Nov. 15: On directing film
I've never directed a movie but I'd like to. Heck, who among us
wouldn't like to direct a movie? I knew a guy in Calgary who was always
working on a trilogy of science fiction movies that he claimed would be
the most expensive films ever made. "But I won't let anyone direct them
but me." Too bad, pal.
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My Neptune friend, Stevie G, studied filmmaking at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology back in the mid-90s. He even cast me in one of his student films. I played a nerdy poet who had fallen in love with a chic salesgirl at a clothing store across the street. I never saw the film. The actress is now a regular on the stage at Stratford.
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I'm a writer and I have dabbled in screenwriting before but never very seriously. When I tell people that I'm writing a novel, I sometimes feel like I'm telling them about Santa Claus. The odds of my novel getting published are very low. The odds of that novel being successful are even lower. But no one discourages me. No one tells me to stop dreaming and stop creating and just be practical. You're 41, darn it.
They would tell me these things if I was working on a screenplay.
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I am probably a veteran filmgoer in that I am very seldom shocked anymore. I can see most plot twists coming from a mile away. When a movie blindsides me - like the Sixth Sense did or like Mamet's Spanish Prisoner does - I am genuinely pleased.
I feel the same way about magic. I've seen so much and I've read so much that I am rarely fooled when I watch a magician perform. Sometimes it happens and when it does, it's absolutely delightful.
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I was an extra in Legends of the Fall, the 1994 Brad Pitt/Anthony Hopkins World War I drama that was shot in Alberta. I portrayed a Canadian soldier and I was outfitted in a period costume that gave me a rash on my neck. There was a day of shooting. We held pretend guns and we charged up hills and we screamed and half of us pretended to die and there were some pipers there who played the bagpipes. When the day was done, the director, Edward Zwick, spoke to us from the hilltop where he was hanging out with the camera operators.
He said these words: "Thank you for a hard day's work and remember that you are doing a wonderful thing to preserve the memory of the Canadians who have their lives for your country."
Made me feel good. That's a lesson I'll take should I ever get the chance to direct a film.
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My Neptune friend, Stevie G, studied filmmaking at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology back in the mid-90s. He even cast me in one of his student films. I played a nerdy poet who had fallen in love with a chic salesgirl at a clothing store across the street. I never saw the film. The actress is now a regular on the stage at Stratford.
-
I'm a writer and I have dabbled in screenwriting before but never very seriously. When I tell people that I'm writing a novel, I sometimes feel like I'm telling them about Santa Claus. The odds of my novel getting published are very low. The odds of that novel being successful are even lower. But no one discourages me. No one tells me to stop dreaming and stop creating and just be practical. You're 41, darn it.
They would tell me these things if I was working on a screenplay.
-
I am probably a veteran filmgoer in that I am very seldom shocked anymore. I can see most plot twists coming from a mile away. When a movie blindsides me - like the Sixth Sense did or like Mamet's Spanish Prisoner does - I am genuinely pleased.
I feel the same way about magic. I've seen so much and I've read so much that I am rarely fooled when I watch a magician perform. Sometimes it happens and when it does, it's absolutely delightful.
-
I was an extra in Legends of the Fall, the 1994 Brad Pitt/Anthony Hopkins World War I drama that was shot in Alberta. I portrayed a Canadian soldier and I was outfitted in a period costume that gave me a rash on my neck. There was a day of shooting. We held pretend guns and we charged up hills and we screamed and half of us pretended to die and there were some pipers there who played the bagpipes. When the day was done, the director, Edward Zwick, spoke to us from the hilltop where he was hanging out with the camera operators.
He said these words: "Thank you for a hard day's work and remember that you are doing a wonderful thing to preserve the memory of the Canadians who have their lives for your country."
Made me feel good. That's a lesson I'll take should I ever get the chance to direct a film.
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