Blocked

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The D-Word's life is one of glamour and riches, as only a documentary filmmaker can live it

March 25
10:33am

I need to write
a one or two-page synopsis of Home Page for the proposal.
But I'm blocked.

It's the strangest thing-- I can never seem to summarize my films on paper. I can talk about them succinctly and I can gab forever, but somehow it doesn't translate to the written word. I can hear you ask: why don't you just tape record yourself and edit it? Well, you'd think... but it doesn't translate somehow.

It's not like I haven't written. I have a ton of pages, too many pages. The problem is I have a number of things going on in the film at once.

First, and foremost, there's Justin's story, which is about this kid with an amazing web site who quits school, travels across America, like Johnny Appleseed, helping people get up on the Web, and settles (uneasily) in San Francisco to help launch Electric Minds, a virtual community Web site.

If you believe, like I do, that Justin is a truly significant figure on the internet, his journey is both literal and metaphorical.

Then there's Justin's "links" -- the friends, lovers, rivals and peers who are part of this internet youth culture that hungers for connection and community, and yet turns to computers to find it.

And then there's my story. I start out in my usual role as documentary filmmaker/ cameraman/ voyeur, exploring from (hiding behind?) my usual position of power behind the camera.

But then, inspired by Justin, I put up my own Home Page, which means that I accept allowing the public into my "home", into my creative process, into my life, before I'm ready. Before I have something polished to present.

messy

messy

messy

And when Justin links to me on his site, it opens me up to interaction with his readers and the feedback becomes part of the ongoing story. Creating a web of intrigue.

So, that's the gist. What usually hangs me up is trying to state the significance. So let me try:

Well, first it's different from other docs (and, of course, magazine-type tv shows). I'm trying to show the web, not have a bunch of experts sitting around talking about it.

I'm trying to capture on film a generation that increasingly mediates its communication through the interface of a machine.

And trying to convey what the implications are for all of us, because, like it or not, it's something we're all gonna have to deal with.

And I'm trying to do it in the form of a damn good story. But harder yet, convey the sense of the web's non-linearity in a linear narrative.

And I'm making it personal, 'cause if it's not personal than who gives a hoot?!?

Yikes.

Funny thing is, though, I think I can pull it off. I've seen the footage now-- it's all there. Now I've just gotta get the funding that'll enable me to focus on the editing instead of the fundraising.

A chicken and egg kind of thing.

Spoke with Molly Ornati yesterday, the best proposal writer I've ever seen. Back when I had an office at the NY Center For Visual History, I'd be at the xerox machine and find a random page for a proposal Molly was writing for "The American Cinema" series. And start weeping because it made this absolutely useless series, that had no reason on earth to ever be made, sound like the most important event ever to come to television.

Molly suggested that my whole track record is one of personal films (The Heck With Hollywood!, Silverlake Life, Jupiter's Wife) that hook into much larger themes. I should present Home Page that way too.

But, man, that's so hard for me to do. I can toot my own horn to an extent, but that's where I seem to be...

BLOCKED!!!

Meanwhile, Brian and the good folks at Radzone are helping me get my journal entries up in a easier way. We're testing it now with this entry.

A whole new D-Word re-design is on it's way. And not a moment too soon. Yeehaaaaaaahhh.

Alright, enough of this. Time to get back to my synopsis.

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