Waching daily Feb 8 2018

- I was gonna have a more creative video this week. A more, just a short film.

Last week I kind of did a sit down video. It was a sit down video but I don't like

posting the same type of videos back-to-back weeks, but I had to make an exception.

[whoosh, clapper sound]

So what am I talking about here? Well, a YouTube buddy of mine Beth Blvd, an Australian filmmaker.

She recently posted a video on her channel talking about something that really resonated with me.

Go check out her channel.

She is like I said an Australian filmmaker who makes a lot of experimental short films.

A lot of the stuff that I've seen. It's some of the best experimental film that I've basically ever seen

and now I'm not saying that lightly so please go check out her channel.

Back to what she was talking about in her latest video.

It's, it was basically a summary of her December and January,

and in the middle of that video though she mentioned something that like I said struck a chord with me.

Because she makes a lot of short films by herself, compared to like...

When you think about a short film or a bigger independent film.

You have actors you have people like manning different stations, manning different gear.

When you're making the movie by yourself it almost feels like it's lesser than or inferior.

I've felt this way a lot of times myself when I'm making my own short films.

Sometimes it's just me who's the actor and who's behind the camera and it's just like,

"Is this really a short film?"

and yeah that little inner critic in you starts talking because it's like, "wait a second, okay."

Especially for me who went to film school it's like, "You went to film school to make movies by yourself?

Or did you go to film school to make movies with a cast or crew?"

Let me go back before I started YouTube. So my 2009 short film Tracers. It's a horror short film.

We had a Red camera, we had a cast and crew of maybe 15 people, we built a set we had like

top-of-the-line gear. I just looked around for a while and I was like, "Holy crap I feel like an actual director".

Compared to now where I just have my cheap tripod, my Canon DSLR which is like maybe 10 years old.

Some cheapy softbox lights, my Rode microphone right here well it's a Sennheiser. Zoom h4n recorder over here.

You may think "Well, why are you worrying about this in the first place?"

Well think about it. If I mentioned a director making a movie?

If I told you that what's the first image that comes to mind? Most likely you'll picture

a behind the scenes movie. A lot of people working on there. Big cast bigger crew

and that's the default image that comes to mind, and that's been so ingrained in us.

For folks like us who make smaller short films it really does make us think.

"Am I wasting my time here? Am I cheating?" like Beth said?

"Am I cheating by just making a movie all by myself?

I have to make myself stop and think as well because like Beth said in her video.

Short films are their own type of genre. Experimental films are their own type of genre.

Does that make them any lesser than the bigger films, the big Hollywood movies? No.

I mean smaller in scale definitely, but lesser then? I don't think so.

It all really comes down to what the audience thinks about it.

I mean I could tell people, hey I shot Tracers is with a Red camera blah blah blah you know

You're not gonna care.

Don't get me wrong. Gear will help improve things if you know what you're doing

but it's not automatically, it's not this magic pill. Just having a 4k camera isn't going to

automatically make your movie look like Star Wars. Case in point, Tracers.

Like I said, shot with a big cast and crew, set was built, a lot of expensive gear was used

but I feel like I can make better stuff on my own with my 10 year old DSLR camera and my cheaper gear,

Not because, "Oh, well the gear is making it better". No, I just have had a lot of trial and error filming on my own.

So that's why I think I can make better stuff now than what I did over ten years ago.

Oh nine, nine years ago.

Man, I can't do math today.

So that's my conclusion right there and you may think, "Wait a second. You just said

in the beginning of the video that your stuff feels inferior, but at the end of the video

you're saying like. Oh, well, no it's not." It's like "Why did you make this video in the first place?"

The reason why I made it in the first place is because I'm still kind of in that middle ground.

Sometimes I'm thinking, "Okay well this, this film is good."

Or "Crap maybe this one is inferior." it's a constant battle for me but yeah that's basically what's going on.

Now let me ask you guys this.are you a filmmaker are you a playwright, painter, designer, musician.

Anything like that? Do you kind of have this complex as well where the stuff you put out.

Do you feel like it's kind of inferior compared to like what the big guys are putting out?

Or are you happy with where you are and are just like, "Well, it just really depends on what the audience thinks."

Leave it in the comments below, let me know.

Anyway like I said go check out Beth's channel. Awesome channel

and yeah I will see you guys next week. I will talk to you guys next time. Take it easy, see you later.