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Need some guidance

A

Amesh67

Hello!

As the title claims, I'm at a point in my career where I really need some guidance and sadly i havn't heard or received anything from anyone that really clarified things for me.

I've just graduated from Film School, shot two short films while I was there and needless to say the process of shooting those 2 films changed my perspective on film making. Only it changed it in a negative way. I spent the first two years writing and thinking of my films until I finally built up the courage to actually direct one. The film turned out completly different from what I had imagined it would be, it was a very painful experience in that by the middle of the shoot I was only going on set to "get the work done" so that I could earn my grades and move on.

I then had to shoot my thesis film but couldn't sit down and write anything. I had completly lost faith in myself and was worried of what the end result would be like, and at this point I had started losing interest as well. I shot the film, wasn't that bad but again it didn't turn out like I wanted it to be.

Now I'm at a point of my career where I want to write and direct another film but I simply cannot sit down and write. I feel that whatever I will write or imagine is useless since it's very hard to controle the process of shooting a film, and therefore controling the shape of the end result, weather it's about the acting, lighting or framing.

How can I overcome this feeling? I really want to make a successful film and for once be fully satisfied with my work. Should I neglect thinking in images and perhaps just think about the characters and progression of the story? Should I put less importance in the process of writing the script and just bid on whatever happens the day of the shoot? And is there a certain way that one should think about his film when writing it if he/she intends on directing it later on?

Thanks in advance for any response, I apologise if my post is long but as you can tell I've reached a dead end.

-Amesh67
 
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Okay, they didn't come out exactly the way that you wanted. Nothing will ever turn out exactly the way that you want it. The best batters in professional baseball fail 65 out of 100 times at the plate. Edison failed over 2,000 times to make the incandescent light bulb. You've written and shot two scripts? Expect to "fail" a lot more. That's the whole point of failure, to learn from our mistakes. As a sound editor/designer there are many times when I do something that sounds absolutely awesome, but doesn't serve the story, so I have to scrap it and try something else. I just completed a short film and "failed" numerous times to create the sound of a feather until I finally came up with something that I liked and that worked with the shot and the rest of the sound design. I also got a lot of interesting sounds for my sound library and cool ideas for other sounds out of my "failures."

In the entertainment industry - and it is an industry involving all of the aspects of delivering a product to the consumer - you are going to have to make many compromises. It's never going to be exactly the way that you want it.

You are entering a highly collaborative field, and again, even under the best of circumstances, you are going to have to make many compromises. You are going to have to deal with the limitations of your budget. You are going to have to deal with the limitations of your cast and crew. Conversely, you have to learn to take advantage of the talents and ideas of those same people. Just because those ideas do not align with your vision does not make them wrong.

To quote one of my heroes, sound designer Randy Thom - "A craftsman knows how to avoid mistakes; an artist knows how to use them."

Putting aside all of the personnel and budgetary limitations, you have to learn to effectively communicate your ideas, concepts and visions to your cast and crew. They may have some brilliant ideas that you may not have thought of, or even their bad ideas can give you a new way of thinking about your project. I deal with beginning directors all the time who can only tell me "that's not what I want" but cannot tell me what it is that they do want.

On the procedural side you have to preproduce, preproduce, preproduce, preproduce, preproduce, preproduce, preproduce!!!

Ultimately, the only thing on which you can't compromise is your ultimate concept. What is it that you are trying to say or do with your script? What point are you trying to get across? You have to learn to adapt to all of the things I mentioned above (and many, many more) to get that point across. And there will be times where circumstances (budget, talent, whatever) will not allow you to do what you want. Put it on hold and try something else. "There is nothing more dangerous than an idea if it is the only one that you have."

Keep on plugging away; if it truly is your passion nothing should deter you.
 
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Fantasy vs. Reality (which is what Alcove said).

You had a fantasy of what making a movie is, then experienced the reality. Guess what? The reality is all that matters.

