Ideas for Older People Films

I have been involved with the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmaker’s (CSIF) Older Filmmakers Club for a few years now. (https://csif.org/clubs/) We have been talking about the issues we would like to address in our films. Of course, we do not want to focus exclusively on issues that older people face, but we do want to emphasis elder issues.

This blog post is a preliminary list of issues that could form the spark for story ideas. You will notice that I have a dearth of upbeat issues. The essence of drama is conflict, so that tends to focus more on downbeat issues. If you have any suggestions for upbeat ideas, please comment.

Many of these issues could become cautionary tales for people as they age.

Social Isolation and loneliness

It is a sad fact that as we grow older, we lose friends and family to death and distance. Live changes, such as retirement, cut us off from other people. This topic does have the potential for an upbeat story about how someone overcomes the isolation in their life.

I have tried to write a short script based on this sense of loss and isolation. I was not happy with how it turned out.

Reconnecting with old friends and family

When you are younger, and life is busy with work, many people tend to neglect friends and family. Sometimes, you will even lose touch with them. Later in life, though, people find the time to reconnect with old friends.

In my own life, it was joining Facebook that allowed me to reconnect with people I had not talked to since high school. This is the opposite of the problem of social isolation.

Ageism and Discrimination

As we grow older, we become more confident in our abilities. But there comes a time when younger people no longer appreciate what we can do. It comes as a shock when other people do not value our contributions as much as when we were younger.

Elder Abuse

This is an incredibly sad situation for the people who face it. It is something that many people fear as they grow older and become more reliant on others. Stories about people facing abuse can be like a horror movie. It can truly be a life-or-death situation that people can find themselves in.

Financial Insecurity

Some older people have built up the savings and assets they need to live comfortably. Many have not. With a fixed income and an inability to earn more money through taking on new jobs, they worry about their finances. Often older people stop working because they are no longer able to work.

Facing Retirement

Retirement is a major life changing event. It can be either an escape to freedom or the end of an important part of someone’s life.

I have heard personal stories of people who had a plan for their retirement during their working years. It gave them a goal to work toward. But it sometimes turns into a sad story. After years of looking forward, the reality of their plan is a disappointment. After only a few months of retirement, their experiences and disappointments force them to rethink their life goals.

Someone wise told me several years before I retired, suggested I take a leave of absence from work and do a practice retirement. This experience was valuable and helped me focus better on planning my retirement.

Lost Sense of Purpose

Another effect of retirement and growing old is losing your sense of purpose. When you were younger, you had things you had to do every day and things you wanted to do every day. In old age, many people no longer have the same needs and desires.

Declining health

As we age, we face many heath issues: arthritis, cognitive decline, dementia, diabetes, hearing loss, vision loss, heart disease, mental health problems, and osteoporosis are common problems. These can be disheartening and prevent us from doing the things we want to do.

Relationships with Medical Staff

There is a point when you start to see a doctor that is younger than you. Growing up you see doctors as someone to look up to. When the time comes, as it will eventually, when you are seeing someone younger than you for your medical needs, it can be a difficult experience to work through.

I worked on a story about an active older man who, because of a life-threatening issue, becomes confined to his bed. His family hire a younger woman to be his care giver. At first, he resents her as just some kid telling him what to do, but as time goes on, they develop a respect and a deep bond for each other. I gave up on it because it was beyond my skill as a writer to write with such emotional depth. I still feel the idea still has potential, but I don’t feel I could pull it off.

Difficulty with Everyday Tasks and Mobility

Problems with balance, coordination, frailty, and loss of strength can lead to a greater risk of falls and impose limits on what a person can do in life.

I had an experience when I was younger, where I saw an older woman fall on the street and hurt herself. I stayed with her. Someone said they would call an ambulance, but none ever came. At first, she was confused, but eventually became quite lucid. Despite my concerns she insisted she was OK. She wanted to go to a nearby church, so I helped her over there and left her at the entry. It has been over 40 years, and I still feel that I let her down.

That personal story is still too raw for me to explore in a story, but I am sure that others can create stories that deal with the same issues.

Loss of Independence

I felt that the woman who fell was worried about losing her independence if her family learned of her fall. This is a fear that haunts all of us as we age.

Housing

In the later parts of life, people frequently must leave their homes to move into more supportive housing. These can be normal apartments that focus on retired people but can range through more intensive types of nursing homes, and eventually hospice care. The transition to these other types of housing can be a challenge. The transition may include the stress of downsizing and letting go of cherished keepsakes. It may include adjusting to a new lifestyle with new limitations on what people can do.

When I was young, in the early 1960s, one of my father’s responsibilities was to inspect what people then called Old Folks Homes. He wrote a couple of papers about what he learned from that experience. Things have changed since then, but the transitions people go through can still be fraught with conflict.

