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Nervous before shooting?


Adam Orton

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To apply to film: do more read-throughs. More rehearsals. Storyboards, blocking diagrams, shot by shot breakdowns. Get as familiar as possible with what you intend to do before you walk onto the set. Having your actors just as familiar and working out their issues before film day seems pretty valuable to me.

 

Very good advice. Combine this with Whiskey and you'll be unstoppable! :-) Hope the show went well.

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Bill Russell was always incredibly nervous before each game, frequently throwing up as well. But his teammates knew that the more nervous he was, he better he played. Hence the 11 championships he won in 13 years.

 

People who never question themselves and think they are the greatest thing since sliced bread do not get very far in any field.

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Guest Glen Alexander
People who never question themselves and think they are the greatest thing since sliced bread do not get very far in any field.

 

PPpppffffffft,

 

Vincent Van Gogh, never had any doubts about being an artist, knew in his bones. IMHO creator of modern art. "It is the canvas that fears the artist, not the artist the canvas."

 

Rembrandt van Rijn, magician, never doubted his talents even when his masterpieces fell out of social "fashion", he continued on, broke, poor, unstoppable, uncontainable, Claudius Civilis.

 

Pablo Picasso, no doubts, cocky, self-indulgent, is cubism too difficult for you, "well tough", then there is GUERNICA ... considered Francisco Franco a "turd"

 

etc, etc.,

Edited by Glen Alexander
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Guest Glen Alexander
You forgot the most brilliant of them all: Glen Alexander. Never met a VV shot he could not load, slate, operate, grip & focus-pull all by himself. ;)

 

ha ha, goddamn right, you get to Death Valley at 122F, there is no "fix it in post", there is no Craft service truck pulling up, there is no 5-ton camera/grip truck for parts, you do what it takes to get the shots.

 

When you hike 300lbs of gear quarter of a mile to the Eureka Dunes in Death Valley, put water stops every 200meters to keep from dehydrating, all for a shot that can only be filmed one morning a month around the full moon, let me know.

 

Yes, hike, the land and plants and endangered so all gear was hiked in by two people, myself and set designer/sound.

 

Last one Mark Rothko, "Pictures must be miraculous." and "The fact that people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions.. the people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when painting them."

 

When you get to a level and understand Rothko, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Picasso, the road is long, tumultious, and at times very diffcult but there are no doubts. I have the same goal as they did, to connect people with what it means to be human.

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Glen,

 

When I PM'd you and asked if you were serious when bragging about yourself, you told me you were completely serious as you had no time for bullshit, but all you do is waste time on this forum with bullshit.

 

It's one thing to be confident on set. To pontificate on a silly forum about how great you are does nothing but crowd the topics.

 

Let the film talk.

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Guest Glen Alexander
Glen,

 

When I PM'd you and asked if you were serious when bragging about yourself, you told me you were completely serious as you had no time for bullshit, but all you do is waste time on this forum with bullshit.

 

It's one thing to be confident on set. To pontificate on a silly forum about how great you are does nothing but crowd the topics.

 

Let the film talk.

 

 

I have said nothing about myself, on the film and some of its methods,

motivations, techniques, style, composition, etc.

 

If you feel your time is wasted, than is YOUR time wasted. Don't push your

insecurities onto everyone else, deal with them.

 

If there wasn't a long holiday, I wouldn't even be posting, but the soundtrack is

95% done and nothing is open so I have some free time.

 

We are doing a pre-screening at Paramount on Monday to check the print, if there

are no major edits and only timing corrections then the premiere/gathering/party

will be late next week, this is only for 'family', people who have worked closely on or

with the film and people who have had a close association with the Paramount

Camera Dept. There will only be a few showings in the original VV format before the

4-perf reduction. The 4-perf print will be an oversampled so it will be

much sharper than any flavor of anamorphic film or digital.

 

Can you say the same for anything you have done or will do?

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When you get to a level and understand Rothko, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Picasso, the road is long, tumultious, and at times very diffcult but there are no doubts. I have the same goal as they did, to connect people with what it means to be human.

 

You know, like many I'm familiar with all of these artists. Their work is hung in galleries all over the world and taught about in our Art Schools.

 

I've never heard of you.

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Bill Russell was always incredibly nervous before each game, frequently throwing up as well. But his teammates knew that the more nervous he was, he better he played. Hence the 11 championships he won in 13 years.

 

People who never question themselves and think they are the greatest thing since sliced bread do not get very far in any field.

 

No, Max. The moral of the story is... Only those who fight in the face of fear are the ones who can become great people.

 

Bill Russell once said, "Durability is part of what makes a great athlete." In other words, he fought in the face of fear. I don't think Bill needed to question himself just because he threw up frequently. In fact, I'll bet he knew that he played amazingly when he was most afraid. Why do you suppose he'd say something like this in the first place?

 

I think there is only one word to describe Bill Russell... Pro-active. Those that have a can-do attitude no matter what. Those that believe they can do it even when staring right into the face of fear, and I don't think Bill is the only guy who was pro-active. Walt Disney was pretty pro-active (What do you expect from somebody with a lot of dreams?). Abraham Lincoln was pro-active (and he went through even more than Bill did). John F. Kennedy was pro-active, in fact, he even asked others to be pro-active (Ask what you can do for your country, anyone?).

