Category: Education

“Don’t Do a Short Film!”

The long and the ‘short’ of it with Two-Day Film School guru Dov Simens

We had the pleasure of interviewing filmmaking Two-Day Film School guru Dov Simens some years ago for Cyber Film School. What a gas! He’s bigger than life, a straight shooter, and what you see is what-you-get with this guy.

by Stavros C. Stavrides

Dov breaks down the filmmaking process, from script to production as a system based on a formula.  

For example, “Don’t let anyone tell you screenwriting is not a formula,” he says. “Screenwriting is a formula. We took it off of Shakespeare. Shakespeare took it from Marlowe. Marlowe took it from Plato. Plato took it from Aristotle. And I guarantee you Aristotle took it from a caveman!” He’s proud to teach.

Love him or hate him,  he’s had some interesting names walk through his doors before they became household names (well, at least in a filmmakers household – for the filmmakers who have houses) – Quentin Tarantino, Chris Nolan, Spike Lee, Kevin Smith, Queen Latifah, Guy Ritchie, among others.

He spells out his formula of feature filmmaking as he sees it. He advises that if you’re going through the trouble of hiring gear, actors, or a location, may as well do a feature – not a short film. Here we have his seven-minute-eleven-second hell-raising tirade that is his formula.  If you dig his drill sergeant manners in these few minutes,  imagine a two-day power weekend with Dov Simens!

We shot this interview some time ago – so his references to distribution revolve mostly around theatrical markets. Otherwise, Dov’s advice is timeless.

We had so much fun hanging out with this guy. Please leave comments below so we can kick around his ideas, for better or worse. Do you agree with his approach? Is filmmaking a formula? 

“Stop being scared of the word feature!”

 You can visit Dov and explore his program at webfilmschool.com  
*This link is provided for informational purposes and as a courtesy. Publisher of this post does not receive compensation, nor is it an endorsement. 

Ahead

  • Rhythm & Pacing
  • The Screenwriting Formula
  • Getting a Name Actor
  • Theatrical Distribution
  • The Production Formula

TRANSCRIPT:

It’s so dumb! I’m going to be the only teacher in the world that’s ever going to say, “Don’t do a short. Don’t do a short!” Does anybody buy shorts, that writes checks? NO! So your first business decision in the film industry is to make something that you are guaranteed not to be able to sell. Stupid!

Now let’s stop being scared of the word “feature,” but let’s do a feature that you can handle, which is a dressed up stage play, a courtroom drama, a one-room location. I jokingly in my class say, for the first feature film, “Here’s your formula. Take twelve kids to a house and chop them up. That you can handle. You know, it’s possible that will get out there. And there’s not one of you out there listening right now to this that can’t get a camera, can’t get some film or tape, can’t get twelve actors that are called waiters, put them in a room and tell them to talk for 90 minutes. Hit the “ON” Button.

Learn Rhythm and Pacing

“It takes about four or five scripts.”

The sole single biggest problem of first-time filmmakers had never become a second time filmmaker is they fall in love with the first typing that comes in front of their face, especially if they typed it themselves. They all believe they’re instantly Michael Jordan the first day they pick up a basketball. And in the film industry, in the writing industry, we believe even if you’re gifted about writing, you don’t really learn how to write the great script until your fourth or fifth script.

You got to learn the rhythm, learn the pacing. You can learn the formulas from the books. You can learn how to type from the books. But somehow the rhythm you can’t learn. It just happens. You got to play a little basketball for a while. You got to rehearse, and it takes about four or five scripts.

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The Screenwriting Formula

“I’m the blatant film instructor that cuts right to the chase.”

And the screenwriting instructors that are out there – Bob McKee, Syd Field, John Truby, Michael Hauge, Linda Seger, Viky King, Madeleine DiMaggio, they’re all very good. They give intensive one-day, two-day, three-day classes, etc. And they all talk around the Hollywood formula. They’re all paranoid about saying it’s a ‘formula’, screenwriting. They all swear it’s not a formula ‘cause god bless, some critic might criticize them for teaching formulaic screenwriting. And they all then teach a formula and they swear it’s not a formula, and they’ve all created little pseudonyms for what this is –‘paradigm,’ ‘inciting moments’, ‘plot points,’ whatever.

Well, I’m the blatant film instructor that cuts right to the chase. I’m gonna tell you right up front: screenwriting is a formula. We took it off of Shakespeare. Shakespeare took it from Marlowe. Marlowe took it from Plato. Plato took it from Aristotle. And I guarantee you Aristotle took it from a caveman.

Now you want the formula? I’ll give it to you. I’m proud to teach! I’m proud to be the great teacher, and here’s the formula:

Every screenplay that’s great has 5 “uh-oh’s”, “Oh shits!” and one “Oh my god!” in it – 5 “uh-oh’s”, “Oh shits!” and one “Oh my god!” in it.

