One Day at a Time
Years ago, I attended my first Austin Film Festival, after taking a Women in Film and Video workshop about indie movie producing. It was in Austin that I heard director Frank Darabont say that if you want to write screenplays and work in the movie business, you should try to get work on a film set. This is why I decided to volunteer my services as a production assistant this past weekend.
I worked on a project at Docs in Progress that culminated in this documentary, using standard camera and audio equipment.
A few years back, I had a notion of going into film production. I was already involved in screenwriting and thought I had the organizational skills to pull it off. I started getting to know camera and sound equipment, but realized after time that all you need to be a filmmaker is an iPhone.
That’s simplifying things a bit, since quality sound is an important component of filmmaking, as are a few other matters, such as choice of lens, postproduction colorization, and editing skills.
When I first heard about the Creative Sprint 30-Day Art Challenge, I figured I’d be no good at it at all. I used to draw when I was younger, but now I’m a writer. I figured anything I created would be really crappy and not worth the effort.
Then, I realized that was the point of the exercise. It’s all about realizing your own creativity—the kind that’s hidden away. The 30-Day Creative Sprint is all about realizing you can be creative in ways you never imagined.
Early this month, I had the opportunity to attend the Future of Film conference at the University of Maryland, College Park. It was indeed an adventure in visual storytelling. And otherwise.
There were many panels on the first day I attended, which was Saturday. Here are a few photos of the speakers.
As a screenwriter, as well as a novelist, I’m extremely interested in visual storytelling. I attended the Future of Film conference two years ago and wrote about that here.