Stepping Into The “Set” of Being a Filmmaker

Every aspiring filmmaker inevitably becomes the protagonist of this scene: The gleam of a clear vision. The pulse of a screenplay that embodies it. And one hand clutching the script with the other bare and feeling the echo of, “How do I bring this to life? How do I make big with so little?”

This manifests the raw beginnings of not only constructing one's film. It’s merely the establishing shot, where the following scenes lack the same glamor: The blur of Excel Sheets, columns stretching with seemingly unattainable numbers for budgeting. The bookmarked website for the university’s daily rent forms for equipment. The hesitant hover of one’s thumb over awkward requests sent to friends, “Hey, can you act for my new film?” or “We need someone for editing.”

A Close-Up of Reality.

This is the sequence that awaits, as inevitable as the excitement and eager anticipation to bring an image to life on-screen: exploring and becoming situated in the world of film.

For instance, if you want to enter local film festivals, that can mean a path of risk and grappling with disadvantages. These are opportunities to gain exposure, industry connections, and a platform as an artist, but the volume of submissions makes competition cutthroat. Even with a successful grant, others can have greater capacities to supplement funding. Meanwhile, you must compromise creativity and your ideal production due to the grant’s limits.

If you pursue filmmaking as a hobby, rather than a profession, you are still bound to encounter such financial limitations: assembling a complete crew, taking care of people during long hours of shoot, acquiring good equipment, and finding feasible locations. 

These truths can cause disillusionment, even resignation, especially to filmmakers starting their journey. There’s likewise an impulse to resort to cliches (“What matters is your devotion”), or to extract meaning from the struggle by romanticizing the identity of a starving artist. 

Still, we know there are ways to navigate it. Some take on projects for commercial benefits; the good pay and valuable experience support their own creative endeavors, where they find artistic fulfillment. Others transform limits into an invitation for artistry and resourcefulness, while some build stronger circles and communities to support each other against shared challenges.

Mapping Out the “Set.”

Perhaps desiring to be a filmmaker means stepping past the threshold of artistic drive and into the “set” of film. It means confronting the practical demands and material constraints, and negotiating these with our dreams and ideals.

I recall a friend telling me, “One of the most important things they teach in film school is [that] having a good story is only the first step. You also need to know how to pitch it.” Thus, a dialogue summons filmmakers: “Sell your vision.” Often, the response is an agitated how or why because “selling” seems to reduce film to a commodity and confine art to the industry.

But when seen past its facade, this phrase reveals the scaffolding of filmmaking—its very nature. To “sell your vision” is to recognize film as a material medium and as a collaborative art. It is to understand that, even beyond the notion of business, a filmmaker’s vision is brought from silence to resonance through relations, through a network of people “buying into it.”

So, as we transform that gleam and pulse of our beginnings, we discover that creating as filmmakers means navigating the craft’s “set,” composed of people and institutions, resources and limits. What are we truly called to “make big”? Perhaps it’s ourselves as filmmakers: how we understand film, how we interact with its world, and how we live within its limits.

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Kino COL-lab

Coleen Pantoja is a Guest Writer for The Film Dream and a devotee of all things artistic and whimsical. She loves to introspect and discover worlds through books, film, and visual art, channeling them into writing and storytelling.

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