Friends and Family,
Update: I had planned on making a film about a person with writer’s block this week, but when Wednesday night finally rolled around, and I still didn’t feel prepared to direct my actors for this film, I decided to push the film back to next week, and make a quick “cop-out” film this week.
I figured that probably the easiest cop-out film to make would be one about inanimate objects…since that involves no directing whatsoever. So I spent 30 minutes taping my friend Ben grooming himself after a shower, and then I filmed different objects around the bathroom after he left. My intention was to make a film where the toiletries started making fun of Ben’s vanity after he left the room. It was kind of funny, because as I was filming Ben grooming himself, he asked, “How do you want me to act Dave?” And I said, “You know what, I don’t even care. Just act vain and do whatever you want, cause this film is gonna be so bad I don’t even care.” (Those weren’t my exact words, but it was something to that effect) I wasn’t stressed out about it or anything…I just knew that I had only spent a couple minutes conceiving of this idea, and knew that there was no way it would work out very well with the extreme lack of preparation I had done.
So then Ben left, and I started thinking about what kind of things these toiletries would say about him. I chose a jar of hair gel and a shaving cream bottle for my two main characters, and starting working with their dialogue. Well, all the sudden ideas started hitting me about the inferiority complex the discount brand gel would have, and how he would try to remedy that inferiority by critiquing the human’s vanity, and then how the “Gillette” shaving cream would stick up for the vain human’s obsession with brands and image, since he himself was such a well-respected brand. So I spent a few hours writing up this dialogue between the gel and shaving cream, and I ended up with a comical portrayal of the fact that not only is it wrong to be a preppy “image snob” like the shaving cream, but it is also wrong to be a pharisaical “moral snob” like the discount brand gel.
After writing the script and acting out the voices of the shaving cream and gel myself, I felt pretty good about the film. But was very pleasantly surprised when I showed it on Friday and everyone laughed the whole way through. Then when they critiqued my film, no one had any major complaints about it, and several people said it was my best film yet.
I was certainly encouraged by this positive feedback, and realized I must be learning a lot out here if I was able to conceive of a better film in five minutes this week than the films that took me hours and hours to think of earlier in the summer. But as I thought more about the film, I realized that basically what I had made was a live-action Pixar film…and I realized that the way my brain works and comes up with analogies so naturally, I was easily able to give more character to these two inanimate objects than I did to any of the human characters in my earlier films. And I was able to direct these inanimate objects so easily because there was no pressure to be on this set with all these people waiting for my every word. Rather, I could take my time characterizing these characters…kind of like an animator.
I think you guys might see where I’m going with this…I just realized this past week that maybe I want to work at Pixar in the future or something. For those who know me well, I’m sure you’d agree with me that their quirky sense of humor is right up my alley.
Prayer Request: I am doing the “Writer’s Block” film this next week, and really am trying to express my faith in this one. I’m trying to communicate what I talked about in Weekly Update #4…about how to deal with stress by changing perspective, and especially by resting in the sovereignty of God.
So yeah, please just pray that this film would go well, and that my classmates would really be able to connect with the story, and would be ministered to by it. Also, please specifically pray that I would be able to get a solid actor to be in this film (I’ve been having trouble with that), and that I would direct him well. This film is not meant to be a comedy, and drama is much more difficult for me to direct than comedy, so just pray that I’d direct it well…in such a way that people watching it could really identify with the protagonist’s struggle, and would be ministered to when they see how he overcomes it.
Well, the next time I write a weekly update, I will be done with the program out at USC, and will be preparing to head home for a couple weeks before coming back out to California for the fall semester.
Until then…
In Christ,
Dave/David/Shabotz
P.S. I really have no reason to write a P.S. in this e-mail, but several people commented on how they missed the P.S. last week, so I figured, “Why not? I’ll give the people what they want!” And why shouldn’t I? After all, I am training to be in the entertainment industry.
P.P.S. Don’t worry. I don’t really mean that. If I were really all about just giving the people what they want, there’d be a lot more nudity in my films.
P.P.P.S. And when I say there’d be a lot more, that does not actually imply that there is any now.
P.P.P.P.S. Unless you count unclothed shaving cream and hair gel bottles.
P.P.P.P.P.S. But it all depends on how you look at it…cause in one sense, the bottles actually are the clothes for the shaving cream and gel within them.
P.P.P.P.P.P.S. But on the other hand, they still are naked bottles.
P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S. Does that mean that our clothes are naked? How’s that for an ethical curve ball?
P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S. Have I made up for my lack of a P.S. last week yet? I sure hope so.
P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S. OK, I’m done now.
