From the mind of Paul Jones

I consider myself fairly astute politically. I have voted since the age of 18 and I have been a part of two political campaigns in my lifetime–but today, politics is just plain crazy. Before I was old enough to vote, back in high school, I considered myself a Democrat. By the time I registered to vote, at the age of 18, I had swung back to my family tradition as a Republican. I think I did that mostly because I consider myself patriotic, and Democrats seemed very unpatriotic to me. There were several years in high school, when I was the only student who was standing for the daily pledge of allegiance. I think it was my sense of patriotism, that caused me, at the age of 18, to join the Army. Only a month after graduation, I shipped off to Fort Sill, Oklahoma to learn how to become a soldier. Much of my sense of patriotism was inspired by Ronald Reagan — yup, I am a Reagan Youth.

It was barely a year after I joined the military, that I was headed to Saudi Arabia for the very beginning of Desert Storm– nine months later, and a firsthand participant in the horrors of war, I returned home a very different person, with some very different takes on politics and government. My time overseas caused me to hate bureaucracy, something I saw our government rife with. When I had finished my enlistment in 1992, I left the Army and returned to civilian life. By 1992, the country had seemingly swung liberal as Clinton had already begun what would become an eight year reign. After witnessing firsthand the impacts of bureaucracy in and on the U.S. military, I had a great deal of distaste for politics in general– but that was before I discovered Rush Limbaugh. Under the tutelage of Limbaugh’s three hour daily show, I began to understand the mechanics of politics and it suddenly became more interesting to me.  Eager to understand politics more thoroughly, I became a Political Science major in college.

In the early to mid 90’s, I was coming on board to conservative politics at a very exciting time, the apex of Newt Gingrich’s ‘Contract With America’ which resulted in the sweeping of both houses of congress and becoming the majority party in the House of Representatives for the first time in over forty years. At the time, there was such hope for change. Finally, a conservative voice in America; certainly, I thought, there will now be sweeping change. What history ended up showing us, was that Republicans are no better at wielding power than were their colleagues on the other side of the aisle. In-party fighting, political corruption and abuse of power seemed to be everywhere. Eventually, Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, lost control of power and retired his seat in congress rather than be demoted and probably fired from leadership. What happened to the promise of change? The changes of the Contract with America seemed somehow a pale glow to

Since the revolution in 1994, the government has become more bloated, intrusive and ineffectual as ever before in our country’s history. After eight years of Clinton politics and nearly as many of Bush warmongering, I think people are tired of business-as-usual politics and really desire some change. I think, for many Americans, that change might be manifested in nominating the first female or black candidate. At this point, some people are so burnt out on government that they just want anything but more Bush and I am with them on that.

Some years back, probably sometime after 9/11 I reconsidered my political position. What do I really believe about the role of Government? What kind of person do I want representing our nation. While the names may have changed over the years, my philosophy hasn’t I want a principled person in the White House, someone who believes something, someone who has something governing them, someone with integrity. I am not an issue-based voter. I don’t care what someone believes about this-or-that so much as I want to know what motivates them. Are they Clintonesque, in that they put there finger in the air before issuing policy decisions or do they stand firmly on some foundational principles. If those principles are solid and reasonable, I might find a reason to support them. It is for these reasons that I have sometimes supported fringe candidates like Perot and Forbes for President. It is also why I campaigned for Dole and initially supported W.

One thing I have learned about my philosophy, is that the principles that someone stands on need to be looked at carefully. While W. is a very principled person, he seems to follow principle over reason. Our quagmire in Iraq is mostly due to his pig-headed principles. At some point you have to be able to look at something objectively and leave room to change your mind– not because it is politically expedient, but because it is the right thing to do. W. should have realized that invading Iraq was the wrong thing to do, and instead of “staying the course,” he should have been working on a plan to extricate America from Iraq. Yes, we would have to deal with the fall-out, but I think having a divided Iraq and causing civil wars will eventually play it self out, it would also force the rest of the world to be involved. But that doesn’t protect of energy interest in the region does it? Should have thought about that before invading shouldn’t you have?

