Think before you shoot (November 22 2012) Think before you shoot (November 22 2012)

Kevin Macdonald the 45 year old Scottish director, best known for his films One Day in September, State of Play, The Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void and Marley; has been profiled by Ian Burrell for The Independent in an article titled ‘’The world is full of opinion. What we need is people who go out and find the facts’. Burrell states “Think before you shoot,” is the advice of the Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald to anyone with a newly acquired video camera who fancies themselves as a bit of a film-maker. …at the forefront of exploring the internet-driven phenomenon of amateur documentary making – celebrated in his crowd-sourced film Life in A Day, which was based on 80,000 clips submitted to YouTube, all recorded on 24 July 2010. Yet the remarkable snapshot of modern life, later shown on BBC1, did not convince Macdonald him that the age of the amateur is upon us. “You would find beautiful little moments and very talented people who had done something really special but that was the needle in the haystack,” he says. “It has become as easy to write a blog as it is to make a film or take a photograph – you don’t need any particular skill, you can just do it. There’s a democratising side to it but it also means that a lot of stuff gets sprayed out there. Nobody thinks before they switch on the video recorder.” …Documentary making has become harder than ever, Macdonald maintains. “These days if you had £120,000 for a documentary you would say that’s unbelievable. Today, 18 years later, you are expected to make something for BBC4 on the same subject for £40,000, which is the equivalent of £20,000 back then.”

 

Inspired by Ian Burrell ow.ly/fmTBk image source BBC ow.ly/fmTt3