What A Film Should Be Like: David Fincher

Photo: The King Bulletin

This week my What A Film Should Be Like series continues this time with a great quote from one of my favorite directors David Fincher (Fight Club, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Se7en, The Social Network):

“Directing ain’t about drawing a neat little picture and showing it to the cameraman. I didn’t want to go to film school. I didn’t know what the point was. The fact is, you don’t know what directing is until the sun is setting and you’ve got to get five shots and you’re only going to get two.” - David Fincher

This is an interesting quote for me due to the fact that I just started as a film director and I haven't had an experience that's similar to David Fincher but I believe to as I continue through my journey as a film director I know that the same thing will happen to me.

I do however can relate to the first sentence of his quote about directing ain't about drawing a neat little picture and showing it to the cameraman. During my short amount of time as a filmmaker and working on my film, I was trying to make this film as perfect as I can, to give my audience a perfect story of my life in a wheelchair but I've learned  that being perfect or drawing a neat little picture is not what I'm going for and that I'm not gonna be completely perfect with this film and now that I know that I'm now more comfortable with making this film and the style that I'm gonna be working with.

I'm going to make mistakes with this film (I know that) but I'm going to enjoy making this film and if it's not perfect then so be it because I'll be very happy with the end result of my first film.

Justin

What A Film Should Be Like: Sydney Pollack

Photo: Hollywoodland

This week I found a great quote from director Sydney Pollack about making a film. It's short but it's to the point.

"When you make a film you usually make a film about an idea"

This is exactly what happen with my film. To be honest this film came from an original idea I had a few years ago. I introduced my original idea to a friend of mine in one of my classes. The focus of my idea was to document and chronicles people's lives in wheelchairs living in Chicago, focusing on issues that affect them.

Now this idea was on a piece of paper and was under a stack of papers for a couple of years until one day while cleaning up in my room and I found it and started looking at it again and then while I was looking at it more ideas started going through my head.

It then hit me that instead of focusing on other people in wheelchairs, I should focus on my life and how I've my life has been affected by my wheelchair. Thanks to my original idea I'm now on a path to sharing my experience in a wheelchair with the world and I'm couldn't be more happier with my decision.

Justin

What A Film Should Be Like: According to Francis Ford Coppola

Photo: Movieretrospect.blogspot.com

Today I decided that I'm gonna create a series of post dedicated to What a film should be like. I love what I did in my last post about Stanley Kubrick so much that I wanna continue it and turn it into a series, choosing quotes from famous directors and explaining how that quote relates to what I'm doing for my film. This week I found a great quote from director Francis Ford Coppola:

" You have to really be courageous about your instincts and your ideas. Otherwise you'll just knuckle under, and things that might have been memorable will be lost."

One of the things I'm learning about in creating my film is trusting my own instincts and ideas. While I've gotten advice from a lot of people who have more experience in making documentary films than I have, I feel that since this is my first film I have to have more faith in my instincts and in my ideas. That's the problem I've had not just as a filmmaker but as a person.

I sometimes don't trust my instincts the way I should and most times I feel that most of my ideas are garbage but the work that I've done during my years at DePaul and coming up with the idea to create a film based on my experience of being in a wheelchair, I should trust my decisions making a lot more. There have been some instances during the shooting of my film where I've missed out on footage that I thought would be memorable for film because I didn't think it would work for my film and that's one of my early regrets.

For this film I really want to give people a memorable viewing experience and trust myself and I have to be more courageous about my instincts.

Justin

What A Film Should Be Like: According to Stanley Kubrick

Courtesy: Edgemar Center for the Arts

Well a few days ago I was on tumblr and I ran across this interesting quote from director Stanley Kubrick explaining what a film should be like:

"A film is - or should be - more like music than fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later."

In all honesty I didn't really pay attention to the quote but then I started thinking about it and realized that he's absolutely right about film being more like music than fiction.

While working on my film I was spending too much time thinking about what the theme was gonna be, how I was gonna present myself in the film and while that's important those things will only come as I continue working on the film all of those pieces the theme, what's behind the emotion, and the meaning will all come together once the film is done.

As a director this is an important lesson that I've learned and I will never forget this lesson

Justin

Heartache & Pain

As I continue to work on my film I've been dealing with a dilemma that's very difficult to talk about to anyone. I know for this film I'm opening myself up to the entire world but there are some things that I'm not ready for the world to know because in all honesty I don't know how to deal with these issues myself so how can I open myself up to other people when I don't know how to handle these personal issues in my life.

I mean I'm lonely as hell not just because I'm working on the film by myself at this particular time but I'm lonely because I don't have anyone I can talk to about these personal issues. I know I have people in my life who support me and this film but I don't feel like I have anyone who I could talk to and understand what I'm going through right now. There is so much heartache and pain that I'm going through right now it just hard to keep a smile on my face and pretend like nothing's wrong.

I've devoted myself to this film and my future projects but it's difficult for me right now to deal with my personal issues and I really don't want it affect my film.

My Apologies

Hey everyone sorry for not posting last Friday. I had to recover from an accident I had and I couldn't post anything on my blog. I just wanted to let you all know that sometime soon I'll be putting together a kickstarter page to start funding the film. I will go more in detail about that in my next post. Once again I'm sorry for not posting last week after I promised I would post weekly.

Justin

Accidental Disappointment

Today I was expecting to show you all a clip from the film but I did something foolish and accidentally deleted the footage I intended to show you all. Yesterday afternoon I took my camera and left home to shoot part of my neighborhood. I wanted you to see the journey I take in my neighborhood and show you the obstacles I go through traveling around.

The past few weeks I was filming my travels from DePaul all the way to my home but I got tired of that and wanted you to see what I go through around my neighborhood. It was also very personal because for the first time I was actually speaking while I was filming explaing to everyone about my travels being sort of like a tour guide.

I had finally gotten to point where I was ready to talk about my experiences traveling through the city and now the footage is all gone. Now I know that I can shoot more footage. But as a director it's hard to recapture that same experience I had the first time.

I don't want to create anything that's fake. I want to capture real moments and what I had yesterday was real and genuine and wanted you all to see that first hand and that's what disappoints me the most. But you know what, it's not the end of the world, it's just a minor setback. I can always get more footage and I plan to actually do that. Hopefully this time around I'm gonna make I take all precautions just in case something like this happens again.

Justin