There are 40 scenes in a movie maybe there are 50. You got your rollercoaster ride that’s built in there:

  • Introduce the boy
  • Introduce girl
  • Introduce the situation
  • Introduce the desire
  • Introduced they want to take an action
  • Introduce they take an action

Everything seems to be good and now, UH-OH!” We’re only about 8 to 10 minutes into the movie. Pull the carpet out from underneath them

Two scenes later give them a further complication called an, “Oh shit!” But we’re only about 12 to 15 minutes in the movie.

“Uh-oh! Oh shit…Uh-oh! Oh shit…Uh-oh! Oh shit…”

And then, “Oh my god! No way will they ever get through it!”

Two scenes later it gets resolved.

 Getting a Name Actor

It’s very important to have a name attached to your project. You’ve heard that ten thousand times. It’s very important to get a name attached to your project. But to get the name attached to your project you don’t have the check to pay it on your first project, so it’s ridiculous stuff. But when you get to your third feature film…If your first feature is a no-budget feature film that gets out there gets to the proper festival, gets picked up by a distributor, they will do creative bookkeeping, but they’ll make you famous and you probably won’t make a penny from it.

But then on your second film, now you’re gonna get a salary upfront a higher budget and you get a little bit of money in your pocket, you make your second film. And if your second film gets out there and makes money, now enough of the names! (If) the industry found out that “that guy or that woman is good, I want my name attached to their project because they’re going to take me to another level and they’ve proven they can make money,” then they’ll come to you.

Theatrical Distribution

“The best thing about you is when you’re done you’re broke!”

Distribution. If you can’t distribute you got to distribute and you’re not gonna distribute. Stop this dribble with this self-distribution crap. (If) you take your film, make a bunch of prints, put them in Edmonton, put in Calgary, put them in Toronto, put them In Denver, put them in Miami in a small theater, you’re gonna be in small claims court in every state in every city In North America trying to collect from theater owners that are close to broke. And if they ever do pay, you take six months before they ever pay you, so yes you need a distributor. You need a distributor.

You’re not going to get the major distributors – Warner Brothers, Paramount, 20th Century, Universal, but each one of the major distributors has a mini-major arm that’s smaller than a Miramax or New Line which is good also. A Strand Releasing, a Fox Searchlight, an Orion Classics, Sony classics. Now where are you gonna get this distributor? You know what? You’re gonna go to film festivals. You take your film and go to a festival. Every city in the world has cultural events, opera, ballet, symphony, the last thing is a Film Festival. So they need your film. But understand the film festival will charge you entrance fees, submission fee, projectionists, and booking the theater.

Why do you go to a festival? Every distributor in North America is making their own films themselves, but they know there are people out there like you, quote “independent filmmakers” that are dumb enough and stupid enough and naive enough to spend your own money. So obviously distributors are looking for you. You’re free! Do you know why distributors love you? You’re free. You’re cheap. You have no overhead, no guild or union affiliations, no development cost, and the best thing about you is when you’re done you’re broke!

The Production Formula

Get the script. How much money do you have? How many weeks can you afford to shoot? You can afford one week of shoot, that’s actually nine shooting days. Monday you rent the camera and the equipment over two weekends. You got a 90-page script, you got ten shooting days. That’s your shooting schedule.

(If) you got enough money for two weeks to feed a crew and pay your crew and rent the equipment for two weeks, you got 13 shooting days. Divide 13 into 90 pages, that’s a script – that’s 7 shooting (pages per) day. You got enough money for three weeks? That’s 18 shooting days divide that into a 90-page script, 5 shooting pages per day.

Five pages per day, you got approximately 12 hours of shooting daylight in the day, let’s take two hours for eating and getting ready. 10 hours of shooting, so five pages – one page every two hours. And in those two hours, I want a master shot, two medium shots, a reaction shot, a point-of-view shot, a cutaway shot, and a cat-in-the-window shot. So you got 18 to 20 minutes for each shot. On each shot, I want key lighting, backlighting, fill lighting, and possibly an eye light. And I don’t want the camera just on a tripod. I want it with some dollying and some little bit of camera movement, and “let’s go!”

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Teaching the ‘Tough-to-Teach’: This Alternative Education Film Class Unites a Community

Before his career as a producer and television personality, Adam Palmer was an alternative education teacher for his grade 7 to 12 students deemed ‘too tough to teach’. Adam never taught a film class or made a film, yet he launched a film class with a single book that changed their lives.

By Stavros C. Stavrides

Alternative Education: Teaching the ‘Tough To Teach’

Cyber Film School Teacher Adam Palmer

“At risk? I’m not a fan of that term. All youth are vulnerable at some point, to some degree.”

