Nicholas Jenkins

LOL! :lol:

Sometimes you wonder how smart you really are... well, I do anyway. I set out with the best intentions. I wanted to make something GLORIOUS for my thesis. I approach every film I make with the attitude that I may never make another film ever again. Thus I can put all of my creativity toward whatever project I'm working on. With that in mind, I decided to write a 20 page Western. Complete with horses, guns, blood and masks (that's probably pretty weird but it makes sense in the script... I hope). Yay for me... I made something that could be considered... "expensive"... maybe even "unreasonable". But, hey... who ever got anywhere by being reasonable... don't answer that, my fragile little psyche can barely handle the stress of this thing right now. Anyway, all kidding aside, I'm very happy with the script. I just sat down and watched the tremendously good "The Proposition" which has a very similar feel to what I'm trying to accomplish. It's help me shape a couple of scenes that I was having trouble with from the get go. Some of you have seen that I've already posted for a DP position. Low pay I'm sure, but fun work and should be something marvelous to have on a reel. We'll be shooting on 2 DVX100B cameras. I've had a ton of luck with them and, even though I was offered the chance to shoot on the XL2, I just haven't been as impressed with their pulldown. In the end, it's all about drama and story anyway so it wouldn't matter if we were shooting on a PD150... well it would... I lied. So as this moves forward, I'll try to keep y'all updated. It could be something really good. Could all fall apart in my lap. If that happens I'll just keep quiet for a little while and hand it off to my trusty editor... who just so happens to be me... so I guess that doesn't help much. Sincerely, Your Lonely Director; Nick J.

Wow. I've gotten a whole lot more responses than I thought I would. So let me post this small message. Right now, I'm still budgeting and securing locations (thus figuring out scheduling). By all means, if you are interested, please continue to post :) I'm working on things just as quickly as I can and all of your responses have really given me my second wind. Thanks so much and I'll keep you posted :) Sincerely, Nick

That's what a few people have told me. Unfortunately, most of his short stories that I really like have already been done, but when I'm done next year with my Thesis, I think I'll be looking for a King short story to make a short film. :)

Do you have an online Reel?

I have a large goal in my life of adapting Stephen King's "The Gunslinger". I think there's much of that book (and series) that would need to be tweaked to be a film or mini-series, but I think there is something incredibly cinematic. I'm doing a Western as my Thesis film that (if it works) I'd like to take to King as a way of saying "look what my vision of the western is." We'll see. :rolleyes:

Well, lets see where my tiny budget ends up and I'll think about it.

I disagree. Though that may be fine for some, it doesn't work for all. Especially if film is your passion, are you supposed to deprive yourself of your passion? And there is more to "directing" than life experience. I'd say life experience is always important but you'll get that as you live life... kind of an occupational hazard. Many of the students I've seen over the years that follow this course of logic end up not understanding how a film really works. How story works in film. And, most depressingly, what DOESN'T work in film. They are so concerned with their own personal voices and experiences that they have neglected the building blocks of filmmaking and don't understand why no one likes their work. There are, of course, exceptions to the rules. Lynch on some levels didn't study "film" until later in life, but he has an innate and powerful sense of drama. Tarantino didn't go to school, but studied the living hell out of films and filmmaking. I think maybe I'm off on a rant here, but I just find your logic a little flawed and wanted my own counter to it on this thread. Cheers.

Sounds great. Wish I could see it. As usual, I'll wait for DVD. ;)

Hello all, Still in pre-production, I'm looking for a DP in the Missoula, MT neck of the woods who might be up for the daunting task of shooting a 20 page Western. I imagine it might be kinda lonely up here but I thought I'd throw it out there :) PM me or reply in here if you're interested. Thanks, Nick

Remember to remind him to LISTEN to the other actors. That acting is REacting. He shouldn't be simply waiting to say his lines, rather he should be listening to what another actor just said, thinking about what that line meant, then responding with his own line and remember what that line means to him. It's a tough trick sometimes. What I do, usually, is take the actor aside and tell them to just "talk to me. Don't act the lines, just say them." It may still sound a bit stiff, but I've had marvelous success with that angle. Of course, every actor is different. Sometimes over-rehearsing can KILL a performance... dead.

