*Like this post? Become a Sponsor. Get noticed. Keep this resource free.
Greetings, my dear friends. I made a musical short film in the spirit of Indie Film Florida. Here’s my story: single for the film, as well as the film itself, will be released soon and submitted to global festivals. You can find the trailer below. Enjoy! I’m so excited to have you here with me on this journey. Here goes:
I wrote “A Love By Your Side” as a song originally intended to be released as an album or a single. I was addressing the cryptic and silent epidemic of loneliness and isolation so prevalent in our culture, and singing from the point-of-view of a friend desperately trying to help another friend heal from a broken heart. The worst part about the two emotional tormentors mentioned above is that people often keep it to themselves, and many people experiencing these two emotions often have friends that they end up feeling more alone with than if they were by themselves because they don’t want to “open up.” Seeing “happiness around them” makes them feel worse. Make no mistake; loneliness is a silent epidemic that can and often does kill people. Because of this, I knew something far more potent than just the song had to be created if I wanted the people at large to become aware of this seldom talked-about subject.
*Like this post? Become a Sponsor. Get noticed. Keep this resource free.
I decided to turn “A Love By Your Side” (the song) into a short, digital film. I wanted to capture an old-fashioned and classic interpretation of the same subject. Since I was near St. Augustine, FL (the oldest city in the country), what better place to shoot the majority of this film?
Like any good short story worth telling, I must start from the beginning and share with you a personally miraculous occurrence that happened during my undying inspiration to capture the beauty that “is” my area of Flagler County and St. John’s County, FL, as well as my quest to create an interesting and meaningful film carrying an important but rarely taught educational message.
On a balmy, bright, but otherwise typical, tropical day in sunny Florida, I went out with my digital film camera in search of a fast, yet not so elusive species of birds (Cranes) that we see every so often in this state. While doing this, I must admit that I went driving out of my residential neighborhood and into a more industrialized area about 5 miles away looking for some visual magic to include in my short musical film: “A Love By Your Side.”
I had already become obsessed with St. Augustine (and had been since the age of 7 when I was first brought by my parents to visit this area while still growing up in Boston). I was temporarily willing to forego the cranes for now if I could find something equally or almost as equally important to “tide me over.” This turned out to be unnecessary because “there they were,” a huge family of cranes eating from the lush grass on a carefully maintained patch of beautiful ground maintained by the city, despite being surrounded by the industry shops and restaurants that make our area of Flagler County one of the top-ranked most livable cities in the country.
*Like this post? Become a Sponsor. Get noticed. Keep this resource free.
I saw the cranes and pulled into a gas station. I went from being in a hurried and somewhat impatient mood to feeling a state of complete awe and good luck. I knew I had to employ some strategy to film the cranes. They were essential to one of the scenes of my film.
I parked the car, grabbed my camera, and crossed a rather busy exit to a group of stores to get to this miniature, city maintained oasis of fresh grass, trees, and bushes where this eye-opening group of cranes “munched in bliss” deep within the grass. I waited until there were no cars on the exit and basked at my opportunity of a moment to get some filming done. But then, as I carefully set up my camera location and was oh-so-careful not to get too close and give any of the cranes the idea that they might have to flee, something horrible happened at the hands of an awful and nasty driver. He drove a huge pickup truck with oversized tires and a mischievous ego to match. Within the second that I had my perfect angle, background scenery, and focus completed, no sooner did I attempt to hit the record button when this jerk of a driver in the oversized truck intentionally beeped his horn as loud as he could in order to ruin what I was trying to capture. Like a ghostly white swarm of feathers blowing into the sky with a forceful tropical wind, the cranes flew away, frightened and as quickly as possible. There I stood. My blood began to boil with anger and my body began to overheat from the high temperature and stress, all of which came from this horrible trickster of a no good driver/no good person. I was extremely upset in a way that I cannot describe in terms of the full physical feeling and mental anguish I experienced.
I went back to the gas station, got into my car, and decided to head home in an attempt to recharge my “own” batteries, and not the camera’s. How could someone be so much of a jerk that he would pull such a horrible stunt? I knew (as I stated before) that, for whatever reason, I had already been in a hurried and impatient mood. This was, perhaps, due to my enthusiasm and eagerness to catch something magical for my film.
*Like this post? Become a Sponsor. Get noticed. Keep this resource free.
I ruminated about all the good luck that turned into bad luck and irony the whole trip back home. I felt like everything and everybody was against me and this project. I felt
the full wrath of how horrible and disrespectful some people can be when you are working on a craft so very important to you, but so thoroughly unimportant not only to regular folks and workers (with no artistic interests or valuable statements to make to improve the minds of the public at large and benefit humanity), but just how cruel some people just happen to be anyway. I continued my drive. I continued to ruminate. I tried to plan on taking a break when I returned home, but this felt impossible. I was just too angry. Thanks to that jerk of a driver, I had accomplished nothing since I’d started out late in the morning as the Floridian sun bestowed its omnipresent sparks of life on every person and object its rays managed to caress.
As I was getting ready to pull into my street, 5 miles away from my assaulter, my mood was at its lowest and my general anger was at its highest. I wanted to punch my steering wheel. I wanted to punch that driver in the face. I again thought how everything seemed to be working against me; and I pondered why ANYTHING would be working against me in any way, shape, or form since I was, in fact, in the process of creating something that I truly felt could possibly benefit the minds, hearts, and Souls of people who watched the finished film.
*Like this post? Become a Sponsor. Get noticed. Keep this resource free.
I pulled into my street. That’s when “it” happened. I drove only a small handful of yards, getting very close to my house and, like magical lightning or synchronicity, the entire flock of cranes that had been scared away by the driver, had traveled the same
distance, the same time-frame, and to the very same place I was going, as if to “greet me.” I experienced a wind of white from the Heavens above as the whole flock flew in and landed at once; not on the lush grass of an area taken care of by the city, but a huge lawn taken care of by wonderful neighbors unbelievably close to my home. The timing of this extraordinarily unusual occurrence was one for the story books. And I, like a film maker so much in Zen that I felt I was playing the 3rd person “character” of somebody who plays a filmmaker “within a movie” (after all, it all happened like a movie), got to work again and was integrated and welcome by this friendly family of cranes that escaped from downtown and headed towards my home for safety and (apparent) cooperation (my presence did not affect them at all). I began to shoot my footage as originally planned, peacefully and uninterrupted, with some insanely cooperative cranes appearing to have an insatiable desire to be on camera. And I recognized them from directly downtown. Yes, how I recognized them.
I ended up getting all the great footage I required, plus one particular shot of a crane struggling to keep up with the other walking cranes that served as a meaningful transition and unbelievably enhanced moment of symbolism within the film.
For all of you creative artists out there of any genre, keep the faith. If you are working on something truly for the benefit of humanity and your heart is pure, you will eventually be favored by a presence so far superior and beyond our understanding. This force will call upon YOU to spread your message, no matter what, and protect you from any obstacles, no matter how daunting they may seem. May you and I meet by something other than “chance” in the future as well.
Paul Spencer Alexander
*Like this post? Become a Sponsor. Get noticed. Keep this resource free.
Official Trailer For A Love By Your Side By Paul Spencer Alexander