Many people seem to think that in order to do something, you should study first. Before you make a movie, you should study film. It’s not surprising, there’s a lot of marketing out there for universities and TAFEs. And since a lot of aspiring or failed do-ers teach there, pressure is high: study, don’t think you can do it on your own, that is, with books and friends. By-passing the commercial case of official study.
At my housewarming party, I discussed honey-pot with a guy who’s doing a film course at the Victorian College of the Arts. He started asking me – “What’s the purpose of this film?” He wasn’t satisfied by “it’s a fun idea”. I realised how lucky to be making a first movie without an establishment over me, throwing a thousand useless questions at my face – purpose and all of this crap. I pitched a story to Nghi, gave a quick general idea of the aesthetics. He liked it, he’d pay for it, and now we’re doing it. The purpose is to show the world our products, and have fun in the mean-time. There’s no frustrated teacher or bureaucrat grant-allocator to please, only the crew, cast and public. I love it.
