November 25, 2005
the dangerous side of "spare" time
It all started innocently enough. The day job was busy but not exhaustively so. The girlfriend was involved in yet another non profit arts gig. I had been procrastinating on completing a film project for an obscene length of time. I was restless, anxious but most dangerously.. I was bored.
There are many things people take up when they suddenly acquire some spare time: evening classes, knitting, casual sex, alcoholism.. but instead of all these noble and suitably recreational activities, I found myself coming up with an idea for a film screening.
At least it began as just a film screening. I knew a place that had a nice space with a projector and the hire rate was low. I had always wanted to organize something there.. why not the weekend before Christmas? But what would I screen and why? Who would come? Would anyone actually go for it? I must have had some doubts, but with the seed planted it had already started to grow.
I woke up in the morning with my brief. I knew so many people who were filmmakers and animators, who were talented and successful. All of their work was different and carried some kind of signature style. I go to short film events all the time. Most of what I see is pretty dire. Here was the opportunity to show a strong programme of work, made by people I knew, that would be enjoyable for the audience. It would also be a pleasant way for those programmed, to present their work out of a commercial setting. Even better, most of the audience (who would know each other to some degree through me) would also be filmmakers. What better way to forge friendships, than seeing one another’s work?! (or not.. but one has got to have hope)
I decided I would call the event “invite only” . I liked the idea of doing a private screening, with a private curating process. It seemed like a positive kind of exclusivity, and that exclusivity would not only ensure the quality of the programme, it would also take care of the positive response of the audience. And ... “invite only” had a nice ring to it..
At my desk I fired out a rambling and overexcited email. I made sure not to send it as a group mail, as I wanted to target everyone individually. I wanted everyone I approached to appreciate why I wanted them involved specifically. This was key to getting their involvement at all. I even expanded my call for artists slightly. As well as filmmakers I contacted designers who I knew could handle the layout of the invitation to the event, and make a logo that would stand out no matter what format it appeared on. It also occurred to me that it would be really cool to have a logo, that animated as an ident on the reel before the films played.
The first response I had dropped a spanner in the works. It was a friend who was very keen to be involved. But crucially, she didn’t have any film work to screen. She suggested playing an audio piece she had made with one of her poems. I didn’t want to say to no to her, but it didn’t really make sense with the format I had envisaged. But then it seemed wrong that she was the first person to respond and I was turning her down… so I told her I would get back to her. Two hours later I had the solution. Instead of a programme the screening would be accompanied by a zine. I had always wanted to make a zine, and if it was small there was no reason I couldn’t co-ordinate both at the same time ..right? I emailed a call for writers and illustrators. As it was a much smaller group, I sent it as a group email.
It was at this point that I had a response from another friend asking if I had considered building a website for the event. Building a website always seemed like one of those things that was big and time consuming and super complicated. And even those I know who can manage it seemed completely inaccessible to ask. But this friend (who perhaps notably had a film I wanted to screen) offered to help me build a site, even explained how to ago about acquiring a domain and webspace etc.
Meanwhile the design branch of the project was evolving in its own exciting way. Because I wanted the workload for everyone involved to be not too time consuming, I broke down everything I needed doing into a series of parts. Thus one designer would design a logo that would go on to three other designers: one for layout (web) another for the ident and another for layout (zine). Meanwhile illustrators elsewhere would be creating something for inclusion in the zine. Because all of these artists are based in entirely different cities, (some of which had never met) it began to feel like a kind of “design and pass it on project”.. cool.
And thus the screening begat a zine begat a website.
All now in the process of completion. And because thinking small isn’t my style I soon found myself approaching a friend who’s band is generating serious hype in Manchester
. And then another friend was approached to host it, and well now its all happening. The tapes, discs and literary submissions have started coming in. I’ve been writing bios for the website all week. I have a technical meeting with the venue manager this evening. And slowly but surely this little diversion I concocted is quite happily taking over my life. And I’m so sad about the thought of all the buzz fading that I’m already contemplating what the second one could consist of. After all I have the website for a year….