The same goes for DP’s who simply think that putting a camera on a tripod will be enough to propel the story forward it doesn’t. Instead, it was completely and utterly distracting because they have no basic grasp on how to use such tools to aide them in their overall story. While impressive visually, their films fail structurally.Īt the Demon Chaser event not to long ago, I saw far too many films in which the director and DP thought it would be a great idea to employ as much depth of field as possible because they think that’s how stories are told. The problem is the director’s themselves have no basic understanding on how to move a story along. They use every tool available to them to establish worlds, create settings that are unbelievable in all the good ways, and they even have engrossing stories that compel, inspire, and motivate. Aside from a director asking (or not asking) for rewrites, many directors here are amazing at putting together amazing looking pictures. Of course, director’s are at fault with piss poor stories. Some went on for too long, others were lagging in appropriate story beats, but overall the films at this years event surpassed my expectations in more ways than one. Characters were perfectly written, timing was impeccable, the tidbits of information came at just the right moments to keep the audience guessing, and at times, catching them off guard.įor the most part, the films at An October Evening 2011 were perfectly done. At An October Evening, we were all treated with a remarkable comedy that hit all the right beats. Yet, there are others that do it remarkably well. A film where a couple argues in a doorway, a long, drawn out conversation about nothing in a bar, characters that appear on camera for any amount of length who slow down the progression of story. Yet I see time and time again a film that honestly should have never made it through pre-production and I, along with everyone else in the world, are bored to death.Ī handful of recent films lately are difficult to sit through. Why aren’t producers and/or director’s demanding re-writes of such scripts? Do they not grasp that they are storytellers? Can they not see the plot holes, the gaps of important information, the irrelevance of certain characters that play no part to the story?Īs I’ve stated above, script and story should be the driving force of a film project. Personally, I have over two dozen scripts in my cache right now that I know without a doubt they’re not ready to be seen. A lot of times, writers are so desperate to get their material made that they jump at any chance to force it into production. Very few writers around here apply that same technique to themselves. Writing is like acting in many respects, most notably that good actors generally practice their talents with classes and workshops. Yet, no matter how many times I can tell certain writers to write another draft, I always find out that they move ahead with production anyway without a single re-write and I know that without a doubt the film will be a terrible mess. The other being that if a script is actually quite good, the director selected to helm the project has no understanding of how to properly convey the story visually resulting in a project that falls flat. I can generally narrow things down to two scenarios one being that the writer, who may or may not have a good idea, can’t properly script out his idea properly. Script’s should not be placed in the back seat at all, properly situated upon it’s child car seats or boosters. I hate to say it, let alone see it, but far too many times story takes a backseat when it should be the driving force of your film. Sadly, there are countless others who fail to understand the importance of story. I find myself impressed by a small handful of filmmakers and writers who understand story structure, stretching beyond the page and into the final products. One of the things I do is I read a lot of scripts that come my way in some form or another, and even watch the works of the talented individuals from our local community. I spend my time doing various things to occupy my mind, either it be writing and editing scripts, edit my own personal projects, so on and so forth. Some days I have a lot of free time at work during long renders and exports.
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