Constant Cinema

I've been thinking about some things. For a lone filmmaker, shooting analog can be expensive. I'm not making a general statement that shooting film is too expensive or that digital cinema cuts acquisition costs because on a production of any real budget that's simply not true. But, since my deep preference is to shoot film, it's not so easy to just pick up the camera and go shoot something. At the end of the day, though, I'd rather shoot Super 8 than HD. It's as simple as that. Super 8 film, when you include processing and transfer, still isn't the cheapest thing on the planet, but if you're smart about it you can shoot over two hours for under $2500. Now, a lot of people will look at that and say, "I can get a DSLR for that and shoot two hundred hours, or two thousand." Well, that's a big part of my problem with digital cinematography: people shoot too much. I understand that practice makes perfect, but the more there is of something, the less value it has. Shoot too much, and there's a commoditization effect that begins to creep in that really devalues the work. But, if you can shoot judiciously, deliberately, distilling each moment to your creative will - not whim, but will - then I reckon you're doing something right. So the question becomes, "How do you shoot the least as much as possible?"

The 52 Weeks Project is my challenge for 2011. Each week I intend to produce a  2 - 2 1/2 minute movie. If that sounds suspiciously like the duration of a Super 8 cartridge, well, that's because that's my film budget. How do you make a 150 second movie with 150 seconds of film? You shoot 1:1, in sequence, and edit in camera. So these will be short, concise, and probably very imperfect movies. But they will challenge me to think things through, shoot deliberately, and get to the heart of things in very short order.

The Ground Rules:

• 1 Movie will be shot each week and released as quickly as possible - no excuses
• Each movie will be no more than 1 cartridge long
• No chapters - no stringing movies out across multiple cartridges
• Editing is done in-camera - no cutting
• Digital post processing such as titles, color grading, and VFX are allowed
• I will produce, direct, and shoot each movie; but it is acceptable to have other writers
• I will try to make each movie unique, covering a variety of subjects, genres, styles, etc.
• I will break all of these rules, including this one, but never more than once in a single movie.

That's it. More news and updates will be coming on this blog as I progress towards shooting. I'll release the movies on this website as they complete. And finally, I invite other filmmakers to join me in this challenge. I think it's going to be very difficult and very rewarding.

(Photo courtesy Steven Kamenar, Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution License, http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunroom/with/3277145747/)