Film Courage: Can you paint a picture of how much work it takes to be a filmmaker for people
watching this channel maybe they're in that similar boat they've gone to film
school they're waiting for this like magical producer to come along with this
check? Kenneth Castillo, Filmmaker: Well if you're doing your first film and you have a producer you're
lucky enough to have a producer that's great but you will be producing as well
like there's no getting around it you're not going to be just directing let's
assume you didn't write the script okay let's say you partnered up with somebody
what you can what you can expect is just an all-encompassing days of just
prepping and it's not a thing to get a camera and go shoot I mean you have it
is a lot of preparation and that is something I don't get I think it's lost
a lot you know like when I was doing marigold my seventh film it would be two
weeks of prep for two days of shooting you know so it's making sure that you
have the cast and crew that you have the insurance that you have the permits that
you have everything and sometimes the person that because the what though the
only ones gonna care the most about it is going to be you unless you have an
incredible budget where you're able to pay people to care right you're the one
that's carrying the most and you you can't drop the ball and you have to be
leading everything you cannot be behind on anything because as soon as they lose
confidence in you then your first day of shooting that's gonna be a disaster
you know and so that's the big thing you can expect it's just a lot of prep
before depending on the the requirements of your of your script and your story
but any little thing if you want it to be done well that you're going to have
to put that time in that's not necessarily directing why would they
lose confidence in you because you can tell when someone doesn't know when they
don't have a clear vision about what you what you people will excuse you if you
can't communicate your vision but they will not excuse you if you don't have a
vision your cast and your crew you know and that's the thing that I always so
like you have to have a very clear vision about what you want if you don't
know what you want then you're in big trouble
so is that something that you learn on your feet by going through it yeah I
don't think that's something you could be taught I think it's something that
you have to you have to learn by doing and start small start small particularly
if you're a woman or a person of color you're not gonna be given an opportunity
to fail on a major thing I've had several actors actors contact me on TV
shows who know I'm trying to get into TV directing and there's like beside
themselves because some 27 year old on set never directed anything doesn't know
what he's doing and yet he has an opportunity to do that and it's usually
a white male it's usually a white male we're not gonna be given those
opportunities we need to know what we're doing the day we're on set you know and
and a lot of those instances that the DEP is teaching them how to do their job
you know I like working with DPS because I can learn I learned from them
you know I that was my film school working with DPS I've been fortunate to
work with several different ones and I learned lenses and I learned their
language and they love it they love it because I can speak their language and I
understand what a lens what cycling's does and what it's used for how to move
the camera get to know everybody's job costume makeup everybody you know we're
starting out that's the advantage you're gonna have to do all that stuff anyway
it'll give you an appreciation for the people who do do those things you know
but like hair and makeup people love me because I'm not gonna have them go
through six or seven variations on someone's hair I know exactly what I
want like oh my god I love you you know what you want that's why I always get
from a hair and makeup oh my god I love you you know what you want and I'm like
yeah I'm not gonna send you back seven times for seven different looks only to
go back to the first thing I saw you know I know right away boom that's gonna
work that's gonna work let's go sounds like having a clear vision is
very important to you that's kind of how you run your life really yes you very
like you know what you want and that's awesome does that translate into the
stories you want to tell you're very clear on what you want to tell I'm very
clear on the emotions I'm trying to get my films to invoke in people
I'm very clear on that and I'm about 90% clear on how to do that
my fourth film I mean not even gonna say the title it's one of my most personal
strips but the budget I had kept having to compromise and there are great
moments I had to get rid of and I didn't know onset I didn't know how to make the
adjust the adjustment you're not gonna get this can we can't afford it
something that was promised to me during the shoot so I was losing things during
the shoot you know and so that was hard and so for that particular film when I
saw the trailer I'm like wow we nailed it
you know as I had to do that try I had that trailer cut at the very end of
production because I was using that trailer to raise money for my next film
as soon as I got back I had another meeting and that producer was like so
impressed I had a trailer for and then she'd saw that she's like wait you shot
that in three weeks I'm like yeah she's like it was a five minute meeting boom I
had I had them in the movie but the movie I didn't do what the trailer did
movie didn't do with the trailer promised and the reason why was because
I I had to make compromises and I couldn't make the adjustment to still
get the emotional impact of the film that I wanted so in pieces it works but
not as a whole so a Matt asked instance there was a clear vision but I wasn't
able to make the adjustment I wasn't able to and for all my other films I was
able to do that I was able for them say so can the scene we can't do it the way
you want to do it you have to do something else okay fine I want to keep
the emotion that this scene brings let me switch it let me fix it let me use
what we have I was able to do that very quickly for that film whatever for
whatever reason just wasn't able to and I think cuz I was doing too much with
with so little and at your fourth film that's very hard you know if it was my
first film it's easy the ideas start coming but your fourth film you're very
specific right I want this this this and there's no there's no compromise and
then you're compromising constantly on a daily basis and you're just like the
heart of that film that got good but uh yeah it is you have to I think
one of my improv teachers at the Academy said he's like always he was the one
that taught me he's like you always have a clear vision about what you want
because you will subconsciously make decisions that will lead you to that
those goals and he's been right for a very long time so he's that doesn't mean
it's gonna happen when you want it to happen but things will start to happen
and I've had a lot of full-circle moments like that you know and and that
have given me where I would run into a director or a director would help that I
admired helped me with something and I'm like I never thought I would even meet
this person and now there we have emails and he's telling me no keep going man
you know do your thing and or meeting an actor or working with an actor that I
grew up watching like writing the script saying this is the actor I want we're
never gonna get them but this is the actor I want putting it out there and
knowing very clearly that's what I want not knowing how you're gonna get there
and then I get you get there those little miracles are so important in
filmmaking it doesn't mean though your film is
special it has to happen for it to be made independent filmmaking you need
those miracles and they happen but you can't get too impressed by them and
after you when you do your first film you do right you're like we're gonna get
this location we got it for free we must be going to Sundance this films on its
way it's not like but know those things happen just from planning and putting it
out there hopefully we can do this hopefully we can do that well it's aim
for and more times than not those those things have come to fruition so you said
your fourth film was very personal to you and you feel like for budgetary
reasons or whatever it was shortchanged do you ever see yourself redoing it then
ah yeah I do actually I would have to change it change it up a little bit
because the distributor owns that movie I don't they haven't done much with it I
think it got into Target and Walmart and that was the extent of it I know they're
trying to get all my films on a Netflix right now so I don't yeah I think I
could revisit that but I don't know when I made that movie at that time that's
how I was feeling I was feeling like the main character at that time he was in
Iraq and a heart place and didn't know how to get out of
it and only had you know had very little to rely on but himself
you