What is filmmaking? Filmmaking is passion, patience, and perseverance...
Here's a quote from Robert Wise... "My three Ps: passion, patience, perseverance. You have to do this if you've got to be a filmmaker."
...Passion
Filmmaking is an art form. To do it, you need to have a passion. You have to want to create. To make something beautiful. Or share a story. Or make people laugh. Or cry. There will be times when you want to give up and quit. When it rains and it's cold and you didn't get enough sleep last night. It's then that something has to kick in to keep you going. And that's the passion you have to have. For the art form. For the story you are telling with the art form.
...Patience
But it can't end with passion. You will have to wait. That's the nature of filmmaking. A waiting game. When you're on set, you have to wait. For camera set-up. For equipment trouble-shooting. For weather. In post-production, you have to wait. It takes time to craft the edit. You sit down in front of a mass of footage, all of which has to be organized. You have to figure out how to put everything together. You have to tweak the edit. That will take time and patience. Plenty of time and patience.
...Perseverance
This is perhaps one of the hardest things about filmmaking. It's getting knocked down, but still getting up again. It's a job where you're not guaranteed a regular paycheck each and every month (even when you still have bills to pay like everybody else). It's working when you don't feel like it. It's not quitting.
Filmmakers who Persevere usually do so because of the first two Ps: Passion and Patience. You need passion and patience for what you do to survive the inherent criticism in the filmmaking world. (Everybody's a movie critic.) You have push past the set-backs. You have to believe that what you do is more than just a hobby. It's something you were made to do.
And every once in a while, you get some sort of confirmation that it's worth it.
Note: The photo is from our first feature film. We went into production 10 years ago!
This blogpost was first published 11/28/12.
Here's a quote from Robert Wise... "My three Ps: passion, patience, perseverance. You have to do this if you've got to be a filmmaker."
...Passion
Filmmaking is an art form. To do it, you need to have a passion. You have to want to create. To make something beautiful. Or share a story. Or make people laugh. Or cry. There will be times when you want to give up and quit. When it rains and it's cold and you didn't get enough sleep last night. It's then that something has to kick in to keep you going. And that's the passion you have to have. For the art form. For the story you are telling with the art form.
...Patience
But it can't end with passion. You will have to wait. That's the nature of filmmaking. A waiting game. When you're on set, you have to wait. For camera set-up. For equipment trouble-shooting. For weather. In post-production, you have to wait. It takes time to craft the edit. You sit down in front of a mass of footage, all of which has to be organized. You have to figure out how to put everything together. You have to tweak the edit. That will take time and patience. Plenty of time and patience.
...Perseverance
This is perhaps one of the hardest things about filmmaking. It's getting knocked down, but still getting up again. It's a job where you're not guaranteed a regular paycheck each and every month (even when you still have bills to pay like everybody else). It's working when you don't feel like it. It's not quitting.
Filmmakers who Persevere usually do so because of the first two Ps: Passion and Patience. You need passion and patience for what you do to survive the inherent criticism in the filmmaking world. (Everybody's a movie critic.) You have push past the set-backs. You have to believe that what you do is more than just a hobby. It's something you were made to do.
And every once in a while, you get some sort of confirmation that it's worth it.
Note: The photo is from our first feature film. We went into production 10 years ago!
This blogpost was first published 11/28/12.
