Feeling Like A Filmmaker

Up until now, I’ve felt only like a film student. I have studied different aspects of film, tried some things out with my personal 10-minute project, and done exercises in editing, sound, and directing.

However, this past project, the 5-minute short story adaptation, has felt different. The music video was the first project where I felt everyone in the crew put in at least 100% effort, but this project is where I felt everyone became, or at least aimed to be, 100% professional. Dev and I discussed the logistics of his script and really worked hard to make it the best it could be. Merissa toiled endlessly to make sure we could shoot in the locations I wanted and that we had everything needed to make our film the best it could be. Vicky and I worked together to make sure we had good storyboards and a clear idea of how the film should look, then she and Anna set up the lights to make sure we had an actual professional-looking film. Anna set up radio mics and placed the boom strategically to make sure we had great sound. Simon then spliced the best bits together to make each cut flow smoothly, pace the film appropriately, and develop the emotion within the story.

And me... I looked at the monitor and yelled “Action!” and “Cut!”

This, of course, isn’t all that everyone did. We had a very small crew, so some had to fill in for extra job roles, of course. But it really felt like everyone worked hard to make a proper film and that, in the end, that’s what we got.

And so now, at least for me, I feel the bar has been raised. Sure, we might not be able to get this level in our course exercises, but those are for learning. The film projects are for applying what we learned. So my goal for my future projects: to be at least as good as our 5-minute. Of course, maybe I’m hyping up our specific film too much and people will be disappointed.

...But I don’t think so...