News so far

Well, "Strings" is nearly done for me, apart from a few remaining shots here and there over the next couple of weeks.

Then there'll be some ADR as the sound really hasn't been recorded all that well on this shoot. I think it seems to be of the directors' opinion that ADR is a good way to go. Some directors apparently use it all the time, giving their actors direction throughout the shooting, and so just taking a rough recording of sound. I wonder how well that works, or at least how well that'll work in this case.

We'll see.

Definitely feeling it's all very possible now to make my own film. It would be nice, of course, to find a studio as good as the one we've been using over the past few days. One wonders what it takes to do so. Ben, the director, does seem to have connections, and the kind of way with people that opens doors. That's a valuable trait in any person who's in business, of course. Something that's not been entirely my "thing", of course, in a lot of my ventures.

However, things can change. After all, this is all a learning thing. An exercise not just in making a movie, but discovering more wonderful life skills. I think sometimes that's one of the primary reasons for adventures of this nature: one learns so much not about life, but about oneself. These are the secondary rewards of such undertakings. Sometime they're more valuable than the undertaking itself.

It does come back to the script again, of course. Being realistic about what I have to offer combined with what I want to do, it has to be said that if I were thinking in terms of a market, and people spending money to watch one of my films, the 20 something market are going to be the ones to aim for, rather than the 50 somethings like myself. And that means making films like this one: with sex, violence, mysogeny, some kind of bizarre theme, swearing, and the usual things that younger people want to see. I know, because that's what I was into when I was 20 something. That's the way it always is.

So perhaps I should bear that in mind. Thing is, though, will I be that interested to make a film like that? I know that with this movie I could have played with a characterization that would have blown away anything Mark would have written, had I been given the chance to explore it. But I didn't, so I have what I have now.

Perhaps I should be playing around a little more with him, just to let him see I'm not an idiot. As it is, I haven't felt particularly connected to this character precisely because he doesn't have all that much going on for him.

Could I write something that much more interesting? That much more exciting? Even for kids in their 20s?

Maybe so. It's a challenge.

But then again, like anything else it really does come down to motivation. Can I honestly say I'm that motivated to make this film, let alone make something so specific to 20 year olds? Perhaps its the 20 year olds that should be making their own films, and me playing parts in them, as I've been doing here.

Well again, we'll see...

My initial reason for making this film was to make something as a vehicle for my talents: writing a film that showed me in a light that gets me more work and plenty of it, as well as making a film that was watchable all round. That's still possible.

Maybe I need to make a film that uses actors that want specific parts written for them. By so doing, I'm more likely to get actors involved, for one thing. Seeing as they'd feel part of the collaboration, their input would boost the conviction, the motivation, and maybe even the money that goes into it.

Again, much of this comes down to focus. When I know what I want, it'll come.

The first hurdle is jumped, though: I know that I want to know what I want. I'm clear, as it were, about being clear.