Back to the Future

Found this picture the other day, and it is of me dressed as the killer in some Super-8 short I was making at the time. I had been very influenced by films like "Halloween", "Friday the 13th", and a whole slew of low budget horror films to numerous to mention. I was always filming something, and trying to coax people to star in my films. You see the technical was never a problem with me. It was getting the people to work on the films that was hard. Usually they were my friends & family, but a lot of the time I had to do a lot of filling in. I can even remember getting my mom to run the camera for a quick shot of me dressed as the killer, or as a victim. It's ironic that that still is a problem. As you know if you've been reading this blog I do try and pay my actors and crew when I can, but it's hard to do so now even though expenses for DV filmmaking aren't as much as they would be if I was shooting on film. When I went to film school I was excited about meeting others with the same interests, and for awhile it was great, but we never supported each other as much as I would have liked. Competition was introduced, and though I think a bit of competition is good it eventually divided us more then it united us. Throughout film school I worked on any, and every film I could. I remember long train & bus rides early in the AM or late in the evening sometimes lugging pieces of equipment. I never complained, and always tried to do the best I could do on other people's projects, but the group that I had hoped would form never did. In a way I guess I'm still looking for those individuals who are die hard filmmaking enthusiasts, and people I can help and work with. It's not about the money. It's about the work. If the work is good the money will come, but I'm in the minority in thinking this way. I had FUN back when I was doing my little epics, and I want to have a bit of that when I work on other films. My sensibilities have changed since I was a young teen and early adult. I have little patience for wanna-bes, or bull-shiters today. I'm slowly getting back to where I enjoyed doing this, and slowly the work becomes more meaningful to me. When I was young there were NO limits because no one told you there were any. That's where I want to get back to. It's where creativity really thrives, and where creativity exsists good work can be made and accomplished. That's all I want in the end.