YOU WANT TO MAKE A FILM? PICK UP A CAMERA

The advice I would give today to anyone who wants to become a director is quite simple: Make a film. In the sixties, it wasn't so easy because there wasn't even Super 8. If you wanted to shoot anything, you had to rent a 16-millimetre camera, and often it would be silent. But today, nothing is as easy as buying or borrowing a small video camera. You have a picture, you have sound, and you can screen your film on any TV set. So when an aspiring director comes to me for advice, my answer is always the same: "Take a camera, shoot something, and show it to someone. Anyone. It can be a friend, your next-door neighbour, or the grocer down the street, it doesn't matter. Show your audience what you've shot and observe their reaction. If they seem to find it interesting, then shoot something else. For instance, make a film about a typical day in your life. But find an interesting way of telling it. If the description of your day is 'I got up, shaved, had some coffee, made a phone call...' and on screen we actually see you getting up, shaving, having coffee, and making a phone call, you will quickly realize that this is not interesting at all. You must then think and discover what else there is in your day, which way you can show it to make it more interesting. And then you must try that. And maybe it won't work. So you'll have to think of another way. And maybe what you'll eventually realize is that you're not interested in making a film about your typical day. So make a film about something else. But ask yourself why - always ask yourself why. If you want to make a film about your girlfriend, make a film about your girlfriend. But do it completely: go to museums and look at the way the great masters painted the women they loved. Then make a film about your girlfriend. All this you can do on video. Panavision cameras, spotlights, and dollies? You'll have plenty of time to worry about that later on."

JEAN-LUC GODARD

Extract taken from ' Moviemakers' Master Class' - Private lessons from the world's foremost directors / by Laurent Tirard. Published by Faber and Faber, Inc. ISBN 0-571-21102-X.