Just how To Be A Filmmaker

There is somebody in my family who is studying to become a filmmaker. My 20 year old son's lifelong wish is to make movies. He is zealous and committed, and he shows a lot of genuine talent. However, being dyslexic, he has never performed well in the traditional school environment, and the idea of attending film school was daunting to him. Nevertheless, his passion has driven him to find other ways to learn.

He did what anybody with a need would do, he taught himself and became responsible for his on success.

When he was on 2nd grade my boy started homeschooling and with the discovery of his dyslexia we need to use alternate methods of teaching for him. We need to transform his home school into something more or less similar to a film school when he decided to study in order to become a filmmaker. We invested in a quality camera and pc. We turned films into classes and read many books on filmmaking and storytelling aloud and we also talked about concepts for a film. As he examined movies and books about films, my son was astonished at how many of his favorite directors had never been to (or completed) film school-people like Christopher Nolan, Robert Rodriguez, and even Stephen Spielberg. He then thought that if they were able to do it then he is in a position of making it at the same time.

But possibly the most significant part of his education in studying to be a filmmaker was actually in producing two short films. He took story concepts he'd had in his head, and figured out how to write them in script form. He used a storyboard for his script and plotted the sequence of the shots, just like in the book. Friends and family became cast and crew, and on one event he even held a casting call at a local modeling institution. He visited places to look for shooting locations and acquired the necessary papers in order to be able to film there. During the first short film, he dealt with many pitfalls and a lot of stress, as he experienced firsthand the reality of what it takes to make a movie. But by the second short movie, he knew a lot more about what he was performing. He learned how to anticipate, take things gently, make the necessary changes when the situation calls for it. He acted like a professional on the location.

Presently, my boy's second short film has gained national recognition through national competition in several film festivals. He is writing the screenplay for his first full-length film, and plans to use his short film as a "calling card" of sorts, to show what he can do and secure financial backing for the full-length movie when the script is complete. This is the story of how my son grew to become a filmmaker.