I’ve not had much doubt that in time I’d shake off this funk I’ve been in for months ... my get-up-and-go has got-up-and-GONE!
Creativity is a fickle thing … sometimes the energy and ideas flow and you can’t keep yourself away from the studio. Then other times you could pad-lock yourself inside there night and day, but there ain’t nothing happening no matter what …
Like priming an old-time pump to get the water flowing, you’ve got to re-discover some motivation to get the creative juices flowing. Be patient … it will come. Sometimes it comes out of the blue from the most unexpected sources …
During the time we were taking care of mom, and trying to comfort grieving cats, I fell into the habit of watching a movie or two with the cats at night before bed. It gave them people/cuddle time and gave me unwind time.
Now mom’s gone and the little cat is gone, and it’s just Squirt and me. We decided to keep that routine going, because Squirt still needs his cuddle time, after all, and who knows what kind of psychological damage I could do to that 15 pound lump of soft, fluffy love by denying him that … I could get taken off to pet-abuse jail or something!! Squirt and I have a thing going on …
Anyway …
I’m a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to monthly subscriptions for TV viewing. $9 here, $12 there, and monthly subscriptions can add up quick. So I just avoid that. Instead I discovered movies on YouTube that can be viewed “free with ads”.
I don’t always get to see the latest or greatest, and sometimes they are old and dated, or re-hashed romcoms from Lifetime or Hallmark, or scifi, horror or mysteries. But they aren’t all terrible, and many times I’m pleasantly surprised.
It’s like a treasure hunt, because the thumbnails don’t tell you much. There’ll be just be a generic picture and the caption will tell you something like “it’ll keep you guessing till the end!” or “shocking true story!” or “this movie will change your life!”. There’s no sales pitch quite like good old drama-filled internet click bait!
I’ve seen a lot that were actually pretty good. One of my favorites was very unusual, about a blue collar family – a husband, wife and young son – living happily in a modest home, but struggling to make ends meet. One day they meet a man who makes an unreasonably generous offer to buy their house. They don’t want to sell, but he keeps pressing. Finally he confesses that he has knowledge of buried, stolen money on their property. Then the rest of the movie is all about them destroying their property and their lives trying desperately to find where the loot is buried. Of course, there’s no loot … they get alerted by the local sheriff that it’s a scam, but the husband won’t believe it, and, because he won’t give it up, eventually he loses his family. It was tragic to watch how the relationships between mom, dad and son shifted and changed from happy, close and loving, to alienated and finally destroyed. A lot of lessons to be learned there!
But I’ve seen some real stinkers, too … really bad ones get turned off after 5-10 minutes. It doesn’t take very long to find out that one’s not worth the time.
One night I found a real stinker and stayed with it until the end. It was a horror/fantasy about mermaids who showed up every 10 years to terrorize a small fishing village. I could tell after a few minutes of really bad acting that it wasn't well done, but the idea was interesting, so I stuck it out.
Once I wrote a blog about ugly babies … those books that self publishers sometimes make that aren’t quite professional and up to snuff. Because no matter how great the story or idea is, if it’s not written and illustrated well, and if it’s not professionally designed, put together and printed correctly, it will struggle to compete in the market, it will not attract readers and will frankly look homemade and unprofessional. And that will reflect on the author/publisher. That’s your reputation!
Apparently the same applies to movie makers.
Folks who have an interesting idea, but no budget maybe. Amateur writers who write stiff, clumsy dialogue and don’t know how to transition between scenes. Actors who can’t act (or maybe don’t have a decent script!). Special effects that are not very special …
I suppose I’m out of line here … I don’t know anything about movie making. And I shouldn’t be surprised at the quality of a “free with ads” movie. But movie makers and book makers are both storytellers. And storytelling is very important.
Storytelling done well will entertain, teach, inspire and motivate.
Storytelling done badly gets tuned out and turned off.
And that’s what this website is all about … and I hope that all my ramblings and articles will help the storytellers out there find some inspiration and a bit of help to keep telling those stories.
As for me, I'm finally beginning to feel that funk lift off – thanks to an ugly baby movie!