Motivation

Right now I'm feeling a bit despondent about this project. (My own film - not "Strings") I know the feeling won't last, but I know something of why the despondency's there, and it's to do with my motivation.

There's little point in being only partly motivated to do something. The best motivation is intrinsic motivation, of course, and what I want is to be motivated to make a movie that's not only brilliant in itself, but also to be something that reaches people with its ideas and originality. Just as The Matrix was brilliant, I want my movie to be brilliant, too. I mean, it would be all very well to make something commercially good - such as some action packed, sex and violence thing that appealed just to the reptillian mind, but also it would be good to make something that attracts all people of all ages, races, creeds and such.

It might offend some, of course. And I have no problem with that. Just so long as my movie stays within its own integrity. The beauty of The Matrix is that it made so many people think differently. It opened minds. And that's what I'd like to be able to do.

But HOW did it open minds? What was going on in the minds of the writers prior to The Matrix? Same with Butterfly Effect, Magnolia, Boogie Nights and all the other films I like: what drove the writers to write those stories, those characters, etc? What frame of mind do you have to get into to write a damned good screenplay?

As I'm saying this, I'm having some really exciting ideas about creativity, and I think I want to explore them with the people I know who are working on STRINGS now. They just might be right for it. It would be an extension of the ideas I've played with for a little while on my own - ideas that tap directly into The Creative Process. I just had a couple of little ideas thinking on something Mark (Dennis) said about "read me": "reading" someone always means reading something more into what's going on. We always add our own interpretation to readings of others; our own beliefs are overlaid on top of what the other person thinks.

I just then had a very strong wave of faith in the bunch of people I've been working with over the last few weeks: not because they're easy to work with, but because they're difficult. It's the difficulties that are sometimes the springboards into doing the really excellent work.