The Tendency to Meander

Welcome to my latest public journal. Ignore the string of blogs I’ve littered all around the web. The trouble with constantly moving around is that I’m forgetful and lose notebooks in transport on a regular basis. At least with a website I don’t have to worry about the material proof of my existence.

This blog title comes from a studio note I received once, that I had a “tendency to meander”. I learned the value of brevity from hard news writing – presenting the most important information first and taking care to limit redundancy. So yeah, I understand why I got that note. The hero’s journey bores me.

Not that I can’t write it. Just that I’m too attention deficit to be entertained by plot alone. So I meander.

I like making films that experiment with form. I try to illustrate context in my screenplays, since most of the material I deal with is set in the obscure. To be fair, I’m learning to do this visually (instead of through scenes and scenes of backstory). At least I’m learning.

So to prevent myself from OVERLOADING-SCRIPTS-WITH-EVERYTHING-BUT-THE-KITCHEN-SINK, I shall blog. Once again. If you came to talk film, I’ll do that to from time to time. But I make films because I want to capture the complexities of life and the intersections between things. Absolutes dissatisfy me. In a past life as a portraitist I learned there’s an entire range of greys you can play with if you really want to capture still life.

So I’ll meander. And if you don’t mind the meandering, I’ll be writing here a lot: notes to my future self, public and personal projects, film chismis, whatever is appropriate to discuss at length. It keeps me grounded, and accountable.

Honestly if I don’t write stuff down I won’t remember a thing.