Who was it who said that the artist's eyes are like a camera? Mine are. Ever since I was little I've seen everything as a movie. I would use looking my vision and imagine other people were seeing what I was, and I would control what they saw- making movies with my eyes. Around 4th grade I wrote my first story, it was about a horse that had a baby and died while giving birth, then that horse grew up and had a baby but died while in birth, and then that horse grew up only to suffer the fate of her mother and grandmother. It went on for a few generations, but they all had wonderful names (I've always been funny about names. It takes me months to name my characters). So throughout high school I wrote a lot (mostly angsty free verse and Salinger style short stories- but I was always writing) and took photo and painted pictures then all of a sudden the year I was 18 I had an epiphany about putting those things together. I could write movies! I could tell stories and show them!
My family was never a huge movie watching family. I discovered Casablanca on my own. And of course I'd seen Moulin Rouge, but then I learned about Baz Luhrmann and Strictly Ballroom and how to appreciate his version of Romeo & Juliet. Then I met Darrin and he taught me about Wes Anderson and Pedro Almodovar and Ang Lee and more and then, in my obsessiveness (and IMDB.com and NetFlix as my enablers) I started finding one actor or director or writer and watching everything they've done. I did the whole Anderson &CO, meaning Jason Schwartzman, Luke & Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Sofia Coppola etc etc, then Kate Winslet, then Gael Garcia Bernal, M. Night Shyamalan, Joaquin Phoenix, Joe Wright (I loved P&P and am greatly anticipating Atonement) the list goes on and on. I learned about Zach Helm and how inspiring he is. I'm still learning all of the little connections and there are so many classics I've never seen, but learning to appreciate the rare movie that is beautifully written, acted, produced and a million other things changed my heart. So I started to write.
I have all of these stories I want to write and show people. I have a script almost done right now about a group of friends dealing their friend's suicide, how they all uniquely handle their grief and how it changes them. I have an idea about a girl who with a huge imagination and a huge heart who goes through a dark time. Last Sunday I wrote out a couple ideas about a man who learns he only has three months to live. I started writing comedy sketches as well, little parodies or situations. Things that captured my heart. I want to finish and polish a few of these and then I fully intend on trying to "break into the business". I know how hard it is, I know what my chances are but I just can't see doing anything else with my life. That is what passion is, you don't pursue such an unstable profession for the money or fame, you do it because nothing makes you feel so good, nothing else would work.
Now the Writer's Guild of America is on Strike. I am so in awe of these people who quit their jobs and fight for their rights, for my future rights. It is the most patriotic I've felt in years to see people who are risking their careers stand up to major corporations and protect their art. Writing is so emotionally draining and intimate and these people who are, quite literally, putting themselves on the line... it inspires me as an American and as a writer. Quite obviously, I am pro-strike and pro-union and all of the reasons that I am can be found much more intelligently and eloquently explained elsewhere (try UnitedHollywood.blogspot.com). Mostly I am uplifted and inspired by and hurting for all of the writers on strike. I'll miss House and the Office and all of the nightlies and I hope that strike is resolved soon in a very pro-WGA way, but for the moment, for the week, I am so proud and enamored with the Industry that all I've been doing is writing, writing, writing.
K
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