What is the biggest mistake aspiring filmmakers make when they decide to direct their first film?
The biggest one is that people don’t copyright their screenplays. The most important part of any independent film is really the story and the screenplay. A lot of people mistakenly think that by mailing a copy to themselves and not opening the envelope, that somehow triggers a copyright registration called Poor Man’s Copyright. But … there’s no such thing as Poor Man’s Copyright. It’s a myth. People really have to take the time and spend the $45 to register their screenplays with the Library of Congress. Q: The accessibility of filmmaking equipment has been a particular boon to the documentary field. A: What’s exciting in the documentary realm right now is that there’s a new opportunity for documentary makers to become filmmakers. The first evidence of this is Seth Gordon’s “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters,” which is a film I totally love. One of the things he did was to acquire the life rights of the people he was interviewing for the film. As a result, he was able to sell t
