Nearly a year and a half ago, I wrote and directed a short film entitled "B.E.G."
The concept behind it was simple, and it was birthed out of a conversation I once had with a friend. For some reason, which I can't remember, we began discussing the rise of unemployment in South Africa. You see, we'd begun to notice that there were a lot more street-side beggars in recent times then there had been while we were growing up. As I tend to do, I began day dreaming...
I said what I was thinking out loud: "What if," I asked, "in a post-apocalyptic world, begging was a kind of job you had. As if you could be employed as a beggar, and some business or world super power controlled these beggars?" A good question, I thought. So I immediately sat down to write the screenplay. Because of my feverish desire to make a movie and to have people see it, I hurried production, and within six months I had written, shot, and edited the film. You can watch it below:
What was so incredible about the experience was all the support that we got; not only from our audience of 100 people at the premier, but also from all our sponsors, and those who loaned us the equipment and editing software to finish the project. It was a stepping stone in ways I won't even begin to tell you in this blog post, opening up a host of new opportunities. I am proud to have worked with such an amazingly talented cast and crew.
As amazing as the whole journey was, the film has not received a great deal of viewership on the web, although the number of likes on our Facebook page has been slowly climbing to this day. Forgive my weak attempt at bragging. On Monday morning I received this email:
Which led me to this comment:
I've attached the link to his article below:
https://friendsofyelshir.wordpress.com/2015/11/26/b-e-g-the-movie/
For me this was one of those moments like, "Phew, I suppose if I'm going to dish it out I'd better learn how to take it." Not that this comment was in anyway overcritical, in fact, I quite agree with the observations made on this blog about my film. But it was also a case of, "Wow, someone's actually taken the time to use my film as subject matter for their blog, in a similar capacity to how I use other people's films for my blog!"
And, like I said in a recent Facebook post to the cast and crew of my film, it shows we actually achieved something pretty big. Maybe I'm reading too much into this one comment, but I don't think so. Maybe I am just hyped that somebody actually commented on our film, but I think the heart of what I'm getting at is this:
I'm excited to see that what I originally set out to do, I did. We did. We posed a question. We told a story. Essentially that is the heart and soul of film. I'm reminded of something I read in "Creativity Inc." the story of Pixar animation studios by Ed Catmull. In the book, he talks about the way his team at Pixar views every new project as an 'ugly baby'.
In other words, a film when it starts out is not yet fully grown. It is still in its infancy, learning to walk, learning to talk. According to Ed Catmull, all stories, all movies should be treated this way, as if they are ugly babies. It is our responsibility as filmmakers and story tellers to nurture the story.
Now I suspect I may have released this film into the big, wide world without having properly let it grow. In many ways, "B.E.G." was still in its infancy. The soul of the film was there, but it had not yet matured into what I believe it could have eventually become. Who knows? Perhaps someday it will find its feet. And as I've said before, it was the springboard for many new adventures and creative pursuits. In some ways, I owe my current job to the making of that film. It opened up a vast network of connections for me personally.
We live and learn. Let me put something into perspective for you before I sign out. Each member of our cast was between the ages of 14 and 17. I, at the time I wrote the screenplay, was 18. The score for "B.E.G." was all original music composed by my 15 year old sister Phoebe. The footage was shot on a Panasonic 5000, if I remember correctly, by yours truly, having never worked with such a complex - not to mention heavy - camera in my life. I also, at the time, had never used Final Cut Pro before, which meant I was essentially learning the software on the job. In a nut shell, "B.E.G." was a major learning curb for everyone involved, and like I said earlier, I couldn't be prouder. The team that was assembled, gave a hundred and ten percent. Props to them! Obviously, we made some kind of impact, and that for me was a victory of note. You might call it an Everest moment.
In a metaphorical sense, our little indie-film crawled towards the right viewer(s). It was then picked up, looked over, and said of, "Interesting... Needs some work..." And of course, it did, but so do all creative endeavours. That's what separates those who tell their stories from the people who don't; the willingness to grow. My encouragement to you would be to nurture your dreams, let them grow, build them into the fully-fledged monuments you know they can be, and then unleash them on the world. Doubt is the greatest threat to your dreams. Don't let it drag you down.
As Walt Disney famously said:
Regards,
Adino Poggiali-Trapani
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