17 Apr Filmmakers Are Crazy

This past weekend (April 13-14) I shot with my Moth to Flame team for two days in the middle of nowhere, for a country music video shoot with a local band called Patton Sparks and my friend’s company, ColoredLion. The effect of being in the boonies for me was the opportunity to reflect. Perhaps it’s being away from the chaos of the city or from modern technology (we had no reception), but I really had time to think about what it means to be a filmmaker.

Filmmakers are crazy. If I were to explain to any sane person what we deal with on a day-to-day basis on set, people would probably question my soundness of mind. What other profession requires that you work for 15 hours (and probably more) straight, subjected to grueling physical conditions, for little to no pay, but still makes you willing, in fact BEGGING, to come back for more? I cannot think of many (besides Firefighting and EMTings…I know they are crazy too… I was one) The reasons for me are these:

1. People

Filmmaking brings the best and worst out of people. It is an experience, quite like a field trip, where a crew and cast get to know each other, all of our differences and similarities, in a relatively quick period of time. We have to work together as a team for a common goal and each set day is different with new sets of challenges.

I made so many new friends on my recent set — friends that after 2 days, I would feel more comfortable calling to go hang out with, than I would with some of the members of my MBA class that I have known for 2 years. I think when you are subjected to conditions that force you to work with people closely under extremely stressful conditions, for such long periods of time, it is much easier for people to let go of their own barriers and to truly get to know each other.

70% of the team probably walked on set without having ever met each other. But I know that 100% of that crew and cast will walk away with new contacts, new friends, and new memories to share. This industry is all about whom you know because each crew and cast member has to be able to trust each other in order for a project to gel and work. To be able to trust a complete stranger in a matter of a few minutes is a lot to ask. We all want to work with people we like, so when we do find a team that can stand each other for ridiculous amounts of time, any filmmaker would want to hold on to that for as long as we can.

Not every set is this lucky. My first film set in fact was not the most peachiest experience. As a director, when you feel unsupported by your team, the quality and the overall mood of the final project can tank. I never finished my first short, which gives you an idea of how I felt. I do not regret the experience because it teaches me how to pick the people that I want for my team and what kinds of people to avoid.

2.  Organized Chaos

No film ever starts and ends as planned. Something along the way always changes and forces you to think on your feet at all times. I always joke that I can judge how epic a final project will be by how many things go wrong the days before the film shoot. On the Patton Sparks music video shoot, these are a few of the things that went wrong:

1. We lost 80% of our extras
2. Our steadicam ended up in the Bahamas
3. The steadicam we rented to replace the steadicam in the Bahamas broke when we put our camera on it
4. We lost our key prop (4-door Ford truck)
5. Food sponsors fell through
6. Camper fell through
7. It rained
8. Kelsey Park stepped into an ant pile and she’s allergic to ants
9. Collin got bitten by a caterpillar…
10. I yelled at Chris, many many times.

The list goes on. The beauty of this situation is that each set is different and exciting. There is never a day that is the same. You will very rarely, if you are doing your job correctly, ever bored. I am never bored. I am so on edge at all moments that I have to go for long periods of isolation and mundaneness in order to recover from all the craziness.

The set tests the crew and cast – the ability to remain positive when everything is falling apart in front of your eyes, and to remain EXTREMELY flexible. If you want to know whether you are cut out to be a filmmaker, think of it this way:

1. Go build a house that you may or may not live in with $50 dollars, when in reality it should cost $150,000 to build.
2. During the process of building your house, a hurricane happens, your workers disappear, everything breaks, and you now have $30 instead of $50.
3. After you build the house, 500 hours later, you look at it for a few minutes or maybe 2 hours at max before you tear it down and do it all over again.

We are insane. Yet, despite having everything go to sh*t right in front of our eyes, we still have to remain relatively calm. With experience, we learn to just live and embrace the chaos. After everything has blown over, I will realize that everything is okay and that even though the final product is different from what I had originally planned, it is probably better because all the events I experienced have helped to shape a final product that is completely 100% unique.

3. Creativity

To fabricate an entire idea from nothing is a beautiful experience. As a director, seeing a vision in my head and sharing that vision with others is something that is indescribable. I give myself to a project, I pour my emotions into a film and that film becomes an extension of myself. Each project I work on is a child that I bring to life. I baby that project until post-production and then to distribution when I finally let it go to fend for itself in the world.

Pooling together creativity with a group of other creative people is even more exhilarating. From the production assistant to the lead actor, every person leaves a mark on a project. It is through this process of sharing and learning from each other’s creativity that I learn the most. I am consistently challenged on new ways of doing things and new ways of thinking. I am forced to have an open mind and I love it. For me, filmmaking provides me a conduit for being myself. It is my voice.

4. Passion

You cannot be an outlier, the cream of the crop, the best… without passion. You can fake it maybe for a little bit and convince people that you are good at what you do, but the difference between a person who is passionate about their craft and one who is not, is noticeable by even the most inexperienced person.

In this cut throat, winner-takes-all industry of filmmaking… you have to be passionate to survive. Though it is a battle for skill and creativity, I truly feel it is even more so a battle of passion. The question is who is more willing to put their time and sacrifice everything to accomplish what they truly believe in. Every week, there are distractions… good and bad, and I have to learn to block them out and recognize how to get to the goal.

For me, I knew I loved filmmaking when I would go days without sleeping, hours without eating, and even more hours lost and immersed on set or sitting in front of a computer editing without any guarantees of fame or financial gain. I do it because I love it and my only hope is to share my passion and creativity with other people and for people to see and appreciate it.

So that is my two cents. Great filmmakers are crazy because we are crazy in love with what we do.