I've been thinking about this off and on over the last few months, and nearly every time it came to mind I always thought an
interview with Patton Oswalt I once heard., he was discussing his thoughts on being a
successful comedian. I'll admit I don't recall some exact points, but the
basic idea was that he believed in order to be a success in his business
(and I think it translates to any creative business) you actually have
to enjoy the work of your peers and allow yourself to appreciate their
success in order to become inspired by it. I think I agree with that
idea, which is why I don't think I'll ever be successful, even if I
wanted to, as a filmmaker but feel I will find success in doing special effects.
This
might offend a few folks, I can't say I really care anymore - because
some folks look to be offended in everything anyway, so why bother
tiptoeing around the point. What it comes down to is this, I don't care
about indie/amateur movies overall. I don't enjoy watching them, I can't
stand people going on and on about their "awesome script". I just don't
give a big, fat, wobbly ass about them. I think I did at one point, but
because of so many negative experiences I've grown to kind of hate the
whole idea.
There are a small select few, locally speaking, whose talent and
dedication to what they do, that I respect and actually enjoy working
with. And let me say it again for the cheap seats...A SMALL SELECT FEW. I think about 4 or so, they should know who they are.
And this has nothing to
do my own abilities as a filmmaker vs someone else's, I make bad movies
on purpose because it allows me to cut corners with a
justification of "it's supposed to be that way", so don't read this and
think this is some personal slam of my movies vs yours (or theirs), I AM
NOT AND WILL NEVER BE A FILMMAKER - so let's leave it at and don't
worry about it.
So the actual point of all this is why I
feel I might find success doing SPFX, because I do see things being
made by my peers (albeit online only since I'm the only one locally that
I'm aware of) that I enjoy and find inspiring, I'm happy for their
successes (even when I'm in a constant state of disappoint about my lack
thereof), I enjoy talking to some of them even when we don't agree on
something - to me it's a dialog about something we both love, not an
argument about who sucks and why - although they do happen, but it's
usually a pretty one sided conversation about an individual, or group,
bent on ripping people off with crap quality. There are those who are
negative and
just want to tear things down, they exist everywhere and I've learned to
suss them out and just sidestep or ignore them.
And
even to elaborate a touch more on my whole anti-FaceOff seeming rant, I
never intended it to come off like that - it's something I do enjoy
watching and talking about and there are definitely some works being
made on that show I find to be just amazing to look at and have even
seen a few concepts here and there I've wanted to steal to incorporate
into my own designs, I just don't like the idea of televised/heavily edited competition
in a field I don't feel I'm into.
I'm friends on
Facebook with more random makeup artists than filmmakers, and most of
them added me because they somehow found my work - again, in
special effects, not as a filmmaker. I've never had a random filmmaker
see my work and actually comment about how they appreciated it or
anything really like that, with makeup artists, it happens quite often.
I've
gotten more work as an makeup artist, I've made more money, I'm less
stressed (and oddly enough I enjoy the stress of it), I enjoy the collaboration with the few folks I've done with
for - to be perfectly honest, I never really had any of that as a filmmaker.
So,
because of all this I'm done making movies. I always said I did it for
fun and when it wasn't fun anymore, there was no point in doing it. Now
I've got 3 movies all shot and mostly edited that need audio work I'll
probably turn out over the next year, first being Moonshine of the
Damned lined up for early October, but I've one last project that's been
gnawing away at me that I'd really love to do and then just drop the
whole thing.
I've had this idea for an HP
Lovecraft/Alfred Hitchcock movie, the concept is continually changing,
but visually I can already see it in my head. I want to create an epic
looking, almost Lord of the Rings Lovecraft movie with Hitchcock
cinematography and plot. It's a bit of a tall order, but I think the two
can actually blend together brilliantly since both heavily feature
paranoia as an overall theme in their works.
The new
title to the project is The Thief of Innsmouth (tentatively, it's
changed so many times already). Originally the lead was to be a Demon,
as I seem to love putting Demons into movies for no good reason, I'm
changing that to have a lead who's a human in order to play up the
horrific elements of the good townsfolks of the mob controlled town of
Innsmouth. I'll borrow a lot from The Shadow Over Innsmouth story for
the setting and throw in a more of a Hitchcock twist of a case of
mistaken identity as a man is hired to do something (I've no idea yet
what the motivation is here) to the crime lord of Innsmouth, Cthulhu
himself and weird shit like that.
It's an odd twist on
the whole thing. It's an incredibly expensive endeavor - which is why
this project will only be a trailer. A roughly 2 - 3 minute trailer of
the most awesome, epic, mutant fish people gangster/horror movie ever.
And I'm not really a Gangster movie fan, it just feels like the right
element to throw in there.
I'm only looking at a 2 - 3
day shoot, as many makeup FX as I can possibly muster, which will be
easy since I'm already embarking on a slowly growing line of Lovecraft
inspired prosthetics - so this trailer will in fact also be a commercial
for all that awesomeness as well. I'll try to do some location
shooting, but possibly a lot of studio/greenscreen stuff as well since
we're pretty limited for really great locations for this sort of thing.
And
that's it. I'm done making movies. Next spring I'm planning on one last
fake movie trailer - there's always the possibility of collaborations,
but only where I'm not the one pushing the project forward on my own,
I'll just be following someone else's lead.
However,
there is always the slightest possibility that if the trailer turns out
and I can create a brilliant script, I might try the grant thing again
and that is the only way I'd ever attempt to do a movie again, none of
this out of pocket shit anymore. It's just not worth it.
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