Ok, this might belong in Off Topic, but I found it to be related to Directing. Today members of the undergraduate classes in my program were roaming the halls shooting video for the program's website (which is under construction). That's cool. But I'm walking out of my screenwriting class, letting a student know about deadlines and project requirements, and the chair of my department runs up to me. CHAIR I need you to be on camera. ME Kay... for? CHAIR Just come over here. ME OK I walk over to a setup of two cameras. One camera is set up like it's shooting a scene, complete with an actress standing in the middle of the computer lab. Behind that camera is the other one... filming the whole thing. CHAIR Go in there and pretend to direct her. ME Pretend? Direct her to what? CHAIR It's her big moment. ME Kay... what moment? The hell I'm I doing here? CHAIR Just do whatever. So I put on my best director face and talked to my lovely and patient actress. I spewed a bunch of stuff about "This scene isn't about discovery, rather a revelation." and "Relax and just talk to me." I also made allot of really important looking hand gestures. Tapped the ends of my fingers together like an evil genius... Did that for about two minutes then... CHAIR CUT! Great, thanks. ME Kay... So I had to pretend to direct someone for a scene I had no clue about... FUN! Just thought I'd share... I found it amusing. :huh:

I love the moment. The film has taken us on such an emotional ride by that point, that it almost feels like a much needed release. Like many films, I don't care if it makes "LOGICAL" sense, as long as it makes "EMOTIONAL" sense.

Get better soon. Only surgery I've ever had was my wisdom teeth (all 4 at once... that was stupid). It knocked me on my ass for a good week. Take some time to watch some quality TV or Movies. I recommend the rental of Battlestar Galactica. Some REALLY good cinematography in there. :)

I'm not sure as it depends on your monitor. But when I'm on location, I usually just use rubber bands or lens tape to give me either 16:9 or 2.35:1 guides. It's not cropping, but it's good enough, then I just crop it in post.

Are you talking about POST production cropping? Or do you just need to "SEE" 16:9 on your monitor. Cropping the image in post is fairly simple. Final Cut has a filter that works well for it, as I'm sure most other editing suits do.

I think one of the real questions is did they have the same cinematographers?

But not the girls... let the girls find their own thing. :P

I've found the opposite happens. First and foremost, I find that when given the ability to "go find yourself" most students flail wildly and can't even commit to a single project because they have no restrictions. But I've found the most of my students are capable of finding their creative voice when presented with the problems of story telling. Without that, it's just experimental film, which is fine, but it's a different medium. Now, I'm not saying that students don't get their hands on camera... they do, quickly. They are given that ability to go out and shoot something, then come in and talk about problems they had. Then we get into discussions about film history and techniques. Why these things work and those things don't, why these angles work and those angles don't, and the multitude of ways scenes can be shot (i.e. there's not one right way to shoot a scene, but there are a few wrong ways). The same is true of almost any artistic venture in that it is first important to LEARN the rules before one goes off half cocked trying to break them. I also feel that this method works very well FOR ME and the students that I've had. Every instructor must find their own best way to communicate any type of artistic field to their students. Some might have more success with letting them go hog wild right off the start. That just doesn't work for me. Also, each institution has its own ideas about how things should be taught and one much accommodate for that.

I don't disagree, but a problem arises with young filmmakers who think that, with phrases like that, it excuses them from having to remain true to the story. I see it in my students all the time and it's something I try to catch and call attention to. Yes, that's a nice shot, the lighting is good, and the framing is nice. But, how does this shot work in the larger frame of the film? And will you even use it? I'm usually answered with "but I really like it". Well, okay, but that was 30 minutes of on set time dedicated to a shot that doesn't fit into the film. So I try to focus them on story story story. THEN we get into the aesthetics of each shot and how each shot should have its own visceral pleasure.

