Posted by Smalls at ppp-008.m2-1.syr.ican.net on March 21, 1998 at 21:19:25:
In Reply to: in need of some advice posted by robin on March 21, 1998 at 20:10:44:
: hey kevin! congrats on the award! ok, i need some advice, i'm only 15 years old and really want to get into film. because of my age and cash flow i'm restrained from doing anything. i've heard the advice, "just do little stupid movies with your friends, goof around and have fun" well, when i try to do that, everyone goofs around and i'm trying to be serious about it all. i want to do everything, act, direct, edit, produce, but at my age and the piece of shit video camera i have, everything comes out as a half ass job. well, can ya help me out here?
I say, now is the time in your life when it isn't bad to not have hands-on experience, if you're 15... you gotta lotta time to learn... hell, I'm 18 and I realize that the time is just STARTING on getting hands on experience...
I'd say watch a shit load of movies, pick out what you like and figure out what you like in it and figure out how to do that... pick out what you don't like, figure out why you didn't like that and how to not do that... Ditto for screenplays.
Read some books on theory, but not too many and pay attention but take them with a small grain of salt... you learn the rules so that you know what works and know how to break them. Read autobiographies of filmmakers, read up on the business. Read read read.
If you've got a school TV or radio station, work there... you'll be able to learn some of the rudiments of production value, editing, speaking, direction, writing for broadcast... things that won't completely translate to filmmaking but will be very very similar and will give you a base of knowledge to draw analogy from.
God knows, drama club'll help in acting... and some drama clubs'll involve student direction and/or writing... and while stage direction or writing isn't EXACTLY film but will be a lot better than sitting around and will aid you. Being in drama won't teach you cinematography or post production, but a play can be viewed as a movie without the cameras, at least as a basis for learning. Writing, acting, direction, set design, lighting, production values, etc, etc, etc...
Just coming here and reading intently'll help you a shitload...here, you're sitting at the feat of some of the new wave of directors and writers... Kevin, Malcolm, Vinnie, Mike Raben, Brian Lynch... Frank Reynold's edited some high profile cult flicks... Kim's produced... Oz was production, production manager maybe (my memory fails me)... Quinn was a casting director... many folk around here have acted smaller parts or played lower on the totem but just as hard working roles in production, they're simply too numerous to mention... Ethan's here for actors as well as Affleck occasionally and many various folk Kev'll bring in intermittently... Lee, OHalloran, Rock, Fiorentino, Damon... and probably a few people I've forgotten too, and I apologize for forgetting...
Hell, even being on a school newspaper can help you... you learn how to be a part of a team, how to give criticism and take it, chain of command, how to be creative AND professional, how to write for an audience, how to deal with other people seeing your work...
And, yeah, you can only do so much with a camcorder... but, fuck, you can see how far it does go... play around with more structured productions, camera angles, plan things out, direct... there really is a LOT you can learn from just a camera some friends and a good chunk of work.
And you can always write, just keep on writing, honing your skills, figure out how to write dialogue, layer plots, intersperce themes, develop characters, self edit... there's so much you can do right there.
As you start getting older, just branch out on that stuff... join a bigger more elaborate community theater, get an internship at the local TV station, if someone's making an indie flick nearby, try out for a part or volunteer to join crew... and keep picking apart flicks, keep reading, keep writing...
When I think about the stuff I did in high school that wasn't directly film related but aided me in deciding to be in film and helped the skills once I decided to work to be in film... damn... I just realized how much I DID in high school...
Four years as a humor columnist in my school paper, two of them on editorial staff including a whole lot of conferences and such... two summer college non-credit courses in radio/TV which got me hours and hours of production/writing experience... plus a quick tutorial in TV and sound editing rooms... hell, I did camera work on one of those crappy public affairs shows... in senior year, i joined drama, lucked my way into a prominent role (AND talked the director into letting us rewrite some scenes)
then co-wrote and acted a short play later in the year... I wrote a stage play over a semester as a creative writing class and took a drama as lit class that forced us to flesh out production schedules and act some... I made hours and hours of skit comedy over a series of years with friends, that (while never great) progressed from putrid to amateurish but amusing over the course... most importantly, I hung out here and took mental notes like a bitch... and most importantly, went to a little film festival called down in Red Bank called Happy Trails and realised "Hey... movie makers are real people"... then went to an advance screening of Chasing Amy, and in the course of getting an autograph realised "Hey... I could DO this"...
And I did all of this, up to that moment, thinking I was going to be a journalist and without so much as TOUCHING a 16 mm or Super 8.
There's a shitload of opportunies to learn out there that might not be direct.
Since graduation and at college, I've been getting more serious...I wrote a short script in August that, while shakey, was a lot better than the play in high school was and was better than some flicks I've dropped 7 bucks to see... and I started reading more closely here and picking apart movies and scripts more and more often... I co-wrote the first half to a film that wasn't high art, but was better than the short was better than many things I'd drop those 7 to see last semester and continue to write... I switched my major from Newspaper to Writing for TV/Film the end of last semester... and went to another little film fest down in Red Bank that left the taste of "Hey... I'm probably gonna be GOOD at doing this..."
and started writing a script (while continuing the first) that was even better than the ones before and I'd be pretty damn happy to pay 7 bucks to see.
With luck, this summer, I'm gonna be an extra on a pretty damn good flick...and I'll keep watching movies and I'll keep writing, maybe finish one... get a part time job at a radio station or a video store.
And I've still never seen an AVID machine, I still can't tell you the aspect ratio of a given flick, I still don't know what a negative cutter does.
It's a process, y'know? A process of learning and learning and learning more... and then shitloads of hard work... then a lot of luck...
Because, even though I like to think I've learned a thing or three, I'm still a mildly overweight 18 yr old punk sitting on his ass in a college dorm with nothing to show of his dreams other than 3 or 4 half-finished scripts.
Eat it, think it, live it, sleep it, dream it, and it will come... or at least that's what I have to believe.
peace
Smalls