Open letter to young filmmakers

26 Apr, 2015 - 08:04 0 Views

The Sunday News

Dear young local filmmakers
I HOPE this letter finds you well and still excited about making films. It is also my hope that the past failures of locally made feature films, particularly in Bulawayo, has not taken the steam out of you. Experience is usually the best teacher. Every movie you make must be a learning curve. However, I must quickly express my disappointment with most of you. Experience seems to be teaching you nothing as you continue making the same basic mistakes.
Most of our locally made films continue to be summarised as follows: poor stories, poor directing, poor acting and poor editing. Agreed the potential is there. In fact, the potential is really big.

Our people also want to see local stories but we continue to disappoint. We are just not investing enough in terms of time, thought and resources to making films that create more audiences and revenue for ourselves.

Today allow me to remind you about the four areas that need your attention. Four areas that either make or break a film.
1 The story

To be honest everyone thinks they can write a story. In fact it is true. Everyone can write a story. But few people can write good stories. Unfortunately, it is good stories our people are looking for when they buy films or go to movies. There is no substitute for a good narrative. Not even the latest special effects can hide a bad story.

Experience has taught me that good stories are hard to come by. Experience has also taught me that a good idea does not necessarily translate into a good story. Good writing demands patience. It demands proper research. There are no short cuts. Sometimes one might need to develop an idea for years.
Dear young filmmakers, whether you are a producer, director, or actor always know the importance of a good story and that there is no substitute for a good story. Please invest in good stories before you even start production.

2 The director
The director is the most important crew member as he carries the vision of the film. Always remember a film belongs to the director, and not to the writer. A good director knows a good story when he sees one. If you have never directed a short film before how do you get to direct a feature film? It’s like a person who has never walked in his life entering himself/herself to run a marathon!

Young directors, please learn the basics first. And the best way to learn these basics is to start with short films. Five-minute films. Ten-minute films. Thirty-minute films. And once you are sure of what film is all about then you can take a big plunge and try feature films.
One big weakness with most young directors is that they don’t watch other people’s work. Rarely do we see our so-called filmmakers watching other forms of art and seeing how others are telling their stories. One cannot produce films from nowhere, not from a vacuum. It is also very important for directors to know a little about acting as they use actors to tell their stories.

3 Actors/actresses
While people go to the theatre in search of good stories it is actually the actors/actresses who help the director tell his/her story. Actors give the lines life. They breathe life into the story and lend their physical bodies to characters in the story. Actors are not brought into a film to just look good or parrot lines.
I want to know whether our actors understand that acting is a craft. A skill. If they do I am interested in knowing how they perfect their craft? I ask because I have never seen where they develop their talents.

Where are the actors and actresses we see in our local films trained? Are they even trained? Of course we know most are not trained and that is why they think acting is all about parroting lines before a camera.

Acting is more than that. Acting is about understanding the story. Understanding the character and the situations a character goes through. Do our actors know and understand subtext? Let us work on developing the actors and actresses.

Most importantly it is a director who chooses actors. A good director knows what he is looking for in human talent before he/she calls for an audition.

4 Technical aspect
Film is mostly about visuals. The pictures. In some places movies are still referred to as pictures. A director needs a good photographer/cameraman. Someone who knows what picture composition is about. Someone who can paint his story with beautiful pictures. There is a tendency among many that anyone who can point a camera in one direction and can press the operate button is a cameraperson. Get people that are trained to handle a camera.
Film is team work. A good story without a visionary director can come out looking like crap. It would need a miracle for a director to make bad actors look good on screen. Besides a good cameraman, a director also needs a soundman and an editor.

Sound is crucial to film, unless one is doing a silent movie. Remember film is audio visual. The audio part is critical. The director needs a good soundman to capture “clean” sound. Please note that not just anyone can do sound. (And a soundman is different from a boom swinger.)
A director also needs a good editor. Get someone who knows what they are doing. We continue to see some terrible editing and yet there are good editors in the city.

I hope the next time I am invited to a red carpet movie premier I will see some improvements.
Thank you.
Yours in arts,
Raisedon Baya.

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