And everything is a learning experience. There is a learning curve. According to a past survey by WGA, the average pro writer wrote 9 scripts before ever earning a cent. I'm average. My first scripts were awful, but at the time I thought they were brilliant... I just hadn't learned enough to know how bad they were.

I am kind of surprised that the first films you made were in college - video is so cheap these days I would have thought people would just be cranking out shorts like crazy. I made a few shorts in high school, and was making shorts on weekends afterwards. Those were on film - which cost a bundle. When I went from S8mm to 16mm, I had to work overtime to afford the lab fees!

The reality is that you do not control everything, so you have to plan like hell so that you control *something*... then think on your feet and adapt to whatever happens. Sometimes the accidents are better than whatever you came up with.

As for writing screenplays - a writer writes. We are driven to write. It's not about status or money or revenge or any other odd motivation - it's kind of a compulsion or a drug. You write because that's what you love to do. So, just sit down and do it.

- Bill
 
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This is echoing what other people have said, but I really think the best guidance for you right now is to learn how to take your hits. You simply cannot be in an artistic field without a thick skin, or without being prepared to fail. If you can't fully realize what you see in your head you have to at least embrace the quest. Once you do make something you love, be prepared for everyone you show it to to hate it. If you achieve success, be prepared for people to say that you don't deserve it. What matters is your work - be a professional, be an artist, don't be that person who freaks when everything isn't perfect.

Also, make about 50 more shorts. Learn more about who you are as a filmmaker. 2 film school projects just aren't enough. If you have writer's block, don't write etc. Don't give yourself any "outs" and producing will get easier...
 
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I want to write and direct another film
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I don't believe you.
smiley_colbert.gif


There is nothing in your post that even hints at liking the process of filmmaking. You've discovered that it's actually real work, and there's more to it than simply walking down a red carpet.

Convince me otherwise, though. What do you really enjoy about filmmaking?
 
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Zensteve said:
I don't believe you.
smiley_colbert.gif


There is nothing in your post that even hints at liking the process of filmmaking. You've discovered that it's actually real work, and there's more to it than simply walking down a red carpet.

Convince me otherwise, though. What do you really enjoy about filmmaking?
Click to expand...

I do enjoy filmmaking, I just wish I had better experiences while shooting my first two films. What matters is the end result and I've come to a point where I'm ready for the challenge, I just can't get myself to write a film that I think would look good because I'm unconsciously doubting my ability to make it as I have planned it...

It was indeed a slap in the face when I shot my first film and I understood there was alot of hard work involved in filmmaking but as I said above I've come to appreciate it. What I like most about filmmaking? Directing my actors.
 
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Motivation

Amesh67

You've had some bloody good advice here; take notes.

Speaking as a professional writer and someone who's directed one measly feature (ie, still much to learn) I believe that writer's block is ultimately a lack of discipline. When I'm on deadline in the 'real' world, I never sit around wondering whether my idea is really good enough to put pen to paper (or fingers to keys) - I follow the best advice my first editor ever gave me: Don't get it right, get it written.

Robert McKee (God) says, writer's block comes from a lack of research. Do more research and ideas will come.

Yep, it sucks when your early projects don't come out like you wanted, and it can be very difficult to motivate yourself to get started all over again. It's a bit bewildering, sitting at the beginning of the new road when you know how tough the road was that you just trod. After my first feature I was so tired, body and mind, that the whole idea of doing it again practically made my brain bleed.

But you know what? If you don't have the drive to face that abyss and throw yourself into it again, then you're really in the wrong industry. I mean, all that happened is that YOU weren't happy with the end result. What will you do when you LOVE your film and the critics rip it to ribbons? What will you do when the critics love it and nobody comes to see it anyway?

All of this is ahead of you. Believe me. If you think it's bad now, it's going to get a whole lot worse.

And it'll get a whole lot better too - you really have the chance in our job of living your childhood dreams, but you're going to have to find that motivation yourself, because nobody holds a director's hand.

