I'm Black And I'm Proud - Part 5 - Director's Notes

First things first - In no way am I content with the final product, I am happy with it, but it does not satisfy me. I have no delusions about it. I know exactly what I set out to do and I was not able to accomplish that. Knowing that has already helped me become a better filmmaker. It's also part of the purpose for writing all of this.

The one thing that makes me very happy about this production is that it is complete. I am happy that I saw this project through to completion, which is so rare and hard to do in the independent side of this industry. I have a sense of closure, which is nice.

I am really pleased with a lot of my camera work. I was able to pull off some nifty camera movements. In particular I liked using the Dutch Angle in the tunnel as Sweet Daddy walks down the stairs, then straightening out and turning with him passing the camera as he bumps into Donnie and Jared. I'm happy with the edit that went with that as well. I was also pleased with the camera pan at the bar when Sweet Daddy is chatting up Rockwell and is bumped by the big guy. Panning from Rockwell in the right of the frame as Sweet Daddy turns, putting him in the right, and revealing the big guy in the left, then panning back as Sweet Daddy turns back to Rockwell, revealing she has gone.

Speaking of Sweet Daddy and Rockwell - exceptional. They had lines that they rehearsed and learned. I worked with them on listening to each other. Then, because of my sound issues, I told them to forget the lines and act without them. They looked at each other, their body language communicated, they said a lot without words. I was so incredibly pleased with their work. I wish the film could do them more justice, I wish I could have shot more of them. All of the actors were wonderful. They really stepped up.

Thinking of all the setbacks I encountered I asked myself a million times over, "what have I learned from all of this?" I learned that I need to schedule more time for every shot and a lot more travel and set-up time. A one day shoot is not a lot of time, especially for 15 pages. More time means being better prepared for setbacks. Testing equipment before hand and making sure you are happy with how it works is very important. I can't imagine how different the production would have been if we had the sound equipment an extra day and were able to run tests and hear how it recorded. I learned a lot about directing. Roger Cardinal had told us that you will get thousands of questions from the cast and crew and you have to answer each one or they will lose faith in the production. He was so right, but it took me being in that situation to realize it. You have a lot of hats to wear as a director on a small film like this, you are the head of each department and have to weigh out everything and make every decision. You have to delegate to others and have faith in their decisions. In the face of everything going to shit, you've got to put up the front, smile and see everyone through the mess. I learned that you can't always depend on people, especially if they are not getting paid. If they are not intimately involved in the project the only way to keep them focused is to pay them. In general everyone works better if they are paid (but don't let me get into my thoughts about technician unions) and well fed. Feeding is easier, keep everyone well fed, but paying them is ideal. The problem is, it's damn expensive if everyone gets paid and where does the money come from. Money, now that's the real issue. If I had a proper budget it would not have to have been a one day shoot; I could have rented better equipment and more of it; all the actors and crew could have got paid for their time; locations could have been more easily secured; I could have had more crew and thus delegated a lot of tasks to them; and I could have edited the piece a few years earlier! Who will fund such a thing? Money is no where to be found. Money came from me and I didn't have a lot to put toward it. In the future I will have to find funding. Guinness and I are talking about a short film we plan on co-directing in two different cities, him in Vancouver and me in Montreal, and that is the first issue he brought up. He's bloody well right. Without it we can dream about how it will look and how easy it will be and how wonderful life is, but fuck all will ever happen without a proper budget. I am sure there is a lot more I can write on the subject, but I will leave that to future posts.