Eugene Riecansky

We recently had a visit and lecture from music video director Eugene Riecansky. He's a leading figure in his field and it was really interesting to hear how he go to where he is. As he was talking us through his work it was easy to see how he went about coming up with an idea. He has loads of really useful, practical tips that would only be realised through years of experience. For example, he made it clear that it was important to get your filming done over one day. Whilst that may not be possible for me, I realise now that filming it quickly over consecutive days would make things a lot easier.

When he was talking about planning, he told us that he never used story boards. Whilst he acknowledged that planning a shot list was crucial, he said that using story boards will often result in little to no creative variation when filming. This is a very valid point. Despite planning to use storyboards it may be an approach I try to use when planning my filming.

I asked him whether he preferred filming indoors or outdoors. He said he preferred indoor location largely due to the fact they result in fewer complications due to weather and other factors. This is helpful to me as I plan to shoot indoors anyway, so it served to confirm my decision.

Most of all, however, he focused on the fact that for any piece of work to be successful, the basic idea has to work. If you do not have a good, well formed idea to start with, you will struggle to make a good video. This has encouraged me due to the fact that I knew my idea right from the start. Though it has changed somewhat, I still think the basic concept is intact. I always planned to use stop motion characters, in a home setting, within a fantasy world.