Anyway, that is not my point. Sometime before the last election I began to realign myself politically. I found that I am rather a purist when it comes to government and that I believe in less government and greater personal freedom. Eventually, I found that my personal beliefs aligned much more closely with the Libertarian movement and not the neoconservative Republican one. While my card still says Republican, I am still a Libertarian at heart… and the last six years of voting history supports that. But, while I consider myself a Libertarian philosophically, I really have a problem with the party… mostly because it is filled with pot-heads and conspiracy theorists that serve to erode the credibility of the party. For this reason, I don’t think that the Party will ever field a reasonable presidential candidate.

So, I tell you all of that, so I can say this: the 2008 presidential race is a mess. I don’t think I have ever been so tossed about by candidates. I think that my mind is in the same place as most Americans when it comes to what I want in a presidential candidate and a government in general… CHANGE. I want someone who is going to change things, to work on righting the wrongs and making our government more fiscally responsible. I want someone who is going to keep our noses out of other countries businesses and halt our attempts at nation-building. I want someone who will work across the aisle to do what is best for our country and not what is politically expedient. I thought I had that candidate of John McCain.

Being a former Arizonan, I am aware of McCain’s cowboy mentality. He seems to be a man determined to do what is right, not what is political. He bucks the system and works bipartisanly to pass bills that help America. I think he understands the need for a strong and well-equipped military, but would not be the kind of leader that wields military power recklessly. As soon as McCain announced, I joined his campaign. What followed was a big disappointment. Instead of emails that detailed issues and solutions, I started receiving regular pep-rally emails that simply begged for money. I wanted substance and all I got was politics. I fear now that McCain is going the way of Bob Dole– over handled and way too “on message” to be to separate himself from the host of other Republicans doing the same thing.

Disconcerted with the direction of the McCain campaign, I sought out to search for someone who was really looking at radical changes to government. As I dove into the major candidates, I found very little in fresh new ideas for change and that bothered me. I then stumbled on Newt Gingrich’s blog and started reading about his ideas in Transformational Government. His ideas peeked my interest and I checked to see if he had any aspirations at a bid for 2008. It seems that he was carefully considering it, but was waiting until after Labor Day to decide. Ultimately, he said it would depend heavily on whether of not Fred Thomson threw his hat into the ring– which he has.

At some point in the middle of this, I was talking to my brother and he asked me if I had heard about this guy who really seemed to have some grassroots support. He couldn’t remember his name… Ron something or something Ron… a guy with two first names. A quick search on the Internet introduced me to Ron Paul, a congressman from Texas, doctor by trade and former Libertarian presidential candidate (1988). I read his profile on Wikipedia and said hmmm. Then I promptly forgot about him and went back to reading Newt’s book ‘The Art of Transformation’ and sending email questions to John McCain. Becoming quickly dissatisfied with McCain, I was also looking at Fred Thompson.

Everything changed for me two weeks ago when I stumbled on the documentary ‘America: Freedom to Fascism,’ which made me start thinking fundamentally about our government and it’s intrusion into our lives. I had never given the Federal Reserve or its control over our economy any thought. This thought caused me to dig a little deeper and do some more research. This research lead me directly into the Ron Paul camp. I spent quite a few hours watching Ron Paul coverage at FreeMe.tv and my mind is spinning, there are tons of reasons why I am ready to jump feet first into the Ron Paul campaign, but there are many reservations.

The first major issue, is that no one over the age of 25 seems to know who Ron Paul is. His movement is significantly Internet based and encompasses not only children below the voting age, but people from other countries. I watched a funny Ron Paul supporter video that ended with the declaration that they supported Ron Paul and they weren’t even American–how crazy is that? Sadly, it isn’t the candidate that I have problems with, it is his supporters. The majority of his public supporters are “issue-based voters”… something I really detest.

