A man in the business of selling information (“learn how to
write-produce-direct and distribute in only two days”) once approached me to
speak at his workshop. He said all you
have to do is “give them something to write down” – lens sizes, F-stops, film
stocks, etc.
At the time, I didn’t fully understand why I found this idea so crass
and even dishonest. For in fact, when I
am teaching, on those occasions when I have given my students facts and
figures, they do intently write them down.
I can SEE them engaged in the process of learning. A filmmaker DOES need to know lens sizes and
film stocks and all those nuts & bolts details of film. That goes without saying.
What I have to offer as a professor who has been a film director for
over twenty years has to do with teaching the dynamics of cinema: how do you
make a 2-dimensional medium seem 3-dimensional via camera placement; how do you
use the tools of cinema (camera, production design, sound, music, editing, the
right location, etc.) to make a good story better or a good actor more
powerful; how do you shape and nurture talent (writer, director, actor, editor,
art director) and get the best from them; how do you keep learning about
cinema? These are the more fundamental
areas of filmmaking where I have something more significant to bring to the
creative and educational process.
I can advise a student who is shooting a crowd scene to let his
assistant director watch the extras (or to assign whole blocks of background
actors to the 1st AD, the 2d AD, to a pair of PA’s) while the
director follows the main actors. This
is a good tip. It comes from
experience. However, if I can teach the
power of camera placement, if I can illustrate weakness of proscenium shooting
compared to dynamic, 3-dimensional staging, I will have taught something of
value.
As a filmmaker, I have been around long enough to have worked on
moviolas, flatbeds and now, the non-linear editing systems. I have seen what has been lost and gained in
that technological evolution and can speak of that. I am personally fascinated and encouraged by the new world of
filmmaking that is just ahead of us as the digital gold rush matures and the
Internet becomes a more viable and significant avenue of distribution. It’s going to be an exciting time for
filmmakers and for educators afforded the opportunity to encouraging filmmaking
as a creative endeavor and as an academic discipline.
The biggest challenge to me as a university professor is to learn and
determine the most effective way to convey the knowledge and understanding I
have of the filmmaking process gathered from over two decades of making
movies. I have the wisdom of experience
but how do I best translate that into something that excites and stimulates the
student? We’ll see.