Filmmaker Cross Training
- Thread starter Drew Ott
- Start date
Film is about drawing from experiences and connecting with people. Go experience things and connect with people. As much and as many as possible.
For example: take a cross-country bicycle trip and stay at campgrounds. Talk to people there. Learn their stories. Tell your own.
For example: take a cross-country bicycle trip and stay at campgrounds. Talk to people there. Learn their stories. Tell your own.
combatentropy
Veteran
Music: playing an instrument or learning the theory. John McTiernan talks about the relationship between filmmaking and music in his DVD commentary:
roxics
Veteran
For me it's life itself. I admit that when I frst began making movies as a teenager I didn't really realize I was faking it. Basically making movies about other peoples experiences that I saw in other movies. While there is nothing wrong with that, you don't gain a deeper understanding of the meaning behind it all. You're just a xerox machine making bad copies of an original.
It's only now at 35 after having experienced:
The death of my only grandmother
The death of my father
The death of my brother
Coming home to find my mom on the floor having suffered a massive stroke
My first child at age 25
My first marriage and divorce
Travelling the country as a truck driver at an age when I would have gone to college
Attending college parties at MSU while my friend went to school there.
Smoking pot in a hash bar in Amsterdam
Getting so stoned once I called the cops on myself (as a result of my first panic attack)
Attempting to start a dot com business (which I worked on for two years with others) and failing.
Having a threesome with two guys then later having a threesome with two women
Becoming a responsible adult who pays all his bills on time and holds a full time job for 8+ years.
... that I feel like I finally have enough personal experience and a voice of my own. So even if I do write fictional stories in the sci-fi genre for instance, I feel like I have enough life experience to at least embed them with some level of depth based on what I actually know rather than what others have told me.
So I agree with David when he says "Film is about drawing from experiences and connecting with people. Go experience things and connect with people."
For each of us those things will be different, but that's what will make for movies that aren't cookie cutter.
It's only now at 35 after having experienced:
The death of my only grandmother
The death of my father
The death of my brother
Coming home to find my mom on the floor having suffered a massive stroke
My first child at age 25
My first marriage and divorce
Travelling the country as a truck driver at an age when I would have gone to college
Attending college parties at MSU while my friend went to school there.
Smoking pot in a hash bar in Amsterdam
Getting so stoned once I called the cops on myself (as a result of my first panic attack)
Attempting to start a dot com business (which I worked on for two years with others) and failing.
Having a threesome with two guys then later having a threesome with two women
Becoming a responsible adult who pays all his bills on time and holds a full time job for 8+ years.
... that I feel like I finally have enough personal experience and a voice of my own. So even if I do write fictional stories in the sci-fi genre for instance, I feel like I have enough life experience to at least embed them with some level of depth based on what I actually know rather than what others have told me.
So I agree with David when he says "Film is about drawing from experiences and connecting with people. Go experience things and connect with people."
For each of us those things will be different, but that's what will make for movies that aren't cookie cutter.
jghenderson
Well-known member
Wonderful post, and something i've been thinking about a lot lately. I've spent so much of my early-mid twenties absorbed in the film world, whether it be watching films, analyzing them, reading theory, learning about my favorite filmmakers, etc. (and of course, making shorts/music videos) . This was very useful for a while, but recently it had gotten to a point where I felt I was not able to move past this constant studying because I was trying to "figure it out". Luckily almost all of my favorite filmmakers had the same advice on this subject, which is to find your own way. I realized that perhaps why I haven't been completely satisfied with my work as of yet is because it's so based on the work of other people that i've seen. There's no personal truth in it. Inspired by those filmmakers and the original voices they all have, i've made it a mission to move away from studying and to just go and experience life in as many different ways as I can, because I know only through those experiences will I be able to figure out who I am and thus what kind of filmmaker I need to be.
Because your'e absolutely right. So many films end up being simply rehashed/inferior versions of what has already been done, because most likely those filmmakers were not drawing on their own life and POV but on what they have seen others do. I've really begun to believe that artistic truth will always come from the inside, it's not something that can be learned by watching movies or reading books.
Drew Ott
Wish I were banned.
Great respones so far. "Life experience" is absolutely critical if you hope to tell original and authentic stories.
One thing I may add is that "life experience" on its own may not be the best use of time. For instance, plenty of people may have gone on bicycle trips similar to what David Jimerson recommends, but not all of them become filmmakers. Also, sometimes "life experience" may be an excuse to procrastinate.
What I would add to "life experience," then, is journalism. I recall Nora Ephron saying that journalism is the best cross-training for screenwriters, and screenwriting is the best cross-training for journalism. It was her suggestion that made me start thinking about various means of cross-training in the first place.
Anyone interested in screenwriting, directing, or editing should try journalism. I've been writing a nonfiction book of journalism for a few years now (almost done) instead of making movies, and the growth I will have made in filmmaking talent by the end of it is unspeakable.
It's hard to articulate quickly, but essentially journalism teaches you to watch real life and turn it into a story. Your powers of observation develop, because you're looking at real people and creating "scenes" out of what they do. Write a story about Christmas time with your relatives. Is Christmas dinner a scene that plays out in full, or do you just write, "Then we ate dinner." Who are the main characters? Where is the story?
Journalism gives you complete freedom in storytelling, and that can teach you much about film. Events happened, and those events cannot be changed, but the way the events unfold are entirely up to the storyteller. You look at transcripts of conversations and then edit it into entertaining dialogue. You observe real life and choose meaningful details. Etc, etc.
