Thoughts on Watching A Film

Since the beginning of this blog I have mainly used it to give updates on film projects of mine as well as film projects that I have had some part in. However; I wanted to take a brief minute to write about a film observation I had earlier this month.

One of the things I have found is that as filmmakers we can sometimes end up missing out on some of the emotional ride that a film tells. From my experiences I have seen this come about in two ways. The first being, it is a film that we worked on. Because of this we know the basic outline of how the story or the scene goes, even if we haven't see the final cut before. The second way I have found this happening is because the more I learn about film the easier it becomes to see the hints, set-ups etc. of a film.

This past month I had the chance to see the movie God's Not Dead 2 with a friend of mine. This fellow friend was not a filmmaker. Sitting there in the theater watching the film that way was so intriguing/interesting. Not only was I watching a very well shot film but I was able to listen to my friends reactions to the emotional arc of the film as well as in seeing what set-ups were surprising or which were inspected.

Coming out of that showing, I had learned a lot just in how the general audience might react to certain scenes. Something that we sometimes miss out on. In the end I would encourage all of my filmmaking friends to try this. As much fun as it is to see other films with fellow filmmakers we have met over the years of serving the Lord, take some time to see films with people of the general audience that don't understand the art like we do. It will help immensely understanding what affects them and you might just come out with a new look on things.