Now What? - Pt.2 - Filter That

My last entry discussed the little epileptic flashes and daydreams that inspire my work (I reworked that post for clarity today, so if you last read it before this post's date you might want revisit it). Now let's take a look at what to do with those little picturesque seizures. Inspiration for a story or project of any kind can be good as gold, but only if you can turn it into something an audience can digest. If you refuse to turn it into something relatable, then any time you spend on it will be essentially masturbatory - it'll feel good, but you'll be alone with your pants around your ankles.

Here's a little lesson by example: The spark of inspiration for one of my live-action scripts came to me while I was in a pretty dark place. I was depressed and confused and drinking a lot and making all kinds of mistakes pretty much on a daily basis. That kind of intense emotional activity can be terrifically fertile grounds for creative ideas, but it comes with a catch. As soon as I started trying to turn that experience into entertainment I wanted people to see, I hit a wall: Unyielding depression is depressing, not entertaining. Everything I wrote at that time was about me, not my audience - and it wasn't pretty.

The bottom line: Regardless of what story you're telling, it's got to entertain. Titanic and Schindler's List and Toy Story 3 were depressing as hell, but they were still relevant entertainment. 10 years ago I lucked out with my Bad Metal project (as discussed in my last post) because the idea was instantly entertaining and easy to connect to, like I was creating bumper-cars for a 10 year old. But 2 years ago, while careening through life full of self-loathing and booze, the film idea I'd come up with was more like I was killing a hobo - nobody would want to watch it and they'd have a hard time looking me in the eye when I was done.

Now What? - Pt.1 - Starting Fits

Today, I'm going to talk to you about where my projects begin. Every single film, design, illustration, song, play, script, etc. is inspired by something, and for me it's usually little, almost epileptic, daydream-like flashes. Sometimes the flash is a single image, other times it's a full sequence of footage, but it's always involuntary. Sometimes those images carry an almost addictive quality, and suddenly I'll need to see more of whatever it is.

The more addictive flashes of accidental brain activity are the ones I pay close attention to. They've proven to be potent distillations of the things of import in my life at that moment. They contain questions and answers and explanations about my current place in the universe. They feel honest and they're relevant, and that's a pretty perfect place to begin a story.

Here's an example: The ideas for my Bad Metal project appeared to me in my mid-20s. I'd been simultaneously discovering '70s heavy metal while revisiting some of my favourite TV shows from my childhood. The flashes of inspiration I began experiencing were drawing directly from those influences, but they'd been mixed with and filtered through my recent real life experiences as an aimless, disgruntled, rebellious, 25-year old. Screaming guitars and talking socks and mountainous robots were suddenly more than just interesting - in those spastic daydreams they were important, man!... As some hobo's probably already told you this week: Hold on to your dreams, kid - they're as real as it gets.

Pre-pre-preeeeeeeee-production

There're probably fewer activities in life that I enjoy more than watching movies. Add to that the fact that I grew up on commercial sets, in a special effects shop, and with an illustration and design studio in my house, and it was pretty obvious to me that I would end up making a few of those movie things myself. Hell, being born into that environment, it was like I was halfway there, right?

Well, here's all you need to know for now: even that isn't enough to magically become a filmmaker.

I didn't end up toooo far from the mark: I currently work as a freelance animator. I've carved out a nice little career for myself, but it's not exactly what I was dreaming of as a kid. Thankfully, human beings nowadays live long enough to follow a few different career paths in a single lifetime. This blog is the chronicle of my journey from animator / illustrator / craftsman / cog to (hopefully) live-action screenwriter and director. I'll scribble down notes, insights, methods, and points of inspiration in an effort to organize my thoughts as well inform anyone interested in understanding the process or following a similar path... Oh, and I'll try to keep things interesting so you wanna come visit lots. OK - MAKEMOVIE, GO!

Reboot

This project has taken a decidedly different turn in the year since my last post (since deleted and awaiting a rewrite).

After a lengthy hiatus, I took a stroll through my entries here and found them to be mostly excruciatingly long and tangled and usually blushingly awkward. I would like to keep using this site as a place to post notes about my work toward live action production, but things definitely need to be more focused... and less like a teenager's diary.

Over the next little while I'll be going through my old posts and distilling them down to hopefully useful (and readable) entries. I'll also be adding some new insights, ideas, and concepts. New or old, I'll be forcing myself to keep every piece to a nice, little, three paragraph format, which brings us to the end of this update. I hope you like the (more concise) rambles to come.