Whitestone Motion Pictures

reflections on a filmshoot: a love letter

5:19PM by Brandon McCormick  |  Cetagories: Uncategorized

The following is written by Brandon McCormick, founder/filmmaker of Whitestone.
Storytelling is tough business. Anyone who has tried their hand at the craft can attest to the late nights and the raging insecurity that goes with an attempt at a story well told. It’s a draining but all together satisfying experience that keeps you coming back for more. As we wind down the principal photography for Heartless, I can’t help but be enraptured by the process once again. This magic of making movies that has so effortlessly enlivened my heart and lulled me with its siren song.

Filmmaking is the culmination of humanities greatest art forms rolled into one glorious end. First and foremost you have the oldest form of communication from mankind, story. Through story, you can weave such intricate elements such as song and music, the universal language through which we may all feel something profound. It doesn’t stop there, for you encounter the craft of thespians and actors who in the footsteps of Shakespeare breathe the story to life through the spoken and written word. Fabrics and textiles are prepared to create the world of wardrobe and tell a story unto their own. Painters paint, designers design, sculptors make molds, artisans create with their hands the intricate props and sets to add layer upon layer to your imagination. Sound waves are captured and manipulated, carefully garnished ever so delightfully as to betray even their own existence. Light is painted through elements of air and mist. Teams of people labor day in and day out to physically move entire production elements, creating dolly movements, moving production forward and telling the story with each setup. Organizational teams burn their brilliant minds at bringing each detail together, making it all seem effortless. Numbers and budgets, callsheets and shotlists. Technology is harnessed to bring forth images, edited together in such a way that they trick your mind into believing that what you are seeing isn’t a random collection of still images, but a single cohesive story that touches you to your very soul.

For these reasons and many more, I can’t help but to be in awe of the process. In love with the craft. It is all the more lovely because no one person can take credit for a finished product. Most of all, I am in awe of my team. It takes scores of people working together to a common goal to get these things to look as if they all go with one another. To these men and women I am grateful. I am honored to be working with such brilliant craftsmen, who toil each day to become their very best. Heartless was our most taxing and daunting task to date, one that has pushed us to become better every day. I couldn’t be happier with what we’ve done, and where we are going.

A final thought goes to you, the dreamer storyteller who is reading this now. These men and women work tirelessly to tell a great story so that you might see something new, feel a new truth or believe in a ‘once upon a time.’ It’s for you that all the late nights and hard hours are for. Thank you for being our advocates, for being here in the early days when the money was short, the work was new and the uphill never seemed to end. It is your encouragement, your love of story that ties us together. You inspire us as much as we hope to inspire you. Storytelling is never a one way road. Thank you for watching our films and partaking in the bigger story we’re trying to tell. Without you, our audience, we would just be talking to ourselves. Keep pushing us, demanding excellence of us, and we can all be a part of telling a story the world has never heard before.

Permalink

6 Responses to “reflections on a filmshoot: a love letter”

Leave a Reply

Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website Comments