When I was studying, a very smart person said to me, 'If you can imagine yourself doing ANYTHING else and being happy, then do that! If you can't imagine happiness in any other life, then you're in for a ride.'

I reckon you've got a decision to make. Good luck.
 
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Amesh67 said:
What if writer's block just won't go away? Should I force myself to write something and then eventually I'll break through it?
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Writer's block isn't a real thing, it's an excuse. If you have nothing to write then your idea isn't fully fleshed out and understood. You can't do anything about "writer's block" but you can do something about an idea that isn't fully fleshed out or understood. Principally, get to the library and grab several books out of the stacks that remotely relate to your idea and research! If your story is about a heart surgeon then grab as many texts on the subject as you can find. Find a heart surgeon's journal of interesting patient studies and read these stories. If your subject is divorce then find first person accounts of how divorce either forever hurt or liberated the participants. Read about your idea; immerse yourself in your idea. You gotta get the ball rolling but once it rolls, your fingers won't be able to stop typing.

Young (and old, I suppose) artists have a tendency to set up roadblocks to their own success, usually out of fear that your project or idea won't be successful. "I have writer's block" is a roadblock. "I don't have the proper equipment to make a professional looking movie" is a roadblock. "None of my actor-friends want to learn their lines" is a roadblock. "I had two bad experiences and don't want to repeat them" is a roadblock. Knock them down! The principal job of any filmmaker is that of problem solver. Identify your problems and then identify the solutions to your problems. And calling a problem unsolvable because of (insert excuse) is just another roadblock...if you want to be a filmmaker, you have to make films. There are no problems that are completely unsolvable, even if you have to adjust your scope to solve them. And any filmmaking opportunity is never wasted if you learn something, usually what not to do next time.
 
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Directorama said:
What will you do when you LOVE your film and the critics rip it to ribbons? What will you do when the critics love it and nobody comes to see it anyway?
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Directorama is being nice; it's MUCH worse than that! What are you going to do when you finally have a decent budget and the producers want to make changes? You can't get the locations, actors, fill-in-the-blank? Sit and pout like a spoiled child? You have to adapt and keep moving forward.

"Creative block" is a challenge, not an obstacle. It's there to stir your creativity. The moment you say "I can't do it" it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. One of the more interesting things I came across is that the Chinese ideogram for "crisis" is a combination of the ideograms for "danger" and "opportunity."

Sit in a public place and eavesdrop on conversations. Open up the phone book, pick names at random and write their lives stories. Study things completely foreign to you. Visit a museum, a factory, a junk yard. Buy drinks for strangers in bars and encourage them to talk. In other words, get off your lazy butt and do something!
 
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Here's also a little truth: everyone here who is writing encouragements is actually writing them as affirmations to themselves.

If you think you can't, you won't.

Filmmaker & photographer Robert Frank once wrote (quoting Malraux?) "One is embarrassed to want so much for oneself. But, how else are you going to justify your failure and your effort?"
 
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Not many fans of the "writer's block" concept here then.

Sounds to me like you're no longer interested in film now that you've experienced what it's actually like...one of two options are available to you now I would say:

1) Find something new to do.

2) Learn from your experience, adapt and get back into the game.
 
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I do have to agree with the general opinion here that writer's block is really best defeated by just not letting yourself be blocked. But that probably isn't super helpful to you.

Here are some common exercises i found used to help writer's block... What I would absolutely NOT advise is trying to use any of them as advil i.e. a quick fix that will take away your pain - that will absolutely be setting yourself up for failure. I would suggest you try some out, find a few you like, than use them as a consistent practice. Decide how often you are going to do something, and hold yourself to it. That will help you develop discipline for your writing, and imo good discipline is almost as important as good ideas. :)

"Freewriting - Sit down and write anything for an arbitrary period of time—say, 10 minutes to start. Don’t stop, no matter what. Cover the monitor with a manila folder if you have to. Keep writing, even if you know what you’re typing is gibberish, full of misspellings, and grammatically psychopathic. Get your hand moving and your brain will think it’s writing. Which it is. See?"