·         https://dynamiclethargy.ca/jm09.htm

·         https://dynamiclethargy.ca/Color_and_Warmth.pdf

Adjusting to Changes in Society

Society does change over time. Things that were acceptable in our youth are no longer acceptable and things that were not acceptable, are now acceptable. People react to these changes in diverse ways. Some people accept change. Some people reject change. Some people embrace change. Others understand the need for change, but struggle to accept it. Some changes are serious and important, while others are trivial.

Adjusting to New Technology

Like society in general, technology changes as we grow older. One example is the Internet. It has created many opportunities, for both good and evil. The changes have been hard for some people to adapt to.

Loss of Loved Ones and Dealing with Grief

As we age, so do our friends and family. Most, if not all, of us will experience the death of someone important in our lives. Going through these events can be difficult. Stories of how people deal with death and grief can be valuable for others who face those same challenges.

End-of-Life Planning

We all know that someday we will die, but most people find it hard to think about. It is wise to discuss our plans for our death long before the time is imminent. It is much harder to talk these things over when the end is approaching.

I wrote a short movie script based on conversations with my wife leading up to her death. While it was cathartic for me to work through those emotions, I was not comfortable going forward with the project.

Since it is something that people need to think about, many people would appreciate a story that explores the challenges of end-of-life planning.

 

This is a preliminary list that I hope will spark some film projects. If you have any suggestions for other relevant issues, please comment.

If you are interested in the CSIF’s Older Filmmaker’s Club, you can e-mail them at theolderfilmmakersclub@gmail.com.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

The Mundane Things Come First

While I would like to just dive into one or another of my projects, I need to get some rather mundane pieces of work out of the way. It isn't very inspiring work and some days I just want to rest and relax.

This week I   got started on a catalogue of all my videos. I've collected quite a lot of video over the last 14 or so years, but I don't have a very good idea what I have.

There are two projects I need the catalogue for. The first is a retrospective of my wife's life and our time together. This would just be for family and friends.

The other is a project I call "Brief Moments of Tranquility". Over the years I collected shots of quiet places: snow falling, rain, flowers and lakes and rivers. I think I can put them together in an interesting way.

The cataloguing went smoothly enough. I was often side tracked by clips of my wife that I would watch over again. I think this could be quite a challenge for me.

Another mundane task that sits in wait for me is some filing. When I searched for my print of "Contingency", I moved all my film making files from the basement storeroom into our living room. A total of 16 bankers boxes of stuff.

I felt I should try to organize the files a bit better before I put them back. It one of those things I'll tend to leave to another day.

I have people coming over Monday, which does not give me much time to get this done. I better stop here and go try to get it done.

I noticed that I had huge increase in page views on my website starting about 2 weeks ago. The views are spread across several different categories that I don't think are related. I would have expected that a big jump in views would be in one category, or even one page.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Do I Have The Personality To Be A Successful Filmmaker/Writer?

Much of what I read about filmmaking and writing focuses on how to sell your work. While I see the necessity of this, I don’t think I am good at it, and I certainly don’t enjoy it. I’ve always thought of selling your work in negative terms, which I think of as “self-promotion”. In the end, I go back to the belief that if my work is good enough, then it will sell itself.

The Art of Asking

Recently I watched a TED talk by Amanda Palmer: “The Art of Asking” that got me to re think how I promote my own work.

In some ways, her talk didn’t have anything new to me, but it did open my eyes a little to a different view of what was involved. Whereas I thought in terms of self-promoters, I’d describe her as a connector. Her approach is more like the way you make friends than selling yourself. She describes it as trusting people. I think her approach works very well with her type of personality.

Her approach doesn’t seem as crass or self-serving as what I’d heard before. It does seem to be a nicer approach to making your way as an artist. For myself though, I still can’t see that I can take this approach. I just don’t feel comfortable when I ask people to support me.

I can’t really change my personality in any major, or even minor, way. I supposed I could train myself to behave otherwise, but it would seem artificial and come off as phoney. That would be worse than if I’d not tried at all.

Let the Art Sell Itself

As I noted above, in the past I’ve tried to rely on the inherent interest of my work to gain an audience. That only works with special ideas, and not all of my ideas are special. It isn’t always possible to recognize if your own idea is special or not.

The success I had with some of my ideas made me a little spoiled. Both the Hundred Dollar Film Festival and “Line of Taxis” were projects that quickly found supporters. I didn’t really need to push them; they took on a life of their own. That is something I can’t always count on.

There is also a good argument that if your work can’t sell itself, then it just isn’t worth your while to make it. I have abandoned many ideas that didn’t catch other people’s interest. Some ideas are harder to give up than others are. Maybe those ideas would catch on if I developed them further.

Involve Others

Another approach I could use is to involve people in my projects that do have the desirable personality traits that I just don’t have. Most commercial films are like this. They usually leave the promotion to the actors and not the writer or director. The exceptions are notable for their rarity.

