I was recently asked to speak at a film festival that I was lucky enough to win last year. Not only speak once -
but twice - with a couple main themes. One, "How to make an action film" and two, "Why we make films". I don't know if anyone will show up
to hear me talk, but it of course has made me examine my own motivations and methods.
Of all the tools available for making modern day epics, the new cameras, new lens choices, the proliferation and accessibility of high quality, DIY camera rigs and supports, and the new software/hardware combinations with the newest, latest, greatest plug-ins and newest, latest, greatest delivery formats;
my favorites remain the three that started it all.
One:
The desire to tell a story. Of course, that doesn't really sum up
the absolute need to tell the story. The constant obsessive compulsion to dedicate and sacrifice whatever part of one's life one must in order to tell that story. Probably started somewhere before Cro-Magnon man and the advent of the RED camera. Certainly the still amazing cave paintings of Lascaux were done before the consolidation of Intel chips on competing platforms happened. Still earlier masterpieces but less famous paintings are dated as old as 30,000 years ago.
That sacrifice will be different for each person and each set of circumstances and abilities, but the fundamental need to not just talk about doing something but
actually doing it at whatever cost gets it done remains the same.
Two:
The story itself. The blueprint, the themes, the foreseen actions committed and worked out on paper that deliver the message, the passages of dialog or the lack there of that inform and entertain. The plan devised with rhythm and pace and escalation, climax and denouement.
Being tied in through friends to at least the local film community, I constantly hear of the next newest, latest, greatest project being done somewhere. Even more common after being told it is being shot on the newest, latest, greatest camera by someone who may or may not have actually ever used that camera
(hey, we all start somewhere), I am more often that not left with the informer informing that everything is looking really good...
except that, well, maybe the script isn't so hot. It could use a little work. The story seems weak, and the dialog doesn't seem to be working.
Eeeeshhh... can't wait to see that in all its really high resolution pristine glory!
Three.
The actors. And actresses. Those people and faces and voices that bring the conceived ideas to life. They can be trained or untrained. Young or old. Handsome or pretty or stunning or frankly a little hard to look at. They might be famous already or obscurely working away in a Bangkok bar, but the bottom line is that
they are either good or they are not good.
In my quest and circumstance as auteur I wear many hats. I know that I become obsessive before, during, and after my projects. Performing so many roles with at this time still limited resources means that my projects take longer than many other peoples, which means they
tax and strain my mental state,
tax and strain my physical being, and
tax and strain my relationships.
The discipline to work hard was probably instilled from an obsessive father who thought that Olympic type workouts were the norm for all grade school kids. I can look back on training schedules even before high school that compete with any modern day Olympian.
And they worked! I was fast.
World class fast! Until a short drive my first time behind the wheel (20 feet) took me off a bridge, 20 feet down, and under another 20 feet of water where I eventually emerged with two sliced knees.
(guess I really made it 60 feet!)
That same work ethic let me train obsessively in martial art. I had the will to travel and learn and train around the world with some of the greatest teachers and practitioners who have lived. I was a poor student of each separate art but obsessed with the art as a whole. Most my teachers probably wouldn't claim me today, but I pay respects to each as they colored the art I displayed as I fought and later taught my own distillations and concepts in my own schools both here and overseas, and to law enforcement and military.
Those basic concepts can also be found in my movie fights and choreography.
And now of course I am a filmmaker. Pretty much unknown except by a very small circle of growing colleagues and fans. Pretty much working away obsessively as I always have. And making progress.
World Class progress? That remains to be seen...
Meanwhile, the fuel that keeps me going, that makes me want to get up at 5 in the morning to edit -
is the realization of the three components above.
To see the long obsessed with concepts and ideas come to life, leaping or crawling their way from pages written over brief bursts of inspiration and fingers blurring on abused and coffee sodden keyboards, with the
gift of performances I've been freely given or coaxed or demanded or been able to trick my actors into, from those actors and actresses who trained or untrained, handsome or a bit hard to look at -
none of us famous at this time - some of them going from good to great - is
why I make films.
I can not speak for other filmmakers. But as a viewer, watching everything from old cracked super8 to IMAX and flash delivered YouTube, I know I appreciate a film when I can see the primary attention given to those three:
the desire and dedication to get it done, the story, and the acting.
Kely's first film BLOOD TIES won several film festivals including the Action Film of the Year at the Action on Film Int's Film Festival, Best of Festival and Best Visual FX at Indie Fest USA, Best Director at Big Bang Film Festival, and Best Int'l Film at the Rincon Puerto Rico Int'l Film Festival. He is scheduled to speak at the Indie Fest USA in downtown Disney on August 12th and 13th. He is currently editing and obessing about his newest film KERBEROS.
