All posts by Dov S-S Simens
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Top 10 Secrets to No-Budget Moviemaking
Let’s cut to the chase: You want to have a career in the movies. You want to be a successful producer, director, screenwriter or all...
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Other People’s Money
You’ve graduated from an accredited film school and made an award-winning short. You’ve waited for doors to open. You’ve posted your availability on Craigslist and...
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Ask Mr. Hollywood: All You need to Know About Post-Production and Finishing Your Film
There are three stages to filmmaking— Pre-Production, Production and Post-Production. Pre-production is easy. You’re in it now. Although the truth, more likely, is you’re probably in “BS” Pre-Production. You know, you’ve...
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Your Camera… Your Money: A Budgeting Breakdown for Your Camera Department
Get real! You gotta have a DP. Can’t shoot a film without one. This quickly disqualifies you yourself. What you need to know is that...
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The Three-Week Screenplay: Follow This Schedule, Bang Out a Script in Under a Month
Let’s get real! Let’s assume you have “The Great Idea” bouncing around in your head. You are petrified to tell it to anyone. You’re sure...
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Self-Distribution Secrets
Moviemaking Advice From Dov S-S Simens America’s #1 Film Instructor This is the fourth of a four-part series on dealing with film distributors. Part I...
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Distribution: The Key To Success
This is a three-part series concerning independents and their relationship with distributors. Part-I is DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS: How To Release, Part-II is the DISTRIBUTION DEAL: Negotiating...
Summer 2019
Spring 2019
Winter 2019
Guide 2019
Summer 2018
Year in MovieMaker
Inside the Issue: Acting
Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker: Richard Dreyfuss
American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Stand By Me, Mr. Holland’s Opus… even while reading like a what’s what of cinema, those titles are just a handful...
1Inside the Issue: Directing
Cold Piece of Work: Richard Linklater Braves Greenland Hurricanes for Where’d You Go, Bernadette
Richard Linklater’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette opens with the answer to its titular question. In an impressively executed overhead shot, the camera gazes down onto placid Antarctic waters as...
Inside the Issue: How To
How They Did It: The Farewell Writer-Director Lulu Wang Shares Secrets to Turning Your Life Story into a Memoir Movie
The week before production started on The Farewell—my sophomore feature about a young woman (Billi, played by Awkwafina) and her family’s attempts to keep their grandmother’s cancer diagnosis hidden...