Rough Theater

My rough theater would be all the films that I make, both for school and for personal interests. I don’t have a lot of fancy equipment so I have to improvise on a lot of things. Also, I don’t have a really fancy camera. It only shoots in 720p and I can’t manually adjust the ISO or aperture. But, I don’t think this hinders my filmmaking ability, it just makes me focus on other things and improve other aspects of my filming like camera positioning, framing, and story telling. I think this is one of the reasons why rough theater is valued so much because it shows how an artist or, in my case, a filmmaker adapts to the things that he or she has and doesn’t have.

When I read this article, I instantly thought about this one filmmaker that I really admire. He has a very unique style and he has really pushed the boundaries of how to make a film. In interviews and speeches, he talks about how he knows he can’t make a film perfect like a Hollywood movie. So instead of preventing imperfections, he highlights them. He often shows a cut of him putting a camera down or picking it up. He also does a lot of stop motion and will occasionally show a shot of him moving the piece of paper or whatever is being moved. I think showing the imperfections works better than hiding them because then the audience can get of sense of his limitations and they can see how he adapted to those limitations and created his own, unique style.