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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Why do you do it?

Vince K

Vince K

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I was wondering....what drives you to want to create in the film/ video/digital medium?
There are so many different types of people on this forum with different styles, ideas, processes, and varying degrees of experience, yet we are all here to learn off of each other, and share our thoughts, ideas, and the projects we helped make.
I think it's absolutely amazing, that this can be done from 'behind the curtain' so to speak.
To get a better understanding of who we are or why we do it, would anyone care to share a story of how OR why you are in this industry, or what drives you to want to be more successful in it?
I'll start this one off.....
I started in acting in theater when I was 5 and film when I was 10. I got the itch to work in film immediately. Later, realizing that I had the perfect face for radio :crying: lol, I applied and became a PA, and was lucky enough that with the small amount of experienced crews and growing number of unionized shows that were rolling thru town, that I got steady work. This allowed me to quickly move up the 'networking ladder', and not only gain a ton of experience on larger sets, but also allowed me to look around and see what I really wanted to do within the creative atmosphere.
Wanting to be on the more 'technical' side of things, I started to get to know people in camera, and thought the process was one that I NEEDED to be a part of, and went to work learning what I had to, so that I could achieve that goal. That lead to film school, working for free on indies, and doing what I had to, to gain the respect within the film community.
Taking into account where I live, I've been lucky enough to work with some great actors and crew, and some not so great, but it has all been an amazing learning experience.
I currently work as a 2ndAC on various film and HD productions (when there's HD work), and spend my downtime as a DP / videographer on various projects, producing artist promos and EPK's, editing small indie films and shorts, and have recently started to dabble in digital animation. Fun Stuff!!
....and I ain't done yet!!! :)
Anyone else?
 
This is gonna be a great thread! Thank you Vince! :thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
I read this quote from Guillermo del Toro that explained it all for me:

"When you have the intuition that there is something which is there, but out of reach of your physical world, art and religion are the only means to get to it."

Also, for me- I was always liked making up stories and drawing my own pictures for them.
 
When I was in High School I wanted to be a painter, As soon as I figured out how to paint with light I fell in Love with Cinematography.
 
I fell in love with photography in high school one day as I walked by a darkroom and saw the enlargers, trays, chemicals, etc. That led to me buying my first camera, a Nikkormat. LOVED that camera. Only had the one lens, the 50mm, but that forced me to be creative with what I had rather than relying on other lenses.

Went to the University of Georgia, majored in Journalism, (Radio, TV and Film) and while in school was fortunate enough to work as a PA on a television series, "Breaking Away" being filmed in Athens. Was drawn again to the camera and was fascinated by how different their approach was to shooting to anything I had known previously. After college I worked for one year as an assistant photographer with Chuck Rogers whose best known photograph was "The Runner" from the Peachtree Road Race which Nike bought full rights. (It's in the Nike store at Lenox Square as we speak) Then spent the next 30 years of my life creating and producing annual reports and other corporate collateral for Fortune 500 companies, still do. As the Art Director, I work closely with the corporate shooters we hire on location and this feeds my enjoyment and interest in the industries we shoot. Have had several clients wanting us to produce corporate films for them, so we morphed over to that side of things. The RED is absolutely perfect for this environment. Just like Esquire magazine this month, we can use the footage both in print and motion. It's a great time to be in this industry, technology-wise.
 
at the core there is a fascination with looking at stuff

i grew up with a mother working in a camera factory and my dads best friend was a photographer/filmmaker who always brought gear over to the house and invented projects to do

the motives have evolved - at first i thought i would be happy just working as anyones helper as long as it was within the field of photography or film - then i got more courageous - photography took off in an overwhelming way at first - now i am more focusing on film -

for me there are reasons why i am drawn to tell this story or that - wanting to express something - and then there is an intuitive thing that simply knows when something is right for me

probably here - judging from the passion this forum has - a lot of us are the lucky ones - as we pursue both the smart loud logical voice and the still small intuitive voice - it doesn't mean that we have to have the projects realized or finished - but that somehow we know what direction we are going
 
Coco said:
This is gonna be a great thread! Thank you Vince! :thumbsup::thumbsup:
Click to expand...

What a great start! I'm loving it already!! :sifone:
 
The real world is so boring. So I wanted to created something that doesn`t exist.
 
I'm obsessed with telling stories through images. Whether it be with film, photography, video games, or art.

So when someone asks me what I do, it's sometimes difficult to answer, and that's why I call myself a visual storyteller. They still look puzzled, but then I can explain it from that point of reference.
 
Mark Phelan said:
a television series, "Breaking Away" being filmed in Athens.
Click to expand...

For me it was the original movie. I was a freshman at Indiana University when that was being shot there, and I sat in the old stadium for two days as an extra in the big bike race at the end. (If you really know where to look, there I am for half a second!) But I thought what those guys were doing looked like about the coolest way to make a living I could imagine. I can think of several other people who saw "Breaking Away" being made and wound up in some kind of production career.
 
