Five Ways Batman v Superman Mistakes Can Make You a Better Filmmaker

Most of what I have learned about how to be a good filmmaker making short films has been by watching bad movies and figuring out why I don’t like them.

Which obviously brings us to Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (BVS). Filmmaker student heaven.

My friend Kyle Trivanovich and I teamed up on a video review of this movie.  He has a blog on Technology and the Human Condition which you should check out.

Here are the best lessons you can learn from the mistakes made in BVS.

#1. MAKE PEOPLE LOVE THE CHARACTERS

People need to connect with the characters and the world they live in before they will care about what happens to them. The scene with Clark and Lois at their apartment should have been where we got to know them and care about them. But instead the characters just recited angsty plot points, had a forced bathtub splash, and moved on. This was something the filmmakers did all throughout the movie, which weakened the story’s impact.

#2. DEVELOP YOUR IDEAS

Make sure as a filmmaker you dig down deep into the issues you raise and really wrestle with them. There were so many great ideas in the movie. Should someone with so much power use it unilaterally? How can we have faith in people with power when they have let us down? The courtroom scene would have been a perfect opportunity to have people argue about these issues, but we only scratched the surface.

#3. FIND OTHERS TO DO WHAT YOU CAN’T

Zack Snyder is good at a very specific thing: making great visuals and action sequences. Screenwriting? Not so much. As a filmmaker if you have a strength, make sure you have a team that is strong where you’re weak.

#4. FUN COVERS OVER A MULTITUDE OF SINS

One of the criticisms people have is that the movie is that it is so grim. People love dark movies, exhibit a: The Dark Knight. But the darker your movie is, the more it exposes any shallowness or silliness in your story. But the more fun it is, the less people mind the flaws you have. I made my first short films comedy based until I was good enough at my craft to do dark really well—and even then I made sure there was banter and fun mixed in.

# 5. DON’T OVERDUE YOUR TROPES

Every filmmaker has tropes they overdue. JJ Abrams has lens flairs. Michael Bay has explosions, hot girls and American flags. Zack Snyder has melodramatic reverent visuals and slow-mo. Zack Snyder uses this to great effect to show the drama of these Godlike heroes, but he used it in so many shots that it lost its dramatic power. Be sure you use your signature flair strategically

There you have it! If you were disappointed in Batman v Superman’s but its mistakes make you a better filmmaker, then I’d say the trade off is well worth it.

Why You Need to Learn to Film By Yourself

Robert Rodriguez once said, "If you're just creative, you'll always have to rely on technical people. If you're creative and technical, you're unstoppable." I’ve learned that lesson the hard way many, many times. Technical skills was where I was weakest for a long time, and that disqualified me from a lot of opportunities.

Basically this is my humble pie post. Or, one of my humble pie post. Well, basically this entire blog is my humble pie post. Basically my whole life is one meal of humble pie after the other. It's amazing I've kept this great figure.

There was one time I was hanging out at one of my friend’s comedy shows. A comedian friend of his walked in and talked about how she needed someone to film one of her shows for a reel. My friend told her that I was good at filming and recommended me. It was a paying gig and she offered it to me if she could see my stuff.

I showed her the stuff I did, but she wasn’t sure she should take me because what I shot wasn’t well lit and I wasn’t able to mic up the audience. Lighting and sound were things I wasn’t very good at at the time and I knew it. We talked about it but I told her she should probably find someone else. I felt bad, not just for myself, but for my friend Robert, because he had recommended me.

Why was I weak at this stuff? Partly, I was too busy, I was at an academically strenuous college, was running the filmmaking club, and dealing with family stuff. And technical stuff is not something I am naturally gifted at. It was easier to specialize in the creative side and the organizing side of film and outsource the technical side to most of my projects.

But the problem is nobody needs somebody else creative or with ideas. They have ideas. They need editors, cinematographers to bring their ideas to life. That is what you will get paid for and that is what is going to get your foot in the door with people who can help you later.

The other problem is that—until you pay people—you can’t always get people to do stuff for you. On my first film I had to be cinematographer some days because my other guys didn’t show up. You need to be able to do that yourself when you have to in a pinch. I have had the worst time finding editors who could make the deadlines I needed. That’s nobody’s fault. They had opportunities to do actual paying work and had to put that stuff first. But I wasn’t able to pick up that slack.

Bottom line: learn to do stuff your freaking self. Don’t give yourself excuses. There is a thing called youtube that has tutorial videos. It is a beautiful thing. Use it. Love it. Live it.