When I was in high school I wanted to make movies so I talked the school into retro-fitting a library computer with adobe Premiere. The whole process took a couple of months to figure out. Then I needed a camera to film with. I borrowed friends cameras or checked out the schools antiquated VHS camera. After filming and editing for 6 months I had a 30 second promo for a skate video I never made.
Today, a high school student with a job can make a high def, cinema quality film with his phone. I’m not complaining; I think its great that film is very tangible now. I think we may be sitting on the cusp of another golden age of cinema where, like in the seventies when young hollywood decided to make the films that spoke to them, today’s young people will realize that they can make art with their phone and laptop.
After I graduated there was a time when I gave up on a career in film because I just couldn’t see how to begin. Movies were still filmed on 35 mm and you needed a crew and a script and all I knew about filming was skate videos which were archaic when compared to a full length feature film. Young people now don’t have that excuse. You can learn more about filmmaking nowadays on the internet than you can in 4 years at USC. Furthermore, you can have the same tools that movie studios use on multi-million dollar movies on your family computer. It is a good time to be creative.
There is still one thing that having the world at your fingertips can’t give you: Natural talent. Fortunately for us, the makers of this video have talent to spare.