Very well put. I had a similar experience when I left the world of graphic design to go to film school. Ain't the world a funny place? :) I guess my previous point was that a good place to start learning about filmmaking, is where it all started, and how the pioneers of that age had to figure out story telling for audiences. Then move forward in the time line and watch how it's all evolved. It's not that the older filmmakers were "better", it's just that they had to dive into the medium and learn things that all beginning artists in this medium face.

Exactly correct. Who do you think will work best WITH you. If their reels look great, then don't stress over it. You have some meetings and figure out which one you'll have the best working relationship with. Problems can sometimes arise when you have someone with a FANTASTIC reel that is a real a-hole in person. Then you get conflicted and the decisions become more difficult. But it sounds like you have a good pool of people from which to choose. :)

I don't think it's ever a good idea to discount "popular success". I think that goes along with some of the initial ideas of screenwriting that I always ask myself. "Would ANYONE want to watch this?" I think there are points that all filmmakers have something to add to film history (especially Steven Spielberg... I mean cripes). But the reason so many scholars look at people like Renoir, Lang, and Eisenstein, (though there are many who could be added to this list... like Keaton) is because they helped to invent the wheel. It's much easier to talk about filmmaking and the art of story telling through filmmaking if you start with the people that went through so much trouble to figure it out the first time. Once you figure one thing out, you move on to the next. Filmmaking is a relatively new art form, but it has advanced extraordinarily fast. These filmmakers from the turn of the century answered questions that need to be taught to the beginning filmmaker (and revisited by the pros again and again). Sure, you can look at what Spielberg/Coppola/Scorcesse does and be able to put together ideas about film. But, if you start at the beginning, you can get simple (well, not THAT simple) answers and some very basic instruction on visual story telling. And I'm just not sure if I'll include Lucas on this list of current "artists"... I think I'm just too bitter these days. :D

First and foremost... REELS REELS REELS!!!! Look at their reels and see what they're capable of. If you're shooting on film, make sure they know how to shoot on film, etc... But by and large. Make sure it's someone you can work creatively with. The worst situation you can get into is to find a DP who can great compelling images, but has no regard for your own creative senses. There should be a meeting of the minds to agree on look, feel, tempo, etc... and even though you can (and should) have healthy disagreements from time to time, there should still be a general, and professional, agreement about how the picture will look. Since I've spent most of my time being a DP for projects, when I'm directing, I tend to look for people that have been AC's for me that know how I work and already have a functioning work routine with me. If I were going out into the great unknown and just trying to find the best DP for the job, I would look at reels first. Then have meetings with my top three to discuss previous projects and to discuss what I want done, visually, with the current project. I tend to think that lots of questions is a good thing. And not just technical ones. Everything boils down to story. A good DP will typically talk about characters and story arc so they can get a good idea of what kind of story they're trying to tell and how best to visually represent that story on screen. That isn't to say you shouldn't talk shop and your DP shouldn't know what kind of lens/camera/dolly he's got available/experience with. By all means, talk about cameras and how different lenses will help along the story in crucial scenes. I just tend to get a little wary of people that come in and start telling me all about all of the different tech specs for every single piece of equipment they own... it feels like their head is in the wrong place. And those conversations can happen during production meetings as well. Overall, make sure that your DP is capable of making the film you want to make (i.e. look at his/her reels) and make sure they are capable of talking about cinematography in terms of story. whew... there's my two cents :D

I don't really think one of these directors is better than the other... they're all incredibly good, but different. The Oscar is a nice way to help unite the community and celebrate good films from the year, but of course whatever the "academy" deems as good. It's fun and entertaining. It's only people and people's opinions about things that can't really be judged categorically at that level. I guess I enjoy some of it because I know how much these folk (and most any filmmaker) want one of the little buggers. It just feels good to have someone say "Good Job".