I haven’t really tried this approach and I’m not sure how well it would work. The closest I came was when Keith Humphrey attended the screening of “Line of Taxis” at a festival. That wasn’t really a case where I tried to promote the film though.

Other Approaches

I am sure I haven’t exhausted all the ways that I could promote my work. However, I am not sure what other approaches might work for me. 

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

A Painful Step Forward

I completed the conversion of the images I captured for “Contingency” into video files this week. It really was painful.

I got about half the images done the week before. For some reason, the last half took more time. I found the technique of overlaying a negative of one image worked well. It was easy to tell when I had a frame aligned properly. By the end, I got pretty good at it. Nevertheless, with well over a thousand images to adjust, it took a long time.

I didn’t notice it before, but this week I found the work was painful. I had to sit in the same position for hours while I made very precise changes with my mouse. That gave me repetitive strain injuries. I had my arm all tensed up at the same time, which created pain as well.

They say that an artist must suffer for their art.

One of the things that surprised me about filmmaking was how physical the work was. Even if you are the director, you are up and about all the time, even if you don’t do any of the heavy lifting.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

The “Real” Third Man

I watched a documentary on YouTube called Shadowing the Third Man about the movie The Third Man. The person who posted the version I watched took it down. However, I found another version http://youtu.be/q6zLJrfoKyQ

I became a fan of the film many years ago. I enjoyed learning some of the stories behind the film.

I particularly liked some of the technical aspects of the film. The lights they used inspired many shots. They were very large and threw impressive shadows on the walls. Since Orson Welles wasn’t always available, they used a lot of shots of shadows on the walls to give the impression he was there.

One interesting tidbit was the origin of the name Harry Lime. Lime is a shade of the colour green, which is likely a reference to the author of the story, Graham Greene. The first name, Harry, refers to Greene’s good friend Harold “Harry” Philby, better known as Kim Philby the Russian double agent. Ironically, a dozen years later, when Philby defected to Russia, people called him the “third man” in the Cambridge spy ring.

I was also surprised to learn that many of the small parts in the film, such as the caretaker, were famous Austrian actors.

When I read the script years ago, I was surprised to see that originally they said Holly Martens was a Canadian. That would imply that Harry Lime was also a Canadian. I’m glad they changed that in the film.

The impression I got from the documentary was how so many elements of the film came about by chance and luck. I’m a little sceptical about that. I suspect they exaggerated a little there.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

$100 Film Festival Film Update 2011 October 2

The weather was good this week, and I didn’t expect that to keep up, so I decided I’d better get the outdoor shots I wanted. Wednesday I signed out a Scoopic from Yvonne Abusow at the CSIF and then I was committed. I had a hectic couple of days. I wanted shots of the various locations associated with the festival over the years. Thursday afternoon I hopped into my car and headed out.

I started at The Garry Theatre, where we held the festival from 1997 to 1999. That didn’t take long, but I was shooting into the sun, so I decided that if I could, I’d reshoot it later.

My second stop was Fort Calgary, where we held the festival from 1993 to 1995. That was another easy shot. I had thought I’d take about a half hour at each location, but I had the first two done in less than a half hour.

Stop three was the 4^th Street office of the CSIF from 1997 to 2002. Parking was a bit of a challenge, but it only took a couple minutes to get the shot.

Stop four was the Uptown Theatre. We held the festival there in 1996 and then again from 2000 to 2003. Again, parking was a challenge. It took me less time to do the shoot than it took me to take care of parking.

Next stop was the Unitarian church on 16^th Avenue NW. It was the CSIF’s office when I joined in 1990 and we stayed there until 1997. We also held the first $100 Film Festival there in 1992.

I drove by the Alberta College of Art and Design and the Plaza Theatre but couldn’t find a place to park, so I left them for Friday.

Friday morning I packed the Scoopic into a back pack and took the bus to SAIT, where I got my shot of ACAD. We held the festival there in the Stanford Perrott Theatre from 2004 to 2006.

I took the LRT to Sunnyside and walked over to the Plaza Theatre. We’ve held the festival there since 2007. We also screened Donna Brunsdale’s film Cheerful Tearful there in 1998. Some guy walked into shot, so I kept shooting until he got out of the way. I was a little annoyed, but then I came up with a way to use that shot of him in the movie.

On every film I’ve done I’ve discovered that filmmaking is a physical challenge. I did a lot of walking around with a heavy camera. Well, the camera wasn’t that heavy, but after I carried it around for a couple of hours it started to feel heavy.

I went back to The Garry Theatre and got a better shot this time. It was the same time of day, but the clouds softened the light.

My last stop was the CSIF offices at Currie Barracks. I got a shot of that too. I returned the camera as well.

I think I see where I will go with this film. Up to now it as just a bunch of shot ideas, now I see a structure to it.

Now I just hope the film turns out OK.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog