Usually when I'm working on a project it's a constant battle to stop myself from
thinking the entire thing has been a failure. It'll start off ok and then I'll get a bit
concerned. During the editing I'll often think oh, actually it's not that bad - and then a few hours
later realizing oh yeah it's... it's worse, worse than I thought. From there it's a case of
just chiseling away at it until it's ok I guess and then we release the film and
move on to the next one. A couple months later I'm looking back and just cringing at
the old project with all it's now blindingly obvious mistakes thinking
this time this film will live up to my standards.
Let's talk about the toughest parts of filmmaking.
This is the part of the creative process that just doesn't get talked about.
The little meter that measures whether you like the work you've done or not. When that things in the red zone it
doesn't matter how many people say oh, that's really good we can only focus on the
negative - what could have been. For me, I'm always trying to make stuff that I can be proud of and say yeah
I'm pleased with how that turned out
but to be honest I don't think I've ever been in that green zone. Because the more
we learn, the more we appreciate good films, and realize just how much of a gap there
is between us and the greats. Some people let it get to them and they're forever
disappointed with their own abilities. Other people get a big head and say
I'm doing fine and they don't grow, they don't improve. But there must be
creative people who do just accept that they'll never quite catch up - who understand
that they'll always be more critical of their own work and their own flaws
than they will of other peoples and who just ride along those tough low point of
self-doubt, realising that it's peaks and valleys highs and lows that's the kind
of filmmaker that I'd like to be one day. So I think that's the most difficult part of
filmmaking. Putting off editing a project
because you're too scared find out how bad the footage is. Watching 40 much Netflix because you've
hit a rough patch while writing. Wondering on multiple occasions whether
you should just cut your losses and move on to the next project or stop making
films altogether. Watching a truly brilliant film and thinking I'm never
going to be able to top that... I've done all of these things
in the last month.
But gritting your teeth and getting through those low points? That's what it's
all about. Now usually at this point in the episode I'd offer some tips how
we can try and overcome this but you know, we can't solve all of life's
problems in five simple steps. And should we really be expecting filmmaking to
bring us eternal happiness anyway? With that in mind here's something that's helped me quite a lot:
Trying to think outside of myself. Why not focus on how the film will affect
the people watching it rather than how the film will affect us and our careers.
So last year I made a little video for my brother who was away from home.
We got a bunch of people who he hadn't seen for a while to say happy birthday
and something silly and was just really low-key, quite nice actually, to not think about
production value, but instead to focus on just how one person would react to
the video. You know, who could we get that would be the most surprising person to
see what could we get them to say that would remind them of home, make them laugh.
Instead of thinking about film festivals and trying to make a viral video. It's so
easy to get caught in the mentality of competing with ourselves to get better
or to work harder but you know, it's quite nice sometimes to just forget all
of that and think about someone else. So I challenge you to make a film for a
specific person or for a specific purpose. You might even find that it get's you
re-inspired about filmmaking again. Just like how a lot of people really enjoy cooking but
don't bother if they're the only one who's gonna be eating it. It's a lot easier to make an
effort when you're not the only one who's benefiting from it. And lastly, if you've
experienced any of the procrastinations or self doubts we've been talking about in this
episode, then congratulations. Welcome to the club. It's called the human race and
there's a lot of us in it.
My name's Simon Cade, this has been DSLRguide, and i'll see you next week.