New Technologies, New Horizons

I saw the film "The Artist" this past week and it made me think of how similar the film business is to the character of George Valentin. As the silent films faded away before the advent of talking pictures, George fought against it. He gambled everything he had on trying to maintain the old ways, and he lost. Times changed and the audiences moved on leaving him penniless and unhappy.
As new technologies gain power in the entertainment industry, it seems the old guard are fighting against them as hard as they can. The internet, particularly, has promised to bring change to the entertainment landscape for some time now and that change is coming now. I marvel how history repeats itself time and again. Just as George Valentin fought against the talkies, so now the movie distribution companies are fighting against the internet.
I spoke recently with a man who has worked in film distribution for the last thirty years. While he agrees that change is difficult, painful and always uncertain, he also finds it exciting and exhilarating. He's working on finding a way to bridge the gap between the old and the new; using the knowledge and experience he has gained over the years working in the industry to benefit from the coming change. He reminded me of the character Peppy Miller from "The Artist". Peppy, while beginning her career in the silent films, embraced the talkies when they came and she soared to the top.
I do not believe "The Artist" came at this time as mere coincidence. I believe Michel Hazanavicius is trying to send a message to the industry through this film, reminding them of the past in the hopes that the future may continue to bright.

Writing

     Now that I'm left with only my night classes I have a lot more time on my hands than usual. The rare and elusive 'free time' has appeared and, as this situation has not confronted me in some time, I've had a hard time dealing with it. Wasting time is easy, too easy. And so, having each day regimented has helped ease the burden.
     I thought back to my old college days and how I would spend all my free time writing and plotting out stories and character arcs. Those days were, I would have to say at the risk of sounding fruity, magical. Stories and characters flowed so easily and it seemed the more I wrote in my free time, the more free time I had to write...and the less time I had to do my physics homework. As I'm now a freelance storyteller it's obvious which side of my conflict of interest won out.
     But I'm getting off the point. With all of this new found free time I've been able to get back into a routine of writing. to clarify, I've always made time to write, but now I HAVE time to write. I've set a goal to write a new chapter in IMMOLATION every week. The plot is mostly together now and I feel I'm in a good place to really begin putting things down in the story.
     The plot for IMMOLATION is more complex than anything I've attempted before so figuring all of that out in itself has been a learning experience. So, in the coming weeks as I post subsequent chapters for IMMOLATION in the WRITING section, feel free to leave comments and suggestions on how I might improve.
     I hope you enjoy the story.

Pre-Production

       Having recently graduated from the Seattle Film Institute's 10 Month 'Total Immersion Program', a few of my fellow classmates and I decided that the best way to keep up our newly acquired skills in filmmaking was to make movies ourselves. Fairly straight forward but so many people wait around, hoping for movies to come to them.
       Any way, this group was the core of the 30 Films in 30 Days project and we felt confident that we'd be able to produce some good films together. The difference between the 30 Films in 30 Days project and the one we are now pursuing is the same difference between an artists sketches and a finished piece. This month we're focusing on the pre-production elements of a short thriller written by one of our members. We're polishing the script, preparing for auditions and otherwise going through the paces to make sure we have as high production value as we can. Filming should begin the last weekend of February while at the same time we'll begin pre-production on our next film.
       All in all, this is a great way to begin a New Year, working on a project with people you know and trust to pull their weight and work towards a unified goal.