Something You May Never Consider

 In making a movie, the one thing most people don't account for a lot is contingency.

Everyone comes at it with a very positive angle. Which is great! However, the older you get, the more experience you have, the more being blind-sided you endure.

After a while you learn to live with this debilitating fear that everything collapses

Because as I've mentioned to some people, filmmaking is organized chaos.

So the more things you bring into play, the more contingencies you should expect. Anyone gets sick, injured, or late...that costs money. IF you've ever wondered why some productions have fucked over employees, here's the reason. Let's say you lost a few days because the actor is ill. Actor still gets paid. But now you've pushed your days into a few more days which means crew needs to be paid extra. YOU DIDN'T BUDGET FOR THAT.

Now let's say you have a dickhead actor who remains in his trailer because he doesn't "feel it" (Dustin fucking Hoffman comes to mind). Each day drives production costs up. And then people wonder how productions get inflated. It's because of things like this.

I understand illness and I understand accidents. The entire endeavor to make a movie should make anyone nervous. Stupid people aren't. Or actors don't seem to get it. They show up, do their job and leave. They don't see the work that's really involved. And if you get on a production that doesn't consider these things, I suggest you run.

I think it's probably sometimes best the talent doesn't see how these things run. To be honest, it's not their problem. It does when say...they are late or don't show up when they said they would. That's disgusting. Being late is a sin to me. The reason why Tom Cruise is who he is, is because he does not ever stop swimming like a shark. He wants you to care more about the project than he does. Even if you are "just a grip."

All filmmaking is, is a very large gamble. You put up a lot of money to make something in hopes someone will buy it (pay ticket to watch) thus making you famous. Or whatever. We all want to be the storyteller at the campfire and get all the hot chicks. So is the gamble worth it? I don't think so.

I use filmmaking to banish demons. And to manipulate the world and see if it translates to film. None of this has anything to do with any return on the investment. The only return is that it had a tiny impact on someone's life. The experience of watching or being in it. Which ever.

I'm truly happy doing it this way. But, it's still aggravating. Fighting the stream.