We’re all packing for the (fingers crossed) last time and heading to the local gravel strip in about 20 minutes.

In the meantime I starting snapping pictures so I didn’t start snapping at people. Here’s what the day looked like so far:

Looking back at the last 8 months of my life, I notice a trend. Baby arrives. We are tired. We don’t hang out with people. We feel lonely. Try hanging out with people and then are exhausted for next 3 days. Feel lonely again. Resign ourselves to a monk-like existence of diaper-changing, constant sleep-deprivation, and prayer mantras of “oh god help”.

Sure I’m always a bit of a tech geek, but during this time I’ve clung harder than ever to technology as a way to connect with people. Started my Twitter account, bought some domains, researched a lot about social media, did some video blogging. Anytime I felt too tired to actually think, too worn out to talk to anyone face-to-face, I drifted towards a glowy computer screen of some sort in an attempt to reach out in ways that wouldn’t induce paralysis or projectile vomiting.

Now that the baby is 8 months old and we’re slightly more adjusted to life with her, I should probably wean myself a bit. No email after work, or at least no work email after work, no texting during dinner, no domain purchases until an idea is thoroughly thought out. You get the idea.

Well at least I’ve passed the denial stage. I wonder what’s next. Here goes.

Hello, my name is Ben.
Hello, Ben.
I seem to have a little problem…

Agreed that viewing a film is largely… umm… post-imaginative. That is, the imagining has been already done by the creative team. The viewer’s job is to sit back and take it in. That’s what makes viewing easy – no huge investment necessary.

That’s also its strength – it’s an escape, a vacation from the immediate world. Sometimes this can lend us strength, and sometimes the shock of reality afterwards saps us.

Visual storytelling simplifies things for the viewer. It says “Out of the one million things I could have shown you, I’ve chosen the following 3. Now enjoy.” In that way it is maybe the most focused medium, the most efficient. The assembly line of creative input.

But as a filmmaker, what could be as magnificent/terrifying/fulfilling/frustrating/godlike/childlike as taking the visions in your head and making them reality?

For the watchers I think yes, Film does inflict a few wounds on Myth (though Myth makes it out alive) but for the makers it straps wings on Myth’s back and says “flap baby, flap”.

Celluloid wings. Sounds like the name of a hair band…

“What I hate about directing is getting up early in the morning. I hate it! I mean, getting up at dawn is the most awful thing. It’s just something that I’ve always hated. It’s a killer. It’s also that sense you have every day about not getting it as good as you thought it would be, and then you’ve got to carry on with this growing desperation that just gets greater and greater.”

I can relate to this man…

http://vimeo.com/channels/46802

At the opening session we met James Ip from Chase Communications. He blogged throughout the conference at http://chasecomm.com/blog/ and we even got a mention, which is pretty cool =)

Have a look at the videos and let us know what you think. We do realize this will be, like, the most revolutionary material you have ever watched…

Then reality hit.

Instead of 60 pages of genius… I changed diapers, made dinner, worked my real job to pay some bills etc etc. (I did manage to write about one more page of dialogue, so, hey, you know)

This week I’m feeling a bit more realistic. I do realize it will take more than a few days to go from 30 pages to 85. My story is stuck in a few spots so I’ve sent it off to a few respected individuals for their feedback, and in the meantime I’m taking care of the regular stuff. On the weekend Sarah and I caught up on sleep, went for walks with the little girl, and ate good food together – all of which ultimately makes me a much happier person – and therefore, a better writer. Oh, wait a second – aren’t writers supposed to be addicted to at least 3 things, stay up all night, be extremely lonely, and try to kill themselves every few weeks? Well, maybe, but then my script would be very short.

I’ve decided not to go to the 5-day CSTC screenwriting workshop this month. Instead I’ll cut the grass, pay the bills, hang out with people, and “take meetings” (aka go for a beer with script buddies and talk shop). I’m also planning a couple trips to TO for some conferences and more meetings with production people.

All this to say that, while sometimes a crazy deadline is what gets me ticking, usually it’s the slow-and-steady tortoise-like approach that is more realistic. How poetic.

And it’s better than being crammed into a high-school desk in Gatineau for 5 days…

I realize it has something to do with my blissful childhood and the fact that my parents are still together. They’ve had their rocky patches and challenges, sure, but they’ve been solid for us all these years and that’s made a difference. My wife’s parents are a similar kind of story. As a kid divorce was something that happened to the parents of my school friends, or maybe the odd aunt or uncle, but not anyone very close to my everyday life.

So today I pray for these couples and thank my parents and in-laws for the hope they give me.

How do you see marriage – useless institution? divine calling? somewhere in-between the two?

I’m wondering if I can make better use of that thousand dollars in a way that will still propel my movie to greatness. For that amount I could:

- take a week off work to write full-time for a change
- spend a few days in Toronto picking the brains of some industry contacts
- buy a truck-load of jelly beans with which to feed my scriptwriting monkey slaves for a month
- purchase some tasty gadgets or a nice suit that will show everyone how good of a writer I am
- hmmm, that thousand would almost buy my Hong Kong plane ticket for pre-production next spring.

I think I’m leaning towards saving the $$ so that I can lock myself in a room for a week, while still providing for my wife, daughter, and scriptwriting monkey slaves.

Now please, my 4 faithful readers, it’s your turn – what would you do with $1000 in pursuit of some artistic dream of yours?

Rick Mercer has gotten quite boring and sterile. Wild Roses is a good show story-wise but the shooting is borrrringly normal.  This Hour Has 22 Minutes stopped being very funny 5 years ago, but the re-runs are still everywhere.  Rex Murphy is the strangest looking man on television.

In lieu of writing anything overly intelligent or analytical, here’s 2 shows on Quebec tv that are/were more interesting to me:

Les Étoiles Filantes - series (good stories and cast, and looks sooooooo good but these shooting stars died out in December after only 2 seasons so I gotta get the dvds)