About that High Tech Thing!
Turns out that my years toiling in high tech are extremely helpful in my filmmaking journey. Surprise!Of course, there’s the obvious stuff. Like knowing what an actual “backup” is. Like knowing that it’s kind of critical to actually make a “backup.” And generally being able to navigate the murky waters of personal computing.
At the other end of the spectrum, I can thank high tech for being able to actually understand what a codec is, and some of the possible reasons why one codec is better than another.
But the key stuff is the “soft stuff” in between. Learning from some great leaders about dealing with people. People who may be really smart about some things and not so smart about other stuff (no particular software engineer in mind here!). Understanding that you can learn to make decisions without perfect information; this is often called “marketing” and sometimes called “guessing.” Learning that telling stories about stuff is one of the core experiences of humans. Much more to say about this some time.
2015: Reflections
Well, the strange thing about 2015 was that I did not actually shoot a film. I finished TWO films. One [Memory of a Kiss, based on a play by Robert Wallace] is a sweet, sad look at how dementia stresses adult children, sometimes forcing difficult choices. The other [“Scene”] is an off-the-wall glimpse into an actress who – in the course of four recorded auditions – is losing her grip on life. Each of these films found a bit of a home at two different festivals. Both were written and shot in 2014.What I did do, that was fun and filmmaking, was to help some other filmmakers. I was on set, mostly as AD for one or more days (or nights) helping these filmmakers:
- Rob Underhill & Aravind Ragupathi (Legerdemain)
- Michael Howard (feature: Where We’re Meant to Be)
- Kevin Richmond (additional scenes, DP: One Last Sunset Redux)
- Todd Tinkham (Right Here, Right Now)
- Dexter Goad (feature: The Art of Confession)
Which was absolutely great! But not me making a film, alas. However, I did write my first real feature script, a couple of short scripts and generally put most of my energy into writing. Much more to say about that and the chance to read and give me feedback later this year.
Much more to say about that and the chance to read some of these scripts and give me feedback later this year. Let me know if you'd like to read one.
