Cinema Reverence

Growing up and probably to this day still I've had a great reverence for cinema. It's importance has multiplied over the years as I've made a many difficult decisions which favored a life of working in movies than a life of... well, living. I'm not alone, there are many people - some who do not even make an effort to work in films who have the same reverence for the medium. There are still people who will line up for days (and at least hours) for a movie and discuss it adamantly with friends afterwards - maybe for days.

So many filmmakers will love film with the passion others reserve for family.

It's strange and sad then that this is not a requirement for becoming a director. In fact, it is most likely a hindrance because reverence results in intimidation.

Passionate filmmakers respect the medium so much that they have a hard time viewing it as a product. See? Some of you imaginary readers just cringed when I said that word. But it's true. At the end of the day, it's a product.

I've mentioned before that I've worked on a lot of movies. I've probably been involved enough in a movie such that I've met the director on nearly 100 movies. I know, that's a lot. And I can tell you two things:

1. More than half of these directors were not as passionate about making movies as you are. In fact, many of them just thought it would be something interesting to do, but they actually do other things with their lives.

2. And here's the really amazing one... It doesn't always make them a worse filmmaker.

Yes, it's the tragic truth. One's passion for the medium is superficial. The film doesn't benefit from a passion for the medium. A movie benefits from one thing only - an understanding of how to convey the movie's story.

People love to be entertained - whether intellectually or pruriently - it's entertainment. The secret of entertainment is as simple as someone telling you a really great story in your living room.... or anywhere. Can you remember when someone was telling you a story and you were captured by it? Why? Because you were curious what was going to happen. Sometimes you have the advantage of knowing something about the characters in advance - but sometimes it's a story that you know no one. That's the heart of everything. You can tell a story without ever uttering a word. A 30 second silent commercial can tell a story, a music video can tell a story, a single frame of film can tell a story... Photographers have been telling stories for years. The directors who understand that are making the good movies. Some of them will be passionate about movies as an art form and will expound upon occasionally interesting theories of cinema and filmmakers. Others understand this and just keep it simple - they stick to telling the story and don't attach a lot of hoopla to it.

So, you can get away with being a passionate filmmaker, but you'd better really focus on your story at every moment.

If you're left asking, "but what do I do to focus on the story of my movie?" David Mammet has a very good book about this: "David Mammet on Film Directing." Highly recommended. (I'm not going to include a link because I don't want anyone thinking I'm making money off them buying the book.)


So, what do you do with all this passion you have for movies? Just make sure it doesn't make you respect the medium so much that you are afraid to ever do something in the medium. A lot of filmmakers actually get to start making movies simply because they make the decision to do it. They're not afraid of it. They're not afraid of failing at it either - they don't have nearly as much to lose as you. You failing would be like failing for your family or your lover or your best friend or your God. Them failing is hardly even failing - it's just an "oh well, that didn't work." So giving it a shot isn't such a big deal.