Why do I think horse riding is dull, and surfing is cool? Why do I alert my eyes from anything remotely related to politics in the newspapers, or change the radio station when a song I don't like comes on? I would say change the channel on television as well, but we don't have tv, so that saves me the effort of wondering. Why do we stick to the things we like, and avoid the things we dislike? Is that a stupid question? It seems silly when I read back over it - of course we would avoid the things we dislike - why would we purchase a dress that makes us look like a badly drawn avatar, or biscuits that taste like rotten tomatoes, if we could picture our dressed up selves on the cover of magazines and delight our tastebuds with tongue tingling, chocolate coated cookies? It's obvious, isn't it?
But what about with activities, or jobs? What makes us dislike.... ummm.... programming for instance, and love.... writing? No personal opinions being voiced here, she says, clearing her throat.
I walked into an event related with film making in the Belltable recently, with Clare Creely of FilmBase. She was discussing the various programs that are available for aspiring film makers to find funds for their fantasy film - RTE competitions, Irish Film Board etc. She was explaining all the intricacies of getting funding, how you first need to have your film screened at one of the multitude of film festivals that showcase filmmakers work. This is a film that you manage to make with... what money? I wondered. I thought it was hard for writers - sure everyone wants to be a writer these days, or is a writer should I say, with blogs and twitter posts coming out of people's nostrils, but film making, now that brought me to a whole new level of respect for what these aspiring artists have to go through in order to become seen and be successful. Because unlike blogging, and wiling away the hours in your parents garage on the dole writing endless reams of chapters for potential publication, making a film requires other people, and equipment which ain't cheap. You need actors, and a director and a production crew, and a camera man, and.... low and behold, it all started to sound tremendously exciting this filmmaking lark. Knowing only how to rent a film, download a film, which I would never do by the way, purchase a film and watch a film, this was all news to me. That it can take over a year to produce a single short film, shocking! That you are competing with hundreds of other entrants to competitions for a shot at pennies to help you pay for the equipment, how unfair! That you are inevitably on a long, dreary, depressingly distant road to success, fighting off your fellow believers for the pot of gold at the end of the journey with only a shabby second-hand camera that someone was kind enough to leave you when they renounced the calling, that you can't use as a weapon until you win a prize at an overcrowded competition that will perhaps, when you are 55, generously reward you with enough cash for a new one.
As difficult as it all sounded, she then proceeded to show us some successful short films made by Irish film makers, and I realised - it's possible. It sounds pretty impossible, but people have gotten funding, people are making films, and although the funding has decreased, and the people entering the field are increasing, which means it will get even more difficult I would imagine... the fact remains that there are people who get through that Dip as Seth Godin would call it, and find their pot of gold, which is not so illusive after all. Now why anyone would want to torture themselves by wanting to be a filmmaker in the first place when they can get a job after university that actually pays real money, that you can exchange for those delicious cookies we talked about earlier, is probably as baffling as why anyone would want to put themselves up against the multitude of writers out there, or the multitude of websites, again, no personal opinions here...
Sometimes I wonder who are worse off - the people who want to be film makers, and who are passionate about it, or those who don't know what they want to be, and spend a lifetime trying to figure it out.
So why did I know nothing about film making, and never even give it a second thought? It's not that I even thought it was boring, I didn't feel anything about it, I didn't even know it existed, she says, an avid film watcher not knowing that there is an industry called film making.
I watch those credits after films and I am just baffled at the amount of people required to create a film, and not only that, the organisation of all of those people... wow. It's as though all I could see was gigantic, established organisations that put films on discs in some technologically advanced factory somewhere; they get shipped out by DHL in slim space saving boxes, with pretty pictures, and I promptly pay money to rent them, or buy them, and eventually watch them. Someone makes a lot of money, and they entertain a lot of people. Done. Or did. Now I know more... enough to know that I officially like film making, even though I don't do film making...
Which brings me back to wondering why we like the things that we like; and not the things that we don't? I want to find out more about these worlds that exist without me even registering their existence, the things I don't even know enough about to like, or dislike, but how do you learn about something that you can't see? Wandering into events not targeted at me seems to be a good place to start - and anyone thinking of doing just that, can come along to our event with Stuart Kershaw in Dublin on July 18th - had to get a plug in there somewhere! If you don't know anything about film making, or adventure sports, and don't know why you don't like or dislike them, come along, you might find you like something.
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