Ninja vs Penguin

Penguin May 28th, 2010

What happened:
- went to Adam’s Arcade at 9:30. had breakfast, journaled. Ken was supposed come pick me up for Gwatila’s music video
- Ken shows up with Kim, the guitarist, at 11:20.
- get to Gwatila’s at 12, start setting up lights, etc for Gwatila’s music video.
- I shoot some set photographs
- by 4, we’ve only finished Kim’s shots and he has to go.
- we consider shooting some scenes with Gwatila, but we don’t really have the time and start packing stuff up at 5:40
- we sit around and chat about Filamujuani and decide to shoot a quick and dirty documentary this coming week so people can see what we’re doing and the sort of impact we’re having
- we go to Spice Roots, an Indian restaraunt for Tom and Deb’s farewell dinner. we’re supposed to get there at 8, but get there at 9. they order food, get some appetizers at 10, get the actual dinner at 11.
- we go to Havana at 12:30, a local bar/club and dance the night away
- i get home at 2

Gwatila is an actress, poet, singer and has her first published book of poetry, “Blue Mothertongue“. Ken is shooting a music video for a poem she wrote called, “Dear E”, which was put to music.

While Ken was shooting with his 5Dmk2, Gwatila was coming up with a shot list. At the end of the 4 hour shoot, we had 6 of 32 shots done for a 2:18 music video.

This is one of the reasons why planning is such a crucial part of filmmaking. In fact, planning starts in the script. The script is a series of descriptions of what is and what isn’t on screen. Pre-production takes that concept a step further and figures out, practically, how do we show what’s in the script.

Now, there are definitely instances where it takes a long time to even get 1 shot. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m also not advocating sticking so close to the plan that you don’t allow for inspiration or serendipity, nor is getting the shot THE primary task.

What planning does, is it forces you to think through everything before actually doing it. It frees your mind so those moments of inspiration and serendipity are free to happen. Since your mind is no longer thinking about what HAS to be shot, it can be freed to wonder, explore, and play. You’ve already considered the possibilities and tossed out the ones you know won’t work. All that’s left, are the ones that will.

Planning also frees up time so getting the shot isn’t what you’re doing. I hate it when I get to the end of my day and I still have a ton of shots left to get, but I can’t miss my day either. So I switch into functional mode. I get the shots I need in order to tell the story. But often times, those shots are devoid of life. They work, but they don’t have that sense of magic that really connects.

Planning, it’s your friend.

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Tags: Kenya 2010, Missions, Planning, Pre-production, Trips

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