Why

Last Contact : Blog 11 : Why?

Why do any of this? After all, I work in IT. I sit behind a desk, tapping at a PC all day, 5 days a week, most weeks of the year. I have no formal training in writing, producing, directing or acting. It’s costly, and timely, and stressly.

It’s especially stressly.

I’ve had to organise people and places, props and costumes, get cover for pets, shop for more people than I ever thought I’d shop for, and organise camera and sound crew.

I’ve taken two and a half weeks off of work (and I get paid by the hour), I’ve had to act in another film at the same time (that’s where I was on the first Saturday, when I originally should have started filming Last Contact). We’ve had to change actors at the last minute, manage issues with the property, worry about getting the right insurance, and then hope that I didn’t have to use the insurance (the excesses are how much?).

There’s been a website to create from scratch, maintain, write blogs for. There’s been a Facebook page to attract potential viewers, advertise with, respond to questions, and generally keep the interest levels up.

There’s been last minute costs that have cropped up, facilitating the use of the overdrafts. There’s now the learning of the editing software, and the countless hours that Marielle and I will have to sit looking at the terabyte of film footage we shot over two weeks.

Oh, yes. The whole thing took only two weeks. That worked out about 16 pages a day. Even more than they do on Hollyoaks, I’m told. Getting up at 7.30am, starting filming at 9am, taking 45 minutes for lunch, and finishing filming around 7pm if we were lucky.

So why? Why did I do all this?

Well, if you haven’t guessed already, see above.