Powerful and Smart Advice For Young Filmmakers From The Influential Tina Adams.

Hello Tina, thank you so much for joining us today. I hope you are doing great! Happy Friday.

Tina: Thank you, I hope you are doing well too. How are you, by the way?

Ben: I am great, thanks! So, Tina, we have a few questions that aspiring young dreamers and filmmakers are asking today. We would love to learn your advice and tips related to those questions. Would you be able to help us with that?

Tina: Definitely, it would be a pleasure.

Ben: Alright, so the first question is:

I'm not good at English and understand. Can I become a filmmaker?

100% yes, it's like saying if you can't speak English, you cannot be a visual artist or ballerina. Movies use more than language; they are visual, musical, full of ambient sounds, and lively acting. All these non-linguistic ingredients make a movie emotionally attractive. You should build up your experience in your native country and learn the foundations of the trade.

It would help if you considered the Oscar-winning Denis Villeneuve (Dune) and Roland Emmerich (The Day After Tomorrow), who spoke very limited and little English when they started. They went on to become massively successful in the Hollywood and English-speaking film scene. It's not the language that determines you as a filmmaker, but your vision defines you as a filmmaker.

I'm 16 years old and I want to be a Filmmaker! (I don't mean to offend anybody) but I don't like reading books in general. It makes me feel rushed, and pressured to finish it. I love and watch films 24/7. Can I still be a Filmmaker?

Yes, you can. If you don't enjoy reading, you can always focus on other aspects of filmmaking, like becoming a part of the light crew, sound crew, camera equipment crew, or any other technical crew.

Films are not only created by people who read and write the stories and script but an entire team of professionals working together to create them. They include stunt doubles, architects, building fake fires, creating artificial weather, and designing costumes. So there is an entire world of professions involved.

And if you just like watching movies, have you ever considered the universe of film distribution, of getting films in front of the right audience?

Which season should I set my screenplay in? Is it best to contrast themes with the time of year or does it even matter?

Great question; we have what we call the fifth season in filmmaking where we do not know which season the movie was filmed in.

However, there are always expectations to the rule, for example, seasonal movies and Christmas movies, but it really comes down to props and locations rather than the weather. For instance, sometimes Christmas movies are shot in California, so a set will use unique props that create a Christmas feeling to give the film a winter holiday vibe.

On the other hand, some independent filmmakers do not have the means to create controlled environments, so they play with the weather by including it into the script and then filming it into the movie. But this is a very savvy way of doing it, and it takes a lot of experience to get it right. So most advice you will hear will tell you to avoid those harsher weathers, avoid lakes and avoid dense forests. Instead, stick with what we call the fifth season, a favorable environment that is easy to film in.

In 2022, movie studios and theatres are abandoning the day and date model and leaning into the "only in theatres" model. Do you think 2022 will have a more successful year at the box office?

I don't think cinema will disappear. For example, concert halls and live performances did not stop with the advent of cinema. It might lose its popularity and mass appeal, but it will still be an experience people go to, maybe even just to get together.

The experience of being in the audience is breathtaking and exhilarating and cannot be created at home. The dark lighting, the people, the sounds, the popcorn, and the overall experience are sometimes an escape from reality or even the perfect place for a first date.

In the Only In Theaters model, the benefit is usually based on an accounting outlook. Therefore, if the team producing and distributing the film thinks that this is the most profitable route, they will choose this distribution method.

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Ben: Thank you so much for your advice and wisdom. It is always so helpful and encouraging to hear it from someone who has done that.

Tina: You are quite welcome. I look forward to answering more questions from our viewers.

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