I was talking with a chap that I did Media and Drama with back in my arts degree days. For the purposes of this blog, lets call him...i don't know...Stephen Jenkins.

We have a common experience. Whenever we see a making of documentary of a movie we like we both cringe, thinking "aww, I used to make movies".

A particular French playwrite, and thief, called Jean Genet said this about films: it won't be a true art form until people can make films in their hotel rooms, until making a film costs as much as a pencil. (Actually, i don't know if that is exactly what he said, and I've got a feeling it actually might have been Jean Paul Satre...but what the hell, they're all the same those Frenchies.)

But you know what? That time has so come. Just look at youtube and podcasting.

If I had my time over again, and I wasn't into psych, and I had some talent here is how I would have done things:

1) I would have enrolled in the same course at deakin, but only done it part time. Perhaps just 1 unit a semester. The main purpose of a drama/media course should have been to meet people and borrow equiptment.

2) I would have spent the rest of my time making little low budget things, and put them on youtube or started a website. I would put most of my energy into those projects. I would have recruited other people, but would have been very selective, and I would have been a dictator.

3) I would have been ruthlessly popularist. It would have been story driven, and actor driven. I would have lived and died by the download statistics. The quality control test would be: "would I forward someone a link to this, if i weren't me". I would have teared up any work that wasn't up to scratch.

4) No film festivals. No marketing hype. It would have relied completely on viral distribution.