By Scott Shaw
I always find it interesting
how in the Independent Film Industry people find easy targets for their
criticism. This is especially the case in the No and the Low Budget Arena. This
lack of understanding and appreciation goes hand-in-hand with something I have
talking about literally forever whenever I speak with new filmmakers in my
classes, seminars, or face-to-face. …You cannot become lost in attempting to
imitate a film with a large budget when you have no budget. …You cannot expect
your film to come out looking like a film with a million dollar budget when you
have five dollars.
For the actual filmmaker,
this concept is much more easily comprehended. For the viewer and the critic,
not so much.
Most film viewers go into any
film watching experience with preconceived expectation based upon what they
have viewed in the past. Most of what they have viewed in the past is based
upon a film with a substantial budget. Even most Independent Features are bankrolled
with a fairly sizeable budget. But, then
there is the whole other area of the film industry, the area of the industry
where people are making movies for the love of cinema. Though they may have no
money at all, they make their movies anyway.
Now, at this level of the
industry some people do attempt to mimic what they have seen in the High Budget
Arena. Most fall very short of this. Of course, there have been a few films
made with no or a very small budget that have broken though. The most obvious
examples of this are perhaps the original Blair Witch Project and El Mariachi.
But, it is essential to note, that the versions of these films that went to
wide-release were not the original versions of these films. They had major
dollars poured into them for reshoots, editing, and sound tracking before they
found their way into the mainstream.
All this being said, the
viewing of any cinematic project is about the viewing of that particular
project itself and it should not be about comparisons. Yes, this is a
philosophic concept that most people will never understand or put to practice.
But, just because it is not understood does mean that it is not true.
From a personal standpoint,
I’ve watched over the years as people have compared my features to other pieces
of cinema. They have gaged my work in comparison to the works of other
filmmakers. They have tried to make sense of my work by placing labels on it.
But, by doing this, in and of itself, they have missed the point. They have tried to place definitions and
judgments on my work when they have not possessed the mindset to even
understand it.
This does not bother me
particularly. That’s just the name of the game in art. People gage things
through their own level of realization. They want to find a reason to love or
hate a project.
Also, this does not cause me
to change. I mean, any artist who adapts their work simply because people
criticize it is not an artist.
This being said, artists do
evolve. I certainly have. My film work certainly has.
For example, I used to make
abstract cinema attached to a verbally driven storyline. But, as I have long
said, the stories have all been told. I don’t care about the stories. Leave
that to the filmmakers with big bankrolls behind them. Though there may have
been a subject matter in my films of the past, the story-driven dialogue was
never the focus. And, this is where many critics got what I was doing all
wrong. The words were just there as an abstract koan to take the viewer into
the mind of Zen. The words never meant anything. They were nonrepresentational.
They were just people taking about the nonsense that people normally speak of
in life. I mean really, how much of what anyone says really matters?
But then, I left all that
talking behind. I moved forward to focusing solely upon images.
The fact is, I have not made
a dialogue-driven film since 2009. That’s almost ten years ago. Yet, most the
people who talk about my Zen Films are not even aware enough to be aware of
that fact. What does that say about them? Yes, I’ve made tons of movies since
then, but they are all unspoken. They are simply non-figurative images moving
across the screen. The reason? Again, to guide the viewer into the meditative
mindset of Zen.
So, next time you see a film,
especially an experimental film, try to move beyond what you already know—what
you already think you know. Leave behind your judgment and maybe you can
understand what the filmmaker was actually attempting to portray. Maybe you can
encounter Zen.
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