I present the following not out of conceit but out of a desire to share a bit about my creative process and perhaps encourage experimentation in any practiced art and/or craft. 👨🎨
The list of statements below reflects the experimental approach, big or small, I deliberately took with each short film I've made, numbering 16 in total. I don't consider myself an experimental filmmaker because all but one of these films clearly fall under the category of narrative or documentary. However, the list underscores a consistent excitement about trying something different, in form or content, right out of the gate each time.
Here's the list:
What's it like to make my first movie?!
Let's try wall-to-wall narration and political subject matter!
Let's try no words at all and ordinary subject matter in one minute!
A documentary vignette with a constantly tracking camera!
A story in terms of movements, like music!
A traditional cinéma vérité-style documentary!
An anti-commercial designed around banal routine.
A darkly satirical thesis film built over the remains of a failed attempt at one!
Documenting an anti-war march at the seat of US power!
No dialogue or even identifiable characters!
A movie with non-actor parents as leads!
A fact-driven documentary!
A semiautobiographical story driven by speedy narration!
A silent film with virtually no moving camera and animal talent!
Let's just build up to a spectacular payload at the end!
How about a production with an on-set sound mixer for once?!
With all that said, keep having fun making things and occasionally tilling the soil! 🌱