Editing my showreel and what I’ve learnt from the studio (and everything else).
This week came with the opportunity (and requirement) to finally try to put together a showreel of footage that I’ve shot over the last couple years. Looking back at my catalogue of footage has been a very interesting and enlightening process for me; it has shown me both how far I’ve come since my first major project (a music video I filmed for year 12 media – not on the showreel) and how far I still have to go. For me and my journey as a filmmaker I think there has been three key events that have shaped my current ability – those being beginning as a camera assistant back in early 2017, purchasing and beginning to use my own proper camera early this year and then undertaking this studio. Beginning as a camera assistant taught me the basics of the practical side of filmmaking and how to be helpful to a low budget production – whereas getting my own camera and beginning to take a more leading role in creating various videos and films has begun to teach me the creative side of filmmaking and how the choices we make on the practical side can affect the creative output. But it wasn’t until I began this studio that I feel as though I could bring those two things together. It’s hard to explain exactly what I mean by this, but to summarise I’m essentially trying to say that before this studio I had the practical skillset to make a film happen, and I had the vision for how I wanted the end result to look or be, but I lacked the ability to translate one to the other. To give an example, prior to the studio I knew how to setup a light, and I knew what I wanted the light to do, but I didn’t really know how to connect those two things. Now that the studio is over though I feel like I am much closer to being able to visualise exactly what I want in pre-production, go into production and make it happen, and then see it come to fruition as I had envisioned it in post-production. Now of course I’m not there yet, I’ve still got so much to learn – my showreel has showed me this. In all honesty there’s nothing on that reel looks as good as I want it to. And that’s not to discourage myself and say I’m not good at what I do, I just simply recognise that the work present on that reel isn’t outstanding, it’s good but it isn’t great. The fact that I can see that though honestly excites and challenges me – it tells me that I’m on the right track and that maybe the next project I work on will live up to my hopes and aspirations.