I was watching the film Pan the other day and it set me in a mood.

I know it’s a couple of years old or more, but it came on HBO and I decided to watch it. I was seeing how it had changed from the Disney  animated version. In some ways it was better and in other ways not so. I liked it.

Peter lost his mother. Never really knew her but oh how he longed for her. I so knew how that felt.

My mother, having been mentally ill was lost to me before I ever got a chance to know her or know who she could have been had she been right. I missed having a mother. I watch movies of people having a parent they could lean on, someone to guide and direct them as to how they should be and sometimes I get angry. I get sad.

I can’t change it and although I try not to live in the past, there are moments when the past overwhelms me and the past comes looming at me like a monster.

I did a short film recently. It was great fun.  It was a part of a 48 hour film event in San Diego. I was on the writing team.

http://www.48hourfilm.com/how-it-works

The “project” is to make a movie from start to finish in less than 48 hours.  In order to prevent cheating, you don’t know what it’s to be about until the event starts. On Friday night someone will pick up a genre and this year, they gave us two choices and we get to choose between the two as to which one to write and film. From that point on, you have 48 hours to film, edit, and do sound etc. It then must be complete by Sunday night at 7PM and.. Not a second late or you’re disqualified.

The producer and director already had outlines for possibilities that could pretty much go different ways and that’s allowed because… To keep everyone honest each film is required to include in it three items they give you. One is an actual, a line of dialogue and a character that must be in the film, thereby insuring that it’s not filmed in advance.

It will then be judged and then there will be a people’s choice selection when it is screened on the 6th of September to determine the overall winner. I saw last years and they were pretty doggone good. How will we measure up?  I haven’t a clue. I’ve not seen the finished video.

Our genre was silent movie (the other genre was fable).  Yup! No dialogue. So, the guys did slapstick. As it turns out, when the script was done, late that night we ended up needing an older woman, which turns out to be moi!  Yup, ME!

I was It was kind of Ruth Buzzi-ish, me hitting everyone with my bag, which by the way was no easy feat. It was doggone heavy.

I was the philandering millionaire’s wife who kept running after the pretty ladies who were running after him for his $$$. That was the secondary story. The first being a young man smitten by the pretty ladies who gets knocked out by the old man when he got hit by his wife and ends up in a black and white silent movie dream.

I will say this. It was actually pretty amazing watching the young people with their camera and computer skills putting this all together. They really made it all work. Watching the cameraman slip a film card to the editor, the editor runs to his computer, downloads it, starts working, then takes back the card and switches it with the cameraman and so forth. Then he created the silent film banners with required dialogue, etc.

I got lots of praise for it, we had a premiere after party with some of the actors and crew and even though we didn’t win any prizes, I have no one to tell.  The director posted a picture of me on FB with praise for my work and I actually saw it re-posted. We got to walk the “red carpet” but my pic didn’t turn out. I’ll check later and see if anyone got something better.

Right now, a mom or dad would be nice. Someone say, I knew you could do it! It was after all, my first writing gig that got made.

So, I’m sharing it with you. Thanks!

BTW, it will eventually be put on youtube. Someday.

*Pan picture off yahoo image search.