How Movies Are Made
Like Duolingo, but for How Movies Are Made. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
54 levels across 4 sections, about 108 minutes end to end, roughly 22 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Starting with an Idea, The People on Set, Putting It All Together, and The Final Touches. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in How Movies Are Made
- Screenplays as blueprints
- Sluglines as location signposts
- Translating emotions to external actions
- Action lines describe what is seen
- Formatting and Action
- The Inciting Incident triggers the story
- Visual storytelling prioritizes behavior over literal exposition
- Internal thoughts must be translated into external actions
- The Midpoint raises the stakes in Act II
- Dialogue should not repeat what is already visible on screen
- Sluglines establish scene location
- The Climax resolves the primary conflict in Act III
- The chronological progression of the three-act structure
- Screenplays rely on camera movement and cuts
- Stage plays are often dialogue-heavy due to limited locations
- Distinguishing screenwriting from playwriting
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives How Movies Are Made the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
Picture this: you've just finished your first script. What is the primary purpose of this document for your film crew?
Get it right to open this lesson and 53 more in the app.
Where How Movies Are Made takes you
Go behind the scenes to see how your favorite films move from a simple idea to the big screen. Learn about the magic of cameras, lighting, and the team that makes it all happen.
- 1
Starting with an Idea
- Writing the Story
- Drawing the Scenes
- Finding the Money
- Picking the Actors
- 2
The People on Set
- The Director's Job
- Working the Camera
- Setting the Lights
- Recording Clear Sound
- Costumes and Makeup
- Building the Backgrounds
- 3
Putting It All Together
- Cutting the Best Clips
- Adding Music and Noise
- Fixing the Colors
- 4
The Final Touches
- Creating Digital Effects
- Making the Movie Poster
- Showing it in Theaters
- How Awards Work
- Watching at Home
4 sections · 18 units · 54 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
How Movies Are Made is taught in the The Storyteller style: every lesson is a story. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start How Movies Are Made today.
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