Musings about filmmaking

I know that I’m not making great art. Sometimes I see videos like this one, this one or this one, and I can really feel how far I have to go ARTISTICALLY as a filmmaker. But… it doesn’t bother me that much. Right now, I’m learning the nuts and bolts of producing films. I’ve always let that hold me back. When I’ve had a good idea, I’ve been hesitant, and afraid… and I often did not know where to start and how I could possibly pull it off. These exercises I’m doing with the film club–one short film per month for a year–are helping me overcome that. I’m feeling more and more powerful every day, and I’m beginning to see that I can make just about anything happen if I really want to do it. Great art can come later, once I’ve gotten over my fear of JUST DOING IT.

Film #2: I Remember When

As promised, here is our film group’s second video:

I have a lot to say about it, but for now I’ll just say it’s WAY better than the first one for a myriad of reasons. I was not on the creative team for this one (is that the reason? Hehehe!), but I did work heavily behind the scenes.

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Update: (5/4/2010)

So, as you can see, this film was MUCH better than our group’s previous one. Here is a list of things that we did differently that contributed to this:

How to Hold a Casting Call

One thing I’ve been learning a lot about lately is casting.  We (the film group I’m now a part of) have been putting out casting calls in order to find trained actors for our films who are willing to work for free.  And it turns out that it’s easy to find such people, because actors need demo reels that show how well they can act.

I went to a seminar a few months ago about how to direct actors, and the instructor said that 85% of direction is casting the right people. If you just cast your non-actor friends, you’ll need like five rehearsals before you can get them play the part well enough.  And casting the right people isn’t just about finding people who can act—it’s about finding people with a good attitude, who will help and not hinder your production, and who are reliable and professional.

“Scene”

Even though I haven’t posted in three months, much has happened to me, filmmaking-wise.  In December, someone in my part of town started a film club with the goal of making one short film per month for a year.   A handful of people showed up to that first meeting, and by the time the meeting was over, we had a script, cast and crew ready to shoot the first film.  I was the director.  And we shot it a few weeks later.  I’m not gonna say it was a masterpiece, but it was quite an adventure, and we learned a lot.

As of now, we’ve shot three films and are doing pre-production on a fourth and fifth.  Two are completely done, and I’ll post the second one shortly.  You’ll see a huge difference between the first and second film, which shows how fast we are learning and growing.

Here is our first short film, “Scene.”

Here are my some random tidbits of what went on behind the scenes of this particular project: