Filmmakers are everywhere

The day after I thought of my crazy idea, I went to a coffee shop with my journal, to try and get some ideas down. I found an empty table by the windows, next to a lanky guy working on a laptop. He wore dark pants with white socks.

I was there no more than ten minutes when a friend of his walked in.

FRIEND
How's it going?

LANKY LAPTOP GUY
Great. One hundred and thirty pages with a run time of two-hours and fifteen minutes. We're ready to go.

"Good God," I thought. "The guy's a filmmaker."

What are the odds? Well, nowadays in a city like Cambridge, MA, the odds seem pretty short. When I first moved to the Boston area in 2000, Cambridge was full of writers and musicians. Today, it seems that those former writers and musicians are all making films.

The idea of so many people making films caused me a momentary panic.

I thought, "What kind of chance do I think I have of landing a film in a festival like SXSW when there are so many people like dark pants-white socks over there making films?" The odds, I thought, were not very good.

But since then, I realized that my fear isn't that there are too many filmmakers out there; my fear is that I will make an ordinary film.

My fear is that I'll be just another person, adding to the hoard of fashion-impaired filmmakers already out there.

My fear is that I'll bust my butt to create just another mediocre screener in the SXSW in-basket.

I'll have to work hard to make sure my entry stands out. I'll have to be unique.