🎬 Is There Even a “Proper Way” to Make a Film? Why Embracing Unorthodox Filmmaking Works

🎥 Film Fundamentalism vs. Cinematic Rule-Breaking

I’m not what you’d call a highbrow cinephile. I haven’t watched every “classic” film in theaters, and I didn’t grow up idolizing the canon. As a kid, I watched plenty of foreign films on TV, but I enjoyed B-movies just as much as the so-called masterpieces.

Some film fans treat classics with religious reverence. I jokingly call this mindset “film fundamentalism.” These folks believe there’s a correct way to make a movie—usually involving lavish production, meticulous technique, and high artistic ambition. Even if the film isn’t commercially successful, you can tell it’s meant to be a legacy piece.

And for some, that’s the only kind of film that matters. They look down on movies made simply to entertain.

I take the opposite stance. I advocate for what I call “unorthodox filmmaking.” If it’s fun, it’s valid. If it works, it works.

🧠 The Trap of Overvaluing Technique

Film fundamentalists often obsess over how a shot “should” be composed or how acting “should” be delivered. Technique matters—but when it becomes dogma, it can get absurd.

Bruce Lee taught me that.

🥋 Bruce Lee and the Absurdity of Rigid Forms

In high school, I was obsessed with Bruce Lee. He wasn’t just an action star—he was a real martial artist. And he often criticized traditional martial arts like Chinese kung fu or Japanese karate for being too fixated on form.

Of course, he understood the value of form. But he also warned that clinging to it too tightly leads to absurdity. That’s why he created Jeet Kune Do, a martial art that emphasized flexibility and discouraged rigid patterns.

Take the practice of balancing on one leg to build core strength. It’s useful in training—but being able to stand on one leg for a long time doesn’t help you win a fight. When the form becomes the goal instead of the tool, it’s laughable.

Bruce Lee’s critique applies beyond martial arts. It’s relevant to filmmaking, too.

✂️ Osamu Tezuka and the Power of Pragmatism

Consider Osamu Tezuka, the “God of Manga.” He was a brilliant artist with endless ideas and an enormous body of work. His dream was to make animated films, so he drew manga to fund that goal.

To save time, he’d photocopy character faces, cut them out, and paste them onto his comic pages. His manuscripts were famously messy.

This wasn’t laziness—it was pragmatism. He separated means from ends. Like Bruce Lee, he understood that rigid technique isn’t always the best path to meaningful creation.

🎭 Why Film Isn’t Ideal for Pure Acting

Film is a hybrid medium. It combines many disciplines, so it’s naturally “unorthodox” in some areas.

Take acting. It’s central to human drama, but film isn’t the best medium for pure performance.

Why? Because film shoots are fragmented. Emotional scenes are broken into pieces and shot over hours. Actors must maintain continuity across takes, but sustaining raw emotion for five or six hours is nearly impossible.

Unlike theater, where emotion flows uninterrupted, film often results in surface-level acting. Actors might wonder, “Is this even real performance?”

🎬 The Nature of Film: Illusion and Reconstruction

Film is built on two principles:

• Visual limitation: What’s outside the frame doesn’t exist. A scene may look authentic, but just beyond the camera are crew members and empty space.
• Reconstruction: Scenes are shot out of order and stitched together later. Unlike theater, film isn’t linear—it’s assembled.

Film isn’t about what’s real. It’s about what looks real. A cold scene might be shot in sweltering heat. A dangerous moment might be perfectly safe. The illusion is the point.

When you accept that, unorthodox filmmaking becomes not just valid—but powerful.

🛠️ Practical Techniques from the Unorthodox Playbook

Here are some examples from my own low-budget filmmaking experience:

🎙️ Handling Actors Who Struggle with Lines

Sometimes actors can’t memorize their lines well—especially when there’s no time for rehearsals. To solve this:

• Break long dialogue into short segments.
• Cut to the listener’s face mid-scene so the speaker only needs to deliver one line at a time.
• Record voice-over for off-camera lines while reading from the script.

It’s not “pure” acting, but it works.

😠 Expressing Emotion Without Performance

If an actor can’t convey emotion convincingly, use visual cues:

• A close-up of a clenched fist can express anger.
• A tear rolling down a cheek can say more than words.

These techniques are common—even in big-budget films.

🎞️ Fixing Continuity Errors

Film shoots are rarely linear. That leads to mistakes—like a drink changing levels between cuts or a sleeve being rolled differently.

To fix this:

• Shoot extra footage, like a close-up of the actor’s face, to use as a bridge.
• Insert that shot between mismatched cuts to smooth the transition.

It’s a simple trick, but it saves scenes.

🧩 Filmmaking Is a Game of Problem-Solving

At its core, filmmaking is about solving problems creatively. It’s about crafting illusions that move people—even if the process is messy.

Using unorthodox methods to “trick the audience” isn’t cheating. It’s part of the fun.

If you want to master traditional techniques, go to film school and work on professional sets. But if you’re making films for the joy of it, embrace the unorthodox. It’s liberating, effective, and often more fun.

Hope this gives you something to think about.