EMI is an insipid attempt at making movie. It looks like a half hearted job. The movie was shaped to be a light hearted film with a social message and in many ways, Sattar Bhai of EMI takes on Munnabhai of Munnabhai Series….Unsuccessfully. The movie EMI had a good concept,the characters and their problems with loans looked genuine. The problem was Sanjay Dutt or Sattar Bhai’s approach to resolving the issues. In the movie, Sattar Bhai’s Goodluck Recovery Agency has a job outsourced by All India Bank to recover the pending money from borrowers. (more…)

Every film maker will reach a crossroad when they must make a decision on whether they want a full-blown career as a film maker, or they prefer to make films as a hobby. This decision usually depends upon the film makers ability to fund or finance their own projects. Most film makers do not think about financing future projects, they usually have all of their attention on the work at hand. Any film maker needs to acquire a knowledge of what it means to be a professional film maker, and how film investment works.

There will be plenty of people who want to give you advice and take advantage of your ignorance on these matters. While there are many legitimate companies, there are also those that will try to rook you out of the money you have earmarked for your film making project. A legitimate organization will not promise you they can get you a list of potential investors. The interest in your project will determine whether it should be presented to investors, not good fortune at running across a group of investors by chance.

The legitimate consultants know that there is no money to be made in the few hundred dollars many producers can afford to pay for their services. Serious financial consultants don’t even want a percentage of the funds earmarked for your project. While they will charge you fees for their services, their goal is to see that your project succeed and find distribution. You will want your consultant to think of accumulated interest on the money borrowed over the course of production, and other aspects of the financial end of the project.

The most difficult thing about this will be to convince a legitimate producer’s financial consultant to become involved with your project. The investor is the key to this, you need to find someone who is willing to invest in a high-risk film making project. You will need to know the investing criteria from the point of view of the investor. Below are a few film investing basics.

- A film investor will usually put up about 50% of the total film cost. The film producer is responsible for the other 50%.

- 30% to 40% should be enough to get most films made, depending on whether you will be able to convince other end users to buy into the plan.

- The investor will want to keep the budgets for the film project as low as possible. Foreign sales should be enough to cover at least 50%.

- An investment of $5 million should allow an investor to buy into several films.

It can be quite difficult for the independent film maker to gain financing. Another idea on financing your film making project is the idea of grant awards. There are many out there who will give an award to film makers who are excited about, and believe in, their film project. You will find them by doing a search for film making grants. Make sure you become knowledgeable about each grant, as they all have different criteria for the grant giving process.

Friday the 13th Movie Review -Plot

On Friday, June 13, 1980, a young Jason Voorhees (Caleb Guss) witnesses his mother (Nana Visitor) get beheaded by a camp counselor (Stephanie Rhodes) who was trying to escape Mrs. Voorhees’s murderous rampage around Camp Crystal Lake. Approximately thirty-years later, a group of vacationing friends—Wade (Jonathan Sadowski), Richie (Ben Feldman), Mike (Nick Mennell), Whitney (Amanda Righetti), and Amanda (America Olivo)—arrive at Crystal Lake on a camping trip, and to find some weed that was planted in the woods. As Mike and Whitney explore the woods, Jason (Derek Mears) begins to kill the rest of the group one-by-one. Jason also kills Mike, but instead of doing the same to Whitney he decides to kidnap her because she resembles his mother at a young age.
Six weeks later, Trent (Travis Van Winkle), along with his girlfriend Jenna (Danielle Panabaker), and their friends Chewie (Aaron Yoo), Chelsea (Willa Ford), Nolan (Ryan Hansen), Bree (Julianna Guill), and Lawrence (Arlen Escarpeta) arrive at Trent’s summer cabin, which sits on Crystal Lake, unaware of the events that occurred a few weeks prior. Also in town is Clay (Jared Padalecki), who has come to Crystal Lake searching for his sister Whitney. Clay eventually makes his way to Trent’s cabin, where Jenna agrees to help him look for his sister on the other side of the lake. As Clay and Jenna search for clues to Whitney’s disappearance, Jason kills Nolan and Chelsea out on the lake. Clay and Jenna reach the old Crystal Lake campgrounds, where they witness Jason hauling a dead body into one of the abandoned camp houses. (more…)

Chris Gore writes a book called “The Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide”. In the first 10 pages of the book he talks about going to Film Festivals all over the world and enjoying each and every one of them. I don’t know about you, but this sounds like heaven to me. Whether you are a film aficionado or a filmmaker with a film entered, a film festival is an exciting experience and one you will want to repeat as often as possible.

There was a time when film festivals were far and few between. Studios controlled every aspect to filmmaking and there was not much of an independent spirit to be found anywhere. It seems however, with the rise of Indie films that every state in the country has it’s own film festival. In California alone there must be twenty or more film festivals.

There was a time when films did not happen at all unless they were under the auspices of the studios. There was no real chance of the little guy getting his or her film out there. But now it is a whole different ballgame. The little guy likes to show his films anywhere he can, hence the rise of independent film festivals all over the country.

Sundance, Tribeca, and the Toronto Film Festival are the first and foremost festivals to submit your film to. However there are at least a hundred other film festivals that you can submit your film to. This is rather like the lottery; if you don’t play you can’t win. If you don’t enter your film you can’t get it shown. You must continue to submit your film as many times as you can until you finally get acceptance into a festival.

You might get quite a few rejection letters until you get your first acceptance letter. There are a few things that might help you out though. You must remember that a film festival board may have 800 submissions and only 40 spots for a film to be shown. Many a rejection letter has given the reason that they had far too many submissions to even view them all. My advice to you is that once you have your film done and you have the very first date they are opening for submissions then submit your film. Don’t wait until the last minute.

Make sure your film is entered into the right festival for instance, you would not enter a children’s film into an adult alternative film festival. I am not sure there is even the latter category, but you get the general drift. Also, read your application carefully. It may require your entry to be mailed, done online, or even in person.

In the category of short film, be very careful you adhere to any time requirements for your piece. If it is a little too long then do some more trimming. Just to be on the safe side if the film is to be 10 minutes long, make it for 9 minutes. Don’t give them any reason to kick back a rejection letter.

Rejection is a funny thing with Film Festivals; there is art even in rejection. The Slamdance film festival came about as an answer to the rejections from Sundance. The Sundance Festival shows in Park City, Utah. At the same time in Park City, Utah Slamdance runs. This is a deliberate attempt to show the films that have been over looked by Sundance. I’ll bet there’s a lot of action in that town during the combined running of both festivals.

If you get a chance to visit the Pacific Northwest during the end of May and beginning of June, the Seattle International Film Festival runs for almost a month sometimes showing as many as 300 films. They have great filmmaker’s forums and there is their original “Fly Filmmaking Challenge” that they hold every year. Theirs is the longest running and shows the most films of any other film festival in the country.

I encourage you to do your own search of film festivals and check out their application processes. Do this research sooner rather than later. Don’t wait until the last minute.

Valkyrie Movie Review - Plot
During World War II, Wehrmacht Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) is severely wounded in Tunisia, and is evacuated home to Nazi Germany. Meanwhile, Major General Henning von Tresckow (Branagh) attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler by smuggling a bomb aboard the Führer’s private airplane. The bomb, however, fails to detonate and Tresckow safely retrieves it to conceal his intentions. After learning that the Gestapo has arrested Major Hans Oster, he orders General Olbricht (Nighy) to find a replacement. After recruiting von Stauffenberg into the German Resistance, Olbricht delivers von Stauffenberg to a meeting of the secret committee which has coordinated previous attempts on Hitler’s life. The members include General Ludwig Beck (Stamp), Dr. Carl Goerdeler (McNally), and Erwin von Witzleben (Schofield). The Colonel is stunned to learn that no plans exist for after Hitler’s assassination.
After a bombing raid on Berlin, he lights upon using the plan Operation Valkyrie, which involves the deployment of the Reserve Army to maintain order in the event of a national emergency. The plotters carefully redraft the plan so that they can dismantle the Nazi regime after assassinating Hitler. (more…)