It doesn't take a Media Studies degree to realize that we're living in a culture of hyperstimulation.
This word, borrowed liberally from historian Ben Singer who used it to
describe the barrage of stimuli that arose with technological expansion
at the dawn of the twentieth century, applies even more so to the
current new media landscape.
However, the promise of technology is simultaneously both a blessing and
a curse for artists trying to emerge into the Art World. To plant
their flags in earnestness. To "make it."
The notion
of "making it" was seeded fairly early in my brain. It all began with music; when I received a guitar at the age of 12 and my teenage years were
spent desperately trying to be Noel Gallagher from Oasis (minus the
massive blow habit). I had the Epiphone guitar, the Adidas Samba
sneakers, and when I sang (others will tell you) there was the hint of a
Manchester accent in there. I craved the role of the intelligent
songwriter: the backbone of creativity rather than the rock and roll
swagger of brother Liam. That immersion into Brit-Pop finally led me to
Radiohead. Through Radiohead I observed that an artist could have it
all: killer songwriting abilities / artistic credibility / on stage
chemistry / a book club...while critics all but permanently stitched
their lips to your asshole.
Music eventually gave way
in my college years to film and filmmaking and this paradigm actually
has a word that describes what I had been questing after my entire
teenage life: auteur. Hitchcock, Scorsese, Kurosawa, Kubrick, P.T.
Anderson: their films are synonymous with their names; inseparable
even. Films, though entirely collaborative, are essentially little
golden eggs laid by these artists - or so that is the impression we take
away from them.
I've been making small digital films
for a few years now. They started off god-awful but I firmly believe
that each and every effort is an improvement over the last. This is on
all levels: screenwriting, cinematography, editing, visual effects,
acting, etc. Note that the end-credit sequences of each film have
gotten longer and longer. It was beaten into me in an Introductory
Psychology class that "correlation does not imply causation" but here it
absolutely does. These films are not only improving because I'm
maturing within the art form but because I'm surrounding myself with
like-minded individuals and together the final product is infinitely
stronger than had I gone it alone. Through my attempts at becoming an
auteur, I have learned how impossible the idea ever was.
Screenwriting
is ultimately how I hope to break into the business. Unfortunately
there is a catch-22 with "making it." That is, it takes an agent to
sell your screenplay but you cannot get an agent without having sold a
screenplay. There are always exceptions of course but hundreds and
hundreds of query letters will eventually yield hundreds and hundreds of
rejections: "PASS," "NOT TAKING NEW CLIENTS AT THIS TIME", "YOUR WORK
DOESN'T MEET OUR CURRENT NEEDS." It's enough to drive even the most
determined insane.
And so in between screenwriting
attempts I'll continue to make short films with the hopes that the film
will hit just the right person at the right place at the right time.
But even this is impossible. Why? Because, as I wrote at the beginning
- this is a culture of hyperstimulation. Everyone has access to
digital cameras and editing software. Everyone can self-publish their
book of short stories. Everyone can learn how to write screenplays
online. The same opportunities that have allowed me the tools to make
films also allows access to anyone else in the world. How many other
filmmakers posted films to Youtube today? Frankly there is an ephemeral
sea of media out there and I am but a drop of water. Bite sized files
of ones and zeros clog the pathways. It is virtually impossible to rise
above the muck.
But this does not depress me. How
can it? Through working with others I've found a collaborative of
wonderful people who quest for and share the same desires that I have.
It doesn't matter if my films reach the west-coast, net deals, inspire
millions: as long as they continue to make me happy there is a purpose
to it all. And on that saccharine note I'll beg of you:
Watch my movies! ;)
