Dreaming With Nothing

"I dream for a living" -Spielberg.

Good for him, the rest of us struggle. A field covered in the dead corpses of projects that faltered, fell and faded.

You have to believe in the impossible. To make a living in the movie industry is to do the unrealistic, to pull magic out of a hat when you don't even know what a hat is.

Advice is wonderful; write every day, write only when inspired; dedicate all waking hours to film, dedicate all waking hours to life and living; work for free to prove your worth, charge lots to prove your worth. Advice is great but however you do it, you end up time and again with nothing except a heap of battered-beat up experiences to share in some coffee house with a friend.

But at least you have those experiences. The work of successful artists is painted with a hundred failures. Everyone I know goes to bed at least six nights a week struggling with the dark knowledge that the goals we set for ourselves and the promise we've shown has lead to not much of anything at all.

And the real world has questions. The values set by the Western world are: how much money did you make? Did you win the award? Are you famous yet?

In some alternate reality someone asks; did you enjoy it? Did the project fulfill your ambitions? Did you manage to produce what was in your heart? Not in this world, not yet.

The worries of the artist are small compared to the real world issues of bills, poverty and war.

But art makes the journey worthwhile. The song at your wedding, the movie you watch every Christmas, the poem you have pinned up in the kitchen. I'm not saying they're everything but they're a huge contribution to society. We need to cherish the artists. They drive themselves mad as hell insane, just to produce something. Producing magic is the dream, producing something adequate is a miracle.

The successes failed again and again too, right up until they hit the jackpot. When I interviewed Lawrence Sher he told me how he was earning $7000 a year and struggling like crazy. Then it changed. The last few years he's been DOP'ing films like 'Due Date' and 'The Hangover', he's one of the most sought after guys in the industry. Scott Rosenberg told me that he wrote ten feature films before he got an agent. He wrote four more before something got made.

How close are you to giving up? How close are you to succeeding?

The margins are small. As Pacino said in 'Any Given Sunday': "It's a game of inches...".

Sometimes people put us down when we want to reach for the stars. Other times people want us to reach for the stars and we're too busy putting ourselves down and dwelling on failure.

Sure, you're failing. Everyone's failing. You have thousands of people for company. But you've trained yourself in your art for years; we improve, we get better. Sometimes you reach people, sometimes you get the big cheque. But not if you quit or cave.

Good luck, we're all in this thing together.

"If I am going to have any life anymore
it is because, I am still willing to fight, and die for that inch
because that is what LIVING is.
The six inches in front of your face."
-Pacino, in 'Any Given Sunday'

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Extremely Excited - THE BOP DECAMERON

'The Bop Decameron'. I'm excited about this. 

Jesse Eisenberg is the star of two of my favorite films, 'Adventureland' and 'The Social Network' - and I've been dying to see Ellen Page do something as wonderful as 'Juno' ever since she made it ('Whip It' was cool, 'Inception' wasn't really about her.)

Page and Eisenberg together would be exciting enough. But it's also written and directed by a guy called Woody Allen. 

Woody Allen working with these two is music to my ears! I cannot think of better casting. And there's also Penélope Cruz, Alec Baldwin, Judy Davis (finally working with Woody again!), Greta Gerwig - and Woody is acting in it himself (first time since 'Scoop' in 2006)

Unlike most, I have still stuck by Woody over the years. 'Scoop' and 'Cassandra's Dreams' were truly awful, but most of his other recent efforts I've liked. Even the much derided 'Anything Else' and 'Hollywood Ending' -- I enjoy them both and have watched them many times. 

But here Woody may have struck gold. Coming off the back of 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona' and 'Midnight In Paris' (along with 'You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger', which I loved but the critics didn't) I can think of nothing better for Woody than working with two of the finest young actors in Hollywood. Eisenberg was destined to be in a Woody film; it's impossible to deny that the director has had an influence on Eisenberg; the mannerisms and acting styles are too similar. 

This is perfect perfect perfect. Of course, when I get this excited, it never works out. But this time, it just might...

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Input Needed

So let's do something different.

What do you want me to blog about?

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The Early, Funny Ones: Your First Experiences Making Films Are By Far The Best

You'll never have as much fun as those first films. Everyone comes together and feels the possibilities. You shoot at 6am all the way through till 4am and no-one cares because you're in it together, doing something, and everyone had forgotten what it was to do something.

And you scoff down a bar of chocolate at 2am and a cake at 2.04am and get talking to some bearded helper about your cinematic influences and you chat to the pretty girl who's helping out just because it gives her something to do and she tells you how she secretly wants to write scripts.

You laugh like crazy because the acting is so bad and no-one knows what they're doing. But everything is so important, it's like bomb disposal. You must must must make this movie because life depends on it. You run down the steps holding some cable and feel all buzzed up on life.

You take a break between scenes in some freezing cold field and everyone is eating bananas cos' you asked people to bring food and Michael brought fifty bananas because he's crazy.

Everyone is crazy, jumping off houses with cameras and climbing onto houses that belong to strangers; all because the shot is needed. The film is everything. We were sleepwalking through life and now we're movie makers, and this could be a masterpiece.

It's the last night of filming and we've snuck into some farmer's barn and everyone is in love with everyone and Paul has a crazy idea to film it upside down from the hole in the roof. I want to impress the girl, the girl wants to impress the bearded guy, and the bearded guy wants to impress upon us his greatness. So we all dive in and climb our way up to the roof and balance the camera using sticks and bananas and hope.
Filming ends and no-one wants to go home, because we all have work or school or unemployment in the morning. It's back to something and it isn't the movies.

You never get this back. The pure joy, the wonder, the naivety. It's everything.

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My Film Blog Facts

1. All of my writings are spur of the moment.

2. I write fluidly and post immediately. If I'm at the computer I spell check, if I'm using my phone I don't.

3. If there are no images you know I've published from my phone.

4. I give advice a lot but am generally uneasy about doing so because I think that, for the most part when it comes to art: you should do what you want and find your own way.

5. I often delay arranging and conducting interviews due to laziness.

6. My favorite interview on the site is with Scott Rosenberg.

7. I often want to delete posts after publishing, but never do.

8. I would rather my posts be art than give advice on art. i.e. rather than write a blog called 'be creative!' I'd rather write something creative. This is an aim for the future.

9. I have turned down a lot of sponsorship and advertising opportunities, because they're not in line with what I preach.

10. I feel I've yet to find the true purpose of this blog.

Bonus fact: While writing this I listened to 'Many Rivers To Cross' by Jimmy Cliff and 'We'll Meet Again" by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

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