Journey to Planet X (2012)

I am always interested in movies about making movies.  Maybe it's because I want to see how others suffer for their art, or maybe it's just plain curiosity. But after watching ten minutes of "Journey to Planet X"  I got hooked. The film is about Eric Swain and Troy Bernier who are scientists by day and amateur filmmakers by night. In the film we see their work from the past and it is very amateur like, but the work has heart. It's Swain's and Bernier's can do attitude which is refreshing and inspiring.  In the film they are making a more ambitious short entitled "Planet X"and the documentary is all about how they do it.  All the good and the bad of filmmaking is seen in this making of film, and middle way through the film you find yourself rooting for these guys.

The documentary goes through the whole process of our two hero's making their film from preproduction to post, and we get to see how the actual film develops.  Both Eric and Troy are interesting characters too. One very particular, and the other is whatever works is okay with him. How the two come to terms with their different personalities is funny and inspiring.  Amateur means doing something for pleasure, and their passion for doing the film shows through. It's this that makes the film so genuine. It's an interesting film to watch and see how these two individuals make their dreams come alive. The documentary is 76 minutes long and it is a fairly short film that has good pacing. The filmmakers Josh Koury and Myles Kane do a good job at capturing their subjects passion. Watching Eric and Troy tackle technical problems, scheduling issues, and location limitations is interesting and can be revealing to the average public. After all no one really knows what it takes to get a film finished, and seeing how they handle each problem is quite inspiring. In the end it inspired me to create something myself after watching this movie. After all creative types know the highs and lows of producing. This film shows that it is possible and in the end we do what we love, and this film captures that spirit and as I said can do attitude.  If Hollywood studios would stop letting the bean counters make the films and put it back in the hands of the artists we would have some better films being made today, but that's another argument for another day. If you get a chance to see this film, and you love filmmaking I highly recommend seeing it.  Get inspired and just keep doing it until you get so good that studios will be calling you.  Then the FUN really begins.