Wednesday June 29th 2018
This time last year I had one of those epiphanies we hope we might get hit with, at least once in a life time. I had been slouching around wondering what to do with my life and feeling continually creatively frustrated... for years. In March 2018 I helped my friend Deanna out on a short film she was directing in which she had cast one of my daughters. While watching my friends shooting a scene that involved a waterfall, a chicken, my small child, a compass that needed to drop and bob into the water (over and over again, on a piece of fishing line) and a very pretty trillium flower, it suddenly struck me that this was the best thing in the world, and I wanted to do more of it. Lots more. Here was the perfect combination of all the things I love - storytelling, pictures, people, colour, music, magic...
Since then I have helped produce her next film Snug, about a man in the chilly pacific northwest with an abnormally high body temperature, who finds an unusual occupation. And then last month, completely unexpectedly, I won a screenplay competition with my 9 minute short film script, Lucid. The prize package will help us produce the film ready for inclusion in the Short Circuit Film Festival here in British Columbia in May next year.
The learning curve is steep. There is so much to figure out and so much to do. We are creating our own kind of film school.
Shortly we will be running a crowdfunding campaign to pad out the prize a little, so we can feed and accomodate our cast and crew, and pay for all the laborious post-production. If you are interested in helping out and eventually seeing this crazy little film, stay tuned.
1) Flowers on Netflix. Please watch this! I know several people who gave up after the first two episodes and I encouraged them to keep going. They were grateful and you will be too. I love it.
2) Because it's the theme of our upcoming film project, Lucid, here's an article of interest: Why Contemporary Women Artists Are Obsessed with the Grotesque.
3) I've just started A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki. "Nao, a 16-year-old schoolgirl, is in a cafe in Tokyo, writing in her diary. She is, she declares, a “time being,” with all the ambiguity that phrase implies. Many months later, after Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, a Japanese-American novelist named Ruth, living on an island off the coast of British Columbia, finds a barnacle-encrusted freezer bag washed up on the beach. It contains, it appears, a copy of Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time” and a broken watch, along with some letters. But Proust’s book is no more than a cover. Inside is Nao’s diary, written in purple ink."
4) Life without regrets ... mostly that happens. Except when it comes to Bjork's Cornucopia at The Shed in New York. My conversation with a dear friend around the time of secret ticket presales was "nah, New York is expensive... we really can't afford it right now, and I'm sure it won't be the end of the world if we miss it". I'm now not so sure and can barely look at the images without my heart breaking a little.
5) Something I've been thinking about too: The Rise of the Handmaid Habit as a Visual Icon
6) You can still buy my little elf ornaments at Twang and Pearl... while they are at their best hanging on a tree in December, I know people who have them dotted around their homes at all times of the year. I think they might be laden with good luck.
7) Here's a fresh and sparkly Small Batch List Playlist for 2019. Here's the one from 2018 and also 2017.
8) Lastly - so many Game of Thrones memes... My favourites are these two: Reimagining The Game Of Thrones Men As Sandwiches and Game of Thrones Season 8 Pitch Meeting.
Until next time!
Claire Robertson,
The Small Batch List
xo