As a writer/filmmaker I have usually tried to take the highest path possible with the content I wanted to put out there. Even though there have been scripts I have been paid to write that for sure most would consider crassly exploitive. Yes, that seems to be the business of Hollywood. Ah well.
As a spiritual seeker/practitioner I have usually tried to take the highest path possible in my search for greater truths about myself and the spiritual world. That is not usually easy, nor should it be I imagine. But I think and feel that it is the business we should have with ourselves and our world. Ah yes.
In the fine balance between my physical and spiritual world and life, I have usually tried to make them work as well as possible together. That is never easy. Trials, tribulations, and growth. Always. I accept that, yet have also learned that there can be a great adventure involved in making that work. That is part of the charm and the challenge of it, and what keeps me going and growing, and asking for more.
It has been almost 10 years ago that I began the first draft of “Dreams Awake,” the film we would shoot several years later, and then eventually release several years after that. Looking back on it now, I would certainly do a number of things differently. Yes, you can use that old cliche’ about hindsight being 20/20 and all that, but that is only a part of it. I am a different person now than I was then, and the growth that hopefully I have achieved between now and then makes my look back worth more than just that. Yes, it is the actual doing of it that then allows the look back and the reflection of where I am on my own personal path. As it is for us all, for I see nothing special in myself in doing this. But each particular look back is special for me, for it is what I need and want to make all this life worthwhile in the end. Yet, I don’t want to get trapped in the looking back. I will try and let it serve me going forward …
As I put together our next project, the documentary “The Inner Sonic Key,” I have been faced with different challenges. Ones I did not foresee. For could we really foresee them all? If we could, then we would plan for them, and what would the challenge and the growth (and adventure) in all that?
I have not worked on documentaries very much. Yes, I have been hired to mold together a script a couple times based on footage already shot. That was very hard for me to do, trying to scan hours and hours of footage so I could find a coherent narrative spine to hang that content on to. Not exactly my cup of tea.
This project is different though. I did have an idea to start with and develop, and then eventually script, and then try to put together the footage I needed to make it all work. The last few months I have been painstakingly writing, rewriting, polishing, and tweaking the script. But in the meantime I have been searching and seeking for footage as I slowly realized what I really needed. That has been harder than I thought it would ever be. I have gotten stock footage, my old footage, friends’ old footage, footage from “Dreams Awake,” and on and on. And still not sure I have all I need yet.
Part of the problem is this. My subject matter. “The Inner Sonic Key” will be a very different type of film, a different type of documentary. I know, I know, isn’t that what most filmmakers say? Of course, so in the end I will let you be the judge of all that, once you’ve feasted upon it.
Back to that subject matter. It is not very normal subject matter for a modern documentary. Plus, it delves into content that for the most part is completely unknown by the general public. That in itself might make it a tough sell. We shall see. Beyond that I believe it will have some very compelling content easily of interest to quite a number of people. Possibly, that means you. I hope so, because I strongly feel it will have true value.
The real challenge for me is finding the balance, with the content and with myself … again. Physical and spiritual, today and tomorrow, public and private. Let me explain in a little more detail what those all mean.
Physical and spiritual. For the most part that is probably self-explanatory for most of us. I try to blend the two together as best I can, but at times it doesn’t always feel right because of the business I am in. The film business, industry, art form, whatever you want to call it, is oftentimes a very thankless and difficult path to be on. But as I mentioned earlier I try to balance that part of my life with the type of content I feel can serve us humans in a more positive way. Instead of the typical, lowest denominator type of media that focuses on the basest part of being human on planet Earth. It seems more is needed now more than ever.
Today and tomorrow. This seems both the easiest and hardest to get a grasp of. Time is a funny thing. We lament over the past, and worry about the future, and barely have enough time to live in the present. But the present moment, that so instant flash of reality that can’t be grasped, is all we have. We cannot seize it and toss into a time bottle and own it. We can only experience it, live it and learn from it, to be more tomorrow than we are today … hopefully.
Public and private. My big conundrum. I do not like our celebrity society. I think it undermines and degrades who we really are. And much of the time I wish I was not in such a public forum. I am actually quite a private person, and I really enjoy my alone time. I am a loner by nature, and playing the filmmaker can be quite a disruption on my psyche. It just doesn’t feel natural. So why do I do it? I have no simple, easy answer. I would say it’s about the content, the interplay of ideas, something that is bigger than all of us. If I was ever to meet any of you and we could have a great discussion about any of this, I would want it to be about the content in my films. Never about me. I think I am actually fairly boring. But get me going about the ideas of this type of content that interests me, then I am there for whatever will come my way. On the positive side of it, I do feel lucky, happy, and grateful to be in this position. And to underline that point I’d like to leave you with a quote to ponder, in light of where our current culture is:
“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events.
Small minds discuss people.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
JAD
Author: Jerry Alden Deal
Writer – Director – Producer of Way To Go Media, LLC.
Over the past thirty years Jerry has been hired numerous times to develop and write screenplays for other production companies. During that same period several of his spec scripts were also optioned. ‘Dreams Awake’ was Jerry’s feature directorial debut. He has several other projects in various stages of development. One of which, the feature documentary ‘The Inner Sonic Key’ is currently in post-production.