The Terror Generation
They are waiting for something, all the while chasing something, something, and nobody knows what THAT something is.
They roam from all over, into dark tunnels, underground, smoking tea bags that cost them 40 dollars.
I try to say something, say, "hey brother! You're in the thick of it all just as I am, do you dig it?"
There is no answer.
A young generation, of touch screen terrorism, buried under multicolored lights, which make us scream, fake, circumvent, reject, anything that is natural.
A burning desire to be something, something we have seen, something we have heard, rarely do we read.
The woman next to me has holes instead of sleeves, bra seen from every possible angle, tells me she watched the film on Netflix "and after all it is her and the her iPhone who are perfect."
Her exposed breast makes me feel embarrassed, makes me feel hot all over, and now, how am I to say that I'm flawed and scared of living in the twenty-first just as she is.
Painters making coffee, philosophers driving trains, lawyers playing jazz, and I constantly pay.
We all have to make rent but the hours that really matter are five to twelve: when I sit down and pray for rain.
So my brothers, my sisters and I, could sit down and write something genuine. So I'll have an excuse not to go out there again.
The temptations of Time Square—Oh God! Let there be a black out so I won't have to look at those YouTube ads again.
But the VMA award's scandal is already going viral, and I am redirected, unwillingly, to the original.
An angle is dancing naked to a hashtag, and I may never love another dressed woman in my lifetime.
A young generation, of extinct conversation, talking about everything under the sun-- except for their howling and their crying in the shadows of the night.
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A Message
In the post modern age, with easily and cheaply accessible HD cameras and bottomless digital notebooks, it seems that for the true artist there is no hope left in sight. As if we are forever bound to pay our rent rather than purchase canvas and paint. But who are those true artists I am talking about? It could be anyone at all - regardless of genuine talent. It comes from one's desire to express what his two eyes see around him.
They are those who thrive to speak. Those who choose to do so for the sake of receiving a brief, but nevertheless, pleasing peace of mind: although only for a short while. In my case I can put my pen down, lean back on my chair, and look straight ahead. There it is - simply blank - With all my raging thoughts held objectively in between horizontal lines.
That moment of rest, however, doesn't last long. I might be proud of my words for an hour, a day, or perhaps a whole week, but then what? It remains laying there on my isolated desk. Oh, my! How brutal it is to see my words just sitting there, unread and growing shy with every passing day. A true shame, and what is worse is that I know that I am not alone.
It is not just us artists who are suffering from the brutal facts of life, even the lawyers face the same troubling facts. How can I break through the walls that our predecessors have left us? I blame the digital age, which have shorten our already miniature fuse and patience. We are unable to wait any longer. We all want to be Hollywood starts, right here and right now. Forget about it pal, it will come in due time but not right now.Right now we are poor and aimlessly looking for our style in the dark. We are on the right track but (like pushing a piano) the first push is always the hardest. Once things start moving, however, everything is smoother from there on; that is unless you stop and therefore have to give a first push for a second time.
Finding out our style is the first and the hardest push for the artist to overcome (or at least that's how I see it with my own naive eyes).That first push seems so inscrutably hard that we simply fail to move our legs or even shift the sand that rests, unimpressed, beneath us. In the middle of the intersection I freeze with my script clenched in my fist, asking myself "where am I going with this?" One thing is for sure. If I am crossing the road alone I am going nowhere in particular.
In the post modern age, with the easily accessible equipment, almost anyone could become an artist, and with him grows the competition. We are all like idiot mice running across the maze to the capitalist giant hands for some credit and cheese - all in the sake of getting a chance to break through the wall our predecessors have left for us to breach. But like the mice we run for a chance to shine but I ask: by whose standards?I have a first draft for a short film written down and a couple of creative minds interested in bringing this project to life. I barely have money to produce this picture digitally, and therefore, it means that I would have to wait even longer in order to execute my vision the why I would like it to be - on classic film.Yes, of course I would love to shot on film. But I can't.
The way I look at it is like this, even Paul McCartney had to compromise on the bass guitar. And besides, why waste my money? I can produce a great picture on a low-budget and plenty of teamwork which seems to rise from nothing. Golden awards demand a large sums, but a simple story could be told with any camera you'd like.So I try to shift the sand below my feet. I put aside ideas of immediate success and reschedule them for ten years from now. I will examine myself under the magnifying glass once again only after some real and meaningful change have occurred. Until then let me learn from my mistakes - which under a tight budget may be found at a deal price.Furthermore, if the budget is financed by a large group of ambitious artists then the costs of learning should be even cheaper. However, how to get those fellow artists on your side is not an easy task.
Such process means hard work. Involving distributing of first drafts, or sketches, or what ever medium you use in order to deliver your message. You must leave your comfort zone every once in a while and look elsewhere for new and fresh minds. Challenge people to take a look even if they have never read a screenplay in their life. As for myself, and as an artist, it is everybody's heart which I attempt to address. Not only those business man at the end of the maze or my fellow artist just the same. I want a simple man or woman to understand and feel what it is that I am feeling. Therefore, who will give me a better critic then a random person I meet on the street? Yet if the recipient of the draft finds an interest or simply feels slightly moved by the piece, it is the recipient's responsibility to show initiation and willingness to provide a helping hand.A helping hand could come in all forms. Either as a hand shake, saying, "thanks for sharing your views of the world my friend, but I don't think I can give you anything in return." That is fair and you should thank him in reply and not forget to send him your next script in due date.
