I'm starting a Film Club in my highschool and was wondering if any of you had suggestions as to what kinds of scripts I should try to write. I ask because it isn't a regular filmmaking envoronment: We have good film equipment, no budget unless we fundraise, only teenage actors and actresses, and little time to actually film, since we'll meet only on weekends.

My goal with this club is to hopefully get a filmmaking scholarship - is there anything I should know?

Keep it simple!

Work on shorts with extremely small casts and minimal scenes it.  Work on projects with fast turnarounds.  Long projects may discourage your people.


Phil

I second the shorts. Always keep in mind stories that your actors can relate to using only the locations you can get ahold of like whatever room you meet in at school or people's houses. No budget means no custom set building. Shorts mean try to keep your projects to one or two scenes max to begin with and under 10 pages, if possible. It also couldn't hurt to involve your people in the writing process. It gives them a sort of vested interest.

Me and a few friends made quite a few short films at high school. From my experience the main advice I have is to: Make projects that are possible.

It's really quite hard even though it seems simple. There's always some insane idea that would look awesome, but realistically it can't be filmed with the resources you could get quickly and with basically no budget.

The type of stories you could write are pretty much restricted to drama and comedy, as those don't need any hard special effects, make up, sets etc.

Write for characters who are actually teenagers. In my first short film we had a few adult characters played by teenage actors, it didn't look good.

And try to enter as much film competitions as you can, it forces you to finish by a deadline, teachers just love stuff like competitions, and most importantly is that you get to see what everyone else has done and learn how they pulled it off.

Quoted from Tinman I'm starting a Film Club in my highschool and was wondering if any of you had suggestions as to what kinds of scripts I should try to write. I ask because it isn't a regular filmmaking envoronment: We have good film equipment, no budget unless we fundraise, only teenage actors and actresses, and little time to actually film, since we'll meet only on weekends. My goal with this club is to hopefully get a filmmaking scholarship - is there anything I should know?

A scholarship? Another something to put in the transcript? Whatever you do, will do.

Aspirations aside -- not that it won't end in a mess, it should! I suggest you get dirty, dive in!

If you can get a group of friends and shoot something, anything -  it'll be, no matter its quality, an invaluable experience.

Hell, maybe it'll even be good. Fact is, it doesn't matter. You'll, no doubt, learn from the experience.  As others have said, focus on one thing, a short written by you, or better yet, one that involves everyone -- a collaborative effort.

One of the best experiences I've had, in terms of academics, was a writing class, one that I, along with other students, had to present work, on a weekly basis, to be critiqued by one another -- peer review! The teacher, being smart, didn't involve herself. Each of us read, then listened. It was similar to the simplyscripts boards. I learned a lot.

Bottom line, if you're looking to do something that'll help you get into film school, do something specific, something that demonstrates a desire to make films. Starting a "film club" is a great start -- making a film or two is even better.

Whatever you do, if your grades, in total, aren't good, you can kiss NYU, USC, or any number of lesser schools goodbye.

As a writer, assuming you've an interest in writing, every subject is important.

Seth