I often wonder which is the better route as a director - to cater to your strengths and delegate other aspects to those who know better OR to develop your weak points, thus making you better overall.
In deciding how to tackle my next project, I often go back to why I'm doing it in the first place - to learn something new and develop my skills. But when does DIY become too ambitious? In a perfect scenario, I would learn how to write a good script, design and make my own clothing, build my own props and sets, rig, texture and skin (and heaven knows what else) my own non-standard characters, orchestrate my own soundtrack and I'm sure a whole host of other things I haven't realized yet. Tall order.
Would the result be a satisfying accomplishment and an awesome, probably frustrating, experience? You bet. But would it result in the best film I could possibly make? Probably not.
Jack of all trades, master of none? There are those that are excellent in one aspect of the film process, like clothing design for instance. It's something that takes time, practice and skill to do and do well. Odds are highly against me that anything I would produce would be half as decent. Would it be wise to attempt it anyway, knowing that that aspect of the film will suffer but that I would gain valuable experience in getting myself to a point where I can do better next time? Or should I take advantage of the skills offered by others and make the final film more as it should be but as a result, hinder my own development?
Case in point - my first project. By general consensus, it was good. BUT if I had other people doing the voice overs, would it have been better? Probably. But V.O.s can be a different animal - a necessity even, for a great film. Is it fair to compare it's value to the success of a film to that of clothing design, modelling etc.?
But then when you outsource, does it begin to feel a bit less like 'your' film? Does it seem to detract from the value of the end product because you didn't do it all yourself? Is your final product any less of an accomplishment?
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It's really a case of "play to your strengths first, then look to addressing your weaknesses", I think.
ReplyDeleteIf you can shoot, write well and construct a good movie, but suck at modding, I'd say get someone in who CAN do the modding for you, and you concentrate on the parts a) you know you can handle and b) can do well.
Taking on too much (especially when starting out) is a sure-fire way to end up running screaming from the building vowing never to go there again.
Voice acting is a real necessity, like or or not; a movie can do ok without voices (purely scored with good music, for example), but to really shine a viewer needs to be able to link the voice to the character. Only so much can be conveyed visually in a production and, without the emotional depth of the spoken word, even the best movie can flatten itself a bit.
In comparison to a physical mod, there's no contest; VOs are almost certainly something that should be an intrinsic part of the film. You can easily work around not having a specific prop or set, but you can't work around having no (or, worse, the WRONG) actors playing the parts.
Movie making is that rare animal; a personal project that encompasses the skills of others in conjunction to your own, and also creates enjoyment in other people (both from contributing to the creative process in a myriad of ways, to simply sitting back and watching a well-crafted and executed film as a viewer). It's a lot easier to get this collaboration RIGHT than it is to get it wrong (especially if you take your time about picking the right actors for the parts); sometimes, it's not about the performance or ability of the actor, but the FEEL they give to the part that makes the difference and, ultimately, that is something only you (as the director/writer/creator) can decide upon.
We always have to make certain sacrifices to complete projects and, as ever, with necessity being the mother of invention, doing without something can sometimes make you have to be MORE creative in working around it, which ultimately results in a better film 9 times out of 10.
You know - I love writing in this blog. It really helps me think and helps me get others' opinions. :)
ReplyDeleteYou know- I totally agree with you saying playing to your strengths first. A lot of the great works out there, like Strife, The Expedition and Odyssey - they are not one-man armies. It's people doing what they do best and coming together to make a good product.
I guess if you think of it like any real-world production for a movie - you have the writing dept, actors, costume dept, editing dept, special fx dept -etc. All to make a one good thing.
I'm thinking I might compromise between the two - outsource some aspects but still try my hand at some of the non-crucial aspects. Best of both worlds! :)
I don't know about you, but I make movies for the fun and creativity of it. And generally speaking, I like to do all the movie myself.
ReplyDeleteVOs are a different animal, due to the fact that I have just one voice, and even with all the fiddling in the world I can at best come up with 5 unique "voices", all that still sound like ME to my ears.
What I really wanted to say was this (and this is from my perspective): if it's challenging, then do it yourself. Part of the enjoyment of this process is learning and improving on what you can do. Eventually you might hit a brick wall and discover that (for instance) you can't make music that sounds good enough, or you can't get the costume to look right. In that case, it might be a good idea to "out source".
