This Savage Art

As I get ready to celebrate my son turning three only to be followed by the preparation for another move to another apartment I’m trying to stay focused on filmmaking. I can’t physically make a film now or really wrap my mind around writing anything but I can still be exposed to the teachings of others. So instead of abandoning everything I decided to read up. I started a book that I’ve had for a while but haven’t cracked open yet and I’m glad I recently did. The book is On Film-making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director and it’s a benefit to the writer-director. It validates a belief that I’ve had in my head for a long time now and that is you cannot effectively give out advice about something if you’ve never actually executed it. Theories that state that some people make better teachers are valid but this happens to be a case that covers its bases. The director Alexander Mackendrick not only directed Sweet Smell of Success, a film that encapsulates what I think a film should be, he also was the founding dean of the Cal Arts film school where he taught for 24  years. I’m going to get into the details of book in later post but if you want to get answers for the “unanswerable questions” of directing and story this book is a goldmine.

I also read a post on time management that every creative should read. Time is everything to me now and I want to make the most out of it. Accounting for your work hours and seeing how much time your wasting on Facebook is a good start. I will be implementing some of these methods once I get settled in and have a desk again. Read this post.

Another post I came across is definitely worth a read too. The title says it all, How To Steal Like An Artist (And 9 Other Things No One Told Me.) It’s by a guy named Austin who lives in, eh, Austin. It’s destiny.