15 September 2011
Last Friday I had the privilege to hear Michael Rymer discuss his latest film, "Face to Face". He also took time to share some wisdom about the film industry and his take on breaking in as a first time director. His opinion on the matter was quite clear: the script is everything.
In light of that, here are a few of my thoughts on Michael's tidbits of wisdom for first time directors looking to break in with a hot script:
If you write something good, hang onto it. You know you have a good script when everyone is trying to get it off you. Don't be too quick to sell. Remember, as long as you hold the rights to the movie everyone wants to make, you've got a bit of control over how it gets made.
Astonish with your first film. If you want to be a director, aim high for your first film, really high. First films that bomb take their directors down with them. Be patient! Focus on writing a script that will blow people away. Michael's first film, "Angel Baby" was his eighteenth script. Don't assume your first script is the best, or the tenth for that matter. Keep writing until you nail it.Don't do anything half ass, make it as good as you possibly can. The easy route is always the one that ends at a cliff. Put the work in, and you'll get the goods. And for heaven's sake, don't give up! If this was easy, then everyone would be doing it.
If you're going to screw up, screw up your way, don't defer to someone else's judgment. Trust yourself and your instincts. If you make a mistake, own up to it. But don't defer to someone else to make a decision you know isn't going to work. No one will come up to you at the end of the day and say "hey, it all fell apart, go figure you were right!" If you're the director, they'll blame you regardless of who's idea it was, so it might as well be yours. Fail on your own terms.
Never underestimate someones willingness to waste your time. Promises of funding and big oportunity can sound exciting, but sometimes they can be used to keep you around when no real intention of moving forward exists
Starting out as a filmmaker: hang around the arts and find what you want to say, learn to write. Michael emphasized the importance of finding out what you want to say before you start saying something. Sometimes our enthusiasm can run ahead before our values are fully formed. By seeing and hearing what other artists are saying, you can begin to uncover what you agree with, or disagree with, and what you are passionate about.
Shooting is easiest, get a great script first! Face to Face is quite a unique film, a feature with a name cast, a name director and shot on Cannon DSLRs in only two weeks. It was a dramatic example of what technology is doing to film production. The cost is dropping, the process is speeding up, and the tools are becoming widespread. Michael mentioned an interesting point regarding this democratization of film. More and more people can produce well executed, professional looking films in todays world. And so, the market will continue to be flooded with more and more movies that look and feel like any blockbuster (minus the million dollar trimmings of stars and big production pizazz) This makes the script the single most important element. The technical process of film making may be becoming progressively more accessible, but the process of writing a great script remains as much a challenge as it ever was, so if you get good at writing scripts, you've already put yourself ahead of the game.
Passionate personal stories. Aiming at genre is a dead end. There's still room for real meat and potato stories. Michael's final point was that passionate personal stories are important, and there's still a need to create rich character based narratives. Everyone might be shouting "high concept!" at the moment, but don't forget, there's still a place for real honest storytelling. In fact, it's the meat and potatoes storytelling that draws us most, even when the characters are wrapped in high concept, don't forget Michael Rymer's other major work: Battlestar Galactica as a powerful case in point.
So get out there and start writing! Aim to astound and don't give up until you do. I hope you found these thoughts helpful and encouraging, I know I did.
So get out there and start writing! Aim to astound and don't give up until you do. I hope you found these thoughts helpful and encouraging, I know I did.