In the second episode of the Filmmaker Secrets Podcast I decided to tell you a story, my story.
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I immigrated to the U.S. in 2001. So the idea of going to college to make movies was... well, foreign to me. My first day of film school was euphoric to say the least. I was humbled, determined, ambitious and overly excited about the prospect of narrative filmmaking full time being my life after graduation. I told myself: "If I can make a comfortable living doing this, I would do it for the rest of my life."
My senior thesis project was my chance to prove myself. I wanted to shoot a winning film and get recognized for my storytelling talent. On a deeper level though, I wanted to prove to myself that it was possible and all the money invested and time spent – would have been worth it.
After writing & directing dozens of short films, shooting for hundreds of sets, film races, promos, music videos, weddings, three feature films, and a web series. I hit a wall after too many sets had the same pattern of mismanagement when it comes to scheduling, as if going overtime without pay is just a norm. I realized – this was not sustainable.
So, I studied the process of pre-production aggressively to perfect my scheduling strategies, to be more efficient and more intentional. You see, pre-production is kind of like the foundation for a house. The house being your successful project. The tenants, your satisfied audience. Without the foundation, there is no house, there are no tenants.
I did so much pre-production on top of actually shooting for so many projects that with time I developed my own system of the best practices for film production efficiencies.
It's not perfect. There were definitely times when I made mistakes. Like during my senior thesis project I underestimated the time it would take to haul film gear up the mountain through the snow. Having to spend a cold winter night in an abandoned cabin in the middle of the woods, all because we went way overtime and had to make a tough call. Pack up the gear and drive through the night only to have to come back in the morning and haul it back up, or have a few crew members stay overnight with the gear... We chose the latter.
At this point I can do dirty but effective pre-production for a 24 hour film race in my sleep, guaranteeing a successful shoot and timely post-production.
But the transformation that it had on me as a filmmaker is paramount. I am more humbled by the process than ever. I truly believe it to be as important as the final product. After all, the process informs the final product, as the product informs the process.
If there is anything you take away from this, let it be this famous quote by Benjamin Franklin: "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."
