To be honest, I am not a big fan of motion pictures. I am like those who pop by a cinema once in a while when there is a seemingly good movie, with the left hand carrying a box of popcorn and the right hand a cup of Coke and that's it.
However, the film making one-day course that I attended last Saturday was purely amazing. It was taught by a filmmaker from Toronto, Elliot Grove, who has founded the Raindance Film Festival, Raindance Filmmaking School and the British Independent Film Award, and has produced some of the world greatest directors- Christopher Nolan (Inception, The Dark Knight); Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes); Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class).
Not to forget also actor like Sacha Baron Cohen (The Dictator/Borat), is also one of the alumni of the Raindance Filmmaking School.
He mentioned that when he was young, due to his Amish background, his mum has forbidden him to go into the cinema because "the devils live inside". And, by the age of 16, he finally couldn't stand the curiosity and he went in for the first time, and saw that the cinema is not so different from a church-it also has rows of chairs. From there, he found his interest in making movies.
He was so poor that he had to live in a farm when he started his career. However, that turned out to be a blessing for him as he was taught to find the behavioral patterns for insects and the growth pattern of the wheat fields. The training was particular useful for a volatile environment like the film industry.
He also said, to follow your dream is an uphill battle, a very difficult task. He remembered how he broke his mum's heart when he can enter the top 3 universities in Canada, but ended up in an art school. And, how embarrassing it was, to tell his friends, especially his high school sweetheart about his interest, but the rest was history.
As he mentioned, sometimes we thought that film making is fake, because it's all about acting; but if we try to see it from the other perspective, it's probably even real than the reality, because in film making, we show every single emotion, by removing the public mask.
To him, motion picture is the most amazing tool that can move a person's emotion. It represents the idea, the social setting and the culture that the scriptwriter and director come from. It's telling a story; by bringing a corner of the world to the centre stage.
So, there he is, inspiring every amateur filmmaker, to become the next Steven Spielberg.
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