Another form of helping hands could be in the shape of thoughts, advice, devil advocate, and the likes. Another is to participate, to act, to model, to make two versions of the same frame. One in video and another in oil, or decibel waves, and perhaps it will help us understand that we are all see life in different shades of light. None is right and none is wrong - but we learn form one another as we go.
What is it all about then? It is about taking over creative control as a team. It is about making that first push forward. About building a crew of friends, of artists, of simple motivated human-beings that understand that we don't need to fight in order to produce our art. It is free for all at the museums so why not through all three stages of production just the same? We all need to become the producers for one another, and free of charge. To take risks and learn from our mistakes as a unified team. And then, better established, and with a better understandings, we could approach another project more securely. For there is bound to be one if we are truly a team of motivated artists, who already have one finished project to learn from and another to work on.
It is not just us artists who are suffering from the brutal facts of life, even the lawyers face the same troubling facts. How can I break through the walls that our predecessors have left us? I blame the digital age, which have shorten our already miniature fuse and patience. We are unable to wait any longer. We all want to be Hollywood starts, right here and right now. Forget about it pal, it will come in due time but not right now.Right now we are poor and aimlessly looking for our style in the dark. We are on the right track but (like pushing a piano) the first push is always the hardest. Once things start moving, however, everything is smoother from there on; that is unless you stop and therefore have to give a first push for a second time.
Finding out our style is the first and the hardest push for the artist to overcome (or at least that's how I see it with my own naive eyes).That first push seems so inscrutably hard that we simply fail to move our legs or even shift the sand that rests, unimpressed, beneath us. In the middle of the intersection I freeze with my script clenched in my fist, asking myself "where am I going with this?" One thing is for sure. If I am crossing the road alone I am going nowhere in particular.
In the post modern age, with the easily accessible equipment, almost anyone could become an artist, and with him grows the competition. We are all like idiot mice running across the maze to the capitalist giant hands for some credit and cheese - all in the sake of getting a chance to break through the wall our predecessors have left for us to breach. But like the mice we run for a chance to shine but I ask: by whose standards?I have a first draft for a short film written down and a couple of creative minds interested in bringing this project to life. I barely have money to produce this picture digitally, and therefore, it means that I would have to wait even longer in order to execute my vision the why I would like it to be - on classic film.Yes, of course I would love to shot on film. But I can't.
The way I look at it is like this, even Paul McCartney had to compromise on the bass guitar. And besides, why waste my money? I can produce a great picture on a low-budget and plenty of teamwork which seems to rise from nothing. Golden awards demand a large sums, but a simple story could be told with any camera you'd like.So I try to shift the sand below my feet. I put aside ideas of immediate success and reschedule them for ten years from now. I will examine myself under the magnifying glass once again only after some real and meaningful change have occurred. Until then let me learn from my mistakes - which under a tight budget may be found at a deal price.Furthermore, if the budget is financed by a large group of ambitious artists then the costs of learning should be even cheaper. However, how to get those fellow artists on your side is not an easy task.
Such process means hard work. Involving distributing of first drafts, or sketches, or what ever medium you use in order to deliver your message. You must leave your comfort zone every once in a while and look elsewhere for new and fresh minds. Challenge people to take a look even if they have never read a screenplay in their life. As for myself, and as an artist, it is everybody's heart which I attempt to address. Not only those business man at the end of the maze or my fellow artist just the same. I want a simple man or woman to understand and feel what it is that I am feeling. Therefore, who will give me a better critic then a random person I meet on the street? Yet if the recipient of the draft finds an interest or simply feels slightly moved by the piece, it is the recipient's responsibility to show initiation and willingness to provide a helping hand.A helping hand could come in all forms. Either as a hand shake, saying, "thanks for sharing your views of the world my friend, but I don't think I can give you anything in return." That is fair and you should thank him in reply and not forget to send him your next script in due date.
Another form of helping hands could be in the shape of thoughts, advice, devil advocate, and the likes. Another is to participate, to act, to model, to make two versions of the same frame. One in video and another in oil, or decibel waves, and perhaps it will help us understand that we are all see life in different shades of light. None is right and none is wrong - but we learn form one another as we go.
What is it all about then? It is about taking over creative control as a team. It is about making that first push forward. About building a crew of friends, of artists, of simple motivated human-beings that understand that we don't need to fight in order to produce our art. It is free for all at the museums so why not through all three stages of production just the same? We all need to become the producers for one another, and free of charge. To take risks and learn from our mistakes as a unified team. And then, better established, and with a better understandings, we could approach another project more securely. For there is bound to be one if we are truly a team of motivated artists, who already have one finished project to learn from and another to work on.
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