A creative life of quiet scrutiny

I am reading a semi-auto bio on Woody Allen. Rather than detail his life, though, this goes through each of his movies, one by one in order, and discusses the themes and motivations behind making them.

It is an inspirational read.

This may sound funny coming in the whole post Soon Yi era, but I think he really has his head square on his shoulders. So many of the things he talks about I would love to incorporate into my life.

Primarily, I love his idea that his films are his career, and not huge entertainment events. He doesn't hype his films, because he doesn't care what you think of them. He doesn't even care for them. He never views them after they are done. He starts on his next project. His life is about making films. So, that's what he does.

Now, there have been times, recently, that I thought, why doesn't he just take a year off and combine his ideas into one really funny script rather than two crappy ones. That would probably do it too, because there have been moments in these last few years of truly funny stuff. Sadly, it is usually buffered by drivel.

For him, though, that isn't the point. He wants to spend several months a year filming. Hell, so do I. After filming, he takes a new idea and writes it out. Usually, it only takes him two drafts, and then he considers it done. Then he sets about finding the locales, as his CD Juliet Taylor offers up names of actors for him to consider. He is one of those directors that casts an actor believing they can already do the part and he just lets them act. Minimal direction. He thinks it would be arrogant of him to think he could tell them how to do it better. Then the last important step is editing, which is still, for him, an opportunity for creative inspiration. He is never really locked into the original concept, and always willing to tamper. Some of his greatest non-linear moments were discovered in editing. Once, when he got to editing, he realized he had made a mistake in filming, and reshot the entire film. That was September, and due to some of the original actors having previous conflicts, he even had to recast several roles.

The idea of working out your thoughts and ideas in this fashion, sort of like a blog with film, really appeals to me. He is one of the only working directors with this autonomous deal, and probably one of the last. He made his bed in the late sixties, and the money grubbers would never have let him do that today. He still even has a hard time keeping it this way, but his films are made for such small budgets, and he would be willing to throw it all away if he couldn't do it the way he wants.

Maybe with the increase in digital film, and the access that anyone can have to those tools, the autonomous autuer will be reborn and will be able to have a full career. Starting, of course, with the early funny ones.