I’m constantly trying to find a balance between consumption and creation as an artist.
Everyone’s always chatting about how you need to study the greats, and I agree you should, but a lot of times I’m usually more interested in writing and just expressing myself.
I love watching films, but I feel like I have to at least write something to feel a sense of accomplishment everyday, to feel like I’ve taken a step closer to my goals.
However, today was very much a consumption-based day. Went to BFI Southbank to check out three films (first time in a while I’ve done this): Yojimbo, I Was Born, But…, and Sansho Dayu.
Knowing that I was going to be sat on my ass all day, I made sure on my walk to BFI Southbank that I smashed out a bunch of ideas, brainstorming with voice notes – aka chatting shit into my phone.
I’ve been feeling really creative lately, I feel a real momentum, and I just really want to keep shooting short films with the guys. Came up with a few potential ideas that I was pretty happy about.
Watching films is an integral part of my creative process, seeing how the masters of cinema such as Kurosawa, Ozu and Mizoguchi approach telling a story is fascinating.
They’re like textbooks for me as an aspiring writer/director, but like textbooks, they’re only useful if you put them into practice, so I’m tryna make more stuff, and get my reps in!