Our culture
We are fortunate enough to live in a day and age in which the words of prolific and eclectic filmmaking talents come readily and often.
Be Prescient
Be Prescient means to be prescient is to have foresight or foreknowledge. We can use this word to describe people themselves, or what they say or do at a given moment.
The Right Kind of Collaboration is Key
“When I was a kid, there was no collaboration. it’s you with a camera bossing your friends around. But as an adult, filmmaking is all about appreciating the talents of the people you surround yourself with and knowing you could never have made any of these films by yourself.”
The Right kind of Collaboration means – Most of humanity’s great inventions and ideas were born from not just one mind, but from group thinking.
Do Something In Your Story,
never stop looking for inspiration
(Because you’re gonna need it)
That’s from a conversation in “Interview” magazine between Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese where an important distinction is made.
It’s easy to see maser filmmakeers as endless wells of imagination, but stone sharpens stone, and that well needs to be replenished. the key? No matter how natural a storyteller, no matter how much experience, there will always be a need to find that creative spark. The world is fascinating. People and cultures inspire us.
Scorsese:
“One night I was watching late-night films on… I think it was on Showtime. There was this film called Yeelen [1987]. The picture had just started at 2:30 in the morning, and the image was very captivating, and I watched the whole thing. I discovered that it was directed by Souleymane Cisse and came from Mail. I got so excited. I had seen Ousmane Sembene’s films from Senegal-he was the first to put African cinema on the map, in the ’60s-but I hadn’t seen anything quite like this…. the poetry of the film. I’ve seen many, many movies over the years, and there are only a few that suddenly inspire you so much that you want to continue to make films. This was one of them.”
Spike Lee:
“So you’re telling me that Martin Scorsese, the father of cinema, needs inspiration to make more films?”
Scorsese:
“Well, it gets you excited again. Sometimes when you’re heavy into the shooting or editing of a picture, you get to the point where you don’t know if you could ever do it again. Then suddenly you get excited by seeing somebody else’s work.”
A GENERAL APPROACH TO PROBLEM SOLVING
Problem solving is one of the most essential skills in life. Regardless of who you are or what you do, ou will face obstacles. How you deal with such challenges will face obstacles. How you deal with such challenges will often be a determining factor in how successful you are at life.
There are many ways to solve problems, and it will depend on your situation, your experience, your knowledge, your attitude, and your problem to determine the best approach.
LESS IS MORE “DON’T USE A LOT WHERE A LITTLE WILL DO.”
Recently saw a reality show about reviving struggling restaurants. The premise is that an expert comes in to help save a family business – and in the process helps the owners rebuild their relationships and their lives.
In the beginning, the expert suggested the family reduce their menu from multiple pages to just one. They originally created a massive list of selections because they assumed this created more value. In all reality, it was overwhelming.
You may not have a large number of hours to commit, but this means you have an incentive to prioritize your goals – and that just may help you focus and become optimally effective.
Most importantly, when we focus on doing less and doing it well, instead of doing more and assuming it’s better, we’re less scattered, more deliberate, less harried and more present.
And really, isn’t that what we want? It’s not just the goals and the outcomes we visualize; it’s the happiness and satisfaction we imagine we’ll experience when we get there. It may be the biggest advantage to doing less: we create more space to enjoy those things now.
In many instances, less is more. Regardless of the project or dream, the “less is more” philosophy can go a long way in creating value and enabling progress.
You may not have abundant resources, but this means your passion and purpose may be your greatest assets – and there’s no limit to what you can accomplish when you invest yourself in a vision that moves and inspires you.
EVERYTHING CAN BE FILMED
“When I was a kid, there was no collaboration. it’s you with a camera bossing your friends around. But as an adult, filmmaking is all about appreciating the talents of the people you surround yourself with and knowing you could never have made any of these films by yourself.”
MAKE YOUR OWN MEANING
The very meaninglessness of life forces a man to create his own meaning.
As a child matures, he sees death and pain everywhere about him, and begins to lose faith in the ultimate goodness of man. But if he’s reasonably strong – and lucky – he can emerge from this twilight of the soul into a rebirth of life’s elan (enthusiastic and assured vigor and liveliness).
Both becuase of and in spite of his awareness of the meaninglessness of life, he can forge a fresh sense of purpose and affirmation. He may not recapture the same pure sense of wonder he was born with, but he can shape something far more enduring and sustaining. The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death – however mutable man may be able to make them – our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfillment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light. “Adivce for filmmaking. Adivce for life.
The very meaninglessness of life forces a man to create his own meaning. Children, of course, begin life with an untarnished sense of wonder, a capacity to experience total joy at something as simple as the greenness of a leaf; but as they grow older, the awareness of death and decay begins to impinge on their consciousness and subtly erode their joie de vivre (a keen enjoyment of living), their idealism – and their assumption of immortality.
LOOK AT EVERYTHING THROUGH TWO DIFFERENT EYES
A director should look at each scene’s set up with each eye individually. Left eye for composition (because it’s connected to the creative right side of the brain). Right eye for focus and technical specs (because it’s connected to the mathematical left side of the brain).
Making a “perfect spot” is impossible even before considering the subjective loopholes. As an art form with thousands of people crafting individual pieces that lock into place, one person will never have the power to make exactly what he or she wants, but will always have the power to give their best, hardest, smartest work.
Do the best you can, try to live it down, that’s our motto. Just literally give it everything you got, and then know that it’s never going to turn out the way you want it to, and let it go, and hope that it doesn’t return. Because you want it to be better than it can ever turn out.
GET LUCKY
We believe in collaboration. We believe in teamwork. We believe in collective energy and cohesive strength. We believe in being able to experiment. We believe in keeping an open mind. We believe in honesty. We believe in hard work. But luck is definitely a factor.