Here's an example: In 'The Movies' I can mod to a certain degree, and I enjoy doing it and learning it. But certain aspects of it are beyond me, and simply are NOT interesting to me, though I like the end results that I could achieve with them. In this case I would get a modder to do the work for me (or more often than not, it's already been done and I just download the results).
Other side of the coin is music. I used to use the stock standard tracks supplied with the software, but discovered that (with the right program) I could make music myself (which I had no idea was in me!) So now I do 99% of my own music for films.
As I said, this is just me. It might not apply you you or anyone else. But I enjoy doing the bulk of the "work", even though it can slow me down horrendously...
Sorry for waffling... must be Monday. :)
You pose a wonderful question and one that I, too, share. I have been a lone artist all my life, but film making, ANY type of film making- is a collaborative art except in the most extreme cases (My friend Mike Belmont aka MDotStrange case in point) But even HE ended-up using color correction folks, artists and extras for his first film. That said - I would still prefer to crank out a film on my own as much as possible because, well, I'm a control freak! LOL I think in the end you'll find your proof in the pudding - ie - as you begin work on your film you will find your strengths and weakness's and decide at that point what to do about it based on where your head is at in those moments. Just a thought, I actually have no idea what I'm talking about. :)
ReplyDeleteI wrestle with the same question (rather a lot, actually). Having done the solo thing for a long time, I find it's hard to let go of, because I enjoy pushing myself and learning new things.
ReplyDeleteLately, though, the wall I've been running into is: if I keep going it alone, will I have time to make all the movies I want to get made? More and more, I find myself answering that with a "no," but still I find it hard to make the transition (for all the reasons BiggsTrek mentioned).
Oh, I agree completely with what's being said. If you CAN, do as much as you are able to do yourself (not only is it much more fulfilling, but you have much more control over the creative process and can steer it where you want to go without making compromises), but there often comes that point where, to get to exactly what you want, you have to turn to other folk to help out... and that's no bad thing, or reflection on your lack of skill or ability at all.
ReplyDeleteTime is always our biggest enemy as machinima film makers; there's never enough time to do what we want to and we are often forced into choosing between either cutting corners or seeking out help and, obviously, it's always preferrable to take the latter course :)
Can't mod? It's relatively easy to learn but takes far too much time to get to the standard of the "full-time" modders; in a lot of cases, you'll find that you can learn enough to scrape by on, however.
Can't do effects? Well, with iClone the particles are available (something which TM sadly doesn't have), so most of what you want you can do inside the engine itself, luckily.
The biggest issue I think (which I've mentioned elsewhere before) is that it's very hard to "let your baby go" into the hands of other people, either as a writer or a director, especially if you've become used to doing the majority of the donkey work yourself. And quite rightly, too... you worry that whoever is doing X, Y or Z for you won't "get" what you're after.
Luckily, there is an immense pool of talent out there and, as you'll see, there are bound to be oodles of folk who are on the same wavelength as you!
This is a very good question, and I concur with what has been already said here.
ReplyDeleteFor me, it's a dilemma, too - everything I do today in my movies - music, vo's, special effects, sound-scaping, working with photo enhancement - I have learned because of making those movies. I didn't have a clue about those things before I started, and I love that I've learned so much about those things. So I understand very well where you're coming from!
In the case of voices - I want to have voiceactors on my productions, they inspire my film-making by their voices, and they make the story come alive with their acting.
Modding - well, I tried my hand on that, too, but finally gave up. It already takes me half a year to get a movie finished, and I have to admit that I don't have the patience to get into modding myself - a film would take me one year then..
But I still love to do things by myself and learn. It is a large part of the enjoyment of making anymations - to see if I can get better, think of new things to add, make my films more immersive. And before I ask someone to help me with, say, special effects, I try to do them myself.
So you could say that in most instances, I'm a one-woman-show... but not afraid to ask for help if I need it. And with all those nice and friendly people out there, it is a real joy to collaborate!
You guys all have good points - thanks for the feedback! :) I think I am leaning towards DIY more so, but I'll remember that there's nothing wrong with asking for a little help from the experts in their fields if I get in over my head!
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