Blog Entries

By James Napoli. Flashbacks Nothing provokes a more knee-jerk “don’t do it” reaction from screenwriters than the decision to include one or more flashbacks in one’s screenplay. We can, of course, understand this compulsion to remain linear, and the gut instinct that to tell the story from beginning to end is the only pure way to make narrative cinema work. It’s probably – largely – true, especially when one thinks about the criminally overused technique of whiting out to flashbacks in...

By James Napoli As the head of our Screenwriting MFA at Western, I thought it would be interesting to post some articles on screencraft for your review. I hope you find them helpful! I had an interesting experience while binge-watching the first two seasons of the beautifully acted and tonally flawless British television series Broadchurch. In an attempt to keep this article spoiler-free, I will simply say that the program, which concerns itself with the murder of a child in a small town...

Favorite Class: Producing with Summer Shelton Summer is a working professional who taught the basics of line producing. We used Movie Magic Budgeting and Scheduling to create a budget (group project) and shooting schedule for a film Ms. Shelton had already produced in NYC. I watched it on Amazon Prime prior to even reading the script to breakdown. I didn’t want to take this class but was told it was required to take Production 2. Honorable Mention: Directing 2 with Niav Conty Niav is...

I'm checking into FilmSchool.org during one of my very few nights off. I'm streaming THE WRONG PARIS on Netflix and it's hitting all it's Netflix Original marks. I would love to write one of these films. But first I have several other original fantasy and dark comedy projects I have to attend to, and they might be too niche for Netflix. I'd love for them to be distributed through Mubi. (that is some real talk about my creative goals). The most notable thing about my Year 2 (I'm 3 weeks in)...

Last night, our class screened our rough cuts for our Production 1 films. We had snacks and cheered and some people had to rush off to help a third-year work on his thesis film. I’m mostly happy with what got shot and I think the whole short will be made in post-production. Principal photography was really about getting the raw material shot and now the magic is in the editing of it. My “rough cut” I screened last night is not something I’d show the general public because it was just me...

Spring Break has finally arrived and it's time to exhale a bit. This semester I had one day where I completely could not do anything productive because I was so worn out. So I gave myself a mental health day and just watched TV all day on my couch (and was cared for by my very supportive partner - I highly recommend getting one of those). Next week I'll be using my time to decorate the set for my short film SLEEPING MOTHER to get a sense of what I can accomplish in the space (I'm using my...

My therapist today told me I was exhibiting signs of burn out. Chiefly, lack of motivation to finalize my edit for the short film TASTE that I made as part of my Directing 1 curriculum. But I’m sure there are other factors at play — I want there to be an expert hand on the edit and I don’t think I’m that expert. Do I want to be? No, not really. I’m happy to be the writer/director and not the editor. Also, I’m not 100% happy with what we shot and why we shot it. Just by Googling, A.I...

I've been chronicling my MFA in Film journey by posting weekly updates on Facebook. (Yes, people still use Facebook) In the process, it was suggested to me that I post here on FilmSchool.org so here I am. I am a screenwriting major but Stony Brook's program has us producing, shooting, directing and editing as well. It's really a program for people who want to call themselves "filmmakers" rather than someone that may be certain that they only want to write. After my first semester, I am...

Thanks to our wonderful Supporting Members we are now able to offer the Student Blog feature to all members on the site. All members can create a blog. This is the home for all your blog entries on the site. This blog's home page is here. Once you have a blog home page you can then create blog entries or blog posts. Blog entries can be: An introduction about yourself and why you're into film and what you want to do Updates on your application process Chronicling the shooting of a film...