Staring, at the blank page before you,
Open up the dirty windows,
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find…Natasha Bedingfield, “Unwritten”
If you’re yet to find this out, I’m afraid I’ll have to break it to you. My who page talks about my passion for film and what I’d like to classify as “Hollywood Studies” (how I wish one could take that subject as part of IB). Anyways, I’ve been planning to amateurishly put an idea of mine on film – and I’m now finding out how incredibly difficult the process can get.
Finance is most certainly my largest and most foreboding hurdle. In other words, there is currently no such department in this project. First off, this isn’t Hollywood, New York, Toronto, Vancouver or even Bombay. Yes, Hong Kong makes a surprising number of films, but financing zero-budget films (even for camera or equipment rentals) is pretty much next to zero, if not the big chicken egg itself.
Coming up right after finance, and probably also attributed to Hong Kong being the up-yours city that it has become, has about as many restrictions or fees to be paid as there are dollars spent on film in Hollywood. Think about this: it’s after hours, and should one feel inclined to film within the MTR (our very efficient underground metro rail system), one should prepare a cheque of several hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars. Not something a zero-budget film could really do. New York? Go ahead, we’d love for you to film. Just don’t punch anyone.
Next up is the whole language barrier in the city. Yes, I’m aware that the city is ethnically and by majority Chinese, but that doesn’t mean a former British colony can just go around and forget all the English we were taught for over a hundred years. The wealth of talent, while deep, is not very wide either. Most interested in acting in international schools across the city are drama-based students, with a severe shortage of screen acting aspirators. If you don’t believe me, head over to IMDb and understand the seriousness of this deficiency of Hong Kong screen actors in recent years, especially those who are true actors, not “fame actors” – those who get on screen for reasons other than actually acting.
Lastly of course, I must blame myself for the apparent path to failure of the project. Writing a script is hard enough, not to mention getting ideas are even more difficult. Being a computationally-inclined nerd, I have been able to work my way around screenwriting software, however, that is of absolutely no use unless I can get my head into plots, characters, themes and meaning.
I guess I should really stop complaining right about now and focus on trying to iron out the problems and compromise with what is available to me. Who knows, perhaps something of great interest will pop up and fire this project into dimensions previously thought impossible. That was reflectable.
gizgiz
lightninghell
