Texting Tom

Eight years ago I met Tom, when I was casting a film. I disliked him immediately but we ended up great friends.

At least I thought we did.

But then I realised I haven't seen him in three years.

Although we text nearly every day.

Our texts are completely nonsensical; and are comprised almost entirely, and randomly -- out of quotes from 'Forrest Gump', 'The Cable Guy', 'Groundhog Day' and 'You've Got Mail'. It's something like this.

KID

Do you think we should meet? 

TOM

You're a very nice guy, but I just don't have any room in my life for a new friend. Okay?  

KID

But I'm in the all America ping pong team.

TOM

Is there someone else? Oh! That woman on television, Sidney-Ann!!!

KID 

F-O-X

TOM 

Needlenose Ned?

KID

Ned the head? Ned Ryerson? Needlenose Ned? F-O-X? 

TOM 

It's the cable guy.

KID 

You like boats, but not the ocean.

TOM 

I never made a slam dunk before. Thanks for the boost. Racoons. 

KID 

Those must be comfortable shoes. You can sit here if you want to.

TOM

Jenny?

KID 

Momma, what's vacation?

TOM 

F-O-X

KID

Do you think we should meet? 

TOM

You're going down Red Knight! Down, down, down., Red Knight's goin' down. Down, down, down, Red Knight goin' down.

KID

You off to see the groundhog?

TOM

Nancy?

KID

That kid may be the stupidest son of a bitch I've ever seen, but he sure is fast! 

TOM 

Yes Drill Sargeant. 

I often find myself distracted from writing, or reaching for my phone during meetings, or even waking up in the middle of the night---- purely to add to our ongoing masterpiece of quotexts. I think it's because Lieutenant Dan was always getting these funny feelings about a rock or a trail or the road, so he'd tell us to get down, shut up. And what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today.

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Keep Out

In a movie, it's much easier to be free. I came up with the name 'Kid In The Front Row' on a whim. But I think it expresses everything I feel about the cinema.

If I'm standing outside a fascinating old building with a 'Do Not Enter' sign, I don't want to obey it. I want to cross the line, I want to explore, and it's possible I will. But I'll feel guilty if I do, and I'll look over my back, convinced a security guy or policeman will make it a nightmare.

But when I write a screenplay, or film a scene, the characters can walk straight past that sign with ease.

'Do Not Enter' is everywhere. Don't enter that derelict building, don't enter into a relationship, don't enter into the film industry.

We go after the safe options. It's as if all of human experience has led us to a place of fear, where making a decision based on heart, or curiosity or hope is seen as absurd. Tell the person next to you that you want to go explore a haunted house, or you want to go explore Romania on your own, you'll meet resistance. People who know better. People who know the answers.

Movies are different. People stretch those boundaries, and they change. The best movies are about people who dare to risk, dare to love, dare to break out of the rules that society and the law placed down so pointlessly.

The other side of the no entry sign is where all the fun is. It's where life happens. For the most part, our fictional counterparts do it better than we do. And we get older, and less bolder, and satisfaction remains amiss.

Just a thought.

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Tiny Dancer

This was always a great song. But in 2000, Cameron Crowe put it in 'Almost Famous' - which made the song even better. Crowe has a way of doing that.

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Work

There are those that do the work and those that don't do the work. The difference between them is that those who do the work do the work, and the other side don't. It's that simple. 

And you can be either and most of the time you're caught dancing between the two. Constantly prioritizing and re-prioritizing and never quite figuring out where you are. But if you want to be hired, or you want to be taken seriously, you have to do the work. You have to be the writer who gets called up because the producer knows you can write them a scene at 2am ready for shooting at 6am. 

Because that's exactly how it is. There are those who do the work and those who avoid it, or delay it, or have the excuses. 

This is for me just like it's for you. Because some projects this year that should have taken five minutes took about seven months. 

The only difference between someone who does the work and someone who doesn't do the work is that the one who does the work does the work. The other one almost does it. Or does it five months from now. 

Do the work. It's why you here. Why you got into this thing. The daydreaming about red-carpets can come later, so can the moaning about bad auditions and evil producers. Forget about that and do the work.

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Five Questions For You

Would love for you to answer these, and also pass this on to anyone else who might be interested.

1. Has a film storyline or character ever inspired you to say or do something in your life that, otherwise, you wouldn't have said or done?

2. Artists die, but their work stays, as long as we keep viewing it. Why is the past important? Where do Chaplin, Capra and Hepburn fit into a world of iPhones and social networks?

3. What do you dislike most about movies?

4. Please sum up in only ONE word, what you are looking when you watch a film.

5. When you think of your love for movies, what one image comes to mind? (could be an image from a movie, could be a flashback of you as a kid eating popcorn, could be anything!)

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