Something I have been very fortunate to have in my life is a group of experienced and passionate film maker friends. I cannot stress how vital this is both to the execution of my own personal ambitions as a film maker, but also on a nitty gritty story development level.

I just had a short chat with my editor friend Eddie Hamilton, and while riding into work on his bike, he had a great idea for ‘Gone Fishing’. Eddie has his own life and is working on another film, and still either his conscious or subconscious found time to work on ‘Gone Fishing’. That’s what I mean about passion.

He pitched the idea, and he is right, it’s a GREAT idea. It concerned part of the plot revelation at the end, and also echoed a rule I have in story telling. Anything that is important must be show to the audience twice, ideally in close time proximity. This will then lodge in the viewers sub conscious so that when something related happens later on in the story, they go ‘oh yeah, now I understand why that happened at the beginning…’

Often, this kind of problem is discovered in post when showing the film to friends, and either an editorial botch job is made, or a re-shoot. Either way, I wanted to deal with it before we even get to set, and Eddie really helped in that process. That’s what I mean about experience.

The idea is subtle too, which is a kind of reflection of the David Lynch book I just read, Catching The Big Fish (which I listend to as an audio book). I recommend it, even though David Lynch's passion for meditation pervades the text, and while I don't have a problem with that, others may find it a little crazy. This is David Lynch of course.

So surround yourself with experts who are passionate about movies!

Chris Jones, Film Maker and Author
www.livingspirit.com
mail@livingspirit.com