Image by Trevor Geoffrey

If people would have told me being a film director would make me not enjoy watching movies, I may not have signed up. I'm fine now, but there was a good ten-year period where I didn't really enjoy movies. I just watched them and picked them apart. I was rarely truly blown away, most of the time simply not having much fun, and didn't know why.

Conscious Of Technique

As an independent movie director you have to learn how to do all the things a filmmaker does to make films. Along the way you will build a set of assumptions about what is the best way to do this and that. So when you watch movies you will often be more interested in how the movie is made and less so what it's about. You aren’t able to just take it in as you once did. Many times your experience will be ruined by minor technical things rather than it being a truly poor movie.

Come to grips with the fact that each filmmaker does it his or her own way and it isn't a judgment on your ideas that they don't agree with you.

Overly Critical

Now that you know a little something about how films are made, you will think you know ways to make films better and will use this to judge every movie you see. You will become attuned to acting performances and judge each and every one you see. You might start following plots more closely with a more incredulous attitude, refusing to bend for even the slightest logic problems. You will become bored with the director's camera work and lack of daring lighting choices. You will generally be upset by that fact the most films do not hold up to the standard you have set.

You are seeing things most people do not see. That does not make you wrong, but it does mean you are not part of the intended audience anymore. To keep this mindset might be an impediment to reaching an audience with your films.

Envious

The one thing that never fails is for budding filmmakers to disparage others' work. Another inevitable thing is for them to become jealous when anybody in a situation like theirs attains any level of success. I will not go over the times a first-time filmmaker has made a minor splash with a film, garnering radio interviews, features in newspapers, and a theatrical release, that got my blood boiling.

You cannot go any faster than you are going. Each filmmaker's journey is unique and resources personal. The success of other filmmakers does not preclude you attaining it. too.

Snobby

There will be a time in a filmmaker's life (which they may never pass through) of thinking one type of film is qualitatively better than any other. As if adhering to a genre or aesthetic alone could ensure that a film be worth watching. Along with these blanket assertions, will be condescension aimed at people that watch anything but what you consider quality cinema. For a long while I thought independent was better and mainstream was inferior. After years of boredom watching the hot new indie film, I realized that they are different animals each with their own criteria for success.

A good film is just that, no matter how it was produced. You may not like it for political reasons but that does not negate its value.

As a filmmaker you have to consciously get yourself in the mood an average movie-goer gets into effortlessly. It is a combination of being non-judgmental about the filmmaking and more receptive to the story it tells. I have just recently found a solution to my movie-going issues. I now find I can see anything and genuinely experience it for what it is (for the most part) if I only see it at the cheap $1 theaters. I am still conscious of technique, I just do not let it get in the way of enjoyment. I do still laugh at ridiculous parts of movies that others take serious. I am still a snob, just not to anyone's face. That is the best I can do for now.