Note from Nick: We’ll be running content from our friends over at the International Academy of Film and Television in Los Angeles on CHUD, hopefully sharing some new voices and opinions and eventually creating a conduit from the Sewer there and back again. If you’re in Los Angeles and pondering films school, find them at IAFT.net.
Artisan Training
by Michael Chasin
Screenwriting Mentor, IAFT/Miami
Technology has made creating and exhibiting content easier than it has ever been.
But is all of that content on the internet true narrative entertainment—or really just distraction?
Perhaps these benchmark questions may help:
Was the content artistically created—or was it just a recorded event?
Did the content emotionally move the viewer—or just momentarily amuse them?
Did the content have a point—or was it posted simply because it could be posted?
Were the storytelling tools of script, actors, framing, lighting, sets, sounds, or music used in creating the content—or none at all?
If the answers were that the content was simply a recorded event posted to momentarily amuse without the use of any storytelling tools—then it was not narrative content—and was likely worth nothing more than a passing look.
So while anyone can post content—it doesn’t mean they’re filmmakers.
A filmmaker uses the tools of the craft like an artisan to create content that can inform, entertain, and emotionally move—all in almost invisible ways.
A filmmaker, like in any other craft—and art—requires training to become a true artisan.
That artisan training is provided by film schools—where the rigors of the craft are merged with each student’s unique artistic voice—to create narrative works that will more than momentarily amuse an audience, but will move an audience.
It is the artisan’s skill gained at film school that producers seek—and that audiences will more than look at—but will actually pay to see.