Discussion about film making

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I really think this is a tough hurdle to conquer as a beginning filmmaker: don't assume that the only way the film making community will take you seriously is if you make a "serious" film. Short films about abortions, human trafficking, drug overdoses, paranoid schizophrenics, prostitutes that get beat up and raped, love ones that die in car accidents...etc. You know, "serious" films.

Being taken “seriously” by the film community doesn’t mean you have to hit the audience in the face with a sledgehammer saying, "I did a film about this intense issue! Look at how mature I am!” It's about telling a visual story (no matter how short) about INTERESTING characters. I have seen too many student short films that deal with these hard hitting serious issues but with incredibly boring cardboard cut out characters, basically cause they have under 15 mins to make a “point.” They fall flat and they become dreaded “film student clichés.” The more “serious” the film the more scrutiny it invites: acting, lighting, production design, music, etc. If you don’t have the resources to back up your “serious” story it can fall apart easily.

Don’t take yourself so seriously so early by trying to tackle the world. You will have your whole film making life to build up on that. Make a simple story that you would want to watch over and over again, that you would want others to watch over again and again. Entertain.

Write from the heart and most importantly (and a big fucking cliché) write what you know. Honestly, if you are a middle-class white boy under the age of 25 who has lived in the suburbs your whole life are you really certain the story about human trafficking and miscarriages is the story you were born to tell for your breakout film?