Soundbooth for editing audio but Adobe is crazy. Soundbooth is a substandard audio program and I don’t know why they think film audio doesn’t need as much care as a musician’s audio. Adobe Audition has been around for longer than Adobe has owned it (used to be Cool Edit) and has outstanding, easy to use audio processing tools.

Release:
Kunaki.com – $1.75. Yes, that’s right. For $1.75 each you get retail ready DVDs plus full color covers and inserts using Kunaki.com. These DVDs and the printing are of the same quality you see in retail stores. To make this even sweeter, these DVDs are made on demand! So you don’t need to shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars for stock you may never get rid of.

Filmbaby.com – If you want great personal customer service from a respected industry company with a great history with indie artists, this is the company for you! Filmbaby.com is owned by the same people who own CDbaby.com and they offer affordable easy to use services for selling your films. And best of all, they accurately report sales and pay you when they are supposed to pay you…consistently. Switching all of my films over to them is the best thing I could have done for myself.

Promotional:
I can’t stress to filmmakers enough how important it is to have a website for your film company and/or your individual films. Let’s face it, many of of the earth’s inhabitants are slaves to the web. *Smile* It is the easiest and cheapest way to get the word out about your films. Making a website can be free or near free so there is really no reason not to have one.

4 Steps to getting your website ready:
1. Get good hosting (linux/unix hosting with Cpanel is highly recommend) – Hostgator.com is my favorite.
2. In Cpanel (fantastico), or on your own, install a content management script (Joomla.org, Drupal, WordPress.org, etc.).
3. Fill it up with content about your film company and film projects.
4. Invest in an outstanding design template if you have no graphics design skills. I can not stress this enough. An uninteresting site is a worthless site, just like an uninteresting advertisement is an invisible advertisement (i.e. you website should not look like it was made in the early 90s). If you need great templates for many of the popular, free content management scripts visit: Templatemonster.com, joomlart.com, and many others.

If you need outstanding quality print media, I’d recommend GotPrint.com. I haven’t had too much of a need to use them for my films (but have used them for my publishing company) but you will need print media if you plan to work the film festival circuit.

Tutorials:
Videocopilot.net – If you are interested in producing professional quality films with great effects, or just to learn how to use Adobe After Effects, this is the site for you. Not only do they have incredibly useful tools for purchase, they have fantastic free tutorials and an entire website dedicated to help you learn the basics of Adobe After Effects; a boot camp if you will.

Enjoy your art, Cheers!

So how does rentacoder.com (Rent-A-Coder) work? Simple. As a buyer, you sign up for a new account, post a bid request which offers details about your project and service providers place bids on the project. There are all sorts of terms and options you can choose from to make sure your project goes as smoothly as possible. There are also help documents throughout the site on what to do to help your project along and what your options are if something goes wrong. Sound good? Well, what no one tells you up front is that all of this is irrelevant once you have accepted a coder’s bid and have put your hard earned money into rentacoder.com’s escrow system (a system they put in place because they were robbed).

When something does in fact go wrong with your project, the “arbitrator”, some non-technical individual (arbitrator confirmed they are a non-technical arbitrator), gives you two options. The first option is simply a time waster that will no doubt cause you to loose the arbitration and your money (i.e. lets spend weeks going over what the coder has done so far, just to have us decide they’ve done alright in our eyes because we can’t do what they can do). The second option which seems to be the true standard with rentacoder.com (Rent-A-Coder) is the “wait until the coder fails” option. This option forces you to continue with a coder even if they tell you they can not do what you are asking them to do or if it’s very clear that the coder doesn’t understand a word you are saying. What that translates into to me is that there is no arbitration. When you pick a coder, you are stuck with them. It doesn’t matter what it says on their website. When you pick a coder at rentacoder.com (Rent-A-Coder), you are STUCK with them!

Alarm bells should be ringing in your ears right now. If the obvious is evident when you start the arbitration and it is ignored by the arbitrator or deemed “O.K.”, how will they make the best decision for everyone when the deadline comes? To make this a little more clear… if you see a gaping hole in the road and no way around it but to take another road, how can you trust the navigator to do the right thing when they tell you to keep going on the road with the crater until you fall in?

