Ready For My Close Up

JP announced his plans over the weekend. Well, not so much announced them as whispered them to his mother, but she can't really keep a secret. He says that he and S are going to make movies. He already has the titles, the first is to be called I Keep Forgetting and the second will be called Not Very Smart. Naturally, I hope he succeeds with his filmmaking dreams, but I'm afraid there are a couple of deterrents that need to be dealt with before beginning. The first is that he has very little budget for one, let alone two, movies. In fact, he has no budget at all. There is some change laying around his room and he may be able to trade up on a Power Ranger action figure, but nothing in the quantity that JP will need to have his dream flourish. The second hindrance these projects have against their being made in the near future is JP's almost complete lack of ability to write the alphabet. Now, granted, most Hollywood blockbusters these days require very little use of the English language to appreciate them, but if I know JP he is going to go for that smaller, arthouse feel, and for this reason command of the written word past the letter D may be crucial. There are other obvious problems as well: union labor agreements, demanding studios, monomaniacal stars, and a bed and bathtime that prevents shooting too late, on weekdays anyway.

I'm curious as to what a JP Film would even look like due to his inspiration being largely Rugrats In Paris and Clifford, The Big Red Dog cartoons. He does have some appreciation for The Marx Brothers' Monkey Business and the chase scene from The French Connection, but I fear this may be too little too late. I feel that, despite the obstacles ahead, with hard work and dedication and without the distraction of dinosaurs and juice boxes these films may have a chance. Whether they succeed or not, I certainly don't mean to dissuade him, and I hope that his and S's partnership is fruitful - I can't recall a brother/sister film collaboration right off, but could see theirs being a Cohen Brothers-style working arrangement, once the money and alphabet situations are corrected.