Filmmaking makes the world make sense
As a pretentious camera enthusiast, I am required to enjoy the cinema. However, my love for this form of storytelling stems from a necessity to distill reality.
Without being too cliché, recent world events have been difficult to decipher as a freshman. I’m trying to find firm footing in a complex battlefield I can’t possibly understand. I consume massive amounts of bias-soaked information daily, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to avoid that. This has left me asking the same question posed centuries ago: “what is truth?”
Fiction is defined as “invention or fabrication as opposed to fact.” The very nature of fiction is a selective abstraction of reality, thus less than fact. However, I would argue, due to its nature of abstraction, fiction has the potential to be truer than fact. An abstract painting may use splotches of color more to represent a scene rather than to realistically depict it. A film can capture emotion and thought from life, making it clearer by excluding elements.
Film is a unique medium for storytelling. It combines so many different independent art forms: writing, photography, music, acting, and whatever others are provided in the script. Each of those can stand independent from cinema, but if combined correctly can resonate so strongly with an audience to the point something very rare is achieved – a perspective is considered.
The reason this is so important to me is because the clarity achieved in cinema via abstraction helps me understand complicated truths about the world, or discover how something I believe may be false. This is especially true for older films I have seen. They explore themes much differently than modern movies do. Their characters tend to have more integrity, and even if they don’t tend to more candidly reflect on modern life better than the newer films. For example, Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” beautifully and clearly portrays the importance of community.
My passion for making films is intrinsically linked to all of this. I absolutely love storytelling, but even more, I love people. If I think something is true and important, I want to share it. I am fascinated by the process of filmmaking, particularly the distillation of reality. Having the mindset of making a film has helped me make sense of current world events. Simplifying it has helped me understand it.
