– Or Why I Have Never Taken To Script Writing –
Filming something is incredibly hard. Coming up with an idea and writing it out, complete with a visual component is possibly even worse.
I am a ‘visual’ writer by default – I thrive on description, which has a tendency to affect other aspects of my writing. My character development takes several drafts to get past the ‘shoddy’ phase, and my dialogue is…well, it’s getting better. So, one would think I would be an excellent script writer. I’m great with scenes! All the scenes, give ’em here.
Except not. My scenes – at least the way I envision them – are a bit….grandiose and hard to film on a handheld sort of budget. So, when preparing to shoot a short, 2 to 4 minutes film, I ran into some trouble.
Okay, a lot of trouble. I still don’t know how to shoot some of the shots I need, and I think I am probably going to need to come up with alternatives pretty quickly so that I don’t burn out/lose film quality. My storyboards were super ambitious, so I may need to face the music and re-storyboard. I have at least four more ‘scenes’ to film on my own and then I will just have to see what I have and if it fits the mood of my script.
I am a bit overambitious, I have found, with large creative projects. Perhaps this is why I am almost never happy with my output. I simply need to ‘keep it simple’ {stupid} and relax on the ‘do all the things’ drive. But it’s so hard. I want this to be good. Really good. I’m afraid I’m going to flounder and screw something up.
Perhaps it’s time to start re-storyboarding, because the due date approches.
September 28, 2013
Why I Will Never Be a Vlogger
emigee93 digital narrative, film editing, fliming, scripts engl3844, Self 0 Comments
– Or I Am Terrible at Video Projects –
I am a very visual writer. Description is my forte. It is easy for me to site down and visualize a scene – however, it is difficult for me to think in feasible camera shoots and scenes.
This is incredibly frustrating, because when I am tasked with creating a video for a class, or simply for fun, I begin to picture a really awesome idea. For example, for the video I was producing in Scripting Woes, I had pictured a video in which the narrative synced up with an interesting walk around campus. But when I sat down to think about what I could feasibly shoot, I realized that I was going to have to go much simpler.
I don’t have the editing capacity, or the camera skills, or a mind for cutting a film together.
When I have to downsize an idea, usually the first iteration or so of that project is not…great. At least in my eyes. But there is a difference in movie making – you don’t really get drafts. Sure, we had to turn in a rough cut a week before the final was due, but, at that point, you basically have the idea down and people simply suggest what shots you need to film or music you need to get. We didn’t have time to redo the entire thing.
I get overambitious and end up with something that I feel is subpar compared to the ideas floating around in my head, because I don’t get my safety net of ‘first drafts can suck,’ and I lack the skills to a) write a decent script and b) film anything more complex than simple establishing shots/action shots. And I have to spread this video around – this subpar, simplistic, not all that great video. I know my inner critic is worse than reality, but I have to side with it in this case. I am terrified of other people seeing this – not because of the subject matter, which is pretty personal, but because I am worried about the quality as compared to everyone else’s video projects.
Clearly, a job as a story editor is not in my future.