Jesse, this rocks. I don’t have words other than to describe the violent dang nodding I’m doing right now! Per your penultimate line of the essay regarding like-minded people sick of this shit to perhaps get in-touch; count me in, my dude! My little version is that I’ve been trying to “work” in film for a decade now, and yet… can’t bare the hyper-commercialization of it all and the stupidity of most of the output and also can’t seem to stop having an existential crisis thinking about the ecological impact that film tech needs to function and be produced?😅 Such an annoying little bind to be in. Lord help me. Anyways— keep up the good work and the good art. Yours is easily one of the clearest-eyed and soul-nourishing substacks I ever read💚
You are indeed not just *one* crazy person shouting into the void… there are many of us. We’re damaging our larynxes right along with you!
I’m in agreement with ya on the idea that at the very least working in art with modern constraints can be a positive challenge. It’s like what people say about indie-film: when you have no budget for anything fancy and expensive like CGI and ginormous actors, all your creativity is able to go into narrative and visual frugality, and sometimes THAT makes for memorable stuff onscreen (my fave example is how in John Carpenter’s “Halloween” (1978), they couldn’t afford background extras, so the town they filmed in just looked totally empty. But then they realized how a ghost-town aesthetic is actually kind of terrifying. So… it worked🤣).
Lastly— I LOVE the idea of trading art-favors. I had never thought of this before. Thank you! I am very interested! I’ll definitely let you know when/if I’m ever in need of such a thing. I could always offer some video or audio editing for my part 😁 Lol it’s not much, but it’s something! Anything to help the medium go-round.
You are way too kind, haha. It's encouraging to know that anyone is on the same page, though, and I am not just a crazy person shouting nonsense into the void. It is just such a pain and a half that it feels impossible to be a creative at all without succumbing to the obligation of branding and marketing and mass-appeal and etc etc. At best, though, I think it's worth it to imagine constraints of money and access and politics as a creative challenge, though, like maybe it can inspire us to do something interesting and different instead of succumbing to whatever the market demands, as much as we can afford to do so. I don't think I have a lot to offer a film guy, but if you ever need a poster or a matte painting or some other kind of promo/concept art, hit me up and we can figure out some kind of trade for it, yeah??
ahh this is so so great!! i'll wait to read part 2 until tomorrow just to savour it and build the suspense 😅 😇
Jesse, this rocks. I don’t have words other than to describe the violent dang nodding I’m doing right now! Per your penultimate line of the essay regarding like-minded people sick of this shit to perhaps get in-touch; count me in, my dude! My little version is that I’ve been trying to “work” in film for a decade now, and yet… can’t bare the hyper-commercialization of it all and the stupidity of most of the output and also can’t seem to stop having an existential crisis thinking about the ecological impact that film tech needs to function and be produced?😅 Such an annoying little bind to be in. Lord help me. Anyways— keep up the good work and the good art. Yours is easily one of the clearest-eyed and soul-nourishing substacks I ever read💚
You are indeed not just *one* crazy person shouting into the void… there are many of us. We’re damaging our larynxes right along with you!
I’m in agreement with ya on the idea that at the very least working in art with modern constraints can be a positive challenge. It’s like what people say about indie-film: when you have no budget for anything fancy and expensive like CGI and ginormous actors, all your creativity is able to go into narrative and visual frugality, and sometimes THAT makes for memorable stuff onscreen (my fave example is how in John Carpenter’s “Halloween” (1978), they couldn’t afford background extras, so the town they filmed in just looked totally empty. But then they realized how a ghost-town aesthetic is actually kind of terrifying. So… it worked🤣).
Lastly— I LOVE the idea of trading art-favors. I had never thought of this before. Thank you! I am very interested! I’ll definitely let you know when/if I’m ever in need of such a thing. I could always offer some video or audio editing for my part 😁 Lol it’s not much, but it’s something! Anything to help the medium go-round.
You are way too kind, haha. It's encouraging to know that anyone is on the same page, though, and I am not just a crazy person shouting nonsense into the void. It is just such a pain and a half that it feels impossible to be a creative at all without succumbing to the obligation of branding and marketing and mass-appeal and etc etc. At best, though, I think it's worth it to imagine constraints of money and access and politics as a creative challenge, though, like maybe it can inspire us to do something interesting and different instead of succumbing to whatever the market demands, as much as we can afford to do so. I don't think I have a lot to offer a film guy, but if you ever need a poster or a matte painting or some other kind of promo/concept art, hit me up and we can figure out some kind of trade for it, yeah??