Guest Lecturer: Kirsten Johnson

Last week I had the pleasure of having documentary filmmaker, Kirsten Johnson (The Above, Cameraperson,) lecture my film class.

During her conversation with us she physically moved around a lot.  It taught me that as filmmakers, we will physically be moving/doing whatever it takes to shoot our films.  It reminded me of when I was shooting my own short film in which I tried to fit in the crawl space behind the toilet for a specific POV shot.  It’s as if the camera gives us permission to do so.  Putting a camera near the toilet is weird but it was necessary for the shot.

The creative process itself moves by being ever-changing.  We can't stay stagnant on a specific way of storytelling, much as we can't stay stuck on original plans -- things/ideas may happen/change and we need to become inspired by them.  In my short film, I deviated from the storyboards a lot during the editing process because of new ideas of telling the story.

Johnson also had us look into each others' eyes for two minutes. It taught me not to be afraid of awkward moments because it's those moments that reveal a lot -- why is it awkward?  Because in today's world, people are impersonal, and eye contact -- connection -- with others has become a rarity.  When I was staring into my classmates eyes, like many others, I felt vulnerable because when we look into each others eyes, it's as if the eyes are an intimate part of our body, and to share our eyes is to connect with others.

Filmmaking is about shifting through the gears of relationships where the cameras ARE our eyes, and we will be connecting and relating with the audience through our film because we share the same world/space, different though our lives may be.


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