Take a camera, shoot something, and show it to someone. Anyone.
It can be a friend, your next-door neighbour, or the grocer down the street, it doesn’t matter. Show your audience what you’ve shot and observe their reaction. If they seem to find it interesting, then shoot something else.
For instance, make a film about a typical day in your life. But find an interesting way of telling it.
If the description of your day is ‘I got up, shaved, had some coffee, made a phone call…’ and on screen we actually see you getting up, shaving, having coffee, and making a phone call, you will quickly realise that this is not interesting at all.
You must then think and discover what else there is in your day, which you can show it to make it more interesting. And then you must try that.
And maybe it won’t work. So you’ll have to think of another way. And maybe what you’ll eventually realise is that you’re not interested in making a film about your typical day.
So make a film about something else.
But ask yourself why – always ask yourself why.
If you want to make a film about your girlfriend, make a film about your girlfriend. But do it completely: go to museums and look at the way great masters painted the women they loved. Read books and see how authors talk about the women they love.
Then make a film about your girlfriend.
All this you can do on video.
Panavision cameras, spotlights, dollies? You’ll have plenty of time to worry about that later on.
– Jean-Luc Godard.
(Taken from Laurent Tirard’s book, Moviemakers’ Master Class: Private Lessons from the World’s Foremost Directors. I don’t agree with understand most of Godard’s movie. I remember my brains frying while watching Alphaville.
But this creative process, is so spot on that I cannot, not share.)
