Digging A Hole

In a "Simpsons" episode entitled "Homer The Moe"
Bart is digging a hole in the backyard, to which everyone wonders why...
 
Lisa: What are you doing?
Bart: Digging.
Lisa: Why?
Bart: To make a hole.
Lisa: A hole for what?
Bart: More digging.

Lisa walks away, but when Homer inquires as to why he is digging a hole, he gets unnerved.

I find that true about me making movies. People wonder what I expect or want from the movies I make. I have no answer. I just make it. I had this conversation yesterday. We've concluded, what is wrong with just making something just to make something. Why must it always be prefaced with a reason? For fame, for fortune?

 

Yes, making a movie is a communicative medium, but I realize, that this type of thinking also downshifts into constantly testing your instincts against others' sensibilities. Which, in itself, is the irony. Since, our instincts are our own. Introducing opinion opens it up for something that isn't yours. And then you're no longer a single voice. I get why...in a sense. It's commerce. We need to please a whole group of people, so they pay money to tell more stories. But money thrown at a project doesn't make it better. Read "Fiasco" which is about the bloated Hollywood movies that nearly tanked studios. The waste is insane. And it hasn't got any better. According to Lynda Obst, a big producer in the 90's-2000's, she claims the new abnormal Hollywood is no longer catering to stories that are good. They want tentpoles to franchise movies. The occasional "art house" gets through, but studios no longer care about movies like "Forrest Gump" or "Rain Man" or even "Pretty Woman." These movies, according to her, would never get made today. Too much risk. If you consider you've now whittled down a considerable demographic of filmmakers starting out who only have a budget to make these types of movies, you see where the economics stand. You've essentially priced your way into obscurity. The smaller movies that have critical acclaim are done by big directors. They're the only ones allowed to make it with studio money. The "one-for-you-one-for-me" method. As to why Kenneth Brannagh shills for "Thor" so he can make another Shakespeare remake (zzzzzz...).

And the market doesn't get better. Should you be hopeful as a new filmmaker? Sure why not? You've read all the success stories, and chose to believe those over reality. But people often confuse persistence with risk. I don't choose either. I choose to make something just to make something.