The other night I went to a mediated conversation with Director/ Writer Sophia Coppola and Actor Stephen Dorf, in which they spoke about their new movie called, Somewhere. At first, I didn’t realize how significant my attendance was in regard to summing up this project for me. As their conversation deepened though, it reminded me that what they had created and what they were speaking about, is what we were doing with our multimedia projects but on a larger scale. This realization enabled me to specifically connect to Sophia as a director, and helped me put the role of director into a real professional setting, as oppose to a project for class.
When we first began working on our projects after we split up into groups, I somehow became director. I am not exactly sure how, I would not have minded being any other position, but this one just fell into my lap. At first I thought, “Great, now I get to be involved in all aspects and contribute to the entire creative process,” as though it was a piece of cake.
That role though, was definitely not easy. It is really hard to balance my own creative vision as director with the rest of the groups thoughts and ideas; all of which I believe are equally as important. I really tried my hardest to make sure everyone agreed on all aspects of the project. It was the group’s film just as much as it was mine.
As a director you come up with some abstract and conceptual vision. But no matter how well thought out your idea is, nothing can be possible with out the help of the rest of the team. Some people are good at acting, some editing, some script writing; one person can’t do it all. It’s just not possible. Olivia, Ashley, Jackie, Jeff and Jeremy, all really did their part and were enthusiastic to do as much as they could to bring the entire piece together.
I never really thought of myself as the director type before this. I was more the girl who focused really intensely with all her passion into one category. So it was definitely hard for me to not focus all my energy in one aspect, and instead really try to influence every aspect. This project really made me stretch my confidence in what I am capable of.
While listening to Sophia speak the other night, it made me realize all the things I had thought about in terms of our movie. Someone asked her a question about her music choices, and she responded that she uses music that she listened to while writing the script, and how it helped set the mood for the film. She also mentioned that she would pick specific t-shirts for Stephen Dorf to wear that reminded her of the t -shirts her brother used to wear. Everything in her films had been carefully thought through to create a mood and a story for the audience to follow.
Even thought I did not end up picking every single detail of the film, throughout the process I tried to imprint the idea of “seasons” into the groups’ head. Staying true to this idea was really important for me. I think it was the thing I thought about most throughout the entire thing. I want this to be something that is extremely visual. I wanted the audience to feel cold in the winter, and warm in the summer. I wanted to try to get every seemingly minute aspect of a film to come and join together to create a larger picture, of a season cycle. I was really always intrigued by the cyclical nature of the world. To me it was just such a poetic way to think about the world around you. Throughout the filming process I realized that this idea of seasons symbolic of man had been something that recurs throughout history. There are modern versions such as the new movie Another Year, and a movie coming out next year called The Tree of Life. There is also the line from Homer’s Iliad, which is said in the epilogue of our film, that I came upon while studying for my Philosophy final.
Really though, this project has made me realize the power of an idea, and how a tiny seed can grow into an entire short film. It began with a play, which got interpreted and formed into a newer concept, which got translated into a script, which got filmed, scene by scene, which were then edited, and put neatly all together.
This is such a nice blog! Go team!