Film school Questions
(all of the answers are by me, Arin Crumley… Susan’ is busy right now, maybe she’ll post her answers later.)
1. What is the purpose of your job?
To distribute ideas and hopefully have the process sustain itself. So far this has been done by creating our film by collecting ideas and putting them into a form they can be distributed which is the film. It’s also been done by creating the video podcast and posting it all over the web. In terms of this sustaining it’s self, that is the challenge. Our next step is to sell DVDs of the film which will hopefully help us get out of credit card debt and then we’ll be able to keep turning ideas into film projects that we’ll be able to distribute.
2. What inspired you to become a Director/Producer/Cinematographer?
The question is really why make movies, why not create music, or make fine art or just get a job. The moving image seems to be one of the best mediums to create in, it seems to communicate the most. And of course, getting a real job just isn’t really an option because it causes insanity.
3.At which school did you attend when you decided you wanted to become a director/producer/cinematographer? How many years of schooling did you take?
I didn’t realize I was making a decision for an alternative career at the time, but looking back I definitely was, in high school I was in the multimedia program for two years and then I dropped out of high school. That decision was based on the knowledge that this is a landscape that doesn’t value ones academic record but instead values the integrity of ones abilities and ability to display them. And then later I realized the only person I needed to convince of my abilities was my self since I’d be green-lighting any project I wanted to do.
4.Do you have a production-reel available to the public? Where can I find it?
This is my old reel, since I made the film I haven’t needed a reel. This was created to get hired for freelance jobs, sometimes wedding videos, sometimes corporate video, sometimes indie film, with this reel I was able to ask for 50 dollars an hour and usually get it.
http://foureyedmonsters.com/arincrumley/Reel.mov
5. How long have you bee in the film industry?
Well in high-school I also started interning at a video production studio that did corporate videos which is where I learned non-linear editing on Avid. I was 17 at the time (1998), when I was 18 I went on tour with an acting group that put on a play that also showed a bunch of short films I had created which I guess was semi pro because the troop was paid to perform at high-schools. Then that project connected me with a director who was learning DV and Final Cut Pro 1.0 and I signed onto his project doing boom/assistant camera over the summer after I would have been graduating high-school. Then I started my own production company with a friend and we used Final Cut Pro 1.5 to start doing weddings and bar-mitzvahs and a local PBS show called “the legal show”. All this time I was making music and abstract video as well as documentary shorts all of which where not part of any “industry” so it is hard to say when I really became a part of the “industry”. But getting into slamdance in 2004 really projected us into the “industry” getting contacted by all kinds of producers reps, dealing with publicity, making press kits, starting to learn about distributors etc… So you could either say since 1998 or you could say since 2004.
6.Do you like your career? Why?
Hmm, I think so, never completely happy with anything, but it is pretty cool even though it has it’s hard times.
7. How do you think the ideas of amateur film makers compare to the one of an experienced film maker?
Well I think in the future there will be a lot less people on high horses and in a way everyone will be amateur. And instead of “filmmaking” it will just be referred to “media.” Or if not maybe another word that doesn’t assume as much authority. Really filmmaking ultimately does want to be a medium that everyone creates in just like writing is something that everyone can do. But your question is about people who have more “experience” creating in this medium. Well everyone reacts to having more experience differently. But one thing almost everyone does is they get more fluid. The build a better ability to pre-visualize 10 different ideas and 10 ideas that split off of each of those 10 and with out actually having to try all 100 ideas out, they are able to narrow down to a few that they can execute. But don’t forget, one idea might be to not have an idea, so I’m not recommending everything be pre-visualized, I’m just saying that certain people with enough experience will develop that ability.
8. What do you do to take care of stress while making a production?
Hmm, that is hard. Try to breath. Try to think. Try to take breaks. Try to make sure people are feed. Try to make sure people are sleeping. Pretty simple things but that often get neglected when trying to solve problems. The ultimate goal is for everyone to feel completely empowered even though they are working with-in the confines of a vision. And the only thing better then that is if somehow everyone is completely empowered, but that requires people that are “fluid” in the medium.
9. What do you think is better; J-Horror films or the Hollywood remakes of them? Why?
I think the Japanese versions are better. Hollywood has a way of bringing everything down to the lowest common denominator which they have to do because of how their business model works. They have to make media for the masses so they can’t release stuff that will leave someone behind in anyway. So in my opinion almost everything that comes out of hollywood is too dumbed down and really unnecessarily. The thing about everyone becoming media literate is that when you can create media you also understand the language of media better.
10. How do you think the remake of a film compare to the originals (in general)?
Well what i love is people remaking films that haven’t even been made yet. Like some of the Snakes on a Plane videos that came out before the film even shot. But basically anything that has it’s own integrity and is a creative work is cool in my mind. If something is going to be a remake I think it should also be a twist or new spin on the prior concept.
11. There have been a lot of remakes lately, is that because all of the ideas have been taken or used already? If that is the case what do you have to say about the future film makers? Or is the film industry eventually going to fade out?
New ideas will never run out. The remakes have nothing to do with that. What is going on is that the film industry is changing and the system as we know it actually will fade out and they sense that so they are playing things extremely safe. The safest thing to do are sequels and 2nd to that are re-makes. What is really starting to happen though is that films are being made for less and less money and more and more films can be made and in that environment every single film can be a completly new approach to filmmaking with all new ideas you haven’t seen before. And if these films don’t have mass appeal it doesn’t matter because they only need to appeal to enough people to justify the low expense of having made them. So what is happening is there are going to be more and more small films finding audiences including home made videos like what people post on YouTube but also including indie filmmakers. Meanwhile peoples appetite for mainstream media and especially big hollywood films will start to shrink because there will be so many other options that serve their interests better so the business of creating media with mass appeal will shrink. But for the record, I do think there will always be room for some mainstream films, it just won’t be the only thing on the menu like it’s been in the past.
12. What kind of camera do you like to use the most when filming? Why?
HVX-200 because when shooting documentary style you get native 16:9 but when you want to do something really amazing looking or a narrative set up you can record 1080 24pa for super high res images or 720 60p for really awesome slow motion. 2nd to that camera is the DVX-100 which is what we shot our film and video podcast with. It does 480 24pa anamorphic which is great for widescreen screenings of our film. It can also do 480 60i which is just standard video but allows us to get very smooth slow motion that is 320 by 240 60p. That affect is used also in episode 3 and we’ll post a tutorial later on exactly how to get that smooth slow motion with the DVX-100 using Final Cut Pro, no expensive plug-ins used.
13.Do you have any comments or just anything to say for an aspiring film director/producer?
Just jump in and start making stuff. Creating in some kind of a medium that allows comments and allows people to subscribe is great. Right now the best thing is taking videos and putting them in a MySpace Blog. Just post to either youtube, MySpace or any other video sharing site and then put the html for the video into a MySpace post. Then encourage people to subscribe. That way every new video will have an immediate audience and you’ll get comments about your work and have a feel for how affectively your communicating ideas and a feel for what people are getting out of your work. Screening your material for friends and for people that doesn’t know you is also really valuable way to get a feel for how others perceive what you create. And finally, subscribe to this tutorial, we’ll be posting other stuff regularly that we’ve learned as well as information about brand new things we discover.
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