Circumventing Hollywood

"Hey man, check this out"
My friend who is a director showed me a still from a 3D animation he wants to do. The composition and lighting were rough, but that's because it wasn't fully rendered. He doesn't have the hardware to fully do the job, unless he takes a week to render out...45 seconds. And it still doesn't look smooth. Photo-realistic...sure.

Before I point out this numbskullery, let me preface this by saying...I tried that once. And it's not to say he will not be successful, it's just the reasoning is within the same as my own...working with actors you want and their schedule and their reasons is frustrating.

Not so much for me now, because I am patient with both my resources and whom I want to deal with. My friend is a little more specific to his projects. Due to budget constraints. He had cast a guy who later told him he is against the project for religious reasons (a fact that wasn't brought up prior, and he did have a copy of script). An older actor decided not to do his project because his girlfriend thinks it's bad for his career to play villains (I don't buy it. I think he's lying to not spend his resources to be in the project). And so forth. You get the frustration.
Aside from that. It's also a budgetary thing. Renting locations, props, buying film, and so forth. It's not that he's giving up on that. It's that he's limiting his window to do the project in the way he wants to do them.
I get that.
I do that to an extent, because we have to. I tend to write with the locations I can acquire conveniently and economically.
So we both bend to the wills of our art.
To him though, it seems to have reached a crossroads of frustration.
I recall being in Sherman Oaks with an animation program thinking to myself "with this, I can toss away the actors and location fees and...success!" That didn't work. What I suspect will happen to him is what happened to me. You start chasing the technology a little and realize you will be constantly throwing good money after bad. It's already happening. His focus isn't on writing, it's on how to beat the system. I can attempt to convince him this is folly, because I think what he wants is complete autonomy. He won't openly admit that this town has fucked him up in terms of getting shit down. I openly do. Because everyone is so savvy here. And not many places to hide to shoot. To maverick filmmakers this is such garbage, because "the industry" made it so that no one can pursue their stories unless they permit you to do so (and I get the safety issue, but let's exercise some common sense). In middle America, you can hide out for weeks and just shoot. There is no choice for me, simply because motion picture film is here. I don't pursue digital movie making so it's not an option (too bad for me). I've come to terms with that.

I know a lot of people here are like "if you are this passionate about your vision and dream, you find a way." No shit, Sherlock. I've been finding my own ways. Doesn't mean I can't vent as to the dumb ways I have to go through in order to get what an ordinary walk on a sidewalk requires. Seriously.
How about the next time someone brings up the "suffer for your dream" speech I counter with "I got an idea, why don't you pick up that pencil with your tongue and do accounting." Oh wait that isn't your dream? Then you failed at life.