~Adam Palmer

The Teacher as a Student

Adam Palmer runs a youth inclusion program at a First Nations community school in Agassiz, British Columbia, ninety minutes west of Vancouver.

That is where the youth counsellor and teacher integrated his Alternative Education class into the high school environment at STS’Ailes (‘Chehalis’) First Nations community, where his students work at their own pace within the school’s mainstream curriculum.  Adam’s job is to keep them in school and out of the hands of the authorities.

Cyber FIlm School circled in Adam's Alterntative eduction film class.

Further, Adam works alongside English teacher Kevin Walsh, who offers extra marks for the script portion of the film program in support of the school’s curriculum. The school’s IT officer Mark Balfour admits,  “Some of these kids are tough as nails.”

Why a Film Class?

‘Alternative Education’ was never a term that came to Adam’s mind before this. Additionally, neither Adam nor English teacher Kevin had ever taught film. Yet their passion for the wellness of these students ended up as just one model that represents the term.

Adam began classes here as an Outdoor and Wilderness Education Teacher, involving his students in rigorous outdoor activities to foster land-based knowledge, teamwork, a sense of achievement, and self-worth.

Adam & student on Mountain as par of his Adam's Alterntative eduction class.
Adam also runs an outdoor program for his Alternative Education students.

“But not all of these kids are built for climbing and caving,” he admits. “There are the creative ones – the thinkers and the reflective among the bunch who would rather observe the doers. Getting them to participate was a bit of a push.”

However, on a wilderness expedition, Adam noticed a common thread that bound the group, despite their differences. The students took snapshots, recorded videos, and shared equally with each other, all enjoying a common interest, even if for moments at a time.

Learn a Chapter, Teach a Lesson

Student Filming with iPad n adam's Adam's Alterntative eduction film class
Students use their iPad and Mac to study and practice their filming/editing exercises and assignments
Tutorials, Exercises, and Assignments throughout the book progressively build essential, evergreen skills.

Formerly, Adam’s only filmmaking experience was as a video enthusiast, having produced a class video project in the past. “It was a lot of home-movie point-and-shoot stuff,” he admits. Not much film craft to it, and it didn’t get screened much. But it did bind the group in a new way.”

Soon after backed by little more than his passion for the subject and the eagerness of his students, Adam gave me a call.
“I want to start a film course at my school,” he said. “Can I use your program to do this?”

If you do this in earnest, you will learn to ‘speak’ a new language – a visual language of film, and so will your students.”

“Of course”, I replied confidently, even though we were still in its experimental phase. “But you’ll need to follow each chapter and do the exercises. If you do this in earnest, you will learn to ‘speak’ a new language – a visual language of film, and so will your students.”

Adam was a student as well as a teacher.

“Cyber Film School changed my life.”

Matthew, 14years old

Testimonial Video (3 minutes):

YouTube player
Matthew, 14: “Cyber Film School changed my life”

Getting Started

filming of students filming a scene, Example of project based learning with alternative education.
Grades 7 to 11 got together as a film crew on assignments and learned the value of teamwork.

Adam was already thinking of the capital outlay he would need to start a film course for his high school students.

“Does your school have iPads or Macs?” I asked.

“Yes,” he replied.

“Then you’re ready.”

The topics and exercises are generally structured in the manner of first-year film schools, where film language encompasses history, applied visual literacy, and the theory of the craft, with the beginner filmmaker in mind.

A camera movement assignment page from cyber film school Camera Movement chapter
A typical assignment provides a practical tutorial along with analytical theory.

The user/reader is thus freed up to learn, practice, and apply the very core of film language right on the iPad or iPhone.  

Although every chapter of this multi-touch textbook has exercises and assignments that can be shot, edited, and shared on just one device, A Mac computer and conventional camera enhance the experience.

For himself, Adam downloaded his copy through Apple Books using his Apple ID. Once he was satisfied, he made a volume purchase through the school through Apple’s Volume Purchase Program and distributed one copy of the textbook to each of the twelve students’ assigned iPads.

Class Film Project Trailer

Class Project Film Trailer (2 minutes)

YouTube player

Equipment

Adam opted to buy a kit from a third party, which outfits his iPads with additional lenses, lights, and microphones, for under $300. The holder/case itself is valuable as it helps mount the iPad to a tripod.

Ipad camera kit with lens and microphone

Sample of the iPad case kit Adam bought for his class. Shown are Wide Angle Lens, Direction Microphone, and case with handles and tripod mount.

Because Adam was a beginner filmmaker, his teaching routine was to study the week’s chapter ahead of time and understand the exercise himself right on his iPad. So in class, he went through the chapter’s sections and exercises with his students.

