Every Tuesday night for many years, a mosaic of colorful Santa Cruz characters get together at the Temple of Yes for our MOVIE NIGHT. There are always a handful of hard cores, a few random stragglers, more Nutritional Yeast flavored popcorn than all of us can eat, and enough drinks to keep everybody happy, from the ionized water vegan tea-totallers to the flexatarian beer and wine lovers. This film club has a pulse that pumps the heart of our community, serving for many of us as the only regular time we get to see our closest friends. And the films we see together, the stories they weave plus the way we talk and feel about them, gives us something magical in the fiber of our community. Each person knows that we are not alone, at least not totally, not on Tuesday nights.
After the sun sets, in a comfortable room, we lower the giant screen, turn down the lights, crank up the speakers, and watch a film. Someone brings their latest films of the month from the Sacred Cinema Circle, or we surf Netflix and other Web channels, or someone shares their latest film creation for fun, feedback, and family critique.
Today, I am adding a new dimension to our Film Family Club. I am posing the idea that we can take this lovely habit of ours into a new creative domain. I am proposing that we add a new intention to our Fan Club, and take our Show and Audience on the Road. For the next year, we are going to BECOME the MOVIES that we love to watch. In addition to soft pillows and popcorn, we will gather around a screen, take notes, make critiques, create “shtix” and stories for our own plots and scripts, and then perform a few for the camera. As we become more sophisticated movie fans, and hopefully also comic hams, we can produce some films for YouTube as we go.
I am hoping to see a development of the theatrical talents in our mix. And, I am hoping that by New Years Day (reminder: wedding anniversary, Sun & Allan Lundell) we will have a number of wonderful short films to share at our 2013 After Party at the Beach House. I would also like to see a feature length movie script either completed or well along before our Talk at MacWorld and CES in January. The only fixed ingredient for that script at this moment is that the filming of the movie occurs this May 2013 in Europe, for those of us who want to and who can. Ideally, the shooting dovetails perfectly with the wedding of Stephano and Angela on their appointed day at the end of May.
So, are you ready folks? Friends, Fans, Talents, Hams, here is the plan, suggestions how we can play together.
1) Weekly Movie Night continues on a mutually compatible evening for the participants.
2) Each Month is dedicated to a genre or a particular film artist for inspiration and critique. (Writer, Producer, Director, Star, Cinematographer, Costume Designer, etc.) We meet, we watch, we discuss.
3) Creatively inspired thespians and videographers create their own stuff, writing, plays, scripts, to share with the group. Some time is given to the sharing as these works are created.
TimeIsArt 