This week we didn't have class so that we could attend the year 1 workshop by James and Ash from SIT Pro. We had this last year and I absolutely loved it, naturally I was interested in going again. Unfortunately I couldn't attend as much of the workshop as I wanted to, but here are some notes that I took:
The first day of the workshop was introductions, covering the basics and coming up with a story idea.
Much more time efficient this year
I am impressed by how efficient the workshop is this year, last year we didn't start shooting until Wednesday (I think) and the story wasn't decided upon until Tuesday. This time around they got through all the pre-production stuff in one day, giving them three or four days of shooting, which is a notable achievement.
Good to learn same things as year later
I actually found everything that James said very helpful, which is weird because it's the same things and the same poorly spelled power point, and yet this time around I feel like I'm deriving a lot more from it. I think having a year of experience and going back to the basics shines a different light on those things and you can take more away from it. It was set up by an industry vet anyway, so knowing more about the industry now I can gain a clearer understanding of what he meant exactly when he wrote those things.
It's not bad to go back to the basics or things you've already learned, it serves as a refresher, strengthening your knowledge, and you can see new things that you would have missed before. I'd do this with the other subjects as well, I do feel like I should have a refresher, but I don't know if I have the time right now.
Even though I couldn't attend as much as I desired, the little I got was actually very good at getting my mind running. Below are a bunch of things that I took home with me:
- Make genre list and mix to generate ideas
To generate ideas we started by listing all the genres we could think of, this helped to give us an idea of which direction to head in and define the limits of what we can work in with the resources available - a musical, for example, wouldn't have been very plausible.
Mixing the genres is a great way to generate ideas, and see what hasn't been done before. For example: A stoner movie mixed with a road trip movie mixed with a musical.
- Tell ONE LIE at the start of the film, this is the limit of the audience's suspension of disbelief.
This is a very well known script-writing rule but one that I think is worth repeating. Again I've heard it before, I'm aware of it, and yet it never properly sunk in. A lot of the time I feel like these great nuggets of knowledge fall on deaf ears simply because we're not in the right part of our life to hear it.
Since the workshop I've found myself noticing and going back to this sentence repeatedly.
- Learn the rules and practice the basics first before breaking or subverting them
This is something I've thought about a lot, I always want to find a new way to do something, but I can't if I don't know the basics first. I'm changing my mindset on this:
I want to learn the basics - the craft - first, before trying to bend the rules. We don't have to do something interesting or innovative yet, that pressure isn't necessary, we just need to focus on making the best vanilla film we can. Like Spielberg or other greats, people who I respect because they show restraint and are able to use the basics of cinema to their greatest potential, I want to be able to make an equivalent of Jaws or The Matrix before moving on to something more experimental.
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