Film Kids vs. The World
What is a film kid supposed to do once they graduate from college? With their Bachelor of Science degree in one hand and a stack of student loans to pay in the other, it suddenly dawns on said student that a choice lies before them: pursue the route of the starving artist, or get a day job to not only pay off those, but also to buy things like food. It took me a long time to realize that one could do both. Without starving.
I was once that confused, proud, naive, depressed and hopeful kid, looking – frankly, like a deer caught in the headlights – out into what we call “the real world,”void of school, college or otherwise. My ambition and fear had never been stronger, or quite so in sync with one another. The reality that my college experience had not gotten me a job, paying or otherwise, post-graduation, hit me like a ton of bricks; even my back-up waitressing job fell through, in addition to the crumbling economy. After a few tense months of job-hunting (looking for any job, in and out of the film field), I landed one, waitressing someplace new. During those months, though, I kept writing, developing, planning. Now, a year and a half later, I have taken my first step toward independent filmmaking. This new blog is my second.
I graduated Cum Laude from Stevenson University in December, 2008. I am proud of that. The program at that particular school includes the study of both video and film, as well as a dabbling of theatre. Even if the film industry is becoming an all-encompassing digital one, I still count myself lucky to have had the experience of working with real celluloid and having a personal understanding of what “filmmaking” actually is, and had been until the age of digital video arrived. Besides which, I found that, for me, there is something intensely rewarding about working with film; just like the enjoyment I get from working in the darkroom on still photography.
But I digress.
I shot my first film last year, which was a culmination of work since January of 2010 with close friends and former classmates from Stevenson; we make quite a team, honestly. And now I’m working on several other creative endeavors, most of them in development, and one about to go into pre-production later this year.
In the end, I believe very highly in the craft of telling a good story, no matter the medium. I have a personal affinity and admiration of film and I have invested my time, tears and money into it. I intend to invest more over the next several years. I want to make movies and tell my stories. I haven’t had to sacrifice my ambition, integrity or – cliché as it is – my art to survive out here in the real world. I think, in the long run, this “mean, cruel world” doesn’t eat as many of us artsy-fartsy kids as they make us think as they hand us our diploma. The world is indifferent. It’s us that care.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