I am not an issue supporter. I will not vote for a candidate because of a position on any specific issue, something that I am afraid that Paul will get labeled with. People will frame him as an extremist candidate who wants to overturn Roe vs. Wade and eliminate the Federal Reserve, IRS, Board of Education and pull us out of the control of the UN. These are things that are part of his expressed desire, but there is a reason for it, that go far beyond the issues themselves. Ron Paul is a strict constitutionalist, and all of his ideas stem from the overreach of government beyond their constitutional limits. I am definitely in line with his ideas, but I think that the grassroots nature of his campaign prevents his image from being managed. I think there is almost no way to prevent him from being portrayed as a cracked pot.

Ron Paul is for overturning Roe vs. Wade, something that can be twisted and turned to opponents favor, but while he advocates the overturn, he doesn’t stand for the elimination of abortion, he believes that is a State’s right to decide if it supports or not… what he is against is the Federal support of abortions. As a man who personally delivered over 4,000 babies, he is an advocate for the unborn. I am all for a federal repeal of Roe vs. Wade as long as people have the right to decide for themselves by influencing their state governments to reflect the will of the people or that of Sate law. Decoupling us from the federal teat and allowing us to govern ourselves more locally.

It is so easy for us to simply go for what is popular or trendy, I think that the democrats will probably choose their candidate based on what is trendy… probably going for Hillary of Barack because of their gender or skin color. What candidate is a candidate of change? Everyone is talking about change, but who actually has radical ideas that will move our country forward, improve our liberties and allow us the greatest opportunity for personal advancement. Many of the democratic candidates have ideas about reform that require more government. Health care and retirement… increasing the entitlements of our country and leading us into deeper and deeper debt.

If you have no idea who Ron Paul is, I encourage you to Google him and research his ideas for yourself. I think he is the most reasonable and practical candidate out there. Sure there are plenty of good men and women out there who are seeking to lead our country, but how deep are their fundamentals? How much new government would their policies create? How much do you know about these people really? It is way to easy to rest on celebrity, to go for a candidate that makes us feel good about ourselves, but will choices based on that rationality move us forward? I can’t say I have come to a conclusion yet, the good thing is that I have some time to research the issues more. My question to you is, is your candidate causing you to explore issues, or does their rhetoric simply lull you to sleep, convincing you that everything will be OK when they get to office. I personally lean toward the candidates that cause me to ask the most serious questions and lead me to understand the depth of my ignorance.

I have spent the last few months trying to crack the nut of filmmaking. One thing I’ve learned about making movies over the last year, is that it takes connections and lots of favors–unless you happen to have wheelbarrows full of money. My focus over the last six months or so, was to expand my network of contacts in the Nashville area to include a large number of people who work in film and video production. At first, the going was slow. I joined groups and organizations, explored web groups and even tried networking on Myspace–all of which yielded very little.

When I left my full time job in November, I planned to spend three months working on personal film projects, none of which ever got off the ground–I just didn’t know enough people in town. Instead, I just bought more equipment and looked for opportunities to use it. With the exception of shooting a few local music shows, nothing was happening. Several false starts occurred but each project fell flat.

Enter the 48 hour film project. I had wanted to do a 48 hour film since last year but, once again, didn’t know enough people to build my own team. I posted on line and asked around trying to find a team to join. I even inspired a friend to put together a team and failed to join her team, instead waiting to join a group who had experience. At the last minute I received an email looking for someone with a camera and sound equipment. I joined the team and made my first film in Nashville.

My team had a writer/director who was an absolute nightmare– she quit the project three times within 14 hours. Our movie wasn’t all the great, but I worked with some great people, all of whom were passionate about making films… finally, the network was growing. After the 48 hour film project, I finally realized that my network was larger than I thought. Many filmmaking conversations were had in a short period of time, and some project plans set in motion.

On the heels of 48HFP, I joined the crew of a indie film shooting in Nashville. All of my time over the last week of shooting was night shoots, to which I dove in feet first. I was able to exploit previous experience on other sets to help out as a Lighting Tech (also known as an Electrician in film circles). I really enjoyed working with lighting and actually felt as though I did a good job. It helped that I was working with at least one experienced Gaffer who I gleaned even more knowledge from. I felt I was on a roll.