In addition, the website pumps buyers up, telling them to make sure they are diligent in making sure their project is going the way it should. The rentacoder.com (Rent-A-Coder) site throws around phrases like “It’s your project”, but in the end, it’s the coder’s project in the eyes of rentacoder.com (Rent-A-Coder). If you ask the coder to give you an “accurate” mock-up (a requirement for the project that you choose when you set it up) and the coder fails to deliver this mock-up, “So, What?” says rentacoder.com (Rent-A-Coder). If you ask the programmer to confirm understanding on various important aspects of your project (the rentacoder.com (Rent-A-Coder) site strongly suggest buyers do this to make sure they get what they expect from their programmer) and they do not do this at any time , “So, What?” screams rentacoder.com (Rent-A-Coder). If you ask the coder “Hey can you add this link to the front page?” and their answer to that is “I like apples on Tuesdays with cheese and crackers.” because they don’t understand a word you said, “Pay them!” says rentacoder.com (Rent-A-Coder)!

This is the bottom line rentacoder.com (Rent-A-Coder)! When people post projects on rentacoder.com (Rent-A-Coder) and pay their money for that project, it is absolutely unacceptable to force them to use a coder who clearly can not do the job. It is also unacceptable to make buyers waste time and wait for the coder to fail especially when you have an arbitration system in place. Currently at rentacoder.com (Rent-A-Coder) as a buyer, you have no control over your project once you choose a programmer and the only thing you can count on is your time will be wasted with a high probability of your money being stolen from you (Yes, if you force me to pay for a box of coal when I’ve asked for a box of diamonds and the money I’ve given you is in fact the appropriate amount for a box of diamonds, then you have stolen from me).

*Note* A similar site is scritplance.com. They do the exact same thing only they don’t make you wait until the coder fails, they just make you wait and wait and wait. Deadlines don’t matter at all at scriptlance.com. Eventually they do give you your money back but they make sure they punish you sufficiently first.

Update:
In light of some of the hostile comments and mail being left about views expressed in this article, I felt it necessary to add a little more. There seems to be a misunderstanding here. Some seem to think I have reading and comprehension problems or that I have not tried the magic formula that would have surely made my experience better. However, these are mere misunderstandings. I do not have reading and comprehension problems and did in fact read all of the help documents provided by the site before getting started. There is so much to choose from while setting up a bid request you have no choice but to jump over to the help pages to make sure you are choosing the best option for your project. Also because I was coming from a rather insane experience on scriptlance.com, I was definitely all over the information about how the site works and the mediation/arbitration feature. It all made sense and sounded good as written. However, Rent-A-Coder is not following their own documentation.

As for this magic formula…. it made me laugh. The magic formula is: Look at the programmer’s reviews, at their portfolio, how many jobs they’ve completed or didn’t complete, the details of any disputes they may have already had, etc. This is very helpful and one would be a fool not to do this. However, it is not the magic formula to success. Project success relies on all involved. There are many ways to create programmer accounts with all of these in order and still not be a the best programmer or the best programmer for every job applied or bid on. Some issues come not from deception or incompetence but from poor judgment. It seems many programmers want to do the projects they bid on, but for whatever reason, bid with completion times they can not meet, unreasonable rates (too low for the amount of work they have to do) or just become “yes” men/women and later after they’ve accepted a job, realize it is more than they can handle.

However, this article wasn’t directed at programmers or buyers, although it seems those who are angry about this article are programmers or those who provide outsourcing who use Rent-A-Coder. So because they rely heavily on it, or it works for them, how dare I talk about it not working for me. *Smile* There are less than honest programmers out there, just like there are less than honest buyers or buyers who don’t know what they want or who haven’t read the site documents. There is no arguing that. However, you can’t assume that everyone who has a complaint did not understand what they were getting into or did not use the magic formula.

Let me restate the issue. Rentacoder.com does not follow it’s own documentation. Rentacoder.com has a faulty and useless arbitration system. Both of which makes their services not worth using.

Update: 2
Rentacoder.com chooses to be the robber instead of doing the right thing. I’ve been forced to pay the cancellation fee because the programmer doesn’t have any money in his account (he lost the arbitration). How convenient! So any lousy programmer can open an account, never keep money in it and fail to deliver what they agreed and never have to pay for it. And if they want, they can go ahead and open a new account under a different name (yes I had a person message me and say he works with two different accounts on Rentacoder.com. It doesn’t matter if they say it’s not allowed they need to have a way to keep it from happening). Rentacoder.com could easily make the programmer’s account negative or even be smart like odesk and require everyone to have a registered form of payment and make these deductions when the arbitration is lost. It is just unacceptable to make the winning party of an arbitration pay a cancellation fee because the loosing party doesn’t have the money in their account (especially if nothing is in place to make sure Rentacoder.com can get their fees in such a situation). What a pathetic business this has turned out to be.

