Kinos, Dedos & Gobos
So always looking for a way to get out of this 10′x10′ cell I work in I was delighted to be exploited this past weekend on an no-budget film project. Learning by doing, kids, it’s the only way to go.
Despite its no-budgetedness the production wasn’t for want of talent or expertise. I learned a lot about shooting live-action and was able to refresh myself on photography and lighting basics long since recessed in my mind since college. And all that simply volunteering as a grip/gaffer. There are no small parts, gang. I’ve always been a firm believer in the idea that a captain should know as much about the role of each of his crewmen as the crewmen himself and with my own project setting sail soon, I’m feeling all the more equipped with that knowledge after this experience.
I have no idea where the nautical metaphore is coming from but it ends now.
I have to admit that in the midst of things like laying down dolly track for a tracking shot by a car in a dark garage decorated to fake an exterior, night, driving scene I had pangs of self-doubt about what I was going to be able to accomplish on my own project with even more limited means… After all, these filmmakers knew what they were doing and I’m just some idiot who makes cartoons. But by the end of shoot I felt renewed zeal for my own project. After toiling for consecutive 12 hour days I realized that I don’t have to feel doubt; I can feel unity. I can feel like I’m not the only person out there with ridiculous aspirations fueled by nothing more than words on a page!
It’s going to be alright.
