Again try our callboard. It's a great place to find people to help with films.

http://www.nwfilmforum.org/live/collection/resources/101

This is a common misconception that one hears: “I’ve got a great idea. I just need someone to write it.” as if the writing were the easy part. I think you’re going to have trouble finding someone to help you, because writers who do know how to structure and fill in a screenplay are putting all their energy into their own ideas.

My advice to you is to do it yourself. Honestly, you’re the only one who can do your idea justice. Read a book like “Save the Cat” by Blake Snyder, it’ll give you some good advice to get you started.

This is an ageist industry. I’m 30 and I sometimes have trouble being taken seriously.

I'm in NY (Red Hook, Brooklyn) now; it's not too much more expensive, and you get what you pay for =)

I'd agree with Dan, there are merits to a film school. Spending $100K at NYU may not be the answer, but SCCC is a great way to get your foot in the door, meet some like minded people, get hands-on experience and think about film and filmmaking in ways you might not otherwise. It takes a lot of self-discipline to read every screenwriting book you can get your hands on and write every day. For the rest of us a network of peers, deadlines, and expectations can challenge you to do better work than if you were left to your own devices. Less like a doctor not going to medical school (cause you can always intern/PA on set and learn technicalities) but going to a gym without a trainer or a spotter...

Craig, these larger films coming into town are absolutely relevant to to the work you do. they are the ones largely making it possible for crews to make movies for a living, and ultimately to bring professional work and experience to the smaller films. My problem with a micro-budget "indie mecca" is that it's not a sustainable model for crews to support themselves and their families. They work a couple freebee shows and end up getting full time jobs or moving to cities where they can make a living. Indie films need to be rejuvenating the communities they occupy and replenishing the resources they use: by paying decent rates to vendors, locations, crew and actors. Grassroots was a small indie film, but it gave back. Making a film for $30K is great (I've done it), but it won't keep food on the table, and you'll eventually loose the resources you depend on.

The lures that Seattle/WA state uses are far inferior to Vancouver's. So, No, it's not competitive.

Plus 19 year olds can drink up there and hookers are readily available. How are you going to compete with that? ;)

Seattle considers itself international? Really? In our tiny corner with only one other nation (also englishspeaking/Brit-colony-derived) anywhere nearby? Provide Proof of Premise please??

Perhaps we have a city that's 'multinational' among american cities, and certainly well-connected, trade-wise with the East, but notsomuch "international"...

And your statement that there are "No african-am, asians" is wrong: I can think of several local non-white grips, audio engineers, lighting designers etc - call Seattle Stage, Pacific, Maddog and STI if you don't believe me. As far as 'minorities' go, local film/stage/TV businesses seem to EXCEL, relatively, in hiring women (and for that matter, non-white women). (Compare a crew in NYC vs a crew in Seattle: yes, the NYC is half made of people that look brown... but all but the token intern/PA are males.

Hire the best talent you can find (not the best known), then trust their instincts. (I'm speaking as an actor, obviously.)

What I appreciate most in a director: someone who knows what they want to elicit from a scene, and trusts me to elicit it. In other words, a director who will tell the actors, "I want the audience to feel sympathy for this character, but not quite trust them," and then let me use the script and my training to bring that to the screen. I don't want the director to give me literal line readings, unless I'm totally screwing the pooch. Tell the actors, before you start shooting, what you want to get out of a scene. Unless you're really not getting what you want, don't tell them specifics, tell them where you want the scene to go.

I do want a director who will keep control of the set. Filming is a tiring, stressful process, and it's so much nicer if the director is clearly in charge, and keeps the chitchat and distractions to a minimum. It's quite possible to do that without being a total asshole, but I'd rather have a director who was stern with people who aren't respecting the time of others than a nice guy that takes three times as long as necessary to get a shot.

And that leads me to my final point. Respect the time of others. Even the background people. Schedule things so that people waste as little time sitting around doing nothing as possible. Don't have a call time of 7 a.m. for someone whose scenes aren't even going to be set up until 1. Don't call 20 extras if you're only going to need 3, then leave the other 17 sitting there all day hoping. (Now, obviously, you can't always anticipate all these things, but when it's clear that the location has fallen through and there's nothing you can film today with that person, send them home!)

