A while ago, I became interested in a character called Jenny Everywhere for no real reason other than I found the idea interesting. As Inception tells us - repeatedly - an idea is the world's most resilient parasite, and I couldn't shake this one off, so I decided to make a film about the character.
I know I've featured this film on the blog before, and it's been touted around a few places as proof that I'm not just an idle dilettante - well, not completely an idle dilettante - when it comes to filmmaking, 'cause this was my show from script to nuts. Assuredly with the help of people who should have known better than necessarily to get organised in the weirdness that I brought to films - this one features quarter-second cuts of Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef along with an extended excerpt of Il Triello that I'm dearly dearly hoping is covered under fair use.
It was what I'd call a qualified success - there's some really student-y stuff in there, but that's to be expected, given that I was, well, a student. I'm not a hundred percent happy with the credits, or the makeup job that would have Bergman reach for the cavalry sabre, but as films go, it's... Not too shabby.
And that's the problem.
I've come to accept that not too shabby is about the best I'm ever going to reach for when it comes to films, because I don't have the requisite strength of will to drive a film from beginning to completion. It'd be nice to think that maybe I might develop that, but given my experiences, I know now that I'm a student-film level producer - a procurer of actors, locations, costumes and creator of spreadsheets and call sheets, not that nebulous person called a Director, who powers on on the assumption that all that stuff's been taken care of, baby, and we'll see you at the wrap party, yeah?
That's where we come back to my loft full of candle receptacles; while the bloom was still on the rose and the scales still over my eyes, I wrote a script for a short sequel to the above. Actually, in point of fact, it was a prequel, designed to explain how Jenny Everywhere's teleporting powers functioned - moving from location to location via The Corridor. Jenny, you see, tends to travel between universes as well as just between locations in the same world, so every Jenny uses and experiences their own version of The Corridor, a subspace area (and granted, Scott Pilgrim kind of got there first on that one, but... well... damn) filled with - you may have guessed it - candles.
The candles were set up to mourn the passing of other Jennys from other worlds, and 'our' Jenny, being new to the whole teleporting thing - was going to be taught by another Jenny the 'lore' and the way in which it all, well, worked.
The reason I'm writing about this now is that I'm beginning to think the number of failed, incomplete or otherwise FUBAR-ed projects I have in my bag of wishes is actually probably more in number than the number of completed projects, and that worries me, really.
There was the film about the jewel thief and the standover man, which ended up being filmed on a dopey little SD handicam and which was impossible to cut together, and the music video for the star of that film that I never managed to get together. There was the superhero western-style stand-off, and... Actually, come to think of it, those are the only ones I've really fucked up (and no black bars on this one, because it's true as the day is long).
I guess it's as true for any creative person as another that there are as many failed projects as successes, if not more so, but I'm just... feeling it now for some reason I can't put my finger on.
Plus, I'd love to make a Jenny Everywhere feature film, but can you imagine the copyright problems?
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