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!