Being Creative and Technical

Rodriguez (Desperado....Spy Kids....Sin City are his films) says that creative people need to be technical so they won't need technical people. Technical people aren't creative and creative people aren't technical. Therefore, when choosing to work in each area of production when making an independent film, you have to be technical. That doesn't apply only to the movie itself but also to all of the elements that go with it to create the necessary "buzz" for a production.

As much as I love to do things on my own because I lack patience and I don't like ro rely on other people, sometimes I think that it is necessary to depend on someone else for your technical needs when it comes to making a movie, especially in Post-Production. If something is messed up, it can be fixed by the right person. Technical people can also enhance a scene, audio or the entire project and bring it to a level that you never thought possible. I've had that experience on one of my shorts. The audio wasn't that great, but with some technical assistance, certain areas were dramatically altered and made the movie a bit more realistic.

I admire Rodriguez, but I have to admit......I do need other people, especially technical people to enable me to get the necessary things done so that I can promote, screen and/or distribute movies with no problems. I just spent 2 days trying to upload a trailer onto myspace, only to find out that I saved the wrong damn file format. Now, those of us who have our own editing equipment and gadgets can bypass the feeling of despair by spending more time on their systems, working on different things until they get it right. However, those of us who travel to other destinations to complete post-production and editing can develop everlasting headaches and the feeling of vaulable time (and money, rental fees can pile up) wasted.

I have always taken pride in the whole DIY thing in independent filmmaking, but unfortunately, I cannot always adopt the "one man band" way of completing things. I don't have time to waste, so I'd rather let someone who can do things correctly, do them. That way, everything can move further along and I can spend my time promoting and in production instead of being pissed and throwing wasted CD-Rs and DVD-Rs in the trash can.