Purpose: The purpose of this exercise is to help you understand different personalities and how you must bring them to life in your stories.

With a Narcissistic personality “people have an inflated sense of their own importance and a deep need for admiration. They believe that they’re superior to others and have little regard for other people’s feelings. But behind this mask of ultra-confidence lies a fragile self-esteem, vulnerable to the slightest criticism.” – Mayo Clinic

Your goal then would be to also make the contrast between what this person shows on the outside and what they feel on the inside and how this duality would affect how they perceive disappointment, what they feel they deserve in life and work, and his or her relationships.

Tips: Before you start this exercise decide what this character feels he or she is superior at. Then decide what this person is truly capable of and what others around them feel he or she is capable of. Also include dialogue within his or her own thoughts as well as dialogue this person has with co-workers before they learn they didn’t get the promotion and after they learn this information.

If you would like to have your story posted, please fill out this submission form. By submitting your work, you can gain valuable feedback from myself and fellow readers. I reserve the right to decline any submission for any reason.

Purpose: The purpose of this exercise is to help you learn to take a simple concept and turn it into a piece of work you and your readers can enjoy. You have a short span (3 pages) in which you can build characters and develop a meaningful and interesting story. This exercise also gives you the opportunity to write about what you would like to write about without having to consider what you think readers would like to read. I’ve always written what I enjoy reading because I love to read my own work. In doing so, I feel I have been able to create more interesting stories and I discovered that others also liked reading what I enjoy reading as well. So take this opportunity to just think about you.

Tips: This is a creative writing exercise, think outside the box. You have 24 hours to live, 3 characters, and 3 locations are the only things you have to consider when writing the story. You don’t even have to be a human being, be on planet earth, be in the present, or even die at the end. Be creative!

If you would like to have your story posted, please fill out this submission form. By submitting your work, you can gain valuable feedback from myself and fellow readers. I reserve the right to decline any submission for any reason.

Purpose:The purpose of this exercise is to help you get used to writing from your own creative reservoir and to get you to write based on your mood at that very moment (not what you think readers will want to read). While a jump starter may spark your creative energies, it doesn’t tell you were to go from there. It is completely up to you. A creative writer has to be come comfortable with making decisions about a storyline. Don’t second guess where you are going with it, just go with what you feel at that moment.

Tips: Try not to spend too much time thinking about what to add to this paragraph, just write! Challenge yourself to take it some place one would never expect. For instance, I could have written about two people falling in love in an orchard and you could have added imagery of the couple actually being in the imagination of a disabled woman who stares at a plastic couple inside of a snow globe everyday, wishing her life were different. Get my drift?

Add to the following paragraph: Joyce tried to blink her eyes; nothing. Her eyes were so dry they hurt. She couldn’t bare another moment of it. Joyce attempted to use her hands to close her eyelids but they too would not move. In a panic, she tired moving other parts of her body. Nothing would move. She tried to scream but also paralyzed, her mouth would not open. Joyce frantically replayed the day’s events in her mind hoping to find some answers. “Where was she? Why couldn’t she move?” she thought.

If you would like to have your story posted, please fill out this submission form. By submitting your work, you can gain valuable feedback from myself and fellow readers. I reserve the right to decline any submission for any reason.

Purpose: The purpose of this exercise is to help you learn and get used to using emotions to enhance the characters you create when writing creatively.  Part of what makes a good creative story a wonder to read is the writer’s ability to take readers on an emotional journey through storytelling and character development.

Emotion(s): Love, compassion

Sex: Male, Female

The Basics for Character Depth: Names
Appearance
Possessions / props
Speech
Body language
Habits
Behaviour
Background
Major traits

Tips: Before you start this exercise take some time to get a feel of what “love” and “compassion” actually mean to you. What does it mean to “love” someone? What is compassion?  What are some of the many ways someone can show love and compassion? Be sure to relax and let yourself feel these emotions as you write. While you are writing, live in the moment. Live in your own story because when you stop typing or when you put your pen or pencil down, then the world reappears around you. Until then, it doesn’t exist.

If you would like to have your story posted, please fill out this submission form. By submitting your work, you can gain valuable feedback from myself and fellow readers. I reserve the right to decline any submission for any reason.