Resource Directory
The following list of resources are provided by both members and non-members of this site. Take the time to review them and you will find a wealth of knowledge, services and other valuable resources.
What is it about the dark recesses of mankind's persona that prompts us to trade our hard earned cash so that we are able to sit in a darkened room with a clique of people we do not even know? Does it hearken back to the time in our distant past when our ancestry wondered at the shadows dancing on the cave walls? What is this that put us in mind of the time in our distant past when our ancestry sat and wondered at the cave walls as mirages danced around them? We choose to trade our cash so that we are able to sit in a darkened room with complete strangers! After Louis Lumiere produced the first picture camera in 1895, some part of the hominid medulla oblongata suggested that there was something fundamentally lacking. It was sound. So the piano was drafted into the process to accompany the flickering pictures. How far the drive-in theaters have come since that time. The air back then was conditioned by the sound of the burning fire. With the picture palace it became obvious how popular auditory accompaniment was. The producers recognized the massive demand for sound yet could not produce enough material for the market. This created a completely new facet to the entertainment 'industry' as it was soon to be called - it was - Pitching. It derived from baseball in which the Pitcher pitched the ball. People began promoting their screenplays or ideas and pitching became generic term. So actors and agents began pitching scripts direct to the studios. With the advent of the phonograph (Thomas Edison - 1877), pictures could finally speak. Those strange flickering silver images actually could speak! It was as though the cave walls had come alive. The excitement it caused can barely be believed today. People literally fled from the drive-in movie, believing that the mirages on the screen had literally come alive. The audience would see the same movie multiple times. There was amazement at this curious magic that could be thrown on any suitably darkened wall. Many actors became major stars and became financial cornerstones of the studios. It wasn' t which movies the studios owned, but which actors they had under contract. For years at a time one movie could travel around the country entertaining full theater houses . At one time, merely the name of an actor or actress was enough to inveigle large crowds to the drive-in theaters. After some well publicized Hollywood scandals, many of the matinee idols began to fall - they were proven to be mere mortals. Suddenly, yesterdays heroes and heroines could no longer find any work, since the studios controlled all aspects of the film industry. They had effectively become blacklisted from working in Hollywood. Being unable to obtain work, many talented actors discreetly began to learn how to write a screenplay and released their scripts under pseudonyms out of necessity. A single name symbolized the evolving excitement that lead to a completely new art form. This was Walt Disney. Disney was single-handedly responsible for the claymation technique and the developing fanchises. The cartoon animation held everyone in wonder. Soon many picture theater began making their own movies. The market for movies was insatiable. Gradually unique genres such as spaghetti westerns drew dedicated followings. With this unprecedented advance in movies screenplay authors realized that in the name of modern efficiency, they would have to use screenplay writing software in order to keep up with demand. This evolving technological development has given rise to an explosion of scripts available to cable TV. The success of the Walt Disney opportunity has lead to summer acting camps across the US. These camps regularly run for for a week and touch all aspects of screenwriting and acting. After WW2 minor with less resources produced avant-garde films which drew people to their opera houses where they eagerly their movie tickets. The saturday night footage became an institution for many people that worked hard all week and wanted distraction from their unexceptional week.
How often have you heard people ask how to get into acting? Well, true as the old cliche goes, slowly, slowly, catchee monkey, but the individualistic method is a great way to approach it. So if you want to start acting, simply jump in and believe!
A unique aspect of the film industry is Voice Over Acting. Strange as it seems, there is limited competition for work. By 'voice over acting' or 'voiceover' we mean those melodious voices that influence us to obtain every piece of merchandise known to man. When you hear the voice of James Earl Jones, you will be familiar with great voice over acting. Often these actors saw that there was more potential and joined acting workshops where they could sharpen their talents.
Where can one begin when writing screenplays? Well, getting back to basics you will need some means of capturing your screenplay just so you can present it to a producer. In the long forgotten days movie script writers used typewriters - but this lead to a lot of rewriting. With computers and screenwriting software, these problems have become almost redundant. Now there is screenplay writing software that removes the guesswork out of understanding screenplay formats.
Now you only need to focus on the story and hit the return key - the script is reassembled in the correct screenplay format for screenplays,sitcoms, novels - just the way the industry requests. Almost instantly you have become a screenplay writer, ready to submit your masterpiece to any of the escalating screenplay competitions.
In closing, the key tips nearly all working screenwriters point to as career landmarks are- Attending summer acting camps
- Learning how to write screenplays that sell
- Buying the right screenplay writing software
- Learning the art of pitching scripts