Last week I watched a movie on NetFlix that I had been eyeing for some time.
Hunter Prey (2010) is a low-budget sci-fi film that is surprisingly good. Although it does seem to combine elements (both visual and story) from other films, it does so with a flair of originality and a couple of surprises. If you get the chance, I highly recommend seeing it. It’s currently available on instant view and DVD.
But, that’s not what I want to talk about today. What I want to talk about is film-making. Watching this film made me recall a dream I used to harbor. Many moons ago, I had aspirations to become a film-maker. I read books on the subject, watched featurettes, and basically tried everything I could to learn how to do it without 1) actually doing it, and 2) going to school for it.
I have to say, if I hadn’t gotten married at 19, I may very well have pursued that dream. But, as it was, having a new family and being rather naïve to the ways of the world, I decided that I had to just give up that dream and concentrate on other, more practical things.
Well, I didn’t actually give the dream up. It just sort of got put on the back burner indefinitely. It would resurface every now and again. Once I even started planning and writing a film based on a short story a friend of mine wrote. Like
Hunter Prey, it was to be a (extremely) low-budget sci-fi movie. It never got past some initial writing and concept sketches. But it was still fun to think about.
I think what I really liked, and what really grabbed me about
Hunter Prey, was the production values, and how good they were on such a small budget. The alien make-up was top-notch, and looked as good as anything George Lucas ever did. In fact, there were many elements that were reminiscent of the original
Star Wars film. The equipment was extremely well-done. It had that functional, well-used look, without being cheesy.
And this all appeals to the closet Cosplayer in me. I have never Cosplayed, and have never owned a good costume of any kind. But I have always wanted one, and have spent many hours planning and designing costumes that I would like to have and wear. One day, I will go to a geeky con in a costume that will have people asking for pictures all day. That would be sweet!
So, anyways, back to film-making. With the advent of digital cameras, and film-editing software, the prospect of doing a short film is probably more feasible now than it ever has been. Who knows, maybe I will make a dream come true in a small way. After all, I used to dream about getting published in
Weird Tales magazine, and I have two stories that should see print there next year.
3 comments:
Two in Weird Tales? I'm jealous. Congratulations on that, by the way. As you know, it puts you in some very fine company.
I was part of a screenwriting group for a long time. I enjoyed the writing more than movies, though, so finally realized it wasn't quite for me.
But, let me say, screenwriting will teach you structure like nothing else. I still fall back on what I learned quite often when outlining and developing a story.
That's one thing I've never had an urge to do, screenwriting. It just always seemed to take out all the stuff I liked best about writing. I will have to watch this movie, though
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