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The Life of a Film Maker
By Frey | June 24, 2007
How many times have you been in a conversation with a new face and then the question comes up, “What do you do for a living?”
This is always asked in a conversation with someone that’s never been around film before. When someone asks me what I do for a living, I tell them I am a film maker - hoping they will be cool with that answer and ask what projects I’ve worked on, but 9 times out of 10, they have a weird look on their face. Sometimes I get the occasional, “You mean those kinds of films?” To which I always politely say, “No.” Then they often try to switch the topic, because they don’t know anything about film. Or they ask a stream of questions that all lead to me saying, “I produce, direct, and otherwise work on television commercials and feature films, maybe you’ve seen one of them?” The answer is usually, “No.”
Since I work in the world of film and video, there are so many things that I take for granted (for instance, setting up a shot, or editing a scene, or giving direction to actors), and yet, I rarely stop to think about how other people perceive what I do. Their ideas of what goes on in the life of a film maker are often strongly influenced by Hollywood and E!. I only wished that was the case.
In reality, film makers have a lot of things they have to do in order to get their film noticed by even a handful of people. You will work yourself almost to the point of breaking, often for just your family to come out and notice our work.
But what about pulling in all those millions of dollars as Hollywood always makes the life of a Film maker out to be? I guess it could happen. But then again, I guess they could also genetically cross a pig and a giant eagle one day. It’s a pot shot and it doesn’t really matter how good or bad your film is either - it depends on what the market wants today versus what the market wants tomorrow. You could get lucky, but more than likely you’ll have a rough road even to get noticed by your peers.
It’s not a glamorous life at all. What Hollywood doesn’t talk about is that film making is an extremely hard life - often full of stress and let downs, with the occasional pick-me-up. Even Orson Welles, creator of Citizen Kane, was unable to get funding for his films in his later years. Success with one film does not mean you’ll immediately go on to do a second.
Does this mean I recommend that you not get into film? I don’t recommend anyone get into film unless they can take the abuse. If you are the type to be easily let down, film is definitely not for you. Your family, friends will only support you a short way. After that, they will start to detach themselves. A little at first, then a little more every day. Why? Because film making is like black magic to them - they don’t understand it and you can’t explain it.
Your film peers will hate your film, sometimes because it’s better than theirs (jealousy), or sometimes because you rushed it, or sometimes because it doesn’t make any sense to anyone but you. It’s okay that this happens, since it helps you to get those callouses that you so badly need as a film maker. But, it also hurts and will always leave a sore spot.
Yes, the life of a film maker is wrought with hardship. But it’s a labor of love and also the chance to share a story visually. No one will give you a million dollars to shoot a film without seeing your talent. And no one will give you even a hundred dollars without seeing that you care enough about what you do…
Have anything to add? Post your comment. This is something that both film makers and actors should be talking about openly amongst each other.
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Topics: film, high definition, other |
One Response to “The Life of a Film Maker”
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June 27th, 2007 at 11:02 am
Testing? You on? Good.
I’ve been doing shooting films for a few years and can be a lot of fun but other times it can be a pain in the A55 Too often it seems the work is hard and boring