Intention Definition and Exploration of Ideas
For this film I aimed at exploring the concept of not knowing what to make. Mostly because I didn't know what to make. In my last film I talked about exploring changes in characters and how they can influence the audience. For the theme of this film it is harder to define due to the fact the topic is the undefined. It is about not knowing what it is. I really became intrigued by this idea of 'meta'. Something that references itself. Most art before the post modern phase was a reflection of reality. An imitation or mimicry of something which already existed. For example: A drawing of a landscape or portrait of a person. However, the post modern phase began to make the art about the art itself. A minimalist piece of simple lines and colors is not mimicking anything perceivable. There are no natural occurrences of this:
So the art becomes about the art itself, it is now a unique part of the world. If you ask yourself: well what's the point in that? It doesn't need to be there? A valid response could be: What about that tree over there? What's it doing, it doesn't need to be there? The point is art which isn't an attempt of mimicry is independent of criticism because it is only defined by itself. You can't very well say a tree isn't a good depiction of a tree. Although this isn't the style I went with for my film it was certainly an influence. I wasn't trying to place my film into a genre. It's simply a film about trying to make a film. It's not wrong, it may be an inaccurate portrayal but it is still a portrayal.
Planning
Producing
Evaluating
For a while I had no clue what to write. So I sorta just filmed some stuff. None of it felt good though, I still didn't know the look of the film or what it was about. I've always been uneasy about making a film about not knowing what to make, but this time it just felt like what I had to do. I also watched Adaptation before writing the script and thought it was one of the most thought provoking films ever. It really inspired me to write and gave me the courage and understanding that I was not alone in the battle for an idea. I've always had a love/hate relationship with writing. Sometimes it's a blast and I'm really getting places. Other times... it just sucks. I'll sit in front of a blank page for like half an hour just feeling crappier for not having written the last half hour. Overall, I think what I've learned is sometimes the best idea is just any idea. The real writing comes into play when you develop the idea, not when you initially devise it. If you already have an entire 90min movie completely planned out with your initial idea than you have one amazing brain. My problem is that's exactly how I've been trying to do it. I just sit around and shoot down every idea until I get one which is absolutely complete. This has actually never happened. Every time I've ever actually written something it was a half-baked idea at the start. The key is to stick it back in the oven, not to pitch it into the trash.
Integrating
For the future, I've begun writing down whatever ideas I get even if I don't like them at first. I always tell myself I don't have any ideas but really I just don't have what I think is a good idea. It also really helps to have deadlines set, if you don't you'll spend all your time thinking and never doing. Filming by myself wasn't as bad this time around. The hardest part was memorizing all the lines. I definitely will work on memorizing lines ahead of time in the future. Shooting in black and white made it easier to find the shots I wanted because I didn't have to worry about the colors pallet. Last time I said I wouldn't shoot another film without a camera man, but this time it went fine. I think that was mostly due to the fact that it was just me so I didn't have to worry about wasting anyone else's time making sure it was perfect.
Mon - Filmed
Tues - Filmed
Wed - Nothing
Thurs - Nothing
Fri - Filmed
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