When I want to try something new, it always requires a willingness to throw myself into an undefined, and often uncomfortable, situation. Recently I put myself in the discomfited position of heading onto the Spit movie set. Knowing that never having been on a set before, my only guarantee was that at times I would feel out of place.
After sucking up the fact that waking up early on a Saturday was inevitable, I showed up at o’dark hundred and was ready to leave on the excuse that maybe I wasn’t needed. I back-handed my cowardliness and instead made myself ask around until I found someone who needed help. Arranging cards in a basket may not seem overwhelmingly important to some people, but for a moment I had a function and feeling purposeful is an indispensable need in any situation.
Outside of spending time hanging around or looking for a task, I had the chance to watch a bit of the actual filming. Because of the call for for quietness, I didn’t breathe for the first 30 minutes I was upstairs. During these moments of breathlessness I was surprised to see how many small shots go into creating a larger picture. Of course I’d always realized a scene required multiple shots, but in the case of a student film other factors, such as the use of a singular camera, push this circumstance to a more extreme limit.
Probably the second most “revealing” thing about the filming process was the difficulty of keeping everyone on the same page, not because people are preoccupied, but rather everyone is focused on fulfilling their task so thoroughly that sometimes they are sidetracked from the restriction of time and the director’s need to, well, direct.
Thirdly, it was the challenges with directing that were also noticeable. Even with several English speaking American’s from Utah, the same words can have different meaning, so to communicate the goal and feeling of a shot often required more than just a few words. Otherwise “look on with interest” might manifest itself as “bedroom eyes.”
While my experience is only a small snapshot of what a newcomer feels, and perhaps thought inaccurate by the very people reading this, it simply solidified to me that to move forward and learn there is always something uncomfortable we'll have to experience and in the end, no matter if our experience is positive or not, continuing to step outside one’s comfort zone is the only way for progress.
