C-Seg; Dov Simens OK Filmmaking Workshop

If you're a movie buff or you think you have a great idea for a film, there's an event taking place this weekend that may be of interest to you. The Oklahoma Film and Music Office is offering a two-day crash course filmmaking workshop for the public. It's led by Dove Siemens, the tough talk no nonsense leader of the Hollywood Film Institute. Quoting a line from Orson Wells, Siemens likes to say that everything you need to know about filmmaking can be learned in two to three days. On Saturday, I cut right to the chase and I teach how to produce and direct your first feature film. How I do that so quickly is that I treat everybody in the auditorium in the class as if they are an adult. And I don't say any baby stuff like you got to have heart, you got to have passion, you got to have talent, you got to have a good script, you got to have a good crew when you're producing and directing, which is all absolutely true. But I assume everybody has heard that 20 times already. The bottom line when you produce a feature film from beginning to end, you are going

to write 38 bank checks. Those 38 bank checks, film lab cameras sound like we're up Dolly Permin, insurance ADR Foley, M&D Optical, cutting the print, timing the negative, etc. All those 38 checks are the same in Oklahoma as Los Angeles as New York. And I'm going to teach how to write each of those checks and squeeze it into whatever budget everybody in that audience believes they have for their first feature film. And everybody will walk out of the class on Saturday as if the fog was lifted. And after one day everybody goes, oh, I got it. And then after I've taught you on Saturday how to make a film cost effectively, then on Sunday I've taught you how to market it and sell it. But with no guarantees, but now you know where revenue will come from. If you're successful, now the last thing I'll talk about on Sunday is now financing. That's a very straight, intensive two-day film school for adults.

I've had people that have attended, then going on to produce direct or star and feature films that have grossed over $6 billion in the past now 12 years in the US. Who is this workshop for? An adult, anybody that wants to make a feature film, anybody that wants to produce direct write, or anybody that eventually wants to come to Hollywood but get grounded to understand that it's truly a business. It's not an art form. So normally my classes have about 150 people in it, half the people work in the industry, but have never produced or directed a feature film. Then approximately one-third of the people are actors that have never had an opening title credit or writers that have written scripts but have never sold them. And the final about 20% is total first timers that are interested in this thing called Hollywood and producing independent filmmaking but don't know where to start.

And I give them a good solid foundation. If there is anybody in Oklahoma that has been thinking about producing, directing, writing, or starring in and wants to do anything in the film industry, you better get your rear end into that class. God bless the government of Oklahoma's bringing me out, making it super affordable. And I hope to see the Oklahoma film community out there. Love Seamonds is the founder of the Hollywood Film Institute. For more info or to register for this weekend's Crash Course filmmaking workshop, visit oclahomafilm.org, I'm KGOU News Director Scott Gurren.