Aug 21 / Christian Bull

FILM IS SIMPLER THAN YOU THINK

"Before he learned the art, a punch was just a punch, a kick just a kick. Then it became complicated. Now that he understood the art, a punch was just a punch, a kick just a kick again."
Bruce Lee

Simplicity Through Hardship

The start and end of all things is simplicity. Not easy, but simple.

Looking after a newborn child is exhausting, but its needs are simple. Caring for someone in their last days can follow a similar pattern. It's everything in between that gets messy.

The path to mastery of anything has to hit the same three beats - simplicity, complexity, simplicity.

If you watch Messi play, it's not the flashiness of his skills that make him special. It's the simplicity of his movement. Look at Michelangelo's first Pieta, and compare it to his last - you can see the result of a lifelong quest for simplicity. Picasso sums it up nicely:

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."
Michelangelo's Pieta - image 1
Michelangelo's Pieta - image 2

Complexity and simplicity - the first and last "pieta" sculptures by Michelangelo

The solution can't be for us to create art like children. That would be a terrible fake, since we are not children. No, the solution is to distill all the complexity and difficulty of our adult lives into the simplest expression possible, so that it can be accurately communicated to another adult, in another time, living a completely different life.

HOLY COW what a task that turns out to be! But if you've ever been moved by a film or any piece of art, you'll understand why it's worth a lifetime of effort to try.

Three Things You Can Do Right Now

In terms of actionable steps to take right now with this in mind, there are three that occur to me:

  1. Reduce. If you're working on a project right now, do everything that you can to simplify. Fewer shots. Fewer cuts. Fewer words. What is the one idea that you want to communicate? Kill everything that doesn't help you communicate that.The American director Sidney Lumet would write down a sentence for each of his films that expressed the most important idea of the film. My favorite, 12 Angry Men - "Listen". It doesn't get more simple than that, yet that one word informed every directorial decision in the film.
  2. Relax. Lots of instructional content is complex. Lots of mine is, even if I really wish it wasn't. Don't let it put you off. If there's something you're not understanding, if it's complex, it's not the end goal.
  3. Live. The "anti film school" type directors like Werner Herzog prioritize experience over craft. Quoting from his own "Rogue" film school website:
"The Rogue Film School is not for the faint-hearted; it is for those who have travelled on foot, who have worked as bouncers in sex clubs or as wardens in a lunatic asylum, for those who are willing to learn about lockpicking or forging shooting permits in countries not favoring their projects. In short: for those who have a sense for poetry. For those who are pilgrims. For those who can tell a story to four year old children and hold their attention. For those who have a fire burning within. For those who have a dream."

I think that's as good a place to start as any.

That's it for this week. If I was a better writer, this whole thing would've been a single paragraph.