For those who truly want to become a director my suggestion is watch everything you can get your grubby little hands on. Do not ignore the present because film is always evolving, but the past holds some of the greatest treasures. Howard Hawk's His Girl Friday makes me laugh more than any comedy made in the past ten years. Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samourai and Le Cercle Rouge embody the word "cool" and create something new out of old cliches. Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin and Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless taught me the true power of editing. Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly will forever be the first film that I noticed what a director could stylistically do with a film. These are only a handful of movies I've watched the past 2 1/2 years that have led me to understand all the powers cinema holds and let me discover what I wanted to do as a director.
If there was one thing I have learned is film cannot be taught. Not to say you shouldn't take classes, but these classes should spring board into your everyday life and lead to hundreds of hours of watching film and hundreds of hours in agony with a pen and paper, writing ideas and scripts. If you haven't bought a note pad yet, get one. This will be the best tool a director can have. You can write all the thoughts you ever had and always be able to go back to them. Never abandon a good idea because you don't know where it is going. It will lead you somewhere even if it is later in your life.
With all that said I am going to attempt to make movie suggests since too often I complain and not praise. I started my conquest into cinema with AFI's Top 100 movies list. I have not finished said list because I get side track by all the other films I have not yet watched, but it is a great starting place for anyone. Next I would suggest using Roger Ebert's Great Movie list because the list is composed of a large amount of foreign films which obviously will not appear on the American Film Institute's list. For me personally the works of Sidney Lumet, Martin Scorsese, John Huston, Jean-Pierre Melville (a director I feel is my little treasure since no one around me has seem to seen his films), Sergio Leone, Woody Allen, and Buster Keaton are the most influential around. I could go on for hours about individual movies but I'll restrain myself. What I'm trying to say is watch movies, watch a lot of them, and never lose the passion.
-On a side note I am open to talk on Fridays any time through out this semester and am more then willing to sit in front of a class and babble on about movies. My favorite subject is the movies of the 60's and 70's but I really am willing to talk about anything. -
Don't listen to this hack, he just googled a bunch of film names and pasted them into here. :P
ReplyDeleteI'm going to offer my two cents here about this whole thing. I know there's a bunch of you that are the little directors among you, and Paul has given you some advice on how to fuel this talent. I would have advised you all to take a Drama class previously, but if you haven't, I would highly recommend trying out for and doing a play this year. I've been doing a lot of acting for various things since graduating high school, and the difference between directors that have and have not acted are immense. This might sound like total poppycock, but there is some legitimacy in what I say.
Having acting experience will give you a true grasp of the art you are creating. Acting is 50% of the film, and while you may have great actors, they need proper instruction. If you can act your role, you can make someone else able to act it as well. There is a HUGE difference in telling someone "Just be sad" and showing exactly how they should be sad.
Second, a director can NOT be meek. Acting in a play on stage will abate ANY fears you may have about talking in front of or to people. Having this public speaking ability will make your small group of actors easy to manage. But, if you as the director are not assertive and authoritative, all hell will break loose and nothing will get done (And any Film Institute alumnus will attest to this).
This goes the other way, too. If you're one of the actors or editors in the group, expand your horizons and try the other spots. As an actor, learning how to edit will improve your understanding of shots and exactly where/when you can mess up. Becoming the director will teach you how rowdy actors can be, and let you know exactly how annoying it is when everyone won't shut up. :P
So basically, what I'm trying to say is don't ignore the other parts of film. All of the steps are essential to the finished product. In most situations in life, knowing the other side of the coin will make you infinitely better at what you do.
Ignore everything these two just said, they're not even alumni. They didn't even go to Oakcrest. They're just a bunch of hoodlums that wandered into an internet cafe.
ReplyDeleteno but honestly these guys have the right idea, though I can understand if all of it seems overwhelming at first. My guess is that a lot of you won't even bother reading these anyway, but for those of you that do, just know that although many of these things are important, a key part of this institute (and life, for that matter) is to have fun. Make sure to embrace all of the opportunities that this class will present to you, but also be sure to enjoy yourself.
I don't have much else to offer. I would've talked about something film-related in detail but nearly everything has been covered, or at least everything I can think of right now.
It's your senior year. Have fun!
Wow...quite the three-headed monster of varying perspectives, sort of the Good, the Bad and The Overly Critical...no, but seriously folks...well done as usual. Thanks for the insight, and you're right James, no one is reading. But we do not write for readers, we write for ourselves.
ReplyDeletePaul & James...pick a film of particular passion. I will screen it and you can come lead discussion. Call me or e-mail or Facebook or blog with details. Oh and by the way, could someone post the Mike Judge Beavis and Butthead critique of the new Mike Judge movie with Jason Bateman...heard great things. Thanks.
hahahahahahahahah ^^
ReplyDeleteHAAAAA no one reads these.... where is everyone?! i want some fresh-meat on this site!!!
ReplyDeletei'm part of a new film blog now and it makes me sososo sad):
ReplyDeleteYo...give up the URL mama...we could crash that little par-tay..here come the FIB (clap, clap)
ReplyDeletehttp://columbia.mrooms2.net/course/view.php?id=1577 you need my ID and password, but ill gladly give it to you haha i want you to see it! shoot me an email or something
ReplyDeletePaul,Drew, and James- but what if your not taking the class to direct? What if your here to produce or if you want to be a camera man or you wanna design sets? Would the same "rules" apply?
ReplyDeleteHow would having fun not apply exactly?
ReplyDelete