Patience and focus. Patience and focus are not my greatest strengths.

Patience

As I continue down the road of developing my next film I find myself becoming impatient to get the story together. It’s looking like this will be a close to if not a feature length film. I’ve never done anything like that before. I’m used to working on short pieces around 2-10 minutes in length. So pulling together a film that could potentially be 100 to 120 minutes is daunting. I remember looking at “The Making Of” on the special features of DVD’s. I always thought to myself “Man, if I could just have whole year to focus on a film and nothing else, that would be awesome.” That sentiment is still true it’s just that I want to spend time with my beautiful wife, work my full time job, do outside work, a flashmob group etc at the same time.

“Man, if I could just have whole year to focus on a film and nothing else, that would be awesome.”

I feel that the story I want to tell deserves my patient attention. It’s going to Read the rest of this entry »

I am in the process of developing my next film. As I move forward with the project I started reflecting on some things I learned from my previous two films. I’d like to share these lessons with you.

Lesson #1: Don’t put your story in a box.

The second film I worked on with my good friend, Clay Banks “Graves Method” was a fine example of this principle. We had, I believe, a really touching story to tell. The problem was we had to write the script to fit our short shooting schedule and run time. We tried to jam in a mental problem, marriage issues, a deep psychiatrist character and much more into a 10-15 min run time. In the end it was rushed and confusing. There was too much going on “under the surface” stuff that didn’t get a chance to pop it’s head above the water and character relationships that were shallow, to say the least.

The current film I am working on was a promise I made to myself. I told myself the next film festival DVXUser put on I would enter. I checked the website periodically until they announced the next fest: “Loss”. This was a perfect fit as I had seen a video on YouTube recently that really touched me. I won’t be sharing the exact details of the story since it’s still in development but suffice to say it fit perfectly for the festival. The problem was as I began to research the story and develop the concept I realized the 6 minute limit would be very difficult to work with. Bottom line, don’t sacrifice story for time limit. If you have to, extend the production and do another fest.

Lesson #2: Keep it to yourself.

I have the bad habit of giving too many people too much information or access to Read the rest of this entry »

NikonD90

With the announcement of several DSLR’S recording some exceptional video I started to think about what will separate the media that will be coming out in the next few years. At this point, you can pick up a HD digital video camera for as little as $200. Now, what kind of “HD” you get for your money obviously varies, but the point is HD video is available to everyone.

With technology being so cheap and accessible to so many it is vitally important to maintain a strong artistic presence. Now, I’m still struggling to grow artistically and find my own voice so I am by no means “there”. I mean, there has always been a family member that “can make a commercial” for you or do a “wedding video” and we all know that it is no where near professional quality. The fact is though, technology is becoming increasingly affordable and accessible to so many people.

With the technological advances in media more and more people are able to express their true passion to tell a story or create art. It is now more important than ever to develop your artistic fingerprint and stand out from the crowd. It’s time to bust through glass ceilings and propel into a new level of creativity. We have to push the boundaries of what is “safe” or “works” for us. I want to throw out the formulas I’ve used to create pieces and come up with brand new concepts.

With technology pushing so far so fast, it’s important that we don’t caught up with new trends or products and leave our artistic growth in the dust.