Realization Day: Sum Lessons

So, here's where I start my Realization Day blog. It's not so much a day of realizations, as it is the day where I type out all the things I have realized while I have been in LA. Of course, these are only the LA-FiLM related realizations... ;)

>>>>> You Can't Learn Everything
When I first got to LA, I wanted to get on to a film set right away. I was like: Damn, I need to learn how these guys make these films look so damn good. What do they do with the same camera, the same frame that makes a film look so.. well, not student-film-ish. People, I got news. I've been with pretty much every department at Bernie Mac, I've seen at least 4 DPs at work and just enjoyed a lot of Hollywood productions. I'm learning a lot, but the more I try to learn everything, the more frustrating it gets. Why is that? Here's why... So when you're at internships, you want to please your employers right.. okay, so you of course don't know anything about anything.. okay, I know we think we do, but we really don't. Not even how to open a C-Stand, because when we do it the way we have been doing it, it looks terribly amateurish. You can tell a mile off. So these guys will show you how to do it. And similarly, they will show you around and try to explain every single thing because youre like a little useless kid who doesn't know where anything is or where it stays. Here's the Problem:::: No single task is ever repeated. You will never be in the EXACT same situation TWO TIMES, EVER. Seriously. So you think: okay, the next time they tell me to pull out a joint screw, I know which tools to use and how to use them. But, my friends, they will never ask you to do that thing again in that exact same circumstance. I dont know if you will fully appreciate the gravity of this situation. It is just really frustrating. SO SOLUTION: Don't worry about it. Give it a shot. It will take you a little longer and you will have to use some common sense, but you can figure it out. If you can't, ask for help but DO NOT apologize. They love people who are apologetic, and they will sit on you. They will completely kick you around. Be matter of fact about it, because you are not supposed to know. THEY DO NOT KNOW EITHER! They don't because remember the circumstance, and placement of tools, and size of location, and all these factors are changing for them too.. so they are figuring it out as they go along as well. Its just that since they dont apologize for it, and just try things out, they dont get noticed where as I would always be like: well, how do I do this.

>>>>>> THERE IS NO NEED TO LEARN EVERYTHING
Why? Because there is no corrrect way of doing ANYTHING. Who ever is boss has their own unique way of doing something. Agree with them, that is the way of doing that thing for that boss. Since this boss is going to teach you their way anyway, and since what you know is irrelevvant anyway, there you go: THere IS no need to learn everything.

>>>>>> ALL YOU CAN LEARN IS HOW TO TEACH YOURSELF.
Pretty self-explanatory. So these are my three rules about LA. You can't teach yourself everything, there is no need to learn everything since everyone has their own way of doing everything, but you do need to know how to continue learning everyday. So lets do that.

PART TWO: Why to be with every department.
Hmm, so one way of doing things is to spend a lot of time with one department and learn a lot about them. This is not my approach because at Bernie I realized there are two components to everything: There's the part that can be taught, and there's the part that you can only learn by doing it, through experience. So, I will never actually get to operate the camera or the boom mic and even if I do, it will only be for a little while. What these guys know, a large amount is because they've been doing it for a LOOONG time, all the 20 yrs of experience. So, me trying to learn the 2nd part of it, the experience part is kind of useless. The first part however, the part that can be taught takes relatively little time. This is why I choose to skittle around from department to department learning what can be taught to me. Why do I do this? Can I actually get hired on the basis of one week of learning?? Isnt that very superficial knowledge???

Well, not really. Refer to part one of this entry. You can't REALLY learn the experience part. You don't need to learn everything either. So, what I'm learning in this one week with each department is the LANGUAGE this department speaks so that as a director, I know how to communicate with different departments, what they can do , what they can't, how - as a director - I can help them, things they like, things they don't. PLUS, I can't be bullshitted by them. I know how a flare is killed, I know who is in charge of flower pots and who is in charge of large size plants, how grass is made to look real, etc etc etc. That's my philosophy on it.

Phew! That was some Sum Lessons and Realizations from this semester. More to come, Suds