For those stumbling onto this, this note just goes in relation to a
posting I made earlier today about postponing my web series plans and
turning towards another production. The piece I've decided to revert to
was initially intended to be shot in the fall of 2012 as a portfolio
project towards my degree in digital multimedia/communications and film
production. Unfortunately, I was not as well structured and not quite as
experienced as I am now and the project quickly became overwhelming. I
had only roughly nine weeks to do everything and initial struggles had
one of my key characters still left not cast for a week into the term. I
then lost my lead actress to another project and there I was: a naive
filmmaker with still some lessons to learn trying to shoot a 50 page
script with 62 different scenes with hardly any crew and now less than
eight weeks to put the whole thing together. This doesn't include the
fact that by this time two of my three main characters were suddenly
left unfilled, thus preventing me from rescheduling shooting dates. I
was also forced to borrow equipment from the school as I had yet to
purchase my own DSLR camera and audio equipment and so on. Therefore, on
top of all of these problems, I also needed to revolve around my
colleges equipment checkout schedule, which only allowed one to check
out equipment for three days at the most.
I had to
come to the honest decision that this film was likely not going to get
done with the time constraints I had found myself to be under. So I
shelved the project for another one with a script that was half as long.
That film ended up inevitably being a rush job as well but the final
result was very well done in my opinion. So I consider that decision to
have been the best to take under those circumstances. After working so
hard on getting this film, My Inspiration, ready to shoot I had
done all the script revising and paper prep work done and had somewhat
burnt myself out on the project. So even when this fall term project was
finished and I purchased my own film equipment in January, a month or
two later, I didn't have much interest in reviving the project and, in
the process, forgot a lot of what I really loved about this script.
Other projects came up, including a grueling digital filmmaking project
shot last spring that used up practically every free moment I had. Other
projects came after that. I've been working like a horse on various
project and about a month back I decided to make that leap and to try
and produce a web series. Only two days ago, and about a month before I
was prepped to begin production on it, I found myself postponing this
web series indefinitely. I found myself with gaps in the story and
filling them with what I felt was unsatisfactory material. But more than
anything else, in those last few days I found I didn't really want to
do it. And when that feeling creeps in before you've even begun setting
up the shoot then those feelings need to be examined. I realized it was
going to be more of an undertaking than I was willing to and even wanted
to make for such a project.
Running parallel to this, I
was cleaning up my room and came across a stack of semi-recent film
related papers, which included the original 50-page script I had
adjusted and completed at the start of last fall of My Inspiration.
I found a rejuvenation towards it and sat down and read the script from
beginning to end. I didn't stop to correct errors or mark changes or
anything like that. I just sat down and read it, knowing I could make
alterations later on. I was reintroduced to aspects of this story that I
had completely forgotten about and my love of the story returned. I was
considering doing it after the web series, which would have been a
comedy-based one. But, as has so often been the case, I remembered that,
despite my love of comedy and my rampant sense of humor, I am a
dramatic filmmaker at heart. All of my best work has been in that vein.
While I was preparing this web series I had watched quite a few films,
or at least had them playing in the background. I watched one of my
all-time favorite films, All the President's Men, and one of my favorite contemporary films, Silver Linings Playbook,
and these other films that had a serious and emotional structure, with
the occasional comedic moments and I started getting that feeling deep
inside that I wanted to really make something more along those lines.
Thus My Inspiration kept coming back to me and coming back to me
and I kept telling myself, "Damn it! I wish I was doing that instead."
Then I paused, took stock in my situation and tried to figure out how
much I had invested into this series at that time. At the point I
realized I hadn't put that much in it, in terms of how much investment
had been made by others into it. I was at a point where I could still
make a decision to change without kicking a bunch of people to the curb.
And I knew any financial assistance put towards my web series could be
refunded to whomever made those contributions unless they were willing
to just let me transfer that contribution over to this new project. And
so I took that leap. It's only the second time I have made the decision
this deep into preparing a project in which I chose to give it up for
another. Interestingly enough, the one other time was listed above, in
which I chose to put aside My Inspiration for another more viable, time-friendly production.
But
now I'm a year and a half older, more steeped in a strong filmmaking
philosophy and I have much closer connections to actors and those in the
film universe. I am more prepared to make My Inspiration more of
a reality than I ever could back when I was originally planning on
making this film. So here I am, back and ready to go on this film
production again. On my Facebook page for this production I will be
continuing to post information as the process continues and more people
get involved in the film and so on. I am incredibly happy about making
this decision and I'm just glad I made it when I still had the chance to
make it. So a new journey begins - one that won't be quite as demanding
but will be focused in on a more serious and creative piece of work!
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