We used to post Daily Filmmaking Tips and we also love to spotlight small businesses. Here we want to highlight some things that you can do when you’re off the set to help the process of filmmaking in different ways. These are things that you might never think about! When you work long hours in the film industry, every aspect of your life is affected by it. A big part of being a filmmaker is having the confidence to put yourself out there. If we want to admit it or not, a lot of the time our willingness to do that is impacted by how we look. 

The Right Style
This is one of those funny things you might have noticed about directors, writers, and actors. So many of the talents that stand out, do so because they have formed their own “trademark” look. Think of writers with their big brim glasses, or a quirky director who always wears a full suit (I can’t imagine wearing that in the summer heat on set). Now, I’m not saying that you should shave your head into a mohawk and dye your hair purple, but be conscious about the image you are putting together and what you are telling the world about yourself because people do notice it. And it sure is one way to stand out in the crowd. 

Keeping Up with Grueling Days
Staying fit may not jump right out at you, but as you get older it is more and more difficult to keep up with 12+ hour days (and that is a short day!) 5 to 6 days a week. Depending on the size of the project that you are working on, the days (or nights) can be brutal on your body. It is so important to try to eat well (which is difficult with the craft services table and buffet style lunch) and to stay in shape (which is difficult having very little time off set). The best advice I have for this is that when you are in production, you should integrate a short workout into your morning routine (10 – 20 minutes goes a long way) and when you are developing or in post-production, expand it into a fuller workout (20-40 minutes). Find what works best for you. Some people need a monthly program or gym, others prefer doing their own thing. As long as you are getting your body to move and work, there is no wrong way to do it.

Controlling Your Look
Balding, skin conditions, and a variety of other external factors can hit our confidence hard. For actors and hosts it can be even more impactful because their appearance is one of their main tools. Having control over our look and how we are perceived is crucial. So let’s talk about Picasso Scalp Micropigmentation, a company founded by Jeff Villenas, that aims to help you feel like your best self. Sometimes the image of us in our minds, doesn’t exactly match how we look. Picasso gives you back control of your look by utilizing a process of microdot tattoos, so “your head is given the appearance of healthy hair follicles in the pattern of a regular hairline.” Just because balding is unpredictable, doesn’t mean that you have to lose full control over your look. The company offers scalp micropigmentation in the Los Angeles area. You can click on the above links for more details on the process and the different looks that they offer.

Finding Peace
The long days, keeping up connections and appearances, taking care of your body and health, the constant stress, it ALL adds up. You really need to find something that gives you a break and lets you find some peace in the craziness that is Hollywood. The good thing is that this can really be anything! You need to have something outside of work that makes you happy and gives your brain some much needed time off. It can be as simple as reading a book, going on hikes, or doing a daily meditation. Or it could be something off the wall like rock climbing, sky diving, or taking a monthly trip to a theme park. The key thing is that you find something that makes you happy outside of work. Otherwise you will burn out and that does not let you be the best director, writer, or actor that you can be.

What do you do to take care of yourself? How do you find peace outside of your production work?

When My Hollywood Dream begin, it was a mix of entertainment opinions and reviews and filming tips. For the most part we ended up going in the full entertainment side and filmmaking tips became more scattered (never forgotten, but less of the site’s focus).

Back in 2009, I posted my personal storyboard template that I used for my own (at the time) short movies (now I am proud to say I also have a feature under my belt). I have two variations of this storyboard template (full screen and wide screen) and because of “popular demand”, I am more than happy to post these again. Feel free to download them and modify/use them however you want (if you repost them anywhere, please credit and link back to MyHollywoodDream.com). These files are a very basic template image that you can open and print in preview, word or any photo program.

   

Click on either of the above images to download a full-size version of the file for printing. And you can read all of our Filmmaking Resources here.

Ever since I began My Hollywood Dream I have had the pleasure and privilege of getting invited to check out websites and products I most likely never would have otherwise. Today I’m going to check out salon lash care products from LASHEM.com along with a special deal for MHD visitors.

The website for LASHEM is very clean and professional and they offer a full line of natural beauty productions including eyelash booster, mascara, and anti-aging creams. The company aims to improve the signs of aging for women, but not change their appearance. Their lash growth serum can give normal women the movie star scarlet look. It is a must have for any make-up artists and is a great filmmaking resource for independent films. The serum is clinically tested and is safe on all skin types.

In addition to their line of products, the LASHEM website also features a blog and videos designed to teach visitors how to g?row eyeb?rows? along with other beauty tips. Included in the mix of videos are a Fall Makeup Tutorial, a Winged Eyeliner Design Tutorial, Reviews of Products, Info on Giveaways, and General Videos on Products.

One of the coolest features of the LASHEM website is their Monthly Giveaways. Right now they have teamed up with Topbox to giveaway 3 “Get the Look Kit” Gift Sets to visitors that includes Lash & Brow Enhancing Serum, Color Strokes Liquid Eyeliner, Double Trouble Lash Mascara, and Extensions in a Bottle. Tips and free stuff, that is my kinda website.

