When I first started my journey in directing, I believed I had to know how to do everything. It was back in 2020, and up until that point I had mostly created films alone, occasionally bribing unsuspecting friends for help.
But here's the truth: I thought being a successful director meant handling every aspect of the process by myself. Yet, as I delved deeper into filmmaking, I encountered many filmmakers who encouraged the "do-it-yourself" approach:
Act and be the camera operator! Write the script as you modify dresses into trousers! Direct yourself while holding the boom!
A nightmare, right?
It certainly felt like one.
I was in the middle of another short experimental piece - “La calle de las escaleras” - when I caught myself researching “best voiceover techniques”.
“Wait, what are you doing? What is it that you truly need?”.
I didn’t want to learn how to do voice over, I needed an actress! Moreover, I yearned for a collaborator, a teammate to work with. So instead, I reached out to an actress friend, pitched the project to her, and guess what? She happily agreed to be part of it!
Today, I understand the power of collaboration. I rely on colleagues and teammates for help, and I know the quality of a project grows exponentially through the subtle and enriching art of collaboration. You can't store every detail or tackle it alone. But, most importantly, you don't have to. As a director, it is our job to understand the value each department brings and to communicate effectively with them in order to lead the whole project towards our vision. We don’t have to be alone.
While there are plenty of audiovisual creations that you can do by yourself as experiments, filmmaking is truly a collaborative endeavour.
It’s a tribe singing together at a ritual asking for rain.
It’s collective madness, dancing naked in the dark.
But at least you’re all together.
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