Lights Film School Blog

Trying to Market Your Independent Film?

Lights Film School is currently looking for independent filmmakers who want to share their filmmaking experiences with our students and blog readers. We’ve interviewed filmmakers in the past (example) who have helped shed light on some very interesting ideas and creative solutions to the problem of not having access to large sums of production money. With the democratization of both the production and distribution process filmmakers are increasingly curious to know how to create and distribut...

Independent Filmmaker Mistakes: Lack of Depth

Welcome to our second installment of “5 Common Mistakes Made by Independent Filmmakers”. Today we’re going to discuss the topic of depth as it relates to films and documentaries. There is a sense of flatness and 2 dimensionality in many independent films that hurts the perceived production value of the film. This is caused not only by the safe choice of “fronty” lighting, but also by poor production design. This blog post won’t explore how to use light to help mould shadows around your sub...

5 most common mistakes Made by Independent Filmmakers:

Over the next 5 days we’re going to be adding new blog posts outlining  the most common mistakes made by independent filmmakers. Today our post covers… White Walls Over the years we’ve been asked by our students what the “1 thing” we think they need to improve in order to make their films stronger. Well, usually when mistakes are made in film or video, it’s not just 1 mistake that’s made (especially when you’re first starting out). There are thousands of possible mistakes to be made i...

Sample Screenwriting Review

We've recently been asked to provide a sample critique that our students get from our teachers. Below is the the first review one of our students received from one of our teachers on their first screenwriting assignment. For privacy reasons we are not publishing the film title or the script, but you can read the Lights Film School teacher response below: Dear Rob, (Story title removed) is a great story.  I’m particularly impressed with your pacing, which is the most important aspect of cre...