(no subject)
diary of the dead, 2006 (left) camp rock, 2007 (right)
at work
at work most of the time it's a waiting game. everyone does it, but i wait the most. i'd hate to have a job where i have to look busy. at any shit job it's more of an effort to be lazy than actual do the actual work, which is why i can't stand stupid lazy people. i'm too weird for a regular job anyway. i'm glad i don't have to listen to commercial radio at work all day. i'm glad there's no internet access either. i have to waste my time the old way.
i constantly wander around places that would be closed off if the production didn't pay to be there for the day. sometimes i'm on a bit of a leash, other times i worry that i might get lost or trapped somewhere far away. this aimless wandering sometimes takes me into the background during rehearsals and blocking, so i get asked to kindly get out of the shot. too bad, because when i watch movies now i'm more interested in what's going on in the background than any actual plotline. i think there should be more action packed movies where you can clearly see people not knowing or giving a shit about the plot, just wandering around in the background, looking at litter.
my work
i had a few weeks off a while ago and i'm slowly starting my next movie. how slowly? i've been talking about it for at least three years. at first i was trying to borrow someone's camera. then i was trying to write an actual script. all this was a fat waste of time. now i have my own camera and i'm not using a cleverly written script. i'm just making up everything up as i go along. writing down jokes is just not my way of working. not writing anything down is how i work best. this sabotages everything since it's easy not to write down anything for years. i'm still quite shy when looking for collaborators. when i'm trying to be deliberately funny i'm pretty bad. this work - i can't stand using project or art to describe anything i do - will be a dumping ground for all of my influences. i'm trying to keep them away from my future live action work - which i've been neglecting for too long as well. i'd like that area of work to be serious yet i'm not comfortable to be that way. i'll bare my tortured soul eventually. i'm not dying anytime soon.
this new work is also an excuse to buy toys and construct elaborate and detailed sets. city streets, dark alleys, escalators, porn shops, trap doors and rotating walls. people said nice things about my last one but that was nothing compared to what i want this to look like. obsessive-compulsive in full effect. i'm also glad that it'll be in 16x9, because cramming all these kids is impossible with 4:3. i don't want to give any more details just yet because i'm still coming up with a ridiculous overdramatic plot synopsis.
these photos are just simple camera tests with some backgrounds i printed up from photoshop. some of those shirt designs turned out crappy, and i have to repaint the wheelchair guy's shirt - make it glossy and plastic. the backgrounds will be a mix of paper and cardboard cut-outs as well as rear projection. i'm also trying to have a right balance between realistic and artificial - i want some things to be obviously fake and unreal, yet i still want it to look reasonably not-crappy. i have to work out the details before filming - if that ever happens. nah, i'll just figure it out as i go.
future work
sorry, no silly photos for this last part. now the only problem with this sudden burst of creativity and ambition is that it always happens when i have the least amount of time to dedicate myself to it. i'm too busy at my job - that's where i get my reading done. i'm starting to capture and collect video footage for something - i don't know what. i feel like my last work was a failure. i was in love with my pretty footage too much. the one-minute edit is the best version. i tried to write several stories, but i didn't like them so i edited them all out and reduced every scene to ten seconds each. i'm not good at stories. this is where i need collaborators. after finding out on the slacker dvd that my favourite parts came from other people, i think i can assemble a similar scam of other people's ideas. although i can't stand rendering video files and trying to upload them.
as for music, i'm completely bored of making sound collage art. i'm still doing the thing with mixing answering machine tapes, but that's just a deliberately easy way to play shows. i've been to a few local events based on sound and image collages and i find all of it ugly, lazy crap made by cynical smart ass rich kids with no intent, philosophy or heart. it's goof art, but not my kind of goof art. there might be exceptions in an art class somewhere, but here in toronto most of it is the equivalent to a dog eating some magazines and puking it up on canvas.
i tried collaborating with a friend but he dropped off to join another band. i'm quite disappointed by this, but i'm happy for him that it's just another art project thing and not laziness. i want to bare my soul in my music, so i'll probably start off with covers of my favourite songs and go from there. i still can't play any instruments and i just have no sense of timing. oh and the top thing on my guitar popped off and i can't glue it back properly. one friend is going on tour in europe by himself, another is touring permanently instead of getting another crappy job. things like this inspire me. all i have to do is act on it.
i'll have the weekend to figure some of this out.