Planning is a term you hear a lot as a filmmaker. The word itself is the foundation, in which the blue print of your film is applied to. I believe that too many times, we can get caught up in this idea of “planning”. Far to many times I’ve fallen on my own sword and we suffocate our idea trying to make it perfect. Planning every little idea to a point where we lose focus on why we are making a film in the first place. It happens to all of us, because we are artist with a story to tell. We try make things perfect and fail every time in doing so.
I went against the grain when I created Companion. I wanted to libarate myself from the painful process and just go outside and CREATE! And that is exactly what I did. I had an actor who wrote a scene and another actor who needed some demo reel material. I had a camera and a day off work. The result? A short film that was shot, edited and created in less than 8 hours. No planning, no strategy, no crew and defiantly no craft services. I even ended up getting a parking ticket while we were off on the edge of a cliff making magic.
Companion is all about being in touch with the Present. As humans, our minds are racing nonstop. We are thinking about the future so much that we become out of tune with our own sense of self. Lost in translation. In this short film a.k.a – the scene – the companion represents the Present and the human represents the idea of how we trick ourselves into thinking that we are in the moment, when really, our focus is else where.
This short film cost zero dollars to make and was a great exercise to practice. The goal? Just make something in less than 8 hours and see what happens. You know what the shortest sentence is in the English language is? GO.
And that’s exactly what you have to do. Go and tell your story.
Website: https://www.garretethanwhittington.com/director
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