In this post, I will talk about the most difficult part of
making a film: the creative side. I had intended this to be the last post in
this series, but I think I will need to revisit the issue in more detail later.
Constraints
The first step is to consider the constraints on what you
can do. I talked about some of these in Part
7. Consider how much you can afford to spend, how much time do you have and
whom can you rely on for help. Your film will need to be doable within those
constraints.
To start, look at how long your film will be. You will
likely have an upper limit of three to four minutes for the final film. While
it is surprising how much you can get into such a short time period, there is a
limit. If you have too many ideas, you will not get them all in.
Your film should have one central idea, with three or four
ideas that support it. When you develop the film, it is best to come up with
far more ideas. Try to get thirty or forty ideas. Before you start to make the
film, you will need to trim those ideas down drastically. This approach worked
well for me with Who Shot the President.
See Part
3 for details.
Barriers
With the new technology available now it is much easier to
make and distribute a film. Making a good film is still just as hard though.
One of the barriers that I’ve struggled with is self-doubt.
Just the other day I came across a blog post with some
good advice on how to deal with self-doubt.
What do you care
about?
You need to care about the film in order to make a good film,
so a good place to start to look for ideas is to think about what you care
about. Some of my better ideas developed when I came up with examples to help
me explain something that was important to me and not while I worked on a film.
Recognize good ideas
When I wrote the previous posts about the films I have done,
what struck me was how so much of the “good stuff” was the result of chance. Accidents,
adlibs and luck all generated ideas and opportunities. It is a little
misleading to say that, because it was the recognition that these random
results would help that was important. You can’t just hope for a lucky break.
These random events will always come up, but you won’t always recognize them as
opportunities.
Whenever something unexpected happens, pause before you
reject it, consider if you can use it. Suppress the reaction to think it is
wrong. I have tried to adopt the attitude that nothing is wrong until the
editor decides they can’t use the shot. A quick, thoughtless, rejection can
discourage creative input.
Bounce your ideas off
other people
I know many people reject this approach, but I feel that it
has been valuable in my own work. As a filmmaker, you are usually disconnected
from your audience. The direct response you get will tell you what works and
what doesn’t.
Take your time
Many of my films have developed over a long period of time. As
you work on a film, new ideas always come along. You will come up with ways
around problems.
In the end, you will need to find your own way to create.
Everyone one works in different ways. Nevertheless, I hope my advice will get
you started on your journey.
Links to other posts on How to Make a Hundred Dollar Film
Festival Film
This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog
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