Lean Film making - a process that challenges the traditional film making model and requires a radical shift in thinking
Movie industry is my industry…. For over a decade all my professional life has been about making stories for screen and what a better start when you are in a new city to engage in meet up groups that Melbourne has to offer…
Lean Film making is the one that got my intention and i went on a rainy Wednesday at 225 Bourke Street to see what is it about…
"Films are made to be watched” - this is how Kylie Eddy started her presentation in front of very mixed group of people, some of them professionals, some of them wanna be film makers but all attracted by incredible doze of enthusiasm Kylie was putting in front of us by saying: “Technology has opened the door for people to experiment with more dynamic ways to make and distribute content. But this is just the beginning, this trend also provides a fantastic opportunity to explore completely new ways of how people organise themselves and the work of making films. After many years of making films and working in the industry I discovered the ideas of “Lean" and “ agile" through my brother David. He has spent the last decade using these concepts in software development. Now we're working together to look at how this collaborative creative process can be applied to filmmaking.”
By raising the question is it time to throw out the rule book and redefine how films are made Kylie got my full interest as i felt that her and David’s new approach in film making took away all the negative aspects of movie production that are so present in big companies where decisions are usually made by some other criteria rather than the quality of story.
As she continued to explain core concept of lean film making i fall in love in idea that maybe it is possible to make movies without compromising with marketing experts and big productions if you are lucky enough to have those contacts; focusing only on what matters the most: making stories that people want to watch… Sceptic in me also woke up and i needed to find out more about Kylie and David and their professional background:
Kylie has worked in the Film Industry for over a
decade in marketing, sponsorship and distribution including five years at Buena
Vista Home Entertainment (Walt Disney Studios). She is currently the General
Manager of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival which is the largest event of its
kind in Australia, screening over 150 films during the annual 11 day program.
She has a BA (Media Studies), an Adv. Dip
(Professional Screenwriting) and is a filmmaking seminar junkie.
After working on many short films Kylie
wrote/directed/produced the micro-budget feature This Kiss. It has been
seen in festivals around the world and was released on DVD in the USA. But the
actual process of making this film made her question if there was another way.
Luckily David, her bother, sent her an email about this thing called “agile”
and together they started experimenting with an alternative method for making
films called Lean Filmmaking.
David has been working with agile and lean techniques
for over a decade in the software and web development space. His
work has included managing multiple agile teams and hands on agile coaching.
He is actively involved in the Perth agile community,
helping organise the Agile Perth Meetup and speaking on agile and lean topics.
As a keen movie lover he was always interested in
Kylie's filmmaking adventures and after one of their many long discussions on filmmaking
David had a "what if" moment. He wrote an email to Kylie
outlining "what if agile and lean were applied to filmmaking?"
starting them on the Lean Filmmaking journey.
Their experience and the fact that they spent four years in developing this idea made the Sceptic in me to shut up and to let my self go completely embracing this new approach that will be for the first time experimented on a workshop second weekend of November.
Can’t tell you how happy and proud i’m because of possibility to be a part of this experiment which doesn’t necessarily has to succeed but at least we can say we tried… but if it goes well, it will change the future of filmmaking making it more accessible for all of those film junkers who love film making and doesn’t know how to or don’t want to swim in corporation’s ocean…
I believe there are plenty of us like that out there and Enthusiast in me tells me that Kylie and David could be Lumière brothers of this modern digital era…
why not?
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