Getting The Juices Goin'

Last week was quite weird. On wednesday, after an especially hard day at work, some old friends called before I finished my shift: they were nearby, getting drunk at a bar. I wasn't quite into getting wasted and passing part of my paycheck that week since I am quite broke right now. But I finally said yes since I hadn't seen any of them in over five years....

So I went down there keeping in mind that I wouldn't have to stay too long since I wanted to take the last metro home anyway which was about 90 minutes later....... Well, I went there and had fun, beer in hand, and of course, the last metro went without me: it passed right under my nose. I borrowed some cash from one of my friends to catch a cab but decided to start walking. I did the whole way with music in my ears and some light snow blowing in my face.

Walked the whole way home which takes an hour and forty minutes.... Well, for future reference I'll know how long it takes. While on the way, the creative juice which had been missing for a while, suddenly came back with a vengeance. I had all sorts of new ideas that wanted to get out, some of them created because of memories sprung up by these old friends. I was hooked. I wanted to shoot a film that same night.

Of course, when the heat passed, I just found reasons not to write. This time, they were good, but I've been doing this for a long while. This summer, it will be four years since I shot my last film. I've been saving up for quality editing equipment as well as a good basic camera just to shoot experimental stuff in between. I always kept in mind that cameras will always get better and you can rent them if needs be, but it's not necessarily the same with editing equipment. Once you have something that does what you want, as the years pass, they will get better and faster but you will still be able to do what you wanted with the one you bought. With cameras, it's a different story and basically, when you edit at home, you can take all the time you want.

Anyway, so that same film that was shot four years ago hasn't even been edited yet. The whole post-production will start this year when I finally get my editing equipment. F-I-N-A-L-L-Y !!! After all this waiting, it will definitely be weird re-discovering all that footage that I shot all this time ago. I willingly didn't want to watch the rushes when I finished shooting since I knew that it would take a while before post-production could begin. I didn't think it would take that long though....... Worst of all, right when I finished shooting this one, which was quite a hectic shooting schedule, I was supposed to shoot another short film since I got the camera for free for an extra week. But, of course, everything fell apart and nothing was done.

The plan was to shoot a little experimental thing that I had in mind and when I would rent an editing room, I could edit this little film and then, prepare a trailer for the bigger film. Alas nothing was to happen with this plan when the actress disappeared on me the evening before the shoot. I decided to call it quits for that one and make it later. It changed and evolved for a couple of years, was supposed to be poetic at the start, than got to be a very angry piece, and now, on that night, I replaced everything together and got an in-between piece. We'll see if it gets shot someday or if an actress lets me down again.

I guess I can't go on creating something while this four year old film still exists in my mind in an incomplete form. It's quite frustrating actually. As soon as I'll have finished it, it will already be an old film to me, one that is part of the past, so much has happened since then and so many films have existed........ I got pissed a couple of times when I saw new films coming out that had some treatment or just a filmmaking technique that was rare and I shot it that way. Can't wait for all the fuckin' comparaisons when the film gets out......... And all shall be mistaken. Oh well.

Anyway, I'm still longing to get back on the wagon and do something else than gather dust on my brain.