Coco said:
How do you know it doesn't exist? The universe is so vast. The options are unending :cool:
Click to expand...

Hm...a nice, philosophical question! :)
Then I`ll alter my statement - I would like to create images and stories that could be!
 
It's hard to say why I'm so obsessed with this medium. I think for me it's because I love to create something out of nothing. You take an idea and create something physical from the idea, much like sculpting or painting. I love the challenge of converting what's in my head into a picture on someone's screen.
 
Yonts said:
For me it was the original movie. I was a freshman at Indiana University when that was being shot there, and I sat in the old stadium for two days as an extra in the big bike race at the end. (If you really know where to look, there I am for half a second!) But I thought what those guys were doing looked like about the coolest way to make a living I could imagine. I can think of several other people who saw "Breaking Away" being made and wound up in some kind of production career.
Click to expand...

I too rode in the final race in the tv series, what a joke. They brought in Olympic riders from Colorado Springs and man, could those guys go fast. Their thighs were the size of tree trunks. I remember talking with Gary (who rode in the movie for Dennis Christopher) and asked him what was the fastest he had ever ridden his bike. He asked, "Flat land or hills?" I said flat and he responded "60mph, behind that semi in the movie." That's bookin' it...
 
For me it's a need to give others the same sensations that I've felt after experiencing a good film, and to go further than simply referring someone to a movie thats done that to me. That need is my primary motivation at this point (I am 22, and have one year left in film school); to offer something wholly worthwhile that is both mentally and physically stimulating that will stay with you long after the credits.

The beauty of cinema and visual media is that its purpose can be different for everyone who participates in it; for some it can be a deeply personal engagement with the purpose to explore a complex emotion undefinable by language, or it can be used to offer something to others whether it be an awareness for something globally universal, or a simple story. There are just so many ways you can use the medium. I am confident that my motivations for engaging in it will evolve as I age since our personal needs do change.
 
Like others, I feel an overwhelming NEED to be creative. Second, I want to leave this world at least slightly better than it would have been had I never been born.

When you are writing something good, or shooting something wonderful for stills or cinema, or editing moving images to the perfect music, and everything is clicking, you can find yourself very much "in the zone" -- detached from, and elevated above, the world around you. This is an inner peace, when you are channeling forces beyond your waking thought.

I always think of that incredibly epic guitar solo Jimmy Page did in the live rendition of "Stairway" on the "Song Remains the Same" film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFQC4gr_tvk

Watch Page at the 1:58 and 2:44 marks. If you look at his face and eyes during this solo, he's not even "there," not conscious of where he is, or that tens of thousands of fans are watching, or that lights are shining on him and the 35mm cameras are rolling. He's not aware that 30 years later someone might be sitting on a mountaintop in Nepal watching the performance on an iPod, having a chill race up his spine and his existence elevated, if only for a moment. Page is only existing -- a conduit for "forces" beyond our waking knowledge. When you're really, truly in the zone creatively, there can be no higher feeling for an artist, because there can be nothing truer.

I am without religious belief, a subscriber to existentialist thought, which posits that the only meaning in life is that which we ascribe to it. And so for me, beauty and wonder are what keep me going. Without something beautiful and wondrous, one might sink into a meaningless funk, and give up on life. Religious people can find meaning in their beliefs, but for others, we can find meaning in our experience, and our ability to share it with others.

Can there be any greater spirituality than sitting on a high mountain, beside a moon-dappled creek, under a blanket of thousands of stars listening to the first movement of Beethoven’s 14th piano sonata and pondering that the Milky Way you are gazing upon is really a collection of 200 billion nuclear stars, beyond which lies 200 billion more galaxies? This to me is wondrous! Perhaps the birth of a first child could top it, but I haven't experienced that yet. If a moving photograph of the heavens can trigger these thoughts and feelings in others, I have shared something worthwhile.

For years I worked as a political speechwriter, which combined my love of writing with my desire to make a positive change in the world.

But the beauty of cinema is that it melds even more artforms – writing, music, editing, photography, storytelling – into one statement by an artist and his collaborators. This is why someone like Terrence Malick quit his job as a writer and philosophy professor at MIT to join AFI’s first filmmakers’ program, along with the likes of David Lynch. Malick recognized that through film we can improve the lives of others, while at the same time fulfilling ourselves. Imagine I spend 2 years making a film. 20 years later, some guy who is down on his luck, having lost his wife or his job or his desire to follow his dreams – if this guy watches my film and only for 90 minutes forgets his sorrows and feels an improvement in his life, maybe even some hope, then I have accomplished something. :thumbsup:
 
Right on Tom, reminds me of that Emerson quote, "To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. "
 
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