Qualities Of Better Film #24 of 31: CONFIDENCE IN THE FILMMAKING
Does the movie lead the audience forward and earn our trust? Today’s audiences ask the filmmaker to prove to them that the director is a worthy leader; they sit in suspicion waiting for failure until the director does something that inspires confidence and erases doubt. Trust should be earned, right?
A filmmaker who is truly confident is also willing to fail; they don’t just prove what they know but they are also willing to go out on a limb and try new things. A confident filmmaker knows that he or she does not need to show things in the same way that other filmmakers do; they treat the audience to new angles and sequences but are able to do it in a manner that does not feel like a show-off or pretentious. They don’t have to ask to be loved. They are willing to have characters who may not be sympathetic, but are truly as complex as humans are.
When a filmmaker has confidence, questions of tone and pacing are often placed on the wayside as the audience recognizes that these more nuanced aspects of filmmaking are fully understood by the filmmaker. Slow is sometimes the right pace for a film, but the filmmaker who bucks the norm better have gained our trust and earned the right for such confidence.
