Extra Credit- Tribeca

The Tribeca Film Festival is a great place for film lovers of all genres, across all mediums, and from different countries all over the world. Not only do you get to see films that are brand new, many even having their first premieres at Tribeca, but many films host Q&As afterwards as well. The director of the film is often in attendance, and is available to answer any burning questions you may have about the film you just watched, or even the filmmaking process in general.

The film I saw at Tribeca was a horror movie called "Extraterrestrial" directed by The Vicious Brothers. I was excited to watch this movie because I had already known these directors from a previous movie they've done called "Grave Encounters." As a massive horror fan, I was really excited that the directors would be there to speak to the audience after their movie played. 

Q&As with the filmmakers are really enlightening because not only do you learn more about the film, story wise, but you learn a lot about filmmaking in general. One thing that I discovered from this Q&A was how lengthy the filmmaking process actually is. Often times we watch a film as a form of entertainment without actually realizing how every single piece, from the lighting, to the set, to the actors and the script, have all come together over time to create this visual narrative. I was surprised to hear from The Vicious Brothers that the ending of Extraterrestrial was actually decided at the last minute. They said that they'd gone through 4 or 5 different endings before spontaneously settling on the one we watched. Even though they said they had a storyboard and had plotted the entire movie, it still wasn't concrete, because storytelling is often fluid and changing. That made me appreciate film a lot more, because while storyboarding and planning are crucial to filming, it's nice to know that going with the flow can work just as well. 

I also realized from the directors how hard it can be to actually make a movie. Even though The Vicious Brothers had success with their first movie, which garnered a small cult following, it didn't guarantee their next film's development. As fun and creative as film can be, there's still a business side to it, and often times without funding or producers, it's a no go. They were really hopeful about their film however, which was inspiring to me. I really enjoyed my time at the Q&A and gaining more insight into the filmmaking world.