Some of you may know that my good friend and film maker David Reynolds just ran a HUGELY successful crowdfunding campaign where he and his team raised over $100k for their Under Water Realm project. Over the last year or so I have blogged a few times about what he has been up to, first with his amazing short about film making, and more recently with his hot tips for shooting Zombie films. He wrote to me recently and said…

‘We would never have been able to think this big and make all these wonderful things happen without the ‘shot in the arm’ that was the making of ‘Gone Fishing’. You re-inspired me to never be afraid to ‘ask the question’, and we have had such a good response from that. We have been shooting on epics underwater, which nobody else is doing, we have shot in Shepperton, Egypt – it’s really been amazing, thank you!’
Dave and the Realm Team

(Dave also made loads of really useful How-To videos, like the one above).

Hot on the heels of the Under Water Realm success comes Rahul Gandotra, who also took my Gone Fishing online workshop… And his stunning short film ‘The Road Home’ is actually shortlisted for an Oscar. How extraordinary is that!? More on Rahul in due course.

And so, to celebrate the success of both David and Rahul, I decided to drop the price of my online film making workshop about producing your own world class short film. For January, the workshop is reduced from £69.99 to just £37.99… think of it as a new years kick up the butt!

The class is delivered entirely online (you can watch it over and over) and features around 15 hours of video tutorial, seminars, contracts, paperwork and interactive script workshops.

‘Incredibly Informative and very inspirational
I’ve read lots filmmaking books and online articles, but by far the “Gone Fishing Seminar” blows them away. The sheer amount of detailed filmmaking information was just so helpful to someone who doesn’t live in a big movie town, like L.A, or NYC. I’m still sorting out all the notes I busily wrote down, while watching the seminar videos. And Chris and his journey was so inspirational. I liked the fact that he shared with us his mistakes and what he learned from them, instead of sweeping them under the proverbial rug. With all the information from the seminar, I will start my journey and see where it leads me. It will be glorious.‘
Rob, Film Maker, Fort Wayne, Indiana
 

How Is The Workshop Broken Down?
The workshop is broken into two distinct halves, ‘making the film’ and ‘exploiting the film’ and was filmed in two sessions, one at BAFTA and one at Ealing Studios. Here is how it is broken down, blow by blow…

• Short Orientation (1 min)
• Seminar Preface (2 min)

SECTION ONE – MAKING THE FILM

• Introduction to the Seminar (33 mins) extras include original proposal and example short films.
• Draft 1 Screenplay Workshop where you read the then page script and compile your own script analysis.
• Draft 1 Analysis (6 min)
• Your Career, a multi step career plan for a life in films (35 min)
• Draft 2 Workshop where you read the script and compile your own script analysis – how far has the script evolved?
• Draft 2 Analysis (6 min)
• Creative Departments – Finding and working with the right creative team can make or break your movie. Here we look at the main creative partnerships involved (35 min). Includes an added bonus interview with Costume Designer Linda Haysman (22 min) including costume design paperwork
• Final Draft Workshop where you read what we took to set.
• Final Draft, Storyboards and Production Analysis (40 min) extras include complete storyboards as well as all production paperwork and contracts
• Production Analysis and DP Vernon Layton where we look at the overall production lessons learned, and we meet DP Vernon Layton (37 mins)
• Second Unit Analysis – the value of a second unit team picking up shots while main unit steams onward (29 mins)
• Editing Gone Fishing, with Eddie Hamilton where we look at the edit process and watch various cuts to show the evolution of the story through post production  (70 min) includes bonus interview with Sound Designer Bernard O’Reilly (33 min)
• Edit Workshop (BONUS) – Access to full rushes so you can cut your own version of Gone Fishing (also with chat tracks with Eddie Hamilton and Chris Jones – 170 minutes)
• Second Unit Final Analysis – the real value of a second unit (3 mins)
• Special effects, grading and mastering – the final technical stages of post production, including visual effects and a viewing of the film with colour grader John Claude, DP Vernon Layton and Editor Eddie Hamilton (37 min)
• Final Analysis of the shoot and edit (7 min)
• BONUS – Heros Journey parallel with ‘Gone Fishing’ (11 mins)
• BONUS – How to throw a world class premiere (18 mins)
• Conclusion – GONE FISHING in HD (13 mins)

SECTION TWO – BEYOND THE MOVIE, SALES, FESTIVALS, AWARDS, AGENTS and MANAGERS…

• Introduction to the second phase (1 min)
• Opening thoughts on getting you and your film ‘out there’ (17 min)
• Marketing and PR, a look at all the elements needed for a world clas
  s PR campaign at film festivals and beyond (41 min)
• Film Festivals, Opening Thoughts – Before getting into the guts of film festivals, let’s take a look at what they are, who they are for, who attends and what your expectations should be (18 min)
• Film Festival Strategies for your film (44 min)
• BONUS – Interview with film festival veteran Alex Fazeli (20 min)
• Film Festival Roundup – A look at what happened at some of the Festivals Gone Fishing attended, and what lessons have been learned from those experiences… (36 min)
• BONUS – Behind The Scenes at the festivals (6 video blogs)
• Sales And Distribution (22 min) including additional bonus ‘Cannes Behind The Scenes’, sales contracts, Music Cue Sheets and sales transcripts)
• Awards and the Oscars (31 min)
• BONUS video blogs from TCM awards, Leammle Theatres Contract plus Oscars and BAFTA accredited festivals
• Conclusions After The Entire Journey (14 min)
• Final Thoughts (3 min)
• Survey and extra bonus videos

‘In the ever-expanding literature on film-making, where duplicate information is fast beginning to outweigh original sentiment, this inspirational seminar genuinely achieves that rarest of qualities – true uniqueness. No other resource more comprehensively and engagingly tackles the film production process from script to screen and beyond – simultaneously the antidote to, and finest example of, the director’s commentary. Sitting through the Gone Fishing seminar is the closest you will come to making a world-class film without getting off your arse and actually doing it (which, incidentally, is exactly what you will be inspired to go and do).
Jon Plant – Film-maker, jpfplant@googlemail.com 
 

OK, so remember, only the first ten film makers to sign up will get the discounted price of £37.99…

And you can read testimonials here…

And the Gone Fishing trailer his here…

Note – Gone Fishing is included in HD as part of the online workshop.

Onwards and upwards

Chris Jones, Film Maker and Author

www.livingspiritgroup.com 
www.ProductionOffice.org
e: mail@livingspirit.com