All My Hollywood Dream visitors get a special 15% off on items from the LASHEM.com website. Just enter the code PPP15 at checkout. LASHEM is on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, so whatever is your preference of Social Media you’ll be able to keep up with them. After buying some of their products, head over to our Facebook page and post a picture of you with that movie scarlet look!

How important is social media to your goals? Well, I guess that depends a lot on what your exact goals are. If you want a lot of people to see your movie or visit your personal filmmaker website, than social media is the key to getting people there.

There are search engine marketing firms that have a good grasp on social networking and how it relates to media and getting the word out about your product (is your movie on DVD? online video? merchandise to promote your movie, etc). If you can get enough followers on Twitter, or enough “likes” on Facebook, then people will see your page. They will follow your words. And ultimately, they will see your movie. The first step is signing up for all of the social networking websites. Don’t limit yourself to just one. Take small steps and go from there.

So, you put in months and months of hard work crafting the perfect independent/no-budget movie and it is time to showcase your work. There are lots and lots of avenues for you to go, but there is nothing like seeing your movie on the big screen. And if your work is good enough, there is no better way to get the word out about your movie than hosting a successful screening.

One thing that people might not know about having a successful screening to add hype to your movie is just how important it is to use your crowd to your advantage. You’ll need to pick up/rent velvet rope and barricades to do this right. Most movie theaters allow people to rent out theaters for personal screenings. Make sure in your deal with the theater that they will let you do it right, with a red carpet, lines, and the works. If this is a small movie on a low budget, there is no reason to waste money on a 400 person auditorium, a smaller theater will be easier to fill and still do the ob of getting the movie on the screen.

First off invite the cast and crew, so right off the bat you have some audience members that are partial to the movie. Let them invite friends and family. Invite local bloggers (I know how much we love being invited to screenings and Q&As, trust me, they will come and talk about your movie). Also take a chance and invite bigger press, in NY? Try the Times and the Post. They likely will not come, but hey, you never know. Have a contact at a radio station or with a podcast? Give them a certain amount of free tickets to give away. Their hype will go a long way.

Now that you have everyone invited. Make sure you have the manpower to make the screening seem a lot bigger than it is. Have lines for general audience, press and VIPs. Don’t let anyone in right away, let the crowd gather and form. Make sure that people passing on the street or in the theater wonder and ask what is going on. “What movie is this?” “Who is in it?” One perfectly planned screening can cause your movie’s hype to snowball into something a lot bigger than you ever imagined.

As every independent filmmaker knows, making films is a lot more than shooting and cutting your movie together. You have to go the extra mile to get your work out there so people can see it. Here are a few free online services and tools that can help you get the word out, edit your images, and spice up your website.

Photobucket is one of my favorite sites on the web. You can store both photos and videos, make scrapbooks and slideshows and best of all, you can post your pictures all around the web (forums, social networks, share with friends). In addition to hosting your photos, it has an online editor that lets you change its size, add text/borders, and do touch ups. If you haven’t signed up for Photobucket yet, I have to ask why?

Favicons are the little icons that appear next to the web address on the address bar. They also appear in your bookmarks, your tabs and your history. The Favicon Generator makes it easy to create and add your icon to your page. I used it for my favicon on this website. To make your favicon just follow the directions on their site; upload a picture and click ‘Make Favicon!’ to create a favicon for your website. This favicon generator supports alpha transparency. Once you create your favicon.ico file, upload it to the root directory of your website and put the following code in your html page in the header.

If you don’t have the coin to buy Adobe Photoshop, than I highly recommend that you download GiMP. The download will not cost you a cent, and GiMP is a free GNU Image Manipulate Program that can be used for such tasks as photo retouching, image format converting, image rendering, or you can use it as an online batch processing system or a simple paint program. The free software was built to be expandable and extensible and was designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions that can do just about anything. It works with both PCs and Macs.

In the first part of “How to Get Your Film Seen: (Part 3) Your Website” we discussed why you need a homepage in addition to your social networking profiles, design, web hosting, domain names, and a few different styles that your website can take. Today I want to expand on what we talked about last time.

Not only is it a good idea to get a website, but it is an even better idea to learn how to build a website. Websites can become very costly after you consider the yearly price of hosting and domain names and then take into the account of the actual design costs and maintenance. As a low budget filmmaker, you have already likely taught yourself how to edit and use camera equipment, why not also learn HTML and CSS coding? Just a little knowledge can get you a very long way. In the very least you can beg someone to do the initial design work on the site and you can comfortably edit the pages by yourself, successfully avoiding the costly maintenance.

Also touching on what I mentioned in the last column, if you create the website around a blog platform, like WordPress, then you’ll be able to easily edit all of the pages via an Online editor. WordPress themes are completely customizable and you can manipulate them into exactly how you want your website to look.