“Art Depends on Luck and Talent”
Francis Ford Coppola
As a young aspiring filmmaker I was obsessed with creating art. I wanted to create something that would stand the test of time, something that would change the way people saw the world, something they would hold up and say “Look at this amazing piece of art!!!”
Oh how young and foolish.
In the Initiative we are constantly looking for ways to expand our knowledge and skills so I recently started reading Sidney Lumet’s book Making Movies. In it he talk’s about a conversation he had with the acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa:
“I once asked Akira Kurosawa why he had chosen to frame a shot in Ran in a particular way. His answer was that if he’d panned the camera one inch to the left, the Sony factory would be sitting there exposed, and if he’d panned an inch to the right, we would see the airport-neither of which belonged in a period movie.Only the person who’s made the movie knows what goes into the decisions that result in any piece of work. They can be anything from budget requirements to divine inspiration.”
What is art?
That is something only the future can decide. Look at Citizen Kane, Vincent Van Gough, or Shakespeare. They were all misunderstood, or considered common but now are considered some of the greatest of all time.
At the Initiative we believe in well told stories that maybe one day will looked as art. But that is not for us to decide. We are going to continue to make movies because its what we love to do. And we hope you go out there and do the same.