"Write from a persona - Lend your voice to a writing personality who isn’t you. Doesn’t have to be a pirate or anything—just try seeing your topic from someone else’s perspective, style, and interest."

"Add one ritual behavior - Get a glass of water exactly every 20 minutes. Do pushups. Eat a Tootsie Roll every paragraph. Add physical structure."

!"Write crap - Accept that your first draft will suck, and just go with it. Finish something."!

"Unplug the router - Metafilter and Boing Boing aren’t helping you right now. Turn off the Interweb and close every application you don’t need. Consider creating a new user account on your computer with none of your familiar apps or configurations."

"Make a pointless rule - You can’t end sentences with words that begin with a vowel. Or you can’t have more than one word over eight letters in any paragraph. Limits create focus and change your perspective"

"Write five words - Literally. Put five completley random words on a piece of paper. Write five more words. Try a sentence. Could be about anything. A block ends when you start making words on a page."

"Work on the title - Quickly make up five distinctly different titles. Meditate on them. What bugs you about the one you like least?"

(Source, http://www.43folders.com/2004/11/18/hack-your-way-out-of-writers-block)



"Self-dialogue - The purpose of the self-dialogue is to better understand the part of you that creates so that you can better harmonize your writing goals with your creative process (i.e. - so you're not always kicking yourself and making yourself too miserable to write). You can label this creating part of yourself any way you want: creative unconscious, id, muse, inner child, right brain, Bob Watson from Arkansas -- whatever feels right to you. My personal pet name for it is the 'undermind' (kind of an unintentional, ironic pun, actually -- but that's another web page). Here's what you do:
Start a spontaneous and free-form dialogue between your conscious self ("I") and your unconscious creative self. Give your creative self a separate identity, even a name or let the name come out of the dialogue. You can do the dialogue any way that's free-flowing and comfortable -- writing, tape recording, on the computer -- but you want to express it some way and also have a record of it afterward. After you've finished your dialogue, sit down and describe the personalities of the two speakers and the tone of the conversation. Two friends chatting? Mortal enemies baring teeth? You get the idea.
Identifying the areas of conflict and harmony between the "I" person and the creative self could give you some insight into where your problem may lie.
[It may also lead to years of therapy, but hey, we're doing this for *art*. -- peanut gallery/web designer] "

" Lists - The purpose of this exercise is to try to get a handle on what is at the root of the block:
Think of a project you have been struggling to write, with no success. Make a list of thoughts about the project, beginning each item on the list in the following manner: I ought to write X because...
Now write a new list: I refuse to write X because...
'Your second list of reasons may be more powerful that your first. Can you learn to value your refusals consciously as much as you do unconsciously -- that is, take them seriously enough to act on them instead of trying to steamroller over them?'
Now write a third list: I would love to write Y..."

"1" frame - Another Ann Lamott suggestion, to overcome the feeling of being overwhelmed by a project that seems unfathomable, is to start out by writing just what you can see through a 1" picture frame. She even keeps a 1" frame on her desk to remind her that she doesn't have to write everything about the character or story all at one time -- just what she can see through the frame.
The 1" frame idea is a way of calming your fears about not being up to the task and allowing you to focus yourself on a do-able starting place. For instance, at this moment, you may not be up to creating an entire new planet, complete with history, ecology and a complex alien society, but you might be able to write a paragraph describing one particular alien eating what looks like a lizard kebab on a street corner one particular rainy afternoon."

(Source - http://www.sff.net/People/LisaRC/exer.htm)


If I were you I would also seriously think about taking the pressure off yourself with this dual writer/director thing. Take a breath, direct someone else's script and let someone else direct on of yours. But no matter what, try not to feed the self doubt. It may always be there, but train yourself to focus on other things.

Finally, go into writing projects intending to rewrite. It makes the 1st draft hella easier, and it makes the final draft a whole hella lot better. One of my all time favorite quotes -

"The first draft of anything is shit." ~ Ernest Hemingway
 
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