There is a trend I’ve noticed. A lot of the questions we get at Whitestone are similar, and they almost all have to do with technical aspects. What kind of camera are you shooting on? What’s the best editing tool to use? What program do you write your scripts on?
And while we’re happy to always provide answers for these questions, I want to say something that we hold true at Whitestone. The ‘how’ matters very little, the ‘what and why’ is everything. I used to think if I could get the right camera, the perfect editing machine, the right software, that I would make great films. Turns out I was painfully wrong.
Tools are of course useful. They allow us to put the vision into reality and without them we couldn’t fundamentally be filmmakers. However the more I learn and the further along I go I’m realizing those tools that once held a sacred space in my head now are mere tools of the trade.
We should be spending less time counting pixels and more time talking about what makes stories great. I grow weary of style over story filmmaking. I’m glad you shot your film on the Cannon 5D, now tell me a story.
Trying to find the ‘right’ tools is an elaborate form of resistance and procrastination. If you can put things off until you have everything ‘right’, then you never really have to do anything. Here’s a hint: you won’t have every tool you want or maybe even need. You need to do with what you have. I’ve shot countless short little films on everything from Sony’s first handicam, to the XL1 and finally the CineAlta. A bad film is bad, no matter how pretty the image looks. A good story will resonate with people, even if the container is less than perfect.
The only way to combat that this is to resolve yourself to the fact that you won’t have everything you need. Just go make something. Yes, Movie Magic Screenwriter is great for writing scripts, but Microsoft Word or your composition notebook will do fundamentally the same thing. Yes, the RED camera is fantastic, but that handicam you have access to will make pictures. Don’t wait, just act.
If you find yourself always arguing technical specs and focusing primarily on the tools, I encourage you to think about the ‘what and the why’ of storytelling. A good place to start is Robert Mckee’s ‘Story’, a book that is required reading here at Whitestone. I urge you to spend the time where it counts. Tell great stories, the rest will follow.
Amen.
While I do feel there is a certain level of technical proficiency needed to get someone to watch more than 5 seconds of a work, I agree, the story needs to be there in spades, especially now that we face the DSLR deluge where just about anybody with $900 can get pretty images…
I second Ryan’s “Amen.” This is one of my favorite soap boxes. Will definitely re-tweet.
On a funny little side note: while I was Director of Finance and Operations at Screenplay Systems (now the Write Bros., makers of Movie Magic Screenwriter) I was one of the two people who negotiated the license agreement that created Screenwriter.