Careful with that Axe

Just been working my way through the most recent budget for the film - drastically revised after the NZ Film Commission turned us down. I'm sure there are people somewhere who find nothing better than to pore over columns of figures - but I'm not among them. It makes me want to have a drink and a lie down.

When it comes to finance, you're either a realist or a visionary. Realists treat numbers with dollar signs in front as being concrete realities - beautiful in their specificity. They become accountants and chastise the rest of us for our frivolity. Visionaries are similar to Jewish Kabbalists - treating numbers as if they were mysterious entities which might represent something else.

On the macro scale, I've long been a proponent of the view that economists are the new religious dogmatists. They make grand pronouncements about 'the way things are', when in reality they are operating totally from a faith perspective. These people gamble with the universe, the same as the rest of us. The difference is that they cloak their magic with an aura of science.

However, when it comes to making a film, realists and visionaries need each other. The relationship is symbiotic. Just so long as financial plans remain a scaffolding, and not a substitute for the creative venture which filmmaking is.

When wielding the axe, you need to be mindful of what you're cutting!