JonathanLB
Carbonite Member
I just don't agree the if you want to do features, you should go right to it. That line of reasoning makes no sense. So if you want to play in Major League Baseball you should just go right to it, no A ball for you? Good luck with that, I guess. I am fairly well off financially, to say the least, but I'm not THAT well off. I can't just spend $150,000 on my first feature, learn a lot, get experience, and go, "Well, didn't turn out so well, but gosh, I sure learned a lot! I bet my second one will be at least fairly decent! Maybe by the fourth one I'll be able to sell it for 30% of what I paid. Wow that'd be awesome." I'm sorry, but you have to crawl before you can walk, and walk before you can jog, and jog before you can run.
I had a lot of trouble pulling off my last music video with about a $10,000 budget. That is not a huge budget relatively speaking, but it was huge for me, so if I have that much stress and difficulty doing a one-day, $10,000 music video, I am not ready for feature film directing yet, just being honest. And short films, while they are useless for making money 99.9% of the time, are great practice for making features. If you can block well, direct actors well, and tell a story in a short amount of time, trust me you can figure out how to do it for a feature.
It's much the same as writing. I started my writing career doing essays, editorials, short how-to pieces, basically all between 500 words and 3,000 words. When I went to write my first book, I broke up the research into chapters, and each chapter was no longer than the longest article I had written basically, so then writing the whole book was just a matter of stringing together shorter pieces. The first book was a lot of effort, and I was intimidated, but when I went to write my second book it was a much easier process, very smooth, and I had learned a lot from the first book. The process, though, is quite similar to writing articles just on a much larger scale. That is shorts, compared to features.
As for shooting myself, no I don't have any interest in that. I am NOT above shooting, I am not above any crew position for that matter, but your reasoning is, I am sorry, extremely flawed. On one hand, you are telling me (and anyone else reading) to stop screwing around with other work if you want to do features, just go right to it, but then to start screwing around with being my own DP, which is horrible advice. That's the "jack of all trades, master of none" philosophy. I can't learn to be a very good editor, a very good shooter, a very good director, and a very good producer any time soon. If I want to be a competent cinematographer I would need several years of intense training to catch up and really learn the craft, and let's face it even then I won't be that good. There are too many cameras out there for me to learn them all, I don't have the money or patience to go rent them all and figure 'em out, and to rent every type of light I may work with, hire some DPs to teach me one-on-one (sure am not going back to film school, no thanks), etc. I know how to use Final Cut competently, not very well, but at least well enough for simple work and I know where most things are located within the program. But to become a very good editor, again, I would need at least a year to practice not only on Final Cut but more on Avid, maybe some on After Effects and Photoshop, even maybe Premiere, and maybe take some Apple certification classes, volunteer to edit people's projects for free to build a reel and experience, etc.
I really respect people who know how to do like 8 things on set, script sup, 1st A.D., gaffer, grip, 1st A.C., etc. That is awesome, trust me I admire that. But I am getting paid work as a producer-director, why should I go back and try to become a crew member or shoot my own projects? I would consider that if I fail as a producer-director, but I'm furthest along in this area. This is what I want to be doing. I don't care if it's features, corporate work, short films, industrials, music videos, commercials, etc., if I can make money as a producer-director that's my dream. I'm realizing that dream now, I'm booked for at least the next two months and paid for my time, equipment, and production company markup. To give up paid work so I can screw around learning how to shoot my own projects competently makes no sense. The last DP with whom I worked has done this for 10 years professionally, plus film school, do you think I can become better than him in the next 2-3 years? I would say absolutely not. He has simply seen more, done more, and learned more than I will be able to learn any time soon even if I devoted myself to that craft entirely. I'd much rather hire a true professional who really knows what he's doing and focus on learning my craft, directing, as well as possible.
As I progress and gain more experience, I will inevitably learn more and more about the positions around me to form even better communication methods with my cast and crew. That's why it's important to do other work besides features, to build up to the ability that is required for that work, the problems that arise, etc.
When I started martial arts, I really wanted to be able to do something "cool" like a counter back kick perfectly executed or a jump spinning hook kick, but I had to start off learning how to do basic, relatively boring kicks to perfection before I could hope to try any of that stuff. It's a process, it just makes sense to move up in line with your ability. In that case, I got my first black belt after 13 months of training, and another one after about five more months (both first degrees, of course, it takes a lot longer to get a second degree black belt from any world governing organization for a martial art).
