A couple steps forward…

So, this morning I wrote a bit about Vimeo and threatened to join in on the “hipster Youtube”… well, I couldn’t take it anymore and bought a little tapeless HD camcorder.  It came pretty well recommended and,  at under $250, could be considered a steal.  I’ve been testing the quality and I am pretty impressed.  1280x720 and progressive scan to boot.

But on to the real bits.  This kind of started because after coming across Vimeo, I saw some of the people posting videos were referring to themselves as “directors” and “filmmakers” and I chuckled to myself in a self serving way and thought these kids were silly… I had got a degree in Film and I am still working on being a director… But as I thought about it, I started realizing how fantastic this all was.  Kids, people, trying to make little movies (films?) to tell stories and touch people…. they don’t care about professionalism, or rate scales, or union dues… They just want to tell stories.  And that is fantastic.  I want in on it.  

I walk around Amoeba or Barnes and Noble and I see cover after cover of work… music, literature… and it feels like that’s how movies could be.  Should be.  They shouldn’t be so precious.  Shouldn’t take $100 million dollars to produce.  Shouldn’t take 100 people to make.  Shouldn’t require “professionals”.  Directors should die with only a handful of features under their belt.  People look at Hitchcock with over a dozen films and think that he was extremely prolific….I want to CREATE.  I want to tell stories and I should, we all should, even though we don’t have millions of dollars.  

So this is what I propose:  I am going to start writing stories.  Maybe some of them can be turned into scripts.  I will shoot some of those.  I won’t spend any money.  Maybe I’ll be the only crew.  Maybe some won’t be any good.  But I would bet that some will be pretty damn nifty.  And to hell with gear and lighting rigs and 20 person crews.  Thats not what it takes to tell stories.  That’s what it takes to be “professional”.  And the more I think about it, the word “professional” sounds a lot like bullshit to me.