Shoot Me Independent Filmmaking From Creative Concept To Rousing Release Rocco Simonelli by Rocco Simonelli, Roy Frumkes 9781581152470, 1581152477 instant download after payment.

indieWIRE's Bookshelf: Collette, Hoberman, Simonelli, Frumkes & More -- by Brandon Judell -- Rocco Simonelli and Roy Frumkes both teach film at New York's School of Visual Arts. They also wrote the screenplays for "The Substitute" and "The Johnsons." Frumkes additionally helmed "Document of the Dead" (1989), a not-bad documentary about George Romero that compares the King of the Living Dead to Hitchcock and other masters. Now the duo have teamed up and scribed "Shoot Me: Independent Filmmaking From Creative Concept to Rousing Release" (Allworth Press; $19.95). This might be their most successful partnering. After all, every one of their students will have to buy copies, plus Wes Craven has already raved that the authors "know the film business like Dante knew hell." Thankfully, Wes wasn't bull-----ing us. "Shoot Me" has to be one of the best books out there right now on making an indie film from scratch. We get to experience each anxiety-filled moment as Rocco and Roy put together their independent feature, "The Sweet Life." We get to see an actual "collaboration agreement." We learn how to budget a film (working in digital saved the project $750,000) and why storyboarding is so important. But there are little tidbits of info you might not ever think of asking, like how to raise money to make an unprofitable short? For first-time filmmakers, offer "a potential investor points not only in your short thesis/independent project, but in the first feature you produce, so that for the money they invest in the short, they go along for the ride and benefit down the road of your career." There are also unpleasant surprises: "At least during production, shooting in digital video did not lessen the need for a full crew." Written in an acceptably "one-of-the-guys" lively manner, "Shoot Me" is a top candidate for being the filmmaking bible of the moment.