An opening ramble

While you might not see much posting to this blog in the near future, a lot is leading up to the posts you will see, which I hope you will find were worth the wait. This blog will be about one subject and one alone - the amateur films I and some (as yet, probably not yet found) associates will be creating, most of them in video format. I do not yet have a camera, hence the delay. What sort of videos? Simple, nonnarrative ones in the beginning, showing some of the places I've been, most of them in Chicago, but eventually, we'll be telling a few stories. These will be low budget affairs with no budget for special effects, which won't be a problem, because we're not going to be doing science fiction, fantasy, horror or even any action films. This will be more like theatre onscreen, set in the present, with few if any fantastical elements and yes, "fantastical" is a real word. Instead of blowing things up in an unconvincing manner, I thought we'd focus on character development and storytelling.

A few comments ... I don't picture myself ever shooting a nude scene, at this moment, and if I ever do, I won't be doing so on a film associated with this account. I'm not saying this because I feel that nude scenes are inherently immoral, but because I suspect that they're inherently pointless. While meaningful discussions might take place in bedrooms in the movies, I've never heard of that happening in real life. Sex, when it is right, seems to be more the culmination and fulfillment of something meaningful, then something meaningful on its own, so I don't see any loss in cutting away before anything that would push our effort above a PG level occurs. This might leave a few adolescent male viewers groaning about having been teased, or complaining that "this is all so last millenium", maybe doing so a little more loudly when they discover that a few of our releases will be done in black and white, but so be it.

Pay. There won't be any. This is purely amateur hour, being done only for fun on a shoestring, and I have no backers. I don't really want any, either - the stories we tell will be told as they are, without compromise. Having somebody else paying the bills means having somebody else be in a position in which he can tell us to give in or see those funds taken away, and a film done partially on a low budget and partially on a high budget would just look sad. I really can't picture anybody offering to back us, anyway, and did I mention - "we" is just "me", at the moment.

Politics. I remember a few discussions in which I've heard people insist that one had to be politically liberal in order to get anywhere in acting, showing no signs of seeing why that would be shameful, if true. I, myself, am a centrist, not a liberal, and would not require anybody working with me to agree with my politics. The question I would ask is whether or not you believe that human beings are born with a right to be treated with respect, and to have a fair chance at living full lives, so no, I wouldn't work with a Klansman, but I'm not going to ask you to leave just because you're a Republican, or be at all patient with those who would.

So that we will not find ourselves wandering into Ed Wood territory, there will be a significant lead time before any shooting ever occurs, in which all will be done with pen and ink - a story cycle being build before even the first rehearsal. We'll all be equals, but those present for that first stage of activity will be a bit more equal than the others. I have had the experience of trying to put together a plot with those who saw fit to bypass the long, quiet work of writing and skip straight to the excitement of the stage, and found that maturity problems arose, with the plots growing increasingly far fetched.

There will be very little shouting on screen or on stage. Yes, I know that smashing the furniture is a hallmark of the Chicago school of drama, and how could I not, when my eardrums have reminded me of this on many occasions. David Mamet certainly uses it to good effect, and maybe that's the problem - too many playrights trying to be Mamet, when only one person really has any business being him, at all. We're going to go for a more muted, understated style.

The sky is lighting up, so I'll finish this before it eats into my hiking time any more than it has, and continue later.