What I learnt at school today!

It is always interesting to step back from being a teacher and becoming a pupil. The ability to listen is by far superior to the ability to speak. If you listen carefully you pick up new information, even when it is surrounded by old news. There are few people you cannot learn something from. Even so quite a few people raised their eyebrows when I said I was going to film school instead of spending my money on making a low budget feature. Now I am perfectly aware that Film Schools all around the world always teach how films were made rather than how they are going to be made. Their equipment is professional but always old technology. However there are methods of making films that are timeless and a film set has an etiquette and a bureaucracy that although not necessary in many ways, is customary and being able to conform can save a lot of unnecessary conflicts when dealing with a full sized production.Low budget films are all very well but commercial ventures require an attention to detail that is only possible with a full crew, and they are notoriously conservative in their approach. Being self taught through hit and miss making of shorts or no-budget films, is all very well but unless the films miraculously transcend their humble production conditions and find a market, they can only be justified as a warm up testing whether one actually wants to suffer the pains of being a director. It is a curiosity of a screenwriter's life that they are excluded from much direct contact with the actual production and filming process. So I heartily recommend that if you decide to go in this direction that you make a couple of shorts any way you can, and then get onto a professional course or you will be forever handicapped with dealing with a fully funded production. And the slightest lack of faith in your ability will send the nervous investors running for cover.So what have I actually learned this week? I've learnt that Prime lenses can be damaged rather easily and cost a fortune and that shooting permits in Britain are exceptionally complicated because every county has its own rules. I have learnt that the tapeless workflow is infinitely superior to the taped, and that I will be shooting on tape! And I have learnt that one can trust a professional crew to actually get all the shots and keep the composition of the shots under control. Or at least one should expect them to.Perhaps the one thing I have really learnt is that one should expect people to do their job and that the director can then do his without having to worry about catering, transport and whether the shot is in focus! Ah, what a different world this is!