Hi,
As much as I am a film person, what with 500 foreign film reviews and such, I have never ventured to the video side of things. Don't really know why, but up until 10 years ago, the price of those things was way too prohibitive for me to even think about it. Didn't help that my boss' son, at the time was one of those spoiled 18 years old, and off my film/music thing he ended up with a $1500 camera (this is 2000!) and then went to film school in Vancouver BC for a full year. Needless to say, I was sad and cried, being that I had 4 screenplays, had showed him my film that had music by Kevin Ayers (he graciously allowed me to use the music), and its ethereal style of story and sound/music effects.
He never did anything with the film, and came home even more messed up after a year.
All of my "visual" work has gone to writing. I have wanted to film a lot of it, but it simply was not there or happened.
I wanted to film the artist Vina White that I worked with in the 90's. She's still the best artist of anyone I have ever met, and no one will touch anything, to the amount and quality of work that she had produced in that time, while we did a few psychic shows and various art shows around the area. In the end, her family did not like film, or the arts, and they were not going to allow her to fly the coop, and a process that is so beautiful to watch, and fast, will never be seen or appreciated by anyone else.
Things like this, along with Guy Guden's Space Pirate Radio that I have over 400 hours saved, now for over 35 years, are the "touches" of pure artistry that I have been lucky enough to see all my life, and the rest is simply not worth discussing, and I always wanted to put it on film. That is WHAT film is all about, the grand moments. And I have a knack for getting them and did when I was directing in theater, and even in the films I did.
I will likely get me a cheapie video camera and do a couple of things. But I'm dis-illusioned. The two best artists I have ever met, were so far and away on par and further than any music and artist I have ever loved, and they could not, or did not want to share their life. It's like it was not art for them, but just their skin, and they didn't want to see it again! No matter the "art" that came out of it. Vina's work is buried and she gave me a closet full, because I had spent so much money to get her going, and Guy's work, is buried but only discussed in one thread at the Prog Archives board, and he is not wanting to share the fun and the times he had then, unless he is the star of the show, and "art" is not about a star and his cock!
I've lost the desire to film anything. Maybe, it is that I am not inspired, though the stories keep on coming in my head and what I see ends up written, as I work though a couple of novels, in the past few months, but all in all ... I don't know that I will ever pick up a camera again.
It feels like ... the true "art" is not to be seen. EVER. Don't ask me why! Sometimes I think that I am around too many people whose vision is too superficial in order to help develop the inner vision that much further and better be able to create something ... I just don't know. Only time will tell!
But I love to see Karyn saying she got a camera.
The wild eyed child awakes and
... sees ...
we look at the child
and have no idea
but their eyes look at you,
you look at the child
and wonder ...
and wonder ...
the child's attention waves,
and they see something else
as their legs move
and the arms shake
and the kid smiles
looks at you smiles again ...
you can see it now ...
the wild eyed child sees ...
you ...
and you remember the day
and the night
just like yesterday
or a minute ago
when you saw something,
anything
and smiled
...
and the camera caught it!
WOOOOOTTTT!