 

Personally, I think those who can say to themselves "I can do it" are the ones who can go very far in any field.

Edited by Benson Marks
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No, Max. The moral of the story is... Only those who fight in the face of fear are the ones who can become great people.

Being nervous and carrying on a job IS fighting in the face of fear.

 

Those who are fully confident sometimes get slack. And confidence can often be misguided.

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Being nervous and carrying on a job IS fighting in the face of fear.

 

Those who are fully confident sometimes get slack. And confidence can often be misguided.

 

You may be right on that. Being too confident could certainly make some people a little lazy themselves and it could be said that confidence can be misguided. However, it doesn't mean that it won't get you anywhere, and that's where I have to disagree.

 

Take Vince Lombardi, for example. One of the things Vince was legendary for was his coaching philosophy and motivational skills. He wanted his players to be confident that they could win come game day. Vince is now considered as one of the greatest coaches of all time. He led the Green Bay Packers to win the very first Super Bowl, and has now become synonymous with the NFL (The number of honors for Lombardi are countless).

 

My point here is this. Sure, you can become overconfident, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be confident at all. Sometimes, the best you can do is just believe you can do it and hope for the best.

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You may be right on that. Being too confident could certainly make some people a little lazy themselves and it could be said that confidence can be misguided. However, it doesn't mean that it won't get you anywhere, and that's where I have to disagree.

 

Take Vince Lombardi, for example. One of the things Vince was legendary for was his coaching philosophy and motivational skills. He wanted his players to be confident that they could win come game day. Vince is now considered as one of the greatest coaches of all time. He led the Green Bay Packers to win the very first Super Bowl, and has now become synonymous with the NFL (The number of honors for Lombardi are countless).

 

My point here is this. Sure, you can become overconfident, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be confident at all. Sometimes, the best you can do is just believe you can do it and hope for the best.

Agreed. My college as an example homes a few arrogants and they often do very well. However, they've grown increasingly un-popular throughout the course because of this.

 

Anything in moderation is a good thing.

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Agreed. My college as an example homes a few arrogants and they often do very well. However, they've grown increasingly un-popular throughout the course because of this.

 

Anything in moderation is a good thing.

 

I wouldn't necessarily put arrogance and confidence in the same sentence. Here's what I think is the difference between the two.

 

Confidence is where you have faith that you can do it. You're not necessarily saying you can do it, you're just assuring yourself that you can do it. This type of faith allows you to be open and decisive. For one, you're willing to get advice from others just in case you're wrong. You also let others help you because you know you can't do it all by yourself, you have to let others help you on certain things.

 

Arrogance, on the other hand, is sort of a prideful type of confidence. Not only do you believe you can do it, you think you're better at something than everyone else, and everybody else is a retard who doesn't know what in the planet he's doing. Obviously, this type of confidence is selfish at best and is likely to make people mad at you. I don't know the people in your college, but I wouldn't necessarily use them as an example of truly good confidence.

 

I think having confidence is important in any type of career, because of the things I mentioned above.

 

I gotta move on to something else now. This has gotten pretty philosophical.

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I think we all know arrogance when we are victims of it.. Arrogance is a power game where omeone feels there worth is more than yours usually because they feel confident they can do something better than you even if they cant.. Arrogance can often be seen in those who command respect and get used to having people fall at their feet and be praised for breathing.. Arrogance is usually associated with those who are up themselves sefish.. Arrogance is an awful human condition..

 

Politeness courtessness should always fall easy to those with confidence and a responsibilty to push fair rules and common decency..

 

However that is often missing today and arrogance prevails everywhere.

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I think we should all have a high degree of self-loathing/hatred regarding our work. Seriously. You should hate yourself and what you've written/directed are going to write/direct so much that there's JUST enough non-hatred left to push yourself to do the project anyway. . .even though you secretly think it's crap and no one will like it. But you have that glimmer of hope that maybe they'll dig it. . .if you try really hard.

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  • 1 month later...
It's completely normal.

Infact, I would only be worried when you're not feeling that way. Blind over-confidence usually gets in the way of good vision, just make sure you get what you want, and that it works.

 

Completely agree.

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  • 1 month later...
Completely agree.

 

How about this for nerves?

 

2 days before we started to roll, I had to jump into a lead actor role (in addition to producing and directing!). That was rough, considering day one had about 5 pages of dialogue for my character in an ensemble set up!

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How about this for nerves?

 

2 days before we started to roll, I had to jump into a lead actor role (in addition to producing and directing!). That was rough, considering day one had about 5 pages of dialogue for my character in an ensemble set up!

 

I've had to jump into a role day-of on several occasions, but I've usually been able to bump someone else up to the larger role and jump into a smaller one instead. Worst was a production of Romeo and Juliet I directed, in which the Friar lost his voice the morning of a two-show day when we were already scheduled to be down a performer. Nothing like rewriting Shakespeare!

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  • 4 weeks later...

I find that i work better under the stress........but man do i stress.....i directed my first short there last March.....the night before I began shooting think i only slept about an hour.........kept thinking about how i wasn't prepared with the actors and wether i'd be able to creatively lead everyone.........but it all worked out in the end I managed to make what i think is quite a nice little short........well for my first try......in my opinion I think it's nearly unhealthy for someone whos in such an important role not to be unbelievably nervous!!!!!! Anyone else agree???

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