Guerrilla Filmmaking with Jon Moritsugu

This past weekend I took the Guerrilla Filmmaking class at the Northwest Film Forum with Jon Moritsugu (Scumrock, Fame Whore, Mod F*ck Explosion). This was a quick 2 day thing intending to cover ways in which to shoot low/no-budget "punk rock" style. I was only able to attend the Saturday session due to an emergency, but I think I got what I really wanted to out of those quick 6 hours: inspiration, and the sense that if I just get off my butt I can actually do this.

The Saturday session covered primarily pre-production, but floated in and out of various other topics with Moritsugu's energy and enthusiasm. One thing I found really interesting about his perspective on no-budget filmmaking was his advice to always think big -- that despite how you may view your lack of budget now, you should always aim high and then cut back creatively, because there is always a chance the high estimate might actually turn up.

I'm currently in a bad state of affairs as far as ideas, so when Moritsugu talked about Jim Jarmusch's "50 details" my ears perked up. Apparently when Jarmusch was working on "Stranger Than Paradise" he had originally started with a general list of 50 things he really loves. Little items, certain shots, snippets of dialogue, anything. From there, he constructed scenes, and then put scenes together into a story. I love this idea because I always think in very fine details about how I would like a certain scene to be filmed. Writing a story and then working on the details afterwards makes me fear them getting lost in the fray. I realize this is backwards from what the professionals would recommend in how to construct a good, engaging story.

During class time, we viewed a film by a former high school student in a shady part of San Francisco, called "AKA Don Bonus." The movie was a documentary on his life in the projects and was shot entirely handheld by him. It's a very jolting video, and apparently played at various film fests and won an Emmy. The point in watching this was an exercise in how low budget you can be and still be very moving. Keeping crew size down, shooting on location, etc, are all things that can help. We briefly covered the rules for a Dogme certified film and a few on the list reiterated points that can be transfered very easily over to a no-budget style.

Other portions of the pre-production step that were covered were tips on obtaining grant funds, gathering crew, release forms and copyrights, and other general prep work that needs to happen prior to the shoot. Much of this was review for me from having taken the UW's film class, but it was a welcome review and Moritsugu added quite a bit about his own personal experiences to make it worthwhile information. I especially liked his very up front attitude as far as revealing details on his budget, the way he works with his cast, and his own grant application processes. In my so far brief experience talking to other directors, this information seems very tightly under wrap and most seem very secretive or shy about giving out these details. I think it's great to hear from someone who is so open and honest about their style. Not only is it educational, but it also reinforces the DIY ideology that anyone can do this given the information and drive to make it happen.

I think I'm going to start a list.