This evening, I went to the Dinner Conversation with Marshall Curry, a documentary film maker who has won awards at film festivals and was nominated for an Oscar.  I love watching movies and I have always been amazed by documentaries in particular because the film maker does not have complete control of what happens like in other genres of movies, but they instead have to be willing to change their plan entirely based on the footage they get.

I found Mr. Curry’s story very inspiring.  He had wanted to make documentaries for a while, but he always thought of being a documentary maker as unrealistic of a goal as being the quarterback of a professional football team.  Finally, he told himself he would just give it a try, so he took a leave of absence from work and set about making his first film, Street Fight.  Never having made a film before or gone to film school, Mr. Curry bought a camera and started filming.  After shooting 200 hours of video, he took a weekend class on using editing software and then single-handedly edited the 200 hours down to 120 minutes and formed a cohesive story.  He then worked with a professional to get it down to 82 minutes.  It was with this first documentary that he was nominated for an Oscar.

While I do not intend to make documentaries in the future, some of the lessons Marshall Curry has learned through his experience with film making can apply to anyone.  First of all, he told us that anything you make is not going to perfect the first time and you can’t expect it to be.  Just put down your ideas and then use iterative improvement until you’re satisfied.  And secondly, it is important to be comfortable with failure, because it is through failure that you improve your skills.

Marshall Curry shared a fascinating story about his path to becoming a film maker and the skills he has learned along the way.  I am very glad I attended this dinner conversation.