Before you bust my ass, I know that it wouldn't be [by definition] acceptable to call my filmmaking "guerrilla". I'm certainly not an insurgent performing military operations. However, I feel the name is fitting, since the majority of my time spent bush-jumping is on the property of someone unknown to me and vice versa. Additionally, most of these people would probably be seriously upset if they saw me defiling their painstaking handiwork. Therefore, technically, I am an "irregular", in a way infiltrating hostile territory and striking a vulnerable target.
In all honesty I think it's funny that I pick up my shit and get out of the neighbourhood immediately.
In this case, though, it covers a larger area of description. I think it's deliciously badass (and somewhat narcissistic) to refer to my style of stunt filming this way. What I mean when I say it is that I'm small operations. Mostly it's just me, a camera, and a tripod, trying to set up in a way that catches all the pivotal moments of whatever it is I'm hurting myself with today. Especially when jumping into bushes, I feel like a hit squad because I don't waste time loitering, waiting to be spotted by someone with a cache of firearms sitting in their living room. I typically fill a backpack with essential materials, and sometimes I don't even do that. Diving head first into where is essentially behind suburban enemy lines (a phrase which here means the worst that can happen to me really is getting chastised by a senior citizen) is exponentially more thrilling if you imagine some Clint Eastwood character sitting in front of his bay window in a rocking chair, caressing a rifle, just waiting for an asshole like me to dismantle his hedge clipper penguin art.
The term isn't limited, though, to just bush-jumping; Les Stroud [as mentioned in the video I uploaded this week] could easily get away with calling his practice by the same name. Subsequently, I would consider placing a solitary camera in a tree in order to catch the hilarity that ensues directly below it a form of guerilla filmmaking as well. I wouldn't want to confine it to a definition that doesn't properly represent its diversity, but if I had to, I think I would describe it in whole as, "using limited materials to quickly, sufficiently, and creatively capture the entirety of an action sequence," and even that seems too constricting. It's significant to the definition that whatever content being discussed is largely unscripted and spontaneous. The adverbs are very important here, because without those three words it's just "sticking a camera somewhere retarded to watch someone walk at a dumb angle or something for an hour." I may have paraphrased it relatively well, but it probably does leave out some necessary aspects.
Another element that doesn't apply to everyone is doing it solo (that sounds dirty). I have some, but not as much experience with trying to get a difficult shot creatively when there are others involved. The term is more effective when you recognize "resources" to include individuals, because then being limited to one or two, maybe even three people would still fit the definition. With grandiose stunts, ones that would definitely require two or more angles to capture, especially in a public area, the term stretches to cover trying as hard as possible not to be apprehended (in the event that whatever you're doing could be construed as illegal) or even as loosely as trying to get as much as you can in as short of a time as possible (for instance, between periods of business in a heavily populated area). To this extent, as well, one could consider certain public pranks a form of guerrilla filmmaking, since sometimes you have to leave before your ruse is figured out.
I suppose, at the end of the day, a lot of internet video content could be defined as "guerrilla" the way I'm using it. We stuntmen and pranksters use time and the element of surprise to our advantage. We get as much footage in as little time as possible. We live fast and we die hard. Never forget, never surrender.
Just kidding; I'm really just a dick with a video camera, and no regard for the well-being of shrubbery.
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