Blogs, Blogs, Blogs

Last weekend, not quite recovered from filming, another intense but super-rewarding task came my way: attend the AES Convention and writing three posts for Avid Blogs.

AES, for anyone who doesn't know, is the Audio Engineers Society, and I definitely had my plate full since audio is NOT my area of expertise…

I got the job through the DFA (who recommended me thanks to my No MFA blog). Determined to help me succeed, Guy Mor, a Master Pro Tools instructor at the DFA, brought me in for an audio crash course, then let me sit it on one of his advanced Pro Tools classes. The result was that in about two days time, I learned more about the world of audio than I had learned in the previous two years.

This is not unlike what I feel film people go through on most any project. True, they don't always have to become proficient in an unknown field in two days, but they do typically have to immerse themselves in their current project, whatever it may be. The result in both cases is a feeling like your head might explode from so much over-thinking.

At any rate, I'm so grateful that this opportunity came my way. I now have a way better understanding of audio, and I firmly believe that the more a filmmaker knows about all different aspects of film, the better - never mind whether or not they'll be the ones handling that particular area.

I've come across would-be directors in film classes who have (literally) rolled their eyes and whined about how they "don't need to know any of this" - they're only interested in directing. That makes my skin crawl, not only because they'll likely, on their way up the ladder toward directing their first feature, need to take on other jobs in the film industry where they're not, you know, THE BOSS, but also because when they do finally become "the boss," they might quickly discover that the difference between being good or bad at managing all those other people is actually knowing how they do what they do.

I think, to be a good director, you need at least a rudimentary understanding of everything going into your production… but I digress!

You can check out my posts on Avid blogs at http://www.avidblogs.com/author/smcdermottjain/ (and give me a few likes while you're there!)

In other blog news, I've now been hired to create and manage the DFA's up and coming blog, a job I'm super excited about. I've written my first post following a screening of students' new work last Wednesday, and am eager to get the blog up and running. More on that to come!

The Crazy Hard

Last Sunday night, I wrapped on my most recent short film.

If my last blog post didn’t already clue you in, this was the most complicated project (of my own) I’ve ever worked on. It involved a lot of characters, a small crew, and a whole bunch of locations.

But. It. Got. Done.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I once heard someone say that “The only people who fail in this industry are the ones who give up.” I’ve come to learn that’s completely true. It’s not that people can’t make movies. Anybody can. But they don’t because it’s too crazy hard.

If you’re directing/producing your own indie (which you will if it’s your first foray into this world) you’re managing everybody and everything that has anything to do with what, in the end, might just be a few minutes of film. And those who’ve worked on films know that hundreds of hours could easily go into creating just a few minutes.

Once you get past dwelling on the crazy hard, though, you get down to just doing... and the magic of starting to do something is that, once you’re in it, it doesn’t seem so hard. Not that you’re not exhausted, but once it’s happening, it takes on its own momentum. Before you know it, you’ve wrapped.

If you’re interested in film (and if you read this blog, you must be) all I can say is: no matter what the frustrations, stick with projects and see them through.

Start with simple ones. Maybe two or three friends to help as a crew, just a few characters, and hopefully just one location.

Then start to make it a little more complex, one project at a time (starting with the crew that will help make the end product look more professional). You’ll learn how to juggle more things than you thought possible, but most importantly, you’ll learn that making a film, beyond the crazy hard, is completely doable. Just one step at a time and a willingness to be exhausted for a while.

My last short was a big challenge. I didn’t only learn about locations, which I wrote about last time, but I learned about organizing necessary transportation and food for big groups (your responsibility, especially if they’re working for free), picked up some lighting tricks, and got hands-on experience working with different members of the crew. I learned about working with a director of photography and scheduling my shot lists according to daylight. I learned that, when short on time, there are certain shots I could cut to save time (and, by extension, certain details that didn’t need to be in the script, which will better inform my writing). I also learned about pinpointing the shots that were absolutely necessary.

But, long story short, these are all things I learned by actually making the film. In a nutshell, the most important thing I learned is that, despite the challenges of bigger, more complicated, and more polished productions, I need to just keep on diving into them and getting more and more done. As a result, what I do will become more and more professional.

I now have hours of video and audio footage to sift through, to begin the editing process. That means there are a few months to go before this project is totally done. But when I wrapped last Sunday, I felt proud knowing that I’d pulled off filming my most ambitious and challenging project to date. I grew as filmmaker because of it. What’s more, I’m now more ready to take on the crazy hard.