What are the demographics in local film school programs, where these skills are taught and learned? (That's an honest question, by the way.) That percentage would be more representative than overall Seattle population demographics.

Then, of course, the question becomes, why are the film programs not representative...

The crews don't represent local demographics as far as gender is concerned, either. The PAs are overwhelmingly female, the grips, sound techs, and DPs overwhelmingly male.

National Film Board of Canada. That entity has made it possible for many Canadian cities, including Vancouver, to have an actual infrastructure in place for films and other similar projects.

The tax incentive doesn't compare to actual subsidies for the arts.

Most of the people I know who are producing them are raising the money themselves, in a variety of ways, same as any independent film. Credit cards, frantic calls to Mom, drunken pitches to former roommates, bake sales - whatever works.

If by 'worth' you mean monetarily, then the answer is sadly NO.

IMO: "NO" is True for all art schools that 'teach' careers where talent or chance rule the day.

Seattle may consider itself international, but it really isn't. As far as the ethnic makeup of crews, art has always been the realm of the privileged. And as soon as the American middle class began to seriously diversify in the last decade, it suddenly started to disappear.

Austin.

Lynn is absolutely the model. But still she is stepping onto an elevator (financially)... to elsewhere. There needs to be a culture change around funding films: there are what, 50,000 millionaires here? Where is the money for local film? Unfortunately noblesse oblige seems to be strictly an East coast phenomenon. Honest to God I don't know how to make it happen. Megan Griffiths scrapes for years to get The Off Hours off the ground, Linas Phillips has to move away, Dan Gildark makes a feature with theatrical distro and can't pull together money for a much smaller second one - WTF? The people that fund opera and ballet and SAM are complete strangers to local film. The party needs to get much bigger (SIFF needs to be more FUN). And Seattle needs to stop looking to NY and LA for validation, because until it does, that will be exclusively where the money is and the brain drain will continue.

No. That's a ton of money to learn what you'll learn on a set or in a job and at least get paid. I think the internet, libraries and Netflix have made film school - such as it exists now - outdated.(I'm not talking about local classes or NWFF or SCCC, that stuff is super-useful.) Educate yourself: I read every book on screenwriting in the Burbank, CA library. I just wish I'd done that before producing my own script.

I think 'ready' is not something the writer alone can define. This is a LONG climb. Send to the Nicholl and Sundance fellowships, and listen to feedback if you get it. Try to get some actors together for a table read. Hear your words from humans, it really clarifies things. Get out in the community: SIFF, NWFF, FilmPAC, Washington Film Works. Show your work to people whose aesthetics you believe in. And good luck.

For the immediate future:
One with great cinemas, varied festivals and world-class art schools.

In my humble opinion, we only need to work on the art school part.

Long term: I appreciate your dream / desire to be an indie mecca. I just don't see the economics nor the fundamentals in place to make it happen more than it has already.

Seattle should aspire to be the porn capital of the world!!!

Easier? No. You have to be much more careful with your exposure and they don't autofocus like a prosumer HD camera will. They can only shoot for 12 minutes at a time (NBD really), and they have a few other quirks as mentioned in the other answer.
Cheaper? Depends. There are some cheap HD camcorders out there for about a grand that aren't half bad, a bunch of really good prosumer ones in the$2,000 to $7,000 range, and then the real deal that starts at $17,000 and goes way up from there.
If you're already a still photographer with a lot of good Canon lenses then the new 7D is only $1700 or the T2i is only $900. The problem where this still ends up with a "depends" answer is that if you're serious about using one of these DSLRs for video you'll need a lot of lenses and accessories to make them work well. Pulling focus is a PITA so you'll need a monitor or viewfinder, then you'll realize that the lens barrel has a 90 degree throw from macro to infinity and is way too touchy to get good focus pulls, so you'll need a follow focus attachment and lens gears for $300 (ultra cheap) to $3,000 industry standard. You'll then need 15mm rails to mount that follow focus and then you'll be attaching so many parts that the camera quickly gets swallowed up in a sea of expensive gear. Sure you can shoot without a lot of the add ons, but if you're serious and will be shooting a lot, the add ons will make life a lot easier and help you get a better finished product. My personal DSLR setup clocks in around $10,000 which is nothing compared to a Arri or even a Red.
But here's the thing...they can shoot some absolutely stunning visuals on a par with cameras that cost ten times as much like the Red or even 35mm film cameras.
DPs that are used to working with the big guns generally don't like using them because of the limitations while up and coming DPs love that they can achieve similar looks to 35mm film for a small fraction of the cost.

I think your question is a rather complicated one because many of the local filmmakers use the paycheck from the Hollywood films that come through to pay their bills and fund their projects. Its a system that is frustrating for all the reasons you point out and for as Charles said earlier to another post, because there isn't much capital in Seattle to help fund local work.

That being said, I think we could rethink "local work" to reflect a sustainable filmmaking culture. On in which projects have shorter production time frames and smaller budgets, but still aim to pay their crews.

I also think Charles idea is interesting, but would point out that there's a fair amount of indie film made for local consumption, many of which you'll find in our Local Sightings Festival every October.

Either way I'm curious to hear what others think about this as well.

The problem, I think, is we do not make films for local consumption. we make films to make it elsewhere. an idie film made here is really for new york city. that is our actual market. something special might happen if we did make films for seattle. for its consumption and self-reflection.

I'm not Steven, Dan, but if you don't mind, here's this:

I think it starts with a deep respect for acting. Acting, real acting - not the boob-job and face lift kind, is very hard work. In film, some actors want a minimalist director ("Just tell me where to stand.") and others want to be able to trust the director to such an extent that they can depend on the director keeping them on-track in an all-out performance ("Was that too much? Do you need more?").

The great director (from an actor's viewpoint) is someone who can rapidly tell the difference between the two and fulfill those varying needs in a kind and respectful way.

Oh..and on a film set? It's the little things, too. A lot of actors are very grateful to those guys who can keep a set as calm and quiet as possible. And unlike the Hollywood tale of old, no one wants to hear someone screaming, "Action!"

It's the availability of production talent there at the right price. Also, since the film boom started in Vancouver (maybe the very early 90s), that industry has really been catered to in British Columbia (tax incentives, complementary businesses) to a degree that dwarfs Washington State's efforts. The film industry is their Boeing. (Note that I didn't say it's their Microsoft. The BC government is still trying to lure MS up north with all kinds of incentives.)

I agree with everything said here. The Vancouver Film School has made Vancouver as technically savvy in film production as Los Angeles. It's why so much production heads north now even though the benefit of a good exchange rate is history. Good talent in Vancouver isn't as pricey as good talent in Hollywood.

A film school can churn out some mighty competent film crafters. It can be a foot in the door to those who don't have access otherwise, but please note that you have to demonstrate a certain level of skill and talent to even get into a good film school. If you have some independent experience and a portfolio for Admissions, I say, "Dude! Go for it!" If you are newbie, then a community college might be a great place to start.

Whatever you do, good luck and best wishes. The world can never have too many good film makers.

According to the provincial government, "BC's thriving film industry is the third largest film production center in North America." Vancouver has neighborhoods in enough different styles to stand in for just about anyplace.

Toronto's also supposed to be pretty good; it stands in for New York City in a lot of productions.

The best way to learn about filmmaking is to make films. If you think a formal program that will push you to make films will help, then it is worth it. If not, not.

It's sort of like exercising. Are you the type of person who can motivate themselves to get up for a run at 6am? Or do you need an appointment with a trainer at the gym to make yourself do it?

Really James Keblas should answer this question. It has his name all over it. I will say that Vancouver does not make indie films (or at least notable indie films). Seattle, however, does. Van has TV shows, we have the art. It seems it must be one or the other.