Making Stuff With Your Hands

In my daily job, I don't make anything. I provide a service. I think deep down inside, we all want to make something. I think that's why one foot (for me) is always in filmmaking. I think when you create something from scratch, you do have a certain God quality to it. You are making new worlds, and expressing your creative side to the world. Most likely if you write a book, or record music, people are quicker to diminish your craft. The minute you say that you made a movie, people are curious as to what story you could possibly tell.

I HAVE to make something with my hands. I hate that we are getting further and further away from manufacture. Too much of what we do today is moving stuff. Mental logistics. You get this drive that's put in this hardware reader, it reads and spits out to this other computer, gets processed and moved along. I think, in a weird way, it actually makes your brain slower. Since half the time you're battling it out with the thing that's suppose to help you. I prefer to machine something. Cut something apart, put together. Yes, in a way making movies is the previous. It's intellectual property. HOWEVER, the physical part is the game plan and execution. It's moving mountains. Making emotion from nothing. Building a train set. There is no other craft that puts all of the other disciplines into one like filmmaking. Everything about it is immersive in every creative nuance. Music, sculpting, photography, design, fashion, etc...Everyone wants to direct, but if one of these falls short in your peripheral, you go batshit nuts. This is why the older guard, directors such as Ridley Scott or Michael Mann are so hands on. The smallest nuances keep them up at night. It's a form of OCD, I suppose. Just the minutiae drives them and (most likely) their family members up the wall. You have to be so interior with your thoughts. Most people think it's fun. It's brain marathon that is past a 10k. It hurts like a bitch. Emotionally, creatively, and sometime spiritually. You are leaving yourself out there to be judged. In the case of fun adventure movies, the last thing anyone wants to do is to disappoint their audiences.

I guess I've gained a new appreciation for film making when it comes to collaborators. My final touch on my short film came from a final sound mix. He not only lifted my film to a new level, he added his own creative touches I never even considered. If I were to be asked if delegation was the core of creativity, I'd be hard pressed not to say it is ESSENTIAL to the quality you demand of yourself.

I think most of us need to make things with our hands. It's a true sense of accomplishment, just the mere feeling of holding an object with your hand. I'm no psychologist, but I think people like a visual representation of the work they've done. Unfortunately, as it's sometimes lost into a computer, or you walk away empty handed, there is a sense of "what the hell did I do anyway."