“I like the way the content is broken up into sections, which makes it easy to schedule class time for exercises, while leaving room for out-of-class assigments. So I basically learned about the process and I relayed the information,” he says. “We were all learning.”

The class reviews the Cyber Film School iBook’s sample videos and does the lighting exercises together.

Because he is limited to two hours and forty minutes over two weekly classes, Adam projects the Apple Book’s content – video clips, interviews, galleries, and diagrams onto a large screen through a wired connection.

Additionally, each student is equipped with a copy on their prescribed device. Therefore Adam conducts the chapter’s exercises as a group, while the students may study on their own.

“One of the greatest time-savers was the structured knowledge I was acquiring, which provided me with more educated and informed online searches to get specific information more quickly. “

Project Based Learning with Community Involvement

Two actors on cross the river in a filmed scene, part of their alrenatice education film class
Scene from “Mosquito Lady”, the class film that retells an ancient legend.

As a First Nations school, its curriculum incorporates Indigenous culture. The common class film project, beyond the basic Cyber Film School exercises, is an ancient legend retold through the lens.

Actors run through forest in Cyber Film School student film. part of Adam's alternative education film class
Authentic wardrobes and masks were made by community Elders who involved the students in the craft workshops.

The result was that three months into his program,  Adam’s alternative Education film class had not only enhanced the lives of his students but the vibrancy of their entire community as well.

“This is the best example of project-based learning with community involvement I’ve seen.”

Judy Manitowabi, Director Of First Peoples Centre, Canadore College & Nippissing University, North Bay

Consequently, the class recruited community elders including Rocky LaRock as a cultural advisor. He helps with carvings, costumes, props, stories, and legends.

Native Elders with masks and props, part of Adam's alternative education film class.

As for other community Elders, they helped with the design and sewing of period costumes and jewelry for the production. Younger children and older adults were recruited as actors.  In a community of 450, a dozen teens can impact the entire population.

Child and adult actors in Cyber Film School student film, part of Adam's alternative education film class
The cast came from the entire community, from local kids to teachers and elders.

“As for myself, I can only imagine that when bedtime now arrives for these teens, they dream up tomorrow’s adventure then awaken as esteemed storytellers – not only for their community but also as messengers of their culture to the world that surrounds them.”

Stavros Stavrides, Publisher

Diverse Learners

“It’s a unique place”, says Adam. “Everyone comes onto this ‘unequal’ playing field we call the school. For example, Mark, Brian, and I approach Cyber Film School with our varied skills and backgrounds and learn along with these kids.

That makes this alternative education film program a big equalizer. We have kids with good English skills, others with tech skills, and some with people skills.  Each contributes their natural ability to support the other in a shared project with a common goal they all relate to.”

“The Book’s multi-touch features are very effective. Our students represent a wide array of learning abilities. We successfully went through Cyber Film School as our main source of theory content in my video class.”

Patty Jenkins, Media Teacher, Parry Sound High School, Ontario

Accordingly, linear and abstract thinkers play off each other.  Their individual strengths surface. The technical and the creative cooperate to get it done. And quite importantly, the communication life skills they acquire help bolster their English credit associated with this program.

“That’s how we get this job done”, adds Adam. “In terms of accomplishment and esteem building, I have never seen this anywhere else outside of a sports team. Until now.”

Consequently, as Adam and his students were exploring a cave, Adam stopped to take some personal videos. One of his students jumped in and suggested some camera angles for more effective coverage –” the guy wants to half-bury the camera looking out from the cave, peeking just above the dirt.”  

in response, Adam was about to reply to the student, “But this is just my personal video”, but held back the comment. Adam found himself taking direction from his students. Today, his students call the shots. 

student making effort to learn editing in his alternative education film class
A student works to visualize how the next sequence of shots will cut together.

Latest Edition

As for our team and myself back at Cyber Film School, we raced that first Edition of Cyber Film School to market just in time for Adam’s program, to prove the concept.

Then in June of 2022, we released our much expanded second edition with further updates through 2023, based on feedback from the book’s users.

Over 200 videos, 700 images, more Hollywood interviews who speak with the beginner in mind, more tutorials, quizzes, and exercises, and an added screenwriting chapter, at the same price as before.

But that’s the business end. What really keeps us going is what our resident teacher/contributor Mary Jane Gomes said to me after witnessing these kids thriving.

“Right now, just seeing those twelve kids dreaming, and creating dreams, makes it all worth while. These young new filmmakers have become our teachers.”

Publisher, Cyber Film School

This is why we do what we do.

Fast-Track Into 1st-Year Level Film Education
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Get beyond mere tips & tricks and how-to tutorials. This beautifully designed learning system is both a textbook and a structured course in one volume.
Learn from it. Teach with it. Gift it.

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