Why 90% Of Filmmakers Never Make A Feature Film - Blake Ridder

What's it been like to make your jump from shorts to feature filmmaking? I think uh it's a very scary feeling for some people when they think I've got to work a lot more days and plan lot more. And then there's the other side of people thinking feature films are easy. It's just a lot of short film put in together. I think either those arguments aren't entirely correct depending on your experience. Yes, feature films are more challenging. You will face a lot more problems that you never would have faced on the short films. But also, if you've done lot short films, that really prepares you to do a feature as well. It's like running a half marathon and then running the full marathon. Um it's kind of similar, but not the same. Um but yeah, features also from a story point of view it's very difficult and sometime I still struggle is how to hold an audience attention for 90 minutes. Um I don't know how people feel like sometime when I write a feature, they feel like they write too much, they have to cut down. I have the opposite problem. Because I've come I've made so many shorts I feel like I'm struggling to make a feature longer enough to really make an official feature. So there's there's that issue for me as well. Um yeah, does that It does, yeah. And um is there any part that's just very liberating where you feel like you know, obviously you've made this decision that you don't want to do shorts. Does it mean you won't return to them at some point? Uh but that is there a liberation that you feel? Like now I get to tell a much more intricate story. Yeah, um it's not just about telling a intricate story. It's also about at least that's how I feel. When you make a feature, you you're a real filmmaker. Um when you make a short, you're still not amateurish, but you are still at the beginning. Um student films, people relate to that to short films. And um a real filmmaker is someone who's made a feature. Um and I've said so many times to make a feature is better than not making a feature at all. There's so many people I think there's probably more than 90% people who only make shorts never made a feature. Making a feature is a lot more difficult and that's why there's more people who never made a feature than people have made a feature. And I just congratulate to those who have made a feature whether it's bad to excellent is really a a milestone that really should be celebrated as a filmmaker. Blake, you've made over 70 short films and that's an incredible amount. How has this benefited your now transition to feature films? Three under your belt so far? I think benefit is from a lot of different sources. First one is about people skills. Um I started making a short film with my good friend Louis James and then we um we met this um producer uh in the US back then was in the UK called Lucas Aferrara. He helped us to fund a lot of short films and we met a lot of people making those short films. So all that interaction of dealing with people with my friend Louis and uh sometimes difficult people, sometimes really talented people, some of them people don't turn up, some people who are rude to us. So all those experience has really benefit us of how to deal with the feature film because you still deal with people. And those people skills we learn from the short are very beneficial. And of course, next thing is timekeeping. Making any film, there is never enough time. Especially making a feature. It feels like you you've got more time, but you've got a longer story to tell. So when you're making a short film, maybe you have couple of days to finish a 3-minute, 4-minute film and you still have to make sure your time management, your film's well. But when moving to feature, you understand that those 2-3 minutes becomes every day you got to manage. So those time management skills I developed were really important to bring into the feature scenario as well. Blake, I believe you've said that you have to make every film better than your last. How difficult is this? Very difficult. And then it's never been that way. Um sometimes I feel like I'm going backwards uh as a person as a person in my life, I don't like to going backwards in anything that I do, whether it's career, moving to

different country uh going from one place to another moving out from my parents. I don't like going backwards and that's why I feel like I always want to make a film better than my last, whether it's features and shorts. And sometimes um it doesn't it doesn't happen. It's the same kind of thinking logic of thinking your first film is going to be the best. Uh your first feature But it never works out that way and I think that's okay. Um that shouldn't discourage you of making another one trying to make it better. Um and sometimes it isn't better. Maybe it's because that people just don't understand your film, but you did it for your own sake. And that's also okay. You made it because you wanted to tell that story from your heart, your mind, whatever reason. And if people don't like it at least you did it for yourself. I think that's also important. Yeah, and that's part of I guess having a long-term career. There's bands, there's famous filmmakers that have a great track record and then they put something out and people tear it apart and maybe they go away in hiding for a while and then try to regroup and do another. So it sounds like it's just part of the journey of uh being in entertainment is you're going to have a lot of hits and misses. Yeah, you're going to have a hits and misses. Again, there's exceptions where people just keeps going better and better. But not everybody has that kind of track record. And um I personally I'm okay to deal with that. Um obviously in the back of my mind I always hope my next one is going to be better because if you think about it especially with the feature you take a almost a year to make a feature and during that year you learn so much. And it would feel like odd that the next year you don't improve. So I hope from year to year I get better at storytelling, cinematography, writing, everything. Yeah. Right. Have you always been this um uh understanding of yourself? You think that was formed from maybe just uh be being more I don't know insular watching these movies and just kind of knowing kind of learning who you are? I don't know, I shouldn't assume. Uh understanding as in that should be better or — Or that you're but that you're okay with the fact that it may not be better and you may there may be challenges where it won't be received well. For whatever reason. I'm at the beginning I wasn't okay with it won't be received well. So the the first few films that I released and then people said it wasn't great and that really hurt me and um I didn't expect that. And I definitely wasn't okay with it. I feel like a failure, like am I jumping into this industry when I'm really not prepared for? Um and to this day I still get negative comments for any work I do. Um obviously now as a as a developed person with all those experiences and scars that I've had and occurred through different bad films, I'm a different person. But at the beginning, yeah, it was really hurtful. Um and but I was able to learn and move forward. Right. You think that's part of it is being willing to be hurt and then kind of like uh you know brush off if you getting pushed in the dirt, let's say, and now you're going to get back up and that that's part of this journey and if if you're not okay with it, then maybe it's you mean you could be excellent as a filmmaker, but if you can't sort of take the punches then maybe it's not a career. Yeah, if you don't have a thick skin, it's definitely uh this industry is definitely not for you. But I think it's also important is that you have a supportive group. Uh that's why I had at the beginning with friends that I really trust and they really trust you. They see that you are good enough to work with and I see I'm them. And that close group is super important to really boost your career because your friends uh like my friend Louis James, when I work with him with so many films he knows my weakness. He knows what I'm not good at, but he also knows my strengths. So when a film that comes out that wasn't great he tells me, you know, yeah, maybe that film is not great, but you're so good at that. Just don't stop. Next time just improve this and you'll continue to be great because that element of suspense um he's being some of my suspense are great. It's really good. You just improve the dialogue or whatever, you know. You need that support group and I think that's important because when you're just with yourself, no one supports you and everybody else tell your film is not great. It's more difficult to really

to say to yourself, "That's okay. I'm going to move on. " Thank you for watching the video all the way to the end. Here is a complimentary question from our book story questions.