Yup, it's 12-12-12.
If I was really clever I would have posted this at 12:12 pm, but oh
well.
To celebrate,
here's a video that I'm very happy with, that I've contrived to give
a “12” theme:
These are the
man-on-the-street interviews that I recorded during my road trip. I
asked several creative people questions about art – why we make it,
why it's important, and how to cope with pressures not to do it.
I asked these
questions because they were questions that I, after several years of
ups and downs with this movie, found myself struggling with. But
while I'd been finding these problems to be increasingly unsolvable
on my own, everyone I interviewed had upbeat and articulate answers.
I presented a rough
assembly of the footage at a Buffalo Movie-Video Makers meeting, but
the editing still needed work. I then tightened it up to 10 minutes
so it would fit nicely on YouTube.
What motivated me
to refine it further, however, was a call for submissions for short
videos to screen at a holiday party at Squeaky Wheel. Videos needed
to have either a “December” or “12” theme, and I reasoned
that since I asked 5 artists 7 questions, I met the “12”
criterion.
I'd already gotten
it down to 10 minutes so it would fit nicely on YouTube, but Squeaky
Wheel's length restriction was only 5 minutes. So I edited tighter
and tighter and tighter, until the video said everything in 5 minutes
that it had said in 10.
While the video
didn't get accepted (they liked it but didn't think it fit a party
mood), it gave me a reason to trim it as tight as possible, and I'm
happy with the result. In fact, this video is probably the greatest
souvenir I took home from the trip.
Even while
reviewing my earlier 10-minute cut, I realized that I had gotten a
pep talk from five strangers. Whenever filmmaking – or any other
creative enterprise – starts to seem like too much hassle for too
little reward, I can now rewatch this video and be reminded why I
should press on. The realization that I even got such enthusiastic
input from five strangers – after years of considering myself an
introvert – is a shot in the arm as well. Whenever I'm at risk of
letting bitter, small-minded, unadventurous, unimaginative people get
to me, I can watch this video and be reminded what it's all about.
Also, I'm finally
sending out review copies of the movie, to get some press and maybe
even some distribution nibbles. This is something I should have done
earlier, but with everything else going on in my life lately it never
quite made it to the top of my to-do list. However, I'm motivated to
do it now, because I want to start 2013 with a fresh project. It
might be a spin-off project related to Saberfrog, or it might
be something completely new and different.
My goal is to take
everything I've learned from Saberfrog and build on it.
Moviemaking is a form of communication, and I'm ready to get the
conversation going again.
So thank you to
John, Calvin, Cynthia, Vanita and Caitlin for your inspiration, and
for making the journey worthwhile.
