Wherein a Low Budget Filmmaker Had Better Look Beyond the Obvious Numbers If you are fortunate enough to have any kind of festival run with a film you have made, there are two questions you can bet money on receiving
What am I even making? Is it a film?
I am entering into knuckled-down pre-production on a new short that we intend to shoot in March. The name of it is “Three Ninety Five”, and as some Californians might wonder, there is a connection to the 395 highway which
The Dinner Scene – Making Of
Leading up to the release of “The Dinner Scene” on Seed & Spark, I put a series of posts up on Instagram and my public Facebook page (both @NThurkettle), telling behind-the-scenes stories of the inspiration and execution of the short
Womp Womp Stakes or, You Can’t Talk Us Into Feeling It
Now that everyone who has wanted a reasonable chance to see Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp has had it, I can get SPOILER-y and talk about a strange coincidence I noticed. This is not an Easter Egg,
A Story is a Story Plus a Teller – ‘Unforgiven’ as a Legend of the West
…in which 25 years into my familiarity with one of the greatest Hollywood movies ever made, I realize something that either counts as a fan theory or proves I’m a massive idiot for not noticing what now seems so bloody
Art, Ambition, and Air-Conditioning
Last week I was in Palm Springs, at the annual Palm Springs International ShortFest. This is, to my knowledge, the largest festival dedicated to short films in America. I was attending in my recently-added capacity as an Associate Programmer for
What’s Working – Constant Terror
On Saturday we had our second and final day of production on The Dinner Scene, and as of yesterday we have a rough cut of the whole shebang. I looked back through my notes and believe that I first hit
Short filmmaker’s festival strategy – Nick’s 3rd short edition
Saturday was our first day of production on my third short film, The Dinner Scene. We got a huge boost from The 102 Cafe in Garden Grove which allowed our skeleton crew to film in a corner during business hours
The William Goldman Advice You Should Follow
As a screenwriter, William Goldman is famous for a string of classics including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men, Marathon Man, and The Princess Bride. As a guru to budding screenwriters, he is famous for countless
We’re in the not-too-distant future, and it looks familiar
I can picture where I was the first time I saw Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was in the little dining area of a house my family rented when we moved to California just before my 13th birthday. We only