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I was wondering, do any of you guys look back on your early work and shudder? Or perhaps in a few years you will watch your current work and cringe?
I kinda see my films like relatives. You like some, others embarress you, but you can't really disown them either.
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Remember kids, Mr. Skin is here to make you think.
Dead right. You go out on the off chance - spend hours getting shots - come back - kick up the PC to edit. I can hear myself saying "I spent 3 hours over these shots, they're going to stay!".
A couple of weeks later I look at the result and say "What the hell did I include that load of rubbish". The Editing s/w gets called up again to restart the whole thing.! http://www.hostboard.com/ubb/frown.gif
Morale of the story (That I try to keep too <but fail>) "Dont edit until the footage is at least a couple of weeks old or so"
Pryce
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decide when its finished. And stick to that - move on to other things
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You can't expect to make a great film right out of the gates. We're all amateurs here so each film should be a learning experience. You film a short, view it and decide what you can do with your next one to improve.
Most of the time I spend 3 hours wondering if my script is one huge cliche, then hit a 15 minute shot go back to the PC and scrap the entire project.
Most importantly realize that your whole project IS one big cliche and be proud of it simply beacuse its a cliche.
There are a few members of my family I wouldn't mind disowning.
P.S. "Cold Brains Hot Custard"? What the hell does that mean anyway, Skin?
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Thousanth
THOUSANTH ENTERTAINMENT
AND PRODUCTIONS.
"A good director elevates his film above all limitations placed on it...above its genre, script, acting and production. A good director IS the film."
[This message has been edited by Thousanth (edited August 29, 2001).]
I hate my film deadlights,
1.i used a friend instead of an actor for the lead and it really shows
2.due to lighting i lost a key shot which meant i had to cut a scene right down
3. i didnt get clean cut points when shooting
BUT!!!! what i haev shot on Mortus Illumina my feature so far is a thousand times better so i hate deadlihgts with a passion
Chance
who is shooting in two weeks !
my first short, Professor Pompanickel Goes Terminal, is about ten years old now.
Only now can I look at it objectively, and, although, yes, it is pretty crappy, I can see how I was trying to push my equipment of the time to its limits. The story's not *too* bad either. Acting sucks. Me and a friend, the whole cast. I'm amazed I managed to direct and film and 'act' at the same time and still get 'almost good' compositions.
My second short, Adult Contacts, is 6 years old now. Again, I can look at it pretty objectively. I think considering that it's two people talking in a kitchen for ten minutes or so, it manages to be engaging. It is well written. I would say that, I wrote it. Technically it's still pretty awful. But I can see past that now, it no longer embarrasses me.
My latest short, Ad Astra, must be pushing on for a year old or more now. This is my first totally collaborative effort, with a producer (some of you may have heard of him) and proper actors and crew. Leaving me just to concentrate on directing. I think I did good. It's no blockbuster but I reckon it would stand up against some of the tosh on TV. I'm not remotely embarrassed by it. Technology helped me disguise the fact that the cameraman was using autoeverything so an avaerage joe won't even comprehend the headaches I went through to edit the fucker. That's quite satisfying.
My important lesson: rely on no-one unless you KNOW, unless YOU know, they are as good as they SAY they are!!! It may be low-budget but that's no reason to settle for second-best or in my case even worse! So the only thing that bugs me a bit is I KNOW that Ad Astra could have been better technically. But who cares, so long as the story is engaging and the badness of the technical bits isn't distracting??
So it seems I output one short about every 5 years or so ... in between I do mini projects with fine arts friends and edit for other people, all the time learning from OTHER PEOPLE'S MISTAKES ;-) so, quite selfishly, I can make my work better next time ...
Unfortunately I no longer seem to find time to write, but I still have many ideas and concepts. It's just a matter of collaborating with the right mix of people. Finding that mix is the hard part -- you can't often do much good alone.
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I think that you can compare this with old photographs... after a long time, you look at them, and almost every time you just hate them.
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