Good News – Everyone’s An Expert Filmmaker! We Can All Breathe Easier!

That’s right! Everyone knows how to write a script, the format, understands the concept of narrative, importance of pacing, non-cliché storytelling, how to recruit cast, crew actors, equipment and how to book it, insure it, check it, transport and set it up as well as use it, correct any technical faults along the way and most recently I just found out that they know perfectly how to edit it after a client who’d already told me how quick I was on Adobe on editing one of their film trailers together THEN told me I had taken HOURS to:

• Insert an extra header
• Reposition some text
• Recalibrate music timing to leave enough time to read it
• All over 5 sequences

EAAAASY – No problem! EVEN when don’t know that until your client arrives almost an hour and a half late and seems more interested in selling his bike outside and doesn’t stop singing and whistling every 2 minutes. What does matter is that it’s a model of Final Cut Pro version 5 or 6 with a full RAM with hardly any room to render, NO files left in any discernible order so you have to rebuild most of these changes rather than just make a simple change that would update itself straight into the timeline. More importantly ‘EVERY’ piece of work you do on such an old version does NOT render in real time! For those of you unfamiliar with editing.

Try comparing the days of broadband to those of the dial-up modem! EVERY tiny inch you drag a single letter of text does not require rendering nowadays, usually these are aided by a tool within Adobe referred to as the Mercury Playback Engine.. Whatever… In the version of Final Cut Pro I’d been given to work with, for every 30 seconds of work, required around 2 minutes of rendering each time! It VERY quickly adds up. Furthermore, this computer had been JAM-PACKED and the constant warning of no ram being available 9YES, THIS AFFECTS RENDERING – NUMBNUTS!) Any editor will tell you their favourite out of the two they are fluent in will tell you Adobe – Why? Because we were sick of FCP’s speed. Of course since version 10 / X, this isn’t too much of a problem anymore but this version took hours to get the work done but at the end to have YOUR work ethic challenged and slagged off, who is getting freelancers to come and do his editing for him and claims to have been doing this for over 20 years –
How the HELL can you blame this on your editor?

Definitely one of the best freelance stories I’ve come across for a while. Just amazing how everyone thinks they’re an expert. What’s brilliant is that I’m sure it won’t be the last and it’s not even the worst story I’ve come across. Then again, here’s an interesting sketch of how bad its getting for freelancers in film. Of course, its been adapted to the profession of plumbing just to illustrate how fucked up our industry has become.

Recently, whilst I made a new friend; Louisa Trigg earlier this month from Darkside Studios at Film Expo South. Only got to one talk this time around annoyingly but I got to learn a bit more about the visual effects industry. Almost EVERY job hunt and film I come across wants these things thrown in and even indie’s are willing to pay out that little extra to get them. I went along to their talk and got hearing from far younger freelancers who were getting snapped up from as early as their work in the BFX festival by local post-production groups and sent all over the world working on compositing, modelling, textures… All sorts.
My brain started thinking; “These guys have been handed films that their clients MUST have their work to get from one part of the story to another. The older generation don’t really do computers… These guys are usually far younger and aren’t neglected by a set of rules and traditional bullshit that stop them from making a living. Lets go find out more.” What I learned is stuff I should have thought about earlier as I’ve come across it many times. Even corporate firms want people who can apply vfx to their adverts and events. All the shit you see on television with the incredibly painful stories, most likely written by the egotistical dickheads you see partake in ‘The Apprentice’ require something to morph into a fireball, create some animated graphic to illustrate some science bollocks on that smug cow’s face from the Oral B advert. This seems to be a sustained area of the industry. Why?

Take a look at gaming just as one example. All you need is an actor’s voice – THE REST – All animation and digital effects. Sure there may be green screen and motion capture but does that matter to filmmakers – YEP of course but certain coordinators from my postgraduate degree didn’t seem to think so. Despite it being called “Cinematography for Film & TV” not only did they not teach a single bit of TV but there was no motion capture or green screen either but guess what? They teach it in MA Digital Effects at National Film & Television School. We could waste time slapping our foreheads and asking why but it all comes back to higher education tossers more concerned with PhD’s & their salaries to give a toss for their students – their customers. This shit really needs to change – NOW! Not only are they missing the boat as it is by not mixing filmmakers with their PR & Marketing courses but also NEITHER one to be working more closely with animators and digital effects artists… No wonder some of us are finding it nearly impossible to get in and / or sustain ourselves as freelancers.

Like I said everyone out there is an expert – Another quick freelancer story to prove it? I was commissioned by a group last year who wanted me to help produce, shoot, record sound, edit, grade a film for them within a week. Yep… you read that correctly. Then they also expected I was going to create a magical book with all sorts of pages that would flicker when it opened with graphics and animations fly out of it and oooh… The best part… Only pay me £200, which wouldn’t even have included my car costs. Of course fellow filmmakers, you’ll already have guessed what they’d called this role, don’t you? Wink-wink* - Yep you guessed it – VIDEOGRAPHER!

I think I needed a new project so badly I ended up saying ‘yes’ to a new indie project and rolling on with one of my own just to take a break from the insanity. Believe it or not I’ve even started looking into VFX courses but to even get 6 months tuition back at my old establishment; Met Film School, they’re charging £10,000 for a mere 6 months. I’m telling you, the number of holes you can walk into in this game are ridiculous.

Been feeling so bogged down with the lack of career fulfilment lately I even decided to say ‘yes’ to the request of another struggling Bournemouth University student asking me as their cinematographer for their graduation film. At least its something productive and adds something new to my showreel. I’ve not been given much help in my career but at least I know with all the people I’ve helped over the years, no-one will ever be able to call me a hypocrite.