How will I get there? How will I do it (all)?

How many times have you been sitting at home, work, or school and been thinking this?

Watching Directors: Life Behind The Camera has got me going again today. It's rejuvenated my film senses. Made me want to give my script a facial. Detox. Refinement. Please excuse the skin care analogies... I'm studying at Aveda to get my esthiology license right now, so my mind has been a split screen lately.

Before I committed to getting this license this year, I struggled with accepting that I could do this and still be a successful (indie) filmmaker. So, I'm happy to report that I've escaped the illusion, and I'm alive! I'm still writing and planning on shooting films, in addition to advancing my beauty field career. :)

Film work is like an invigorating essential oil to my sanity. I look at a beautiful picture on a screen or billboard, and I melt. Much like a clean face or blank canvas, the lighting, the framing, the story behind it - it's all there. It's immediately where I go. But the reality (now) is that I need some other work to feed me. A dependable food source. :) And I deeply enjoy helping people, so it's not torture!! In fact, it's actually wonderful! Not to mention, it's FUN... makeup, skin care... all right up my alley. Duh.

But the questions always remain... How will I get there? How will I do it (all)?

We all have one thousand things we're responsible for WEEKLY. Some of us daily. We take care of animals, kids, bills, school, breakfast/lunch/dinner, grocery shopping, laundry, partners, cleaning, maintaining social lives, (what's that, right?) etc. We're lucky if we take care of ourselves, right?

So my answer right now: By putting one foot in front of the other, and continuing with my life's shot list - one that allows me to experience new adventures so that I can continue to be inspired, and meet my goals that I've put forth intention to receive.

Many times, I've asked myself if I had one thing I couldn't live without, (work wise) what would it be? Repeatedly, the answer is writing. Screenwriting to be exact. I would be VERY SAD to never direct or help produce anything... to experience the whole physical process that invokes the livelihood of the story. But I would be DEVASTATED to never write again. So the answer becomes easier - I don't stop.

What would you be devastated to not do again?

It seems like an easy question to answer, right? So why has it settled so profoundly inside of me? Sometimes the simplest of things are the ones we overlook... the ones we forget to write...it's possible that I won't ever know how I will get there or how I will do it.

Perhaps it's more important to just know that I will, eventually. We will. If we just keep living with intention.

Happy Believing - YOU WILL GET THERE! YOU WILL DO IT (if you don't stop)!!

Love, Jentri

Thinking, sharing, searching...

Yesterday I read an online screenwriters magazine article where Robert McKee (STORY) was interviewed.  He spoke of the way filmmaking has evolved, how he hoped it would become, and gave great advice.  There were a couple of very important topics he expressed that I completely agree with, and would like to share with you (paraphrasing, of course):

1) Don’t consider writing about a topic that doesn’t fill your heart. Chances are, you’re going to spend a huge chunk of your life with this kid, so if you’re not in love with ‘im, why would anyone else ever be?

2) He says that, “Rewriting to writing is like improvisation to acting.” I can’t think of a more accurate statement. If you’re too stubborn to take direction, constructive criticism, or consider the idea of possibly doing multiple rewrites for the betterment of your work, then consider a new line of work.

3) I’ve cut and pasted the next Q & A for you:

Q: Do you see the art of story via screenwriting evolving over the decades, and if so, how?

Robert McKee: No. Tastes and trends come and go, but the essential art of story has not changed since Cro-Magnon storytellers sat their tribes around the fire and held them slack-jawed with tales of the hunt. Personally, I wish filmmaking would devolve from the nervous cut-cut-cut move-move-move herky-jerky camera of today back to the expressively lit, framed, fluid images of the past. Too many contemporary directors seem inflicted with HADD.

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And then, I ironically find myself watching Quarantine last night. The seemingly shaky sister to J.J.Abram’s, Cloverfield (no relation). This all had my wheels really turning. 

Lately, I’ve been assigned (by my producer, Lorie) to be thinking of style, tone and composition for LIS. How do I want the shots to look, and do they vary in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd act? Should there be a metaphor within the shots for certain characters? In example, should Lyn always be to the far left of the screen? Are there many close ups?

Many of the color ideas and metaphors came to me while writing the story.  The over-all tone was always semi- ingrained in my head too. I love the more desaturated look - old lenses with modern technology to create nostalgia. But beyond that, I find myself searching...

And I may not know exactly what I want all the way around, but as Woody put it in VCB, “…I know what I don’t want.” So, I went to B&N and picked up a copy of Filmmaker Magazine. Lorie turned me on to the editor, Scott Macaulay and now I’m a huge fan. In his editor’s letter, he says, “I hope filmmakers don’t feel pressured to throw all that’s good about their old ways of working out the window and instead sift through the pages magazine and other sources to scope strategic forward-thinking ways to support their work.” He’s speaking more to filmmaker’s regard of new paradigms, but I see it as a metaphor for EVERYTHING.

It’s great for me to explore these new cameras, technology, camera angles, trendy ideas, experimental ways… but at the end of the day, it was good to be reminded to not disregard what’s always been exceptional cinema. 

My lesson in all this: Learn the new radical ways of film movement, but don’t forget the genius that got us here.