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It's just a moviE

This may sound like common sense or an easy thing for most people to accept BUT since I got into making films from an artist's point of view and I invest large chunks of my life into each project it took me a long time to get it 0_o

IT'S JUST A MOVIE

As I was writing the script for the next film I kept this in mind and it made it SOOOO much easier... there's no pressure to create like holy scripture...artistic expression...blah blah blah...  at the end of the day... it's a bunch of scenes that should work together to develop the characters, tell the story, create the drama... get in and get out...

BUT these characters are based on X?!?!... and the story is based on real experiences of Y?! And it's all influenced by Z?!?! NOBODY FUCKING CARES!

IT'S JUST A MOVIE

All the stuff that's behind the film doesn't matter... all that matter is what it on the screen...or when it comes to the script.. all that matters is what is on the page...

IT'S JUST A MOVIE

So make it work as a good movie... then worry about all the esoteric stuff afterwards. You can blab about that at the Q & A's so make sure it works ALONE, ON THE SCREEN first.

WORDS



Comments

  1. I'm sorry M, but i have to disagree with you on this one. For most people movies are just movies, cartoons are just cartoons, torture porn is just torture porn, genocides, homeless people, suicides, murders, raping, indoctrination is just that, it doesn't change anything, we have our little comfy life, but it does matter! most people is jaded by mass media, you said it once. Dragonball, matrix, berserk, , power rangers, TMNT, these are just cartoons, but they taught me that you can't just give up when things go wrong, you have to fight!, they're not just cartoons for me, their my childhood, my foundation, what i learned from those leads my life now. People need something more than "just films", just good enough stuff, more than just good enough "effort" from authorities, government, i got hooked to your work, because i believe that it's more than just films, i kind of get where're you're going with this. For most people, what you do is just movies, for people like me, it's a glimmer of hope, an awakening, so put your all on your movies because that's what we wanna see, that's what i wanna see...

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  2. you had me at torture porn....

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  3. @Erikku

    I agree... what I was saying in this post .... in my approach to working on them my mindset had changed... in the end I know I am making something much more than a "movie" but I've found that if you keep that in your mind while working on it... its a ton of unnecessary pressure... and it doesn't help you craft a good movie in the end...

    Intention is one thing... and my intention hasn't changed... but approach and execution are something else... and I've changed those things...

    I think the reason many times people are CRUSHED by their "dream" or "passion" projects is that they put too much weight on them... and it prevents people from finishing... I felt that weight for a long time and it didn't help the project in the end....

    At the end of the day I'm writing scenes, storyboarding shots, animating shots, rendering shots... editing shots to make a movie.... Now my intention can be that I'm making some holy art BUT that will only make it much slower and difficult work, with tons of unnecessary pressure and energy... I did WATS with that frame of mind and I did HSM with this new frame of mind...

    When it comes to grinding through big projects your like a factory... parts of it are not "creative" , artistic, or whatever...its just work... and some times you need to view it as just work... just work that you need to complete.

    Its kind of sobering though when you know if someone flips through your movie in Netflix or something... its just a movie... so regardless of intention or not it better be a good movie first.

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  4. @M dot

    it happens sometimes that i don't get the messages of others at first, so there's no prob xD. But yea i get you now, you also said that emotion sometimes interfere with your work at times, maybe it's part of watching you evolve, and maybe it's part of my own transformation. I'm being "amateurish" in this manner maybe, and it's something i have to work on also, and this is true, we have the intention, and we want to make an impact in the world er somethin, but sometimes maybe we fly too high and forget that to make those changes we need to do something on earth first :P. It's something i'll get through anyway ;). No offense just to let everything clear, it was one of my emotional rushes perhaps, i get sensitive when someone speaks about art in an unpleasant way xD, but i'll take your new approach in consideration, it's part of growing, it's part of changing :)

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  5. @Erikku

    I'm still learning too just like everybody else and this approach has helped me a lot ^ ^

    We can still love, treasure, and cherish our work and put our hearts and souls into it and try to do whatever we're trying to do with it... but yeh I've just come to the realization that its still a MOVIE so when I get to working on it I need to treat it like just a movie.

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  6. Now i think it's my fault that some of the info on your books has been spoiled isn't it xD? damn i feel bad now, i leaked super secret information lol

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  7. ..as looking tet a tet art is very intimate and can come through sacred moments

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  8. @mdot yo. not to just topic , but you should totally contact netflix lol .. they are DYING for any content they can get their hands on these days...

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  9. I think you give so much of yourself to these BIG MASSIVE projects and it takes all your energy and life source.. leaving you drained, demotivted and questioning yourself (which you should not be doing)!

    I think that you should try making shorter films.. For animated movies, even a 30 minute movie is considered amazing. Why not create shorer films, but still with good storylines that audiences will enjoy? You will be done quicker and feel less mentally and physically "fucked"

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  10. Back to the subject of making shorter films.. I know it's been your dream to make full length feature films, but you know on IMDB, when you go to submit a film.. if it's over 45 minutes long, it's not considered a short film any more, but a FEATURE FILM - that's as official as you can get. So just make your movie 45 minutes and 1 second long! lol

    Also, I remember 'Blood: The Last Vampire' being out on DVD and everybody making a huge deal about how amazing it was and that movie was 48 minutes long (and was awesome) for REALZ!

    We have all heard and even seen those short 5 minute animated movies that get all the great reviews and awards. So there really should be no shame in you making shorter movies. They can be just as good, if not better, you can spend more time and less stress making the quality better and tweaking etc. You'd be able to pump out 1-2 films per year without the added pressure of trying to make a 2 hour epic!

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  11. @Amer

    That's a great idea! I really should do that! Thanks for the advice! I can make short stuff on my own... then if I get a real budget I'll make features ^ ^

    Yeh it really is more fun kicking out short things... I've got ideas for a few short series... so I could jump around and make episodes for a few series and see which ones takes off.

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  12. You wouldn't be selling out if you were to create a short 5 minute episodes in the look of HSM, which looks amazing. Release new epsiodes weekly and then do one long (45 minute) movie per year.

    Plus, in animation land 5-10 minutes is a LOOONG time. You can get a whole lot of storytelling done in that time.

    You must also consider, in these internet times. Most people (including myself) have short attention spans.. we love watching short crazy, funny, amazing clips that are like 2 minutes long, we then share them with friends and then get on with our day. Shorts are perfect for this.. you don't ask much of your audience. I's a strange phenomenon.. If I sit in front of my 52 inch TV screen, I want to be entertained for a long time and can watch a 3 hour epic movie without a problem, but as soon as I'm in front of the computer, I can't give any video more than a few minutes or I get bored and start skipping forward. This, I'm told is common and happens to a lot of people.. something to consider when targeting content for internet audiences.

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  13. @Amer

    Yeh I've been thinking about those exact things lately and asking people about how they watch stuff online and the consensus is with me included that when watching online we want short things... So I was like to get my stuff out there I need to put out a bunch of shorts... so I'm kinda slow ^ ^ but I'm figuring this stuff out haha

    So yeh I should have have separate projects for online release and stuff that will go out through distributors... shorts for online release and longer form to go through distribution channels... and I can use the shorts as tests for features... seems like the smart thing to do!

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