In Part 1 of this series, I wrote that every yes and no makes a difference in varying degrees. While they can put your life in a whole new direction, they can also serve as life lessons to refer to when you come to that fork in the road again. The accolades of the film I said no to in last week’s blog may or may not have led to future success for me, but it did make me consider saying yes to a project I never dreamed I would work on.
I grew up in the 70’s watching “Creature Feature” and “Chiller Theater” and enjoyed classic horror films along the lines of Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolf Man, with the occasional giant insect attacking the city. But I never cared for the uprising of more graphic gore films as I got older. Horror was something I was just not interested in.
A year or two after saying no to “Rhythm Thief,” my good friend’s sister introduced me to two college friends of hers who were filmmaking students. They were a few years younger than me, but we got along well with our shared love of cinema. They told me they wanted to shoot their story about a coven of college age witches and would like me to be the Director of Photography as well as rent the “brand new at the time” Sony Mini-DV camera from my boss at Folklife Productions. So there I was at the fork in the road again. I was never a D.P. for a feature length production before and I was very comfortable in my role of “editor” at work. That horrible voice in my head started again. “You? A Director of Photography? And for a horror film? You can’t do that!” I recalled how I felt when I learned “Rhythm Thief” won at Sundance. I didn’t want to feel that again. So I said yes.
It was very intense weekend shoots for three months, low budget and a genre I was not familiar with, but I loved every minute of it. The positive energy from Todd and Mike really made it a joy and I was able to bring everything I could from storyboarding to props and using my resourcefulness to make things work. Besides shooting the story, I also did the behind the scenes photography that could be used for future promotions. I learned from the actresses, Dr. Death, the special effects master and everyone we worked with. The story had connections to the Salem witch trials, so we even had a fun day trip to Salem to shoot tombstones. Because I committed myself completely to this project and to Todd and Mike, any biases I had about horror films or destructive negative inner chatter were just not there. Being in the moment brings the mind in focus neutralizes everything else.
Production photos from “Moondance”
Eventually, a rough cut was made and I’m not sure if money ran out or if the project was abandoned, but I have absolutely no regrets being involved.
A line from the episode “Tapestry” comes to mind from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” when Captain Picard had a chance to change an unsavory part of his past, but this changes his life to a mundane existence. “There were many things in my youth that I’m not proud of… they were loose threads… untidy parts of myself that I wanted to remove. But when I pulled on one of those threads… I unraveled the tapestry of my life.”
Be proud of your tapestry, loose threads and all, it makes for a much more exciting and fulfilling life.
[fbcomments]
