Author: Donald L. Vasicek

Award-winning writer/filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek studied producing, directing and line producing at the Hollywood Film Institute under the acclaimed Dov Simens and at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute. He studied screenwriting at The Complete Screenplay, Inc., with Sally Merlin, daughter of the famed Hollywood Merlin family of screenwriters and writers, as his mentor. Don has taught, mentored, and is a script consultant for over 300 writers, directors, producers, actors and production companies. He has also acted in NBC’s “Mystery of Flight 1501”, ABC’s Father Dowling starring Thomas Bosley, and Red-Handed Productions’ “Summer Reunion.” These activities have resulted in his involvement in over 100 movies during the past 23 years, from major studios to independent films including MGM’s $56 million “Warriors of Virtue”, Paramount Classic’s “Racing Lucifer”, American Picture’s “The Lost Heart” and “Born To Kill” starring the Charles Bronson of Korea, Bobby Kim, and his internationally-known brother, Richard, who directed, Incline Productions, Inc.’s “Born To Win”, 20th Century Fox’s “Die Hard II” starring Bruce Willis with Rennie Harlan as director, and Joel Silver as producer, Olympus Films+, LLC’s “Haunted World” with Emmy-nominated PBS Producer Alison Hill, and Olympus Films+, LLC’s “Faces”, “Oh, The Places You Can Go” and the award-winning “The Sand Creek Massacre” documentary film. Don also has written and published over 500 books, short stories and articles. His books include “How To Write, Sell, And Get Your Screenplays Produced” and “The Write Focus.” He has been a guest screenwriting and filmmaking columnist for Hollywood Lit. Sales, Moondance International Film Festival’s e-zine, Screenwriter’s Forum, Screenplace, Screenplayers.Net, Screenwriters.Net, Screenwriters Utopia, Spraka & Kinsla (Swedish), Inkwell Watch, and Ink On the Brain. Writing recognition includes Houston’s WorldFest International Film Festival, Chesterfield’s Writer’s Film Project, Writer’s Digest, The Sundance Institute, The Writer’s Network, and the Rocky Mountain Writer’s Guild, Inc. Don completed producing “The Sand Creek Massacre”, a documentary film project that includes the completed and award-winning documentary short, a book, a classroom video, Interactive Media, a study guide, and a lesson plans. The film is being distributed by Films Media Group. Don is on the board of directors of the American Indian Genocide Museum in Houston. He is the founder and owner of Olympus Films+, LLC, a global writing and filmmaking company and a screenwriting volunteer on AllExperts.com. Don’s screenwriting agent is Robin Kaver of the Robert Freedman Dramatic Agency, Inc., 1501 Broadway, Suite 2301 New York, NY 10036, 212-840-5751.
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Crowdfunding Films

You should think in terms of how your film story will benefit
Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, New Jelly, etc., contributors.
For example, if I donate $25 to your project, how will
I benefit from that, particularly in terms of the story?
Is the theme of the story, something I would champion?
How will this story strike the hearts of contributors?

So, you need a beginning, a middle and an end with a theme
that holds every story element together. You should have an
antagonist (seeks same goal as your main character, but
for a different reason and goes about accomplishing the
goal in a different way than your main character)) or a villain
(a villain represents pure evil with no redeeming characteristics,
who seeks the same goal as your main character, but for a
different reason and the way he/she goes about accomplishing the goal).

By telling the story from the point-of-view of a strong, main character,
who must go through a transformational arc, who has one main goal
in the story, with a theme that reflects in every scene, character, setting,
etc., then you’ll have substance to your story and it will attract
contributors.

The fine point for crowdfunding is to show the benefits for contributing
to your project and you will more likely connect with contributors.

Happy Crowdfunding!

Commitment to Professionalism
Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
The Zen of Writing
http://michaelc.nextmp.net/wordpress
dvasicek@earthlink.net

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How to Write a Story

How do you write a story? Anyone want to venture a guess? My guess is that you have a theme that should work like a thread that holds the story together. The story should have a beginning, a middle and an end. There should be a main character who has a goal and transformation arc. Seeking the goal should cause the main character to transform. This way, the story won’t fall flat because the main character is changing.

And every story should have an antagonist (in fiction, an antagonist can be a person, object, thing, etc. the fine point of this is that an antagonist is different than a villain. A villain must represent pure evil with no redeeming characteristics. Whereas, an antagonist should have redeeming characteristics). By having an antagonist, or a villain, you should also have the antagonist or villain seeking the same goal as the main character, but for different reasons. This, in turn, then causes conflict. And this, in turn, creates drama. Without drama there is no conflict. Without conflict there is no story. And all of this is applicable to anything one writes including fiction. So, do some reading and check it out. You’ll find this article is right on for you.

Award-Winning Writer/Filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek (on the right)
.

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Screenplays, WGA, Copyrights

In Reed Martin’s, “The Reel Truth”, he recommends that filmmakers copyright their screenplays. The reason for this is that a copyright carries more weight in a court of law than registration does

Screenplay
with WGA. He gives examples to prove his point. Also, by copyrighting your screenplay, you are able to make any and all changes you want to make without having to copyright your screenplay again.

Commitment to Professionalism

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
The Zen of Writing
http://michaelc.nextmp.net/wordpress
dvasicek@earthlink.net