Can't Complain

A meme suggested giving up complaints for 24 hours. I agreed. Out of faithfulness to the meme, I will continue to put a positive spin on what I say. Tomorrow I am to improvise a bit of a shoot in a park so I've been thinking of general ideas. I suppose it is meant to be me talking about movies to a bored listener on a bench. I guess I can rant. There is a certain built-in conceit that maybe someone will find it amusing or useful. It's my hope to keep it happening. We will be recording proper sound, which I have not done for about 10 years. And it has been 20 years since I graduated Humber and a directing instructor left me with the inspirational question, "So you're going to pass yourself off as a writer-director?" And it is 30 years since I directed my first video at age 16. These numbers are somewhat intimidating. I will either be a successful writer and director or I will be a failed writer and director, but in any case that is what belongs in my obituary. I have been working, meanwhile, as a security guard and I feel that the research for my film or play on security has just about concluded. I think I can see the end in sight for that project. I have still managed to keep my soul. What am I randomly thinking about today? I went to a Comedy Bar event last night, had a beer and greeted Sketchy the Clown For Mayor, who got enough votes to win the competition. Today I went to see a Fringe play about the Robert Ford who killed Jessie James, its many asides reminding us that it is not to be confused with any other Rob Ford. I had a swim, and enough coffee, invested some time on the inter-net, and now I am in a caffeine daze deciding whether to focus on a script I need to finish. I can't and won't give up on the movie thing. That is already too big a part of who I am. It isn't like the character in Adaptation who one day says, "Done with fish" and starts collecting plants instead. ********************************************************************************************************** Is a video of myself ranting to the screen more effective than, say, text blogs like this? Maybe. But I'm not always of a mind to flap my lips. I think it is usually best to keep opinions close to the vest. Spike Lee said "Those who know don't tell and those who tell don't know." So is he saying that he doesn't know if he is telling us this? I think the message I get from someone has to do with what stock they own. It is only natural to try to boost that stock, what they have and what they are. A director with an A.D. background may say it is vital to be an A.D. before rising in ranks to director, even if the good ones will be encouraged to remain A.D.s. As I see the immediate future stretching out for me, I don't see myself starting out with the Director's Guild of Canada as a P.A.(Production assistant)/A.D. and then going to 3RD AD, 2ND AD, and finally First A.D. . Assuming I don't drop the ball in that capacity. One can be a talented director without being an effective Assistant, or a brilliant and vital A.D. but a mediocre director. If you are young, you might insist that a director of anything exciting and hip should be young. If you are a musician, regardless of talent, you might say that rhythm being so vital to filmmaking and editing a director or editor must also be a musician. Robert Rodriguez at least says that, "everybody has music in them" and has suggested people can use programs that allow experimentation and print out sheet music even for non-musicians to take a stab at their own scores. That is at least generous of spirit. If a director is female, she might be focused on the message of the seeming need for more females to be hired as directors. If you are old, you might want to see more interest in older or more experienced directors. Objectively, there is little to any of it. As a viewer, I might be fooled into praising a movie that simply has good performances because the cast is talented, or responding to a story that has content that pushes my own personal buttons regardless of whether there was anything special about the way the script was written or the way the director presented it. But the movies I love most could not have been directed by a piker, or simply "covered" by rote. The co-ordination of actors, framing, movement, and everything that goes into the best movie direction is what makes me take notice enough to look back at something over and over again and appreciate a touch of cleverness and confidence in what we see and from which angle at which moment. Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future, and much of Tarantino's work stand out. Some say the director's work should be invisible and not showy, but for the general audience there will be an unconscious feeling of assurance that they are in good hands while someone who is a filmmaker and/or obsessed by cinema and its machinations will appreciate the joins - whether or not they are noticed upon first viewing. A movie where the director's job is merely to "get out of the actor's way" would not appeal to me. The director directs the attention of the audience, picks each person up and allows them to see what small item is the most important thing in the world and whether the moment is steady as a rock or subtly shaky. There have been times I have built a house on quicksand without knowing it. It is a team effort, but I now that if I am going to feel the journey was worth my while expectations have to be disclosed and the storyboard must be the common frame of reference; usually if I'm not somewhat on edge over a detail being correct then I am on vacation and coasting and ultimately taking false credit. If the crew is happy to be directed by me, then they are the right crew. But tomorrow I have few if any firm expectations. I used to go to a party and organize an improvised movie, a horror premise or soap opera we could all watch edited-in-camera at the end of the night as a goof. But while I would still do that, I would feel it wasteful to approach a serious project that way. A movie should be more fun to watch than to make. And if I am so keen to appease every collaborator's impulses at the expense of my own instinct, the end product will be a monument to failure, compromise, and chaos. I would prefer it to be by design and not a mystery. I can bet on myself, and on people who also believe in what I am doing.