Re: [AdamLanes] Perrine Bridge in September
You're right, it proabably will be boring at first - I'm just starting out. I'm not asking people to jump for me, but wanting to see if anyone is already going to be out there who wouldn't mind me filming them. They are already going to be taking the risk for themselves, not for me. I hope any BASE jumper only risks those things for themselves firstly, why do it otherwise? I'm getting other students to help me out, and their only benefits aside from being able to experience what BASE jumpers do is to be able to go back to their old lives when they've finished filming and say, hey look, I was on this amazing project, and I'll never forget it. When students add things to their little resumes it's like bragging about it because they got to be apart of it. No one on a film set will be as passionate or as loving to their subject than the director. Others join because they see the drive and the determination, the vision and how they can be apart of it with the director. This isn't something for MY resume. It's wanting to learn what life is all about. I'm at a point in my life where I used to be so sure of who I was and who I wanted to become until it just hit me that maybe I'm not so sure and I'm scared to grow up, and what the hell am I doing with my head in the clouds all the time, fantasizing about different stories instead of actually going out and making them! But that's part of growing up, you get scared, and then you buck up and take the next steps to making things happen in reality and move forward.
BASE jumpers- you risk your lives doing what you love, and that's what I admire and am amazed by. Being a film student, there are also a lot of risks, in a different way, and I've been so scared about making any mistakes on any of my screenplays that if I don't change and take the plunge and make a decent film, I ruin my life as a filmmaker. If I was a BASE jumper, I would be the one teetering on the edge and thinking about things way too much before I jump, freaking myself out and taking a step back on to safe ground. But I too need to "take the jump".
What's the benefit to you? For letting a student make her short little 10 minute documentary about what it means to BASE jump, you just might change the way she looks and values and perceives life. Becoming a role model to someone without even realizing it, just because you are actually out there, doing what it is you're passionate about, and screw the world because you are who you are and in this moment, you're focused on acheiving your goal, is priceless because it teaches more and more people perspective and a different way of enjoying life. And you certainly will influence the way she shapes her story with comments like yours.
My first real documentary isn't going to be an Academy Award winning doc, I don't think anyone's first project was, but it's a start, and with your help I can make it better and more exciting. Thank you for bringing up the U.S. National Park System issue, I wasn't aware of how big of a deal it was. Right now I've just been reading up on the beginning things, how one gets started in jumping. If you have any more information on it or online articles or people who have personal experiences with this, let me know asap. It's hard being the only researcher for my doc, with so many things to read up on, so anyone who brings up issues with hard evidence I would greatly appreciate it.
My thinking as a filmmaker is still quite juvenile, more XGames ESPN than CNN and I've been close minded about it, so thank you for helping me realize another side of BASE.