Now, if a year from now I'm not getting any work as a producer-director and my career has stalled, and I have free time, maybe it'd be a great idea to go back and learn how to shoot my own stuff, so I can work on lower budgets, perhaps, or become my own editor. In fact I would LOVE that knowledge, but just being realistic it's tough enough to be a certifiably really good producer and a really good director, and I'm still far away from being able to call myself that good at either one. I think I have what it takes to be great at both, but the experience that I need before I can call myself a true professional is a ways off.
I had a lot of trouble pulling off my last music video with about a $10,000 budget. That is not a huge budget relatively speaking, but it was huge for me, so if I have that much stress and difficulty doing a one-day, $10,000 music video, I am not ready for feature film directing yet, just being honest. And short films, while they are useless for making money 99.9% of the time, are great practice for making features. If you can block well, direct actors well, and tell a story in a short amount of time, trust me you can figure out how to do it for a feature.
It's much the same as writing. I started my writing career doing essays, editorials, short how-to pieces, basically all between 500 words and 3,000 words. When I went to write my first book, I broke up the research into chapters, and each chapter was no longer than the longest article I had written basically, so then writing the whole book was just a matter of stringing together shorter pieces. The first book was a lot of effort, and I was intimidated, but when I went to write my second book it was a much easier process, very smooth, and I had learned a lot from the first book. The process, though, is quite similar to writing articles just on a much larger scale. That is shorts, compared to features.
As for shooting myself, no I don't have any interest in that. I am NOT above shooting, I am not above any crew position for that matter, but your reasoning is, I am sorry, extremely flawed. On one hand, you are telling me (and anyone else reading) to stop screwing around with other work if you want to do features, just go right to it, but then to start screwing around with being my own DP, which is horrible advice. That's the "jack of all trades, master of none" philosophy. I can't learn to be a very good editor, a very good shooter, a very good director, and a very good producer any time soon. If I want to be a competent cinematographer I would need several years of intense training to catch up and really learn the craft, and let's face it even then I won't be that good. There are too many cameras out there for me to learn them all, I don't have the money or patience to go rent them all and figure 'em out, and to rent every type of light I may work with, hire some DPs to teach me one-on-one (sure am not going back to film school, no thanks), etc. I know how to use Final Cut competently, not very well, but at least well enough for simple work and I know where most things are located within the program. But to become a very good editor, again, I would need at least a year to practice not only on Final Cut but more on Avid, maybe some on After Effects and Photoshop, even maybe Premiere, and maybe take some Apple certification classes, volunteer to edit people's projects for free to build a reel and experience, etc.
I really respect people who know how to do like 8 things on set, script sup, 1st A.D., gaffer, grip, 1st A.C., etc. That is awesome, trust me I admire that. But I am getting paid work as a producer-director, why should I go back and try to become a crew member or shoot my own projects? I would consider that if I fail as a producer-director, but I'm furthest along in this area. This is what I want to be doing. I don't care if it's features, corporate work, short films, industrials, music videos, commercials, etc., if I can make money as a producer-director that's my dream. I'm realizing that dream now, I'm booked for at least the next two months and paid for my time, equipment, and production company markup. To give up paid work so I can screw around learning how to shoot my own projects competently makes no sense. The last DP with whom I worked has done this for 10 years professionally, plus film school, do you think I can become better than him in the next 2-3 years? I would say absolutely not. He has simply seen more, done more, and learned more than I will be able to learn any time soon even if I devoted myself to that craft entirely. I'd much rather hire a true professional who really knows what he's doing and focus on learning my craft, directing, as well as possible.
As I progress and gain more experience, I will inevitably learn more and more about the positions around me to form even better communication methods with my cast and crew. That's why it's important to do other work besides features, to build up to the ability that is required for that work, the problems that arise, etc.
When I started martial arts, I really wanted to be able to do something "cool" like a counter back kick perfectly executed or a jump spinning hook kick, but I had to start off learning how to do basic, relatively boring kicks to perfection before I could hope to try any of that stuff. It's a process, it just makes sense to move up in line with your ability. In that case, I got my first black belt after 13 months of training, and another one after about five more months (both first degrees, of course, it takes a lot longer to get a second degree black belt from any world governing organization for a martial art).
Now, if a year from now I'm not getting any work as a producer-director and my career has stalled, and I have free time, maybe it'd be a great idea to go back and learn how to shoot my own stuff, so I can work on lower budgets, perhaps, or become my own editor. In fact I would LOVE that knowledge, but just being realistic it's tough enough to be a certifiably really good producer and a really good director, and I'm still far away from being able to call myself that good at either one. I think I have what it takes to be great at both, but the experience that I need before I can call myself a true professional is a ways off.
