Jonathon Gruber - A Reflection on His Process

Being introduced to Filmmaker Jonathon Gruber was a memorable experience. Unfortunately I was unable to attend the screening of his latest film, Miriam Beerman: A Painter's Journey, due to afternoon football practice however his attendance to class the following day provided an excellent opportunity to pick the brain of this well renowned filmmaker. I was particularly intrigued by his declaration of having many fluid and in the works ideas that he is working on. As a creator of film, I'm sure his brain is constantly jogging with new ideas and different directions to take. And he simply pursues them. I feel many workforces in the modern era requires people to always finish what they started and do everything possible to avoid distraction within the process. This is not a constraint amongst artists of all mediums and it must be a liberating feeling to have such freedom. As a person whose mind is always jumping around all over the place I could see myself particularly enjoying this aspect of the filmmaking field. Reflecting back to that day I can recall a half dozen times where Gruber would go off on a tangent and describe a particular work thats been on his mind. He'd share that he's been working on some of his ideas, collecting film and interviews, for well over a decade and that he was simply waiting for the right chance (lots of factors: interest, funding, etc.) to launch it into production. This may seem to some as an unorganized method or work process but it clearly works for Gruber and I could also see it working for me.