... and one of them is wrong.

Self-discipline is a start. The director who only prints the takes he actually intends to use is making his life much easier. I think the Dogma philosophy is just an expansion (or, reduction) of that instinct. By depriving yourself of certain things, you can focus more closely on what’s left.

But the bigger need is to properly value the most precious resource in filmmaking: creative thought. It doesn’t show up on any budget, but it’s the single biggest factor in whether a film will be great.

Presenting a filmmaker with 100 options isn’t a help, but a hindrance. It means she has to consider 100 possibilities, or devise some system for winnowing them down into categories. That’s creative brainpower she could spend on some other, more important aspect of the film. Worse, the 99 unchosen possibilities will still weigh on her mind. In many ways, she was better off not knowing what she was missing.

-- John August on the Paradox of Choice.

[originally, I posted the following as a comment. But apparently John August has closed his comments. Crap. Ah well]

COMMENTARY:

"People will say, 'There are a million ways to shoot a scene,' but I don't think so. I think there're two, maybe. And the other one is wrong."

-- David Fincher (according to IMDB).

[One of my fave quotes about filmmaking ever, I think :)]

I work in VFX [ok, mb not for that long] but, like everyone else, harbour dreams of directing one day. So I can understand why people likehaving options and certainly, a lot of VFX work is about providing options. Don't want an actor in a scene anymore? Gone! Want the scene to take place at a different ime? Done! Want the action of a scene to go a little quicker? Done!

Often, these choices are about helping the story... and in the end, I think they work best when they're filtered through the director's instincts. For me (and this is only as a wannabe), directing is about having a worldview and shaping it through that funnel. Otherwise, what are directors for? Its not like they actually -make- the film - all the amazin artists that work on a film (aka crew) do that for them. No. The director provides context and makes decisions.

Perhaps, the digital revolution by empowering directors to do more than simply direct (oooh, i can edit my own film, oooh, i can operate the camera myself, oooooh, i can light it myself, oooooh, i can do my own sound mix) has, inadvertendly, shifted their attention away from the actual craft of screen directing to a more generalistic craft of filmmaking.

Just my 1c.