waiting for direction

So what have I learned so far regarding my short filmmaking? Well, I am getting a bit more of a perfectionist (is there a level to perfection? When do we know we have reached perfection? Maybe that is something for another entry). I have now directed, starred, edited, filmed and put music and effects together. What I have realised is that my visionary perspective is not always shared with others. For example, I recently starred in a movie that I was also asked to edit. Now please do not see this as me having a go at the cast of this film I stared in. This entry is purely about what I have learned and as such, will take forward in my filmmaking career. I hope that you too, as a reader with a potential intent to make short films will learn something from this entry. The problem I had was many fold. I would be better saying the problems I had were…

            When you are not behind the camera, you are not in control of what the camera is seeing. More importantly, if your idea of how a film should look does not match that of the cameraperson then editing becomes quite tricky.

Step one, get organised. The director had an idea that was not wholly shared with the cast. I found myself waiting for direction that had to be prompted.

Step two, if your film is for a competition, this might not be the best time to have someone who has not much experience filming, filming it. During the editing process scenes were lost that had people in the background. Scenes were lost that had talking over them and I had to take the audio out of scenes in which you could hear the cameraperson chewing gum!

Step three, know your role. It was my understanding that I was to star in this film. When I got there I found out I was to provide the camera which luckily I had with me (never leave your camera at home, you do not know when opportunity will present itself). The downside was that it was not fully charged.

I was later was asked to edit the film. Knowing what I do know now is that if I am going to edit a film, do not star in it. You need to get what the director is looking for. You need to see what the cameraperson is seeing. You need to share your vision.

Well that is out of my system. I do apologise for making this entry a bit of a rant but I do hope you are able to apply my learning to your own circumstances. Remember, know your role. This can be applied to work, rest or play. It can be applied to life itself.

the constipated mathematician

What do we do when we get time to write something but don’t know what to write? We write anything. Often there is something there but we are used to thoughts coming to the front of our mind. We have an idea, we find the time and we write it down. As we know ideas can come to you at anytime so I always have something to write or record on with my at all times. I can guarantee that the time I don’t I will have my best idea in the world ever. So why don’t these ideas come to me when I do have the time?

Think about the driver who hits all the red lights when s/he is in a hurry but will coast through every green light in the world when they are not. What happens is that those other days that you do actually hit red lights or miss the bus or get held up by little Jimmy ‘rattle on’ are days that you are not in a hurry so they become insignificant. You do not remember them because you do not need to remember them. Quite often, ideas need a bit of a coaxing out. Like the constipated mathematician who works it out with a pencil, we need to let our brain run free.

We sit with a blank document in front of us and around an hours worth of time. What do we do with it? This is where I would recommend a blog (yes believe it or not I do spend time on these entries!). I use my blog as a writing practice. I can voice things that would otherwise have people who sat next to me in the pub picking up their pint and walking off outside in the cold for the preferred beer garden.

For the wannabe writer we are always told two things. Read more and write more. So I have two choices in my free hour, I read or I write. However, what happens when I have nothing to read so decide to write something instead but cannot think of anything to write? I write anything. And I just did.