I started thinking about filmmaking seriously. I started meeting with other filmmakers, producers and actors. Projects began to bloom and plans started being made; then I found an ad on Craigslist looking for some PAs for a feature length indie production in town. Feeling confident that I could add more value than just a PA, I asked if they needed any grips or even a gaffer. As it turned out, they most certainly needed a gaffer and they budgeted a deferred salary for me on the film.

I got very excited and started digging in more technically to the position of a gaffer. Up until then, I thought of a gaffer as a “lighting guy,” but what I discovered, is that in Hollywood circles, a Gaffer is a pretty key guy… and is usually expected to provide the lights for the shoot. He would also be expected to make the light do whatever the DP (director of photography) wanted; like make the set look like early dawn or change the mood of the scene with colors and shadows… it is actually a pretty complicated office to hold.

Concerned that they might be expecting me to have more knowledge and equipment then I actually did, I emailed them letting them know, that I am more qualified as a Lighting Technician than a Gaffer per se. They immediately placed an ad on Craigslist looking for a Gaffer and I felt sort of slighted. Eventually they found a new gaffer and I was to become his assistant.

The shoot was going to be 18 to 20 days and it was looking to be my first complete feature length production that I was to work from beginning to end. I was excited, until I started getting the vibe that things weren’t all that put together. I asked the producer about any pre-production work that was going to be done, and I clearly got the impression that no location was going to be reviewed for lighting before shooting. This was complicated even further when it began to look like they had done no work at securing a grip truck or a lighting package before the shoot.

Even before we started shooting, I started worrying that I was joining a half-assed production. Later when I found out that they were shooting the movie on film and not digitally, I forced myself to think more positively–certainly no one would try to shoot a movie on film if they didn’t have the equipment they needed. I started worrying when I had to call the producer the night before to get a location and call time for the first day of shooting (the next morning).

When I reached the producer, I was told that crew call was an hour before talent so, I took the opportunity to ask if a grip truck and lighting would be there when I arrived–I desperately wanted to survey the equipment. The reaction began to frighten me. She said that she knew that we had a camera and film stock, but wasn’t sure about lights. She asked if she could look into it and get back with me.

My return call confirmed my fears, they had not rented a grip truck or lighting package and they were depending on some lights that the DP had to shoot with. Now if there is one thing that I have learned about movie making–to make a professional production, lighting is essential. Despite my fears, I drove an hour and a half outside of Nashville to get to the set. We waited for over an hour before the Director arrived. Shortly after, the DP an First AC (assistant cameraman) arrived and began unloading gear.

While it wasn’t my worst nightmare, I began to worry when I discovered that our lighting consisted of three 1K lights and a single PAR (which is a glorified floodlight). He did have some professional C-stands and a few flags, but he also arrived with some of the trappings of a Home Depot movie gear… stuff that works, but doesn’t stand up to the abuse that professional equipment takes every day.

I quickly learned that outside of the actors and the Director’s desire to shoot on film, everything else was a second thought. Our first location was pitiful, it looked nothing like it should have and no art direction was in place to even make the location look authentic. The actors were great, but the limited lighting kit meant tons of fiddling and having to settle with inferiorly lit scenes. There might have been enough light to get things exposed on film, but the required position of the lights caused some horrible shadows, something that I hope is hidden or out of focus in the final product.

Things seemed really bad at the end of the first day. We were already two scenes behind, but there was a promise that things would be sorted out by the second day. Day two came and things got worse. More struggles to get enough light, slow setups and people were starting to get grumpy on the set. I desperately wanted to get things done, but everything moved at a snails pace, and the Director seemed acutely absent most of the time. By mid day, there was a sense among most of the cast and crew that we were on a ship without a captain.

To make things worse, the Director began to tell some of the crew that he wanted to wrap early so he could catch the Tennessee football season opener at 7:00PM. I don’t think anyone had a problem with that until a rumor began circulating that he wanted to make that time up by having an insanely early call time the next morning…no one was fine with that. The situation degraded further when under the pressure of getting all of the scenes done early he began to rush the actors and the shots.

