washing the pig
I have created nearly a dozen short films. Some of them turned out to be okay, while others were not as successful. Nevertheless, each creative endeavor served as a valuable project that taught me a lot about filmmaking and creativity in general. I gained insights into how to approach visual creativity both when collaborating with teams and working alone. In this article, I aim to guide you through the development phase of making a short film or video.
INTENTION
It all begins with intention. It's as simple as that, yet crucial to understand why you are creating your film or why a client has commissioned you to produce a video. Whether you're exploring a specific idea, addressing a sensitive topic, aiming for sales, or just seeking pure enjoyment—any purpose is valid.
You need to address questions pertaining to your intentions: What emotion do you want the film to evoke? Why are you creating this film in the first place? What story or message do you intend to convey to your audience?
Certainly, understanding your audience is essential if you plan to showcase your film to someone.
Consider my approach to creating "Gratitude," a short film from years ago. I began by following a gratitude journal, documenting things I felt thankful for in my diary. This process led me to contemplate the essence of gratitude, approaching it more visually than conceptually. In my perspective, I envisioned gratitude as feminine energy (you can interpret it in your own way), and that became my guiding concept. Ultimately, the idea crystallized—to depict gratitude through the eyes of a young woman in her life.
Film Gratitude was born out of Gratitude journal.
THE PIG
Creating visual content can come in various ways. You can get inspired by something or someone either book, film or your life experiences. It’s when you begin identifying yourself as creative it gets a bit more tricky as it can happen, on some periods, that you won’t get random bursts of inspiration that often.
In the book “Hey Whipple, Squeeze This” Luke Sullivan talks about a term called Washing The Pig. I believe this metaphor perfectly applies to any creative process as it has no middle, end or beginning and it can get more messy than it is.
Usually when you have your intention (brief), you have to think about how you are going to achieve your intention.
It’s that brainstorm phase where you don’t know anything. You’re just trying to catch that pig (your intention/idea/brief), but you just can’t, because the pig is getting away. Same as creatives working with ideas, in the beginning it’s hard to comprehend what is all about. But after a couple of sessions of brainstorming with yourself or your partner your inspiration comes around and your whole idea begins to take shape.
Creativity is like washing a pig…. (credit: https://heywhipple.com/why-creativity-is-exactly-and-i-mean-exactly-like-washing-a-pig/)
My idea about “Gratitude” began taking form after a couple of sessions with my cinematographer at the time. We began thinking about what could be an aesthetically looking film. After looking for some inspiration on Vimeo we found how I want to approach the film visually.
Suddenly, once I got all the pictures in my head it was a piece of cake to write a script for the film.
Would you call stealing or getting inspired?
DIRECTOR’S TREATMENT
Setting the tone it’s the sweet spot of development. Finally you know your story/film idea, now you want to give it a look. Most creative fields have moodboards. Films are no exception.
You want to set the tone right. Here are most important aspects of setting the tone:
Story
Colors
Camera work (angles, movements, lenses)
Props
Locations
Casting
Wardrobe
Post-Production
Music
Sound Design
Classical movie/tv-series treatment is a multi-page, detailed synopsis of your film or another visual storytelling project. Now we’re talking about visual film treatment. Or Director’s Treatment. Or simply a sales pitch.
It’s good to know who you are making Director’s treatment for: is it for the agency, your crew, producer or yourself. End result can vary depending on your end audience you’re making treatment to.
Brief example of Director’s Treatment Pages.
Nevertheless it’s a very important document, especially in filmmaking. Treatment significantly serves by bringing everyone on the same boat.
So you open your Keynote application, Google Slides or Powerpoint and start adding images. Additionally with your comments how would you approach the film idea.
There are plenty of free websites that can help you assemble your perfect treatment. One of the best to use is Pinterest or just plainly Google Images. Other websites worth checking out are:
Film Grab: https://film-grab.com/ Is great for quickly finding your movie and grabbing (as the name says) shots that match your idea.
Movie ScreenCaps: https://movie-screencaps.com/ Has a quite a library of movies where you can find every shot of the movie. Useful if you have a particular scene in mind you want to use in your moodboard.
Ads Of The World: https://www.adsoftheworld.com/ a big library of advertisement videos. If you dig in enough you can find some great gems you want to get inspired from
Other great applications are MidJourney (an AI image generator) and ShotDeck (a well formatted movie stills search engine).
Finding right visuals is very important while building your treatment.
DEVELOPMENT SUMMARIZED
The development stage for your project is the initial phase that propels you into pre-production. It's akin to catching the big fish, as David Lynch says—capturing the intention or fragments of what you aim to accomplish. It involves finding a partner and attempting to catch the pig and wash it. This phase doesn't allow for rushing; you can't push things as fast as you'd like. Battles with procrastination and resistance become part of the process, yet you must persist. It's a game of patience and dedication to your idea.
