For those of you who don't know, writer's block, defined by Wikipedia as a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work, is usually something that people who have been writing for years usually have. I, on the other hand, seem to have developed it on this first real post. That's not actually 100% true, but I want to save some of my more serious discussions or posts for a later time. We're not getting too deep into this right off the bat.
Isn't it funny how we can imagine something being so simple and easy for ourselves, only for it to seem impossible to us when we actually take a crack at it? That's what I honestly believed when I first got into making films. I didn't properly respect the process the way I should and it showed in my first ever short. Here at Cedarville, the first class where you actually get to make videos for class is called Video Technical Training(calling it vid tech from here out). In vid tech, we were tasked with making a commercial. The product could be one that already exists, or we could create our own product. Choosing the latter, I was trying my hardest to think of a ridiculous product that I could make an over-the-top commercial for. That product would later be called Thunder Punch, the manliest soft drink around. I was absolutely fueled with excitement. I was ready to make this amazing video that would leave everybody speechless.
There is this terrible habit I've had(sometimes still deal with) where I would wait till the night before or day of to do an assignment for school. This project was another one of those times. The night before the video was due, I finally started filming. It was terrible. I was scatter brained and ill prepared. I brought no lights and no sound equipment with me. All I had were the lights that were in the school building over my actors' heads and the audio that my camera was picking up by itself. If you're not somebody who makes films, using a camera's audio is a terrible decision. It will pick up everything you DON'T want and nothing you actually need. I had no knowledge of all the settings video cameras have to make the image look better. All I knew was how to point and shoot. That is exactly what I did. My shots were decent, but with the bad lighting and audio, it didn't matter. Then editing came along. If you ever talk to me about the filmmaking process, I will gladly tell you how editing is by far my least favorite part. Editing is probably the only part I actually do not like. As if I wanted to make editing even more fun, my dumb butt thought I could totally just get up early the day the video was due and knock it out in no time. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA...stupid. No, I got up at six in the morning and edited all the way up until vid tech started at about noon. I barely made it through the door as the class was about to start and thankfully I was able to give the professor my flash drive. I ended up getting a B+ on the project, but I deserved much worse. I wouldn't have been able to do it without my actors who were willing to sacrifice their evenings to help out a big goof like me. Thankfully, I have some wonderful friends here at Cedarville that had my back that night. They saved me from getting a terrible grade on my first video. I definitely owe them all BIG time for that. I've come a long way since that first film and my abilities have improved greatly. My hope is that I only continue to get better in every aspect of the process...yes, even editing.
So...a message. There should be one, right? I guess, if there has to be one, respect work. Any kind of work. Respect the custodians who have to deal with messes that aren't their own, respect the waitress who you think is the worst person in the world because she hasn't brought you the ketchup yet, and of course respect the filmmaker/blogger because this stuff is hard! ;)
I promise to work hard and get better at this. There will probably be some errors in here, but I'm at least trying! I enjoy doing this so far and hope to make this a once a week deal. Thanks for reading!
God Bless. :)
-Paul
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