The cast and crew began to feel uncomfortable. We were racing to get a bedroom lit for the next five scenes on the schedule, but as fate would have it, the sky turned dark and all of the lighting equipment outside needed to be pulled because of rain. 7:00 was closing in and no one knew what we were going to do. Then, dinner was called early while we waited for the rain to stop. Sometime during the chaos, our Director disappeared, and everyone began speculating that he had returned home to watch the Tennessee game.

Grumbling turned into outright complaining. The Assistant Director was having secret meetings with the Producer and the everyone was wondering aloud where our Director was. Eventually, the Producer walked in and took the rooms temperature about wrapping early. She explained that we would now be five scenes behind on our third shooting day if we wrapped. She walked away without making a decision.

The complaining erupted into bitching and now the lead actress was complaining that she thought she was going to be on a professional shoot, and that she had worked on student projects that had more leadership than our film. We all agreed with her. Eventually, she made the decision that we were waiting for. She said that she was done for the day and was going home. Well, without our lead, there was no more shooting for the day–it was a wrap.

I drove home with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. This film was in the toilet and I didn’t expect it to get past the week. The following day was Sunday and I had the desire to go to church since the schedule was going to prevent me from going for the next few weeks. I told the producer and the DP that I was going to be in after noon. I stayed for the Lord’s Table and took off after I took the bread and cup.

I called around looking for the location and started my one and a half hour drive to Mt. Pleasant, TN for the third day of shooting. I arrived on set as they were finishing up the last shot for that location. I wasn’t there long before I received some shocking news.–our lead actress had quit the film. Our first two days of shooting were now wasted. They had a replacement for her, but the character was no longer blond, she now had raven black hair… which wouldn’t seem like a big issue, except we were now on our way to a school to shoot some montage scenes from the character’s childhood… and all the young actresses were blond.

Everyone seemed to be completely un-shaken by the casting change. They were rolling ahead with the schedule as planned. This sparked much discussion among the crew. Let the bleeding commence. I arrived at the school ahead of the rest of the technical crew. I ended up following the wrong car to the wrong location. At the school it became crystal clear that no one was piloting the ship. There was absolutely no art direction for the scenes, no props and no forethought what-so-ever.

If it wasn’t my frustration with the way the shoot was being run that put me over the edge, it was the lack of appreciation for the kids and parents that showed up at the school and provided their own costumes for the shoot. The director never once publicly thanked anyone. Lack of planning continued as the sun set on an outdoor shoot for a playground scene. Complicating things was that the main character hadn’t had her makeup from the previous scene removed which provided just one more continuity error for the film.

I think at that point I was done. Three days of filming had sucked just about all of the life out of me. Idle time was spent complaining with the crew and second-guessing the director… something that should never happen on a set. I told the DP that night that Day four would be my last day.

Day four was just as bad, if not worse than any of the other days. The sound guys were quitting and half of the rest of crew was considering quiting. I really hope that they get it all sorted out. I feel bad for those folks who came from out of town, those who believed in the film enough to risk deferred compensation. I had planned to stick it out, but in the end, it was just requiring to much from me. It was hard for me to imagine that the film could get finished let alone make some money. It wasn’t worth the $20 per day it was costing me to drive to the set.

By the first day of shooting they were already out of money. They were shooting on film and were already out of money! In a way, it was a gift that the lead actress left. If they can get some money back from her, they might have some additional budget to get essentials like film development and props.

In the end, it reinforces my belief that you can’t get movies done without using people. If the movie gets made, I hope it sells and make a boat load of cash, not for my sake, but for all of the people who were used in the making of it. I hope that when I do my first feature, I can get half the number of people to believe in it and give me their time and energy, but I hope with this experience, I wouldn’t make the same freshmen mistakes.

In respect for the cast and crew, I am not naming the production and I still wish them all the best. I met and got to work with a lot of great people. Heck, the Director was a nice guy, just not much of a leader. I figure the worst that can come of it, is that someone’s uncle and grandma’ loose some money and a lot of other people gain some great movie making experiences… those that can’t be taught in a book and can best be learned by personally making the mistake itself. Hopefully, at the end of all of this, everyone is much better for it.