Day 78

17:48

Had a day talking about the future, helping my sister go off on her train back to Oxford. Since the wait was a few hours, I took her to see Monsters Vs Aliens in 3D. It pretty much sucked, except for the 3D bits and Seth Rogen.

I keep wondering why so many movies can be so admirably proficient in technique and yet so lacking in any kind of merit. I think it might be due to the fact that large audiences are so stupid, and small ones are so fragmented. Blockbusters are treated like they're cheeseburgers by the studios who control them. And indie films are created in such a hothouse of preciousness, their unchecked egos result in as many drossy movies as the studios' unchecked commercialism.

I wonder if in our desperate hunger for something to see, that us as audiences, in big groups or small, are discerning enough for the kind of films that used to be made in Hollywood, by studios and featuring big actors, and could also be considered - in any way - to be an art form.

Nowadays there aren't many studio (or indie) films that aren't put together exquisitely - which anyone will recognize who's tried to make a film themselves. But beyond their beautifully constructed parts, a lot of these movies have no actual worth.

Like I said - in the end, I think it comes down to us - the audience. If we don't deserve good films to watch, and if we don't go to see them when they miraculously show up, then they won't be repeated, and we simply won't get them any more.

23:07

Watched the new Mitchell Hurwitz animation Sit Down, Shut Up. It was pretty much slated in the U.S. press but I thought it was funny. Heard the weirdest and coolest song on youtube - a freaky little tune and music video called Little Wings by a Florida singer-songwriter called Mark Gormley, which would be perfect for the end and credits to my long-running project Evil Dude. So I'm getting excited and distracted by that. I wonder if he's the kind of guy who would let me use it?

02:38

Wrote for about an hour and a half, and did the first pass of 12 shots for Evil Dude. My outline has gone from very long passages describing a single scene to a list of HUGE PLOT POINTS IN CAPITALS, but this seems like progress - my biggest problem is nearly always breaking the wall between my idea for the beginning or first half of the story and the rest of it.

Apart from that, it's late and I'm tired. See you tomorrow. Maybe in the morning.

word count: 500
hours writing: 1.5