This is one of my old textbooks, it’s how I used to learn things before finishing school
and deciding to focus on teaching myself filmmaking.
Nowadays, there are no textbooks, I get to learn about whatever I’m most interested
in, which is great, but i’m starting to think we might be missing out on some important
stuff.
So I’m going to do something a bit risky here, I’m gonna compare learning filmmaking
to learning maths.
I promise it won’t be as bad as it sounds.
Now, in school we used to read from textbooks - they can show us how to do something, or
give us information that we didn’t know before.
For self-taught filmmakers, that’s us like watching movies and TV shows - they’re a
mine of information, we get to see first hand what’s possible with stories and characters.
Plus, it gives us the chance to notice our own reactions as an audience member.
Which films were believable, which films really kept our attention, which films did we think
were too silly, which didn’t have enough drama?
The more i’ve watched, the better I understand what I actually like to see in a film - and
these opinions will come back to us when we’re working on our own projects, so we can say,
let’s cut that shot out because it’s making the scene too “cheesy” or let’s rewrite
this scene because it feels too “dull”.
To put it simply, watching stuff gives us a demonstration of what’s possible, just
like this book that demonstrates maths.
But the people write these books knows that just reading about something really isn’t
enough.
So they add exercises that force us to put this new information into practice.
Just like we know that watching films can only teach us so much, cos we then try making
our own and find out it’s much harder that it looks
So we start the cycle of making something that puts our current knowledge to the test,
then going back and watch more films to see how we could do better, and then starting to make
the next one.
It's interesting that these textbooks have plenty of questions to practice on, every
single time they introduce something new... maybe we should be getting that much practice
too.
Now so far we’ve covered the obvious ones, watching and making films, but of course,
a good school has more than just textbooks, there are teachers who can usually explain
things better than the textbooks, they can answer our questions and check our work.
Now this one doesn't perfectly transfer over to filmmaking, but if we can find people who
are more experienced than us, it must be better to learn from a real person than to just watch
a bunch of DVDs.
I mean, I find it really encouraging just to hear that other people don’t have
it all figured out either.
Next there’s our classmates: fellow filmmakers who we can learn and practice with.
But they’re also people we can get to know and joke around with, which makes the cycle of trying
and failing much more bearable than it would be by ourselves.
So we've got watching films, making films and learning with other people, but here’s
the controversial one - what if learning happens when we’re relaxed, not when we’re forcing
ourselves to always work harder and get better results.
Just google “schools in finland” and you’ll see that they don’t just focus on exams
and careers, they put a big emphasis on going outside, creativity, social skills, rather
than just making sure you pass maths and science.
They spend way less time in school, and have less exams - now, i’m sure the kids appreciate
that, but the weird thing is, Finland’s exam results are top class...
So how does this relate to filmmaking?
Well if we spend all of our time making films, watching films and hanging around with filmmakers,
we're probably limiting ourselves.
Surely one of the best qualities a filmmaker can have is to be in touch with the real world,
since we’ll be representing it on screen.
So reading books, listening to music, going out for run, can all be ways that we just
soak up culture and inspiration.
What if it's actually better to spend a weekend with our family or friends instead of editing
all day?
The point is that learning doesn’t have to feel like work, and if you don’t believe
me, seriously, just google “schools in Finland”, it's insane.
So as much as I’m glad that i’m done with school, I know
i’ll be learning for the rest of my life, so whenever I feel like
I don’t know how I should be spending my time, or don’t where to go next, I’ll
think of the textbook.
I’ll think of the new ideas we can get, how we can put them to practice, with help
from mentors and other filmmakers while remembering to take a break and have fun too.
Now, that’s a lot to take on, I don’t know if I can handle all of that, but fortunately,
I don’t have to.
I just have to take it one page at a time.
One day at a time.
My name's Simon Cade, this has been DSLRguide and i'll see you next week.