The Artful Filmmaker Guide
The internet is a massive entity. It has a lot of helpful and fascinating resources for pretty much any topic you can imagine to learn. Getting quality information, however, isn’t always easy to find in this ocean of digital… data. I’m always looking for new sources of info for creative pursuits, specifically in film and video. So, I decided to make a new category for the blog: the Artful Filmmaker Guide. Want information about filmmaking? This compendium is my attempt at a tiny, organized, contribution to exchanging beneficial resources for starting and established creators, via the web.
Articles marked with this category or tag (#ArtfulFilmmakerGuide) will be posts that contribute to an ever-growing book of contents revolving around filmmaking. The guide can house any form of media: article, book, video, website, etc. The media can cover topics within any aspect of film. For example, a documentary on a writer-director, a website for royalty free music, or a DIY gear video.
This artful guide basically acts as an ordered catch-all for anything I stumble upon that I find to be helpful and interesting in regards to the creative process of film. Each post, under this guide, will overview the source material, offer benefits of the material, and suggest other creative applications of what’s discussed and learned. Additionally, this guide acts as a mental bookmark, for future reference, on my own part. Sometimes, you forget about things you discover and wanted to remember. These posts give me the opportunity to put them somewhere, and a way to reflect on what I learned.
Filmmaking has so many levels of effort and art within it. Finding a good resource, is sometimes a serendipitous event that can be immensely useful the rest of your career. At times, good information can be found through someone else’s suggestion. This idea is a secondary goal of this new guide. I want to share what I find, but also, I want to encourage that from my readers. Knowledge is worth more shared. If you find something valuable, I want to hear about your good find! It might even make a feature post for this guide, your credit included. Therefore, don’t hesitate to reach out via, the contact page with your idea and why you’d think it’d be useful to fellow filmmakers. After I assemble multiple posts, I plan to add an appendix page of the articles and their related sub-types: sound, production design, writing, etc. on my site. For now, though, let’s get started.
The Hollywood Reporter | Director’s Round table
January 2018
Type: Video, panel discussion
Topic: Directing, Advice + Insight
Length: 63 minutes
Source: YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msl6C77MNcs
This moderated discussion features directors: Guillermo del Toro (‘The Shape of Water’), Angelina Jolie (‘First They Killed My Father’), Patty Jenkins (‘Wonder Woman’), Greta Gerwig (‘Lady Bird’), Denis Villeneuve (‘Blade Runner 2049’), and Joe Wright (‘Darkest Hour’).
The directors answer questions about communicating and fulfilling your project vision, working with others, dealing with failure, and remaining true to yourself and your work. They discuss amongst each other these topics, among others, which offer an insight into their experience, interests, and rapport with one another.
With this panel, you are able to hear familiar directors speak about their profession and/or learn about directors, who you don’t know, speak about their work. The conversation provides support and advice in your own journey to see if you share similar notions and work ethics-- which can be enlightening or reinforcing to your own creative process. There is diversity in their backgrounds and perspectives. The in-depth interview, provides, each director to speak and share their view on multiple subjects. I view this video as a front-row seat to people directly attached to the infamous Hollywood movie industry, talking about the business and how they work within it. (All without having to eavesdrop in on a random restaurant conversation in L.A.)
Listening to this round-table provides perception into the worlds of Directing, Producing, Production, Set-Life, Creative Vision, and the Film Industry overall.
All in all, a worthwhile listen when you’re looking for something to watch, or listen to that is directly dealing with established professionals in the movie world today and how they continue to strive for their goals. A chance to hear another perspective and better understand your own.
Keep listening. Keep creating.