I overthink about everything that I write, shoot, and produce. Sometimes it can be a good thing; clarity is gained and I have a rich understanding of how I want approach something. But lately it has become a problem; my productivity has lowered because I’m too trapped in my own mind wrestling the process, the ideas, the purpose of it all. Therefore it was refreshing to start the semester with a project where Paul encouraged us to not overthink, but simply do.

30 (or so) seconds, an action. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about action, movement, kinetics. When we were assigned this task, I thought back to a quote from Brian De Palma that has always stuck with me:

“Motion pictures are a kinetic art form; you’re dealing with motion and sometimes that can be violent motion. There are very few art forms that let you deal with thing in motion and that’s why Westerns and chases and shoot-outs crop up in film. They require one of the elements intrinsic to film; motion.”

I was home in my room, studied where everything was placed, got out my phone, placed it on a shelf, and hit record.

Every so often I look through my DVD’s and arrange them into categories. Films I want to watch, films I want to watch with my girlfriend, films made by favourite directors, and so on. A lot of time (too much) is spent studying how I’ve ordered them.

I stood there for a bit, looking at the DVD’s. What stands out? What do I want to watch? After 20 or so seconds I took one DVD (48 Hours, Walter Hill) and placed it into my watchlist. I briefly question the decision, but it’s final. Shot over.

I could have done the whole point-of-view, close-up of the DVD’s, close-up of my hands taking a DVD, cut back to my face reacting, etc. But that bores me. I just did what felt right and tried not to think about it.

It wasn’t until we watched our sequences in class that I realised I was happy with what I did. My shot was somewhere in the middle of Paul’s compilation, and the build-up was terrifying. I hate watching my work. But when I watched it, the ego went away. I realised I have developed an aesthetic. It was totally natural, I didn’t have to think about it. I’m at a stage now where I can shoot something on instinct. That’s not to say that it will work every time, but that I can trust myself, and that my first instinct is often my best. I found the one long mid-wide-ish shot worked on a lot of levels, mainly tone and tension. It lacked pretension because it wasn’t trying to be anything.