What Was Your Most Ambitious Failure?
As an Adventist filmmaker, what was your most ambitious failure? Is it something that you care to talk about?
I've had my camera for about a year now, but I don't have a year's experience yet. I still consider myself a newbie. I've made tons of mistakes, had a few epiphanies, enjoyed a little serendipity, and learned a few things along the way. All of that "experience" encouraged me to make a short. Not just any short, but I set out to make a woooonderful Christian short that I could show to all of my church friends.
I had high hopes for that short, but it turned out to be too ambitious for myself and everyone else involved. I had the storyboards, the script, the props, the location, the actors, and the equipment. One thing that I didn't have was an intuition to know that we were all in over our heads, and that the team didn't want to hurt my feelings by pulling out of the project.
Things started to drag on. Situations arose. Rehearsals became problematic. Locations became unavailable.
We only filmed one scene, and that failed so bad that I had to reschedule the shoot, which never even happened.
I never yelled at the team members, and I remained professional throughout the whole process. I went home and nursed my wounds, vowing to come back stronger next time. I learned a lot from that experience. Would you like to know what I learned? Great! Here goes:
1. Simplify
2. Simplify it even more
That was my most ambitious failure, to date. But it was a learning experience. I learned that less is more, especially in a short. When I set out to make my current short, I used all of my painful lessons and failures from the previous outing to make sure that I succeeded. And I think I did succeed. This time, I had three rehearsals: two dedicated rehearsals and one dry run on location. I used one location and filmed the entire thing in a few hours. Supporting footage (which I decided to film after viewing the rough edit) was captured in my leisure time, while I was running errands or on day trips. And my cast and crew was skeletal: one actress, one actor, one production assistant!
I hope someone benefits from this little post. If you have something to share, please do! I'm an eager learner and can benefit from it all.
Blessings,
Scott
I've had my camera for about a year now, but I don't have a year's experience yet. I still consider myself a newbie. I've made tons of mistakes, had a few epiphanies, enjoyed a little serendipity, and learned a few things along the way. All of that "experience" encouraged me to make a short. Not just any short, but I set out to make a woooonderful Christian short that I could show to all of my church friends.
I had high hopes for that short, but it turned out to be too ambitious for myself and everyone else involved. I had the storyboards, the script, the props, the location, the actors, and the equipment. One thing that I didn't have was an intuition to know that we were all in over our heads, and that the team didn't want to hurt my feelings by pulling out of the project.
Things started to drag on. Situations arose. Rehearsals became problematic. Locations became unavailable.
We only filmed one scene, and that failed so bad that I had to reschedule the shoot, which never even happened.
I never yelled at the team members, and I remained professional throughout the whole process. I went home and nursed my wounds, vowing to come back stronger next time. I learned a lot from that experience. Would you like to know what I learned? Great! Here goes:
1. Simplify
2. Simplify it even more
That was my most ambitious failure, to date. But it was a learning experience. I learned that less is more, especially in a short. When I set out to make my current short, I used all of my painful lessons and failures from the previous outing to make sure that I succeeded. And I think I did succeed. This time, I had three rehearsals: two dedicated rehearsals and one dry run on location. I used one location and filmed the entire thing in a few hours. Supporting footage (which I decided to film after viewing the rough edit) was captured in my leisure time, while I was running errands or on day trips. And my cast and crew was skeletal: one actress, one actor, one production assistant!
I hope someone benefits from this little post. If you have something to share, please do! I'm an eager learner and can benefit from it all.
Blessings,
Scott
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ryan Moore on -
I don't know if this counts as a straight-up failure but I will share it anyway.
I had a huge idea for a great short that would serve as my freshman film at SAU. I thought it had to be big as to get my name out there and set a reputation. I decided on a story about a female firefighter and gets stuck in a burning building. So naturally I set to work...
Things started well... I got on touch with the local fire dept and they actually had a location for me to shoot in as well as burn. I got a big crew together and set to for a weekend of shooting. Then everything went wrong. Weather sucked, actors were unavailable, and the building was suddenly off-limits. The apex came when 3 weeks later all my equipment (most of Southern's nice film equipment = $65,000) was stolen from my location. A weekend shoot turned into a 3 month shoot and eventually put me in the hospital with pneumonia. At the end the film got made. We were able to burn the house and our shots turned out pretty well.... but my budget went from $2100 to about $4800 when it was all over.
I learned a lot though, I guess that's what counts in the end!
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Permalink Reply by Scott Hampton on -
Wow!
That was certainly ambitious! Can we see the film?
Sorry you had to experience what you did, but prayerfully you're all the better for it.
How about the building: would the fire department put the fire out for you? How did you film without getting burned? Please, share some more!
Scott
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