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Filmmaker's Sketchbook

M

mmrempen

Member
So, I was thinking about the nature of art, and realized that in every other medium - photography, painting, graphic design, poetry, prose, music composition, etc - the artist has a way of always keeping up practice. Professional photographers take hundreds of photos for every one they choose to exhibit. Painters and other visual artists keep sketchbooks to practice and brainstorm ideas. Writers keep books and books of ideas, and often do short excercises to keep their brain going. Music people can strum away on guitars all day, practicing, or fill pages with notes and music.

But what about filmmakers? Really, we have to throw all our practice into our next film, throwing money and time with it, hedging our bets that it will provide both practice in as many areas as possible and a good film in the end.

So I decided it would be a neat idea to start a filmmaker's "sketchbook" for myself. I type up a page or so of 1-minute situations or ideas, all doable on my own or with one other person, and I grab a camera. I've already made a few, and it keeps me interested between projects, as well as encourages the flow of ideas.

How do you keep up practice? Want to throw ideas out there? Maybe we can compile a copyright-free page or so of sketchbook scenarios together.
 
I'm sure a lot of students on here (myself included) make short films with friends between big projects but don't consider it "practice" or a "sketchbook." It's just fun to do.
 
I make commercials for cable broadcast; hell, I'm going to have to make them anyway for work, so I might as well use them as an opportunity to practice my writing/editing/cinematography skills. Kill two birds with one stone. I do like the idea of the one minute shorts, though.
 
My two film compatriots and I used to do an exercise in which we wrote down words, phrases, or themes on a sheet of paper and then select two or three randomly and make an easy short based on the combined ideas.

A list would usually be intentionally diverse, thus stretching our cognitive processes. A list might include the following items: Pizza Delivery, Nightmare, Bigfoot, Boxing Legend, Unlikely Hero, Likely Hero, Post-Apocalyptic Internet Romance, Underwater Adventure, Hobo, What's That Thing Growing on My Body?, Blue, Exhaustion, Mistaken Identity, Deinstitutionalization of Marriage, Stinky Feet, Experimentation with Hallucinogens, Empty Pantry, How Did I Get So Fat?, Accidental Slaughter of Neighbor's Pet, The Moon, Lampreys.

That's just one example. We actually only completed production of one of these exercises, but we wrote many more and filmed pieces of some. The one finished product we had was about a guy who finds a traffic cone in his driveway. It was mediocre for our skill level at the time but a good exercise, nonetheless.
 
Interesting topic.

My "sketchbook" consists of writing and photography, because to me those two elements (visual style and storytelling) are the most crucial in order to keep the creative juices flowing. If I'm not making a film, I'm doing one or both of those things. Always.
 
Right now I'm in NYU's famous class, Sight and Sound Film... the one Marty claims changed his life...

We work in groups of four, each shooting five films total. So, basically we're making 2 films a week, and each directing one every other week. Does that count?
 

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