Its been a long time since I’ve blogged. Like actually blogged and not written up articles and features for other websites, I’m still doing all that thing. I still don’t fully understand Tumblr and don’t bother using it, but I felt the urge to do a blog piece so I thought I MIGHT AS WELL.
The other night I went to the Prince Charles Cinema in London. An absolutely amazing place that I’ve now fell in love with. We went for the showing of Oldboy, one of my absolutely favorite films of all time, but it was a 35mm showing. Thanks to Digital Cinema, I’ve not seen 35mm on the big screen for a while, so it was good to do so. Not only was it pretty exhilarating seeing the film I love in such a huge place, it also gave me the filmmaking pains. It’s been almost a year since I began shooting Paper Jam and as that is long wrapped and released, I want to get on and shoot something. I want to be able to write something thats longer than ~30 pages. I want some more ideas that I can slam on the table and get producing. But this is nothing new, I always want to film stuff even when I’ve shot bits recently and may have a short project in the pipeline depending on factors. But seeing dust, dirt and hair in the gate, I want to shoot on film.
Shooting on film is an expensive thing. 16mm cameras are essentially the same as 35mm in that they need to be hired rather than outright owned. I own a film camera though, I own a Super 8 camera and projector and sitting on my shelf I have two unused and still wrapped film guages for them. I’ve sat on these for a while now, after getting the camera and projector for an insultingly cheap price [~£15 for both combined] but now I know that I need to shoot something with it. I have an idea of something I could shoot, It’s just getting it done.
Sure - 8mm is a dead format. But its gorgeous. Its choppy and imperfect and beautiful. I don’t care if something’s a dead format. Next to my gauges of Super 8 film I have a VHS-C camera sitting there ready for a project I have an idea for.
I just have a constant itch and because of the uni course I did, I feel like I’ve been robbed of certain parts of filmmaking. I’ve never touched a proper film camera. I have no idea how film is loaded. But these are things I need to know for the industry. If it means I have to have my own equipment, do my own experiments, then fine.
Say I make the short film I have in my mind. I get the film developed, I edit it and release it to the world. Say after all that only 100 people watch it on Youtube. I don’t care. If one person says they like it then I’m content. I just want to make stuff. I want a constant ream of material to come out of me.
So who knows. Maybe one day I can have a mega successful Youtube channel where I post short films and people flock to them and call me “THE NEW [POPULAR DIRECTOR HERE]”. Or maybe I’ll just put stuff out for a non existent audience. Either way I’ll be shooting something and I’ll be happy.