So my suggestion is journalism. And boxing.
One thing I may add is that "life experience" on its own may not be the best use of time. For instance, plenty of people may have gone on bicycle trips similar to what David Jimerson recommends, but not all of them become filmmakers. Also, sometimes "life experience" may be an excuse to procrastinate.
What I would add to "life experience," then, is journalism. I recall Nora Ephron saying that journalism is the best cross-training for screenwriters, and screenwriting is the best cross-training for journalism. It was her suggestion that made me start thinking about various means of cross-training in the first place.
Anyone interested in screenwriting, directing, or editing should try journalism. I've been writing a nonfiction book of journalism for a few years now (almost done) instead of making movies, and the growth I will have made in filmmaking talent by the end of it is unspeakable.
It's hard to articulate quickly, but essentially journalism teaches you to watch real life and turn it into a story. Your powers of observation develop, because you're looking at real people and creating "scenes" out of what they do. Write a story about Christmas time with your relatives. Is Christmas dinner a scene that plays out in full, or do you just write, "Then we ate dinner." Who are the main characters? Where is the story?
Journalism gives you complete freedom in storytelling, and that can teach you much about film. Events happened, and those events cannot be changed, but the way the events unfold are entirely up to the storyteller. You look at transcripts of conversations and then edit it into entertaining dialogue. You observe real life and choose meaningful details. Etc, etc.
So my suggestion is journalism. And boxing.
Life experience is great so anything you might do, especially something outside your comfort zone is good for the creative process. Just don't forget to make a movie that includes a story. This is where many writer/directors go wrong. An experience, or just a series of events, is not a story. That sort of thing is generally only interesting to the person the experience happened to, and no one else, at least in the form of a movie.
a great learning exercise is watching a movie, and then deconstructing it into 3 acts and making a beat sheet for that movie. This will give you practice at turning your experiences into a coherent story with good pacing.
a great learning exercise is watching a movie, and then deconstructing it into 3 acts and making a beat sheet for that movie. This will give you practice at turning your experiences into a coherent story with good pacing.
Al MacLeod
Well-known member
Stan Brakhage would do calisthenics with his camera...helps with balance and endurance.
roxics
Veteran
That's actually a great suggestion. I love that.
j1clark@ucsd.edu
Veteran
While I agree that 'life experiences' are a requisite for 'story writing'... and perhaps a bicycle trip would be 'unique' enough for such... but for me there needs to be something more than just that.
For example, perhaps someone can write a script for a film of a family getting together on some 'important' holiday... what most people 'experience' is almost banal non-events. Such a 'story' tends to be talkytalk, which perhaps is good for people who like films that are radio+illustrations... but I think there have been any number of such films... and I would not want to see nor write yetanotherhomefortheholidays film...
For writers, I think taking up something like 'painting', or 'drawing' would be better... on other sites, where people submit their scripts for review, very often, the writing is far too wordy, does not evoke 'images', and often is laboriously dialog intensive... again the latter would be good, if the product was radio (well, even then... the dialog could be clipped significantly...).
I don't know that 'journalism' works, as that is not so much 'cross' training, as 'allied' training. It may be of benefit, but it is not a 'cross training' activity.
I think people are taking the "bicycle trip" example a little too literally.
What's important is what a "bicycle trip" would do for you. You'll explore places you've never seen before, and you'll do it slowly, immersed in it, more likely to notice the details -- and it's detail which really sells anything. If you stay at campgrounds and talk to the people there, you'll hear different perspectives, different stories, and in telling your own stories, you'll learn HOW to tell stories.
So, in effect, not too different from "journalism" as mentioned above. You see, you observe, you hear perspectives, you craft your ability to express your own.
What's important is what a "bicycle trip" would do for you. You'll explore places you've never seen before, and you'll do it slowly, immersed in it, more likely to notice the details -- and it's detail which really sells anything. If you stay at campgrounds and talk to the people there, you'll hear different perspectives, different stories, and in telling your own stories, you'll learn HOW to tell stories.
So, in effect, not too different from "journalism" as mentioned above. You see, you observe, you hear perspectives, you craft your ability to express your own.
Liam Hall
Veteran
Here's a short list activities that have helped several famous writers and filmmakers:
Join the army.
Join a revolution.
Travel.
Work in a shop.
Abuse alcohol and drugs.
Play college sports.
Play chess.
Have many extramarital affairs.
Become an actor.
Become a musician.
Become a stand-up comedian.
Take up painting.
Live in a communist country.
Join the scouts.
Study philosophy.
Study marshall arts.
Join the army.
Join a revolution.
Travel.
Work in a shop.
Abuse alcohol and drugs.
Play college sports.
Play chess.
Have many extramarital affairs.
Become an actor.
Become a musician.
Become a stand-up comedian.
Take up painting.
Live in a communist country.
Join the scouts.
Study philosophy.
Study marshall arts.
j1clark@ucsd.edu
Veteran
Probably what produced the 'life' experiences that contributed to "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"(2008)...
Liam Hall
Veteran
Quite possibly...
I was actually thinking of Akira Kurosawa who was more than a bit handy at Kendo, though there's a huge number of filmmakers who are quite partial to a little Bruce Lee action.
Not to mention "We Are Marshall."
I took up painting in my teens. I credit the work on those half dozen house exteriors that summer with helping make me what I am today.
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