How Film School Has Murdered My Hatred of Bad Movies

Since I started attending film school, it is impossible for me to hate a film. I still dislike films because the story sucks and have no desire to watch the film again, but I can't completely hate them anymore.

After participating in the film making process and seeing how much time it takes to do every little thing, I can't hate bad films anymore. While in the past I have had a deep seeded loathing for films such as Team America or Hellraiser, if I were to have seen them for the first time now I would have a greater apreciation for them. (But, seriously, I still never want to see them again.)

Every shot takes time. A god aweful amount of time to be exact. For each different shot in a film, the lights have to be rearranged and the camera moved. Plus you have to make sure your actors do things as close to the same way as possible each time. (And they do it a lot people.) It truely is an insane process.

When you have a bare bones crew of say three or four people, including cast, it's difficult to organize everyone in the way you need. But the larger the crew gets the harder it is to control. Extras are goofing off, crew members will get distracted, people just straight up disapear. It's insanity.

We did an in class shoot of a dialog scene yesterday. It was hellacious. At any given moment only a handful of people would be doing anything helpful. To make matters worse, we tried switching crew duties at intervals throughout the shoot. The only people I can think of that had the same job for the entire shoot was me, the DP, and the lead actors. Everyone else kept changing roles. We had actors who were so nervous they couldn't remember lines. Then we'd take a break to transfer footage. People would switch roles. Script supervisors would become directors. Directors would become boom opperators and sound recordists. Sound recordists would become assistant directors. Assistant directors would become extras. Extras would dissapear. Actors would disapear. Extras would make loud noises requiring us to do another take. We'd have people talking in the hall we filmed in. Actors would fall asleep somewhere and no one could find them. I'm talking complete insanity. It's like war zone where only a handful of people are aware their asses could get blown up at any moment.

While organizing five people is hard enough, organizing more could quite possibly lead to the mass murder of your entire crew. Even the shittiest movies have a some respect in my eyes. Maybe not as stories, but visually I apreciate them. (As long as they actually bothered to try and make it decent.)