What do you want to be?

Life's Ups and Downs

The lame shit you might write in a diary that you hope no one reads, but I'll be posting it here. 
When Saturday rolled around, all I wanted was to sit down in front of the tv with a bowl of cereal and watch cartoons, but what 8 year old doesn't? As usual though my dad had other plans, generally involving painting, weeding or some other work related activity that didn't include animated adventures.

Now and again on these excursions he'd get a serious look on his face before asking (The Question).
In a job interview type way he'd say "what do you want to do with your life?" Not in a hopes and dreams type way, but in the more practical sense. Maybe it was his generation or upbringing, but he didn't really talk to you like you were a kid, which was great sometimes, but now and again it kind of stressed you out.

Anyway I'd try to delay my answer by repeating the question "what do I want to do with my life?" (That's a big fucking question for an 8 year old to deal with). In my head I'd think "right now I want to go home and watch cartoons" but that wasn't going to cut it. A few months previous when he'd asked this, I gave an honest answer. 8 year old me thought "fuck it what have I got to lose". So standing there in my big boy pants, I just looked at him all matter of fact like and said "at the moment I'm thinking either a spaceman or something to do with music or film".

Now I should mention my dad is old school. When he asks that question he's expecting a more grown up answer like, "well I was considering becoming a builder because I have a feeling there's going to be a housing boom in the late 90s, but I do enjoy woodwork so maybe carpentry". This would have been perfect, but it wasn't what I wanted to do. So from then on I usually made shit up or pretended I didn't know.

Maybe if "Bob the Builder" had been on tv when I was growing up my answer would have been different, then again I wouldn't have seen it because I was outside getting fresh air like a dickhead.

What's the point to this rambling? Well this is the kind of shit I might write in a diary which is what I promised last week. I guess though if there is a point it's this.The only person who knows what you want to do is you..... (oh lah dee dah look at me getting a message in there).

The Experience

Could be the ultimate guide on how not to create an online presence.
If you're planning on creating an online presence for you project, business etc. Don't do what I did and create a username on one site, only to find out it's not available on the others. Instead use a site like https://www.namecheckr.com/ which quickly lets you check the availability of usernames on various social networking sites. This saves a bunch of time so you can focus on other things like binge watching 'House of Cards' like a lazy bastard.

The Film

Everything and anything to do with the film, pre-production, fights, cast and crew, fights, budgets, fights and finally the end game (which may contain fights).
I guess I'll start at the beginning and go from there. Up till then I'd only wrote short films so writing the script for NAMELESS felt quite daunting. It was such a big project I had to constantly write with the budget in mind, taking into account the amount of locations, actors, props and even the weather. Well we're in Ireland where it rains 360 days a year and looks like rain for the other 5.

What sucks about the writing stage is how long it takes for any real sense of payoff (especially when you're not actually getting paid). It's just you in a room talking to yourself and feeling insecure about your choices. That's probably the hardest part, the voice inside your head saying "what the fuck are you doing" or "you can't do this".

Anyway crazy voices aside, I had a solid idea which I then planned out on postit notes until I had a working structure. Some people suggest writing character bios and treatments before you start the script. Honestly if you feel it helps do it, but the main thing is start writing, then keep writing and eventually you'll have a shitty first draft. Then rewrite it a few more times to tightening everything up.

Once you feel you have a draft ready for others to read, find people to read it. Don't send the first draft as it's probably awful and if it is they won't want to read anything else you write. Also ask for honest opinions, there's no point in hearing it's great if it's dog shit. It's better to find out at this early stage rather than further down the line.

Getting people to read your script can be difficult as you're asking for them to invest time in something. So make sure you send them the best draft possible, as otherwise you're kind of taking the piss. I know that's kind of repeating myself but it's important. (While I'm writing this I'd like to thank my wife Andrea, Padraic Rafter, Kelly Mallon, Tess Masero Brioso, Alan Donnelly and Blaine Rennicks for taking the time to read mine). It meant a lot.

Indie 

Thoughts, ideas, experiences and tips revolving around making low to no budget films. 
Also documenting successes and failures along the way.
Tip: If you have issues coming up with ideas or just want to try it as a fun experiment, do the following. Write a list of 5 objects, 5 jobs and 5 locations, emotions or character traits. Then randomly select one or two from each list, put them together and see what you come up with. 
Example:
Gun, guitar, bottle of water, key, candle. 
Priest, builder, model, farmer, hitman. 
Liar, drunk, psychotic, perverted, sad.
Try to pick the less obvious choices as well, don't think "ohhhh psychotic hitman with a gun". Have fun with it "sad hitman with a candle" or "drunk builder and a perverted farmer with a guitar". 

Sometimes you might get a great idea out of it and other times it's just a good way to get you thinking creatively.


Well that's it for this week, I'm still not sure if I'll write all four sections each week or instead alternate between them as it seems a bit long. Meh  

Chat to you next week.