Back in 2004, after I shot My Most Difficult Case, I decided that my next movie would be a feature. I felt I was ready for it, but seven years have gone by and no feature yet. I’ve started to consider some of the difficulties I’ve run into. I hope that will help me overcome… Read Article →
Posts By: James Beattie Morison
Lately I have asked people for their opinions about my idea for a movie about transportation planners. Some comments I got made me realize that many people have an unrealistic view of the economics of moviemaking. How Much Money Might I Make? So, what is the market for a movie about transportation planning? If we… Read Article →
The Crying Woman I got back to The Crying Woman this week. I got about 850 words done Thursday. The next day I couldn’t write if my life depended on it. I find this is a very hard story to write. I’m about 80 per cent through the story now. I hope to get the… Read Article →
I have embarked on a project to make a movie about transportation planning. This idea has been percolating through my mind for a long time and has a long way to go yet. Early Efforts I worked for over 30 years as a transportation planner. When I started to make films in the early 1990s,… Read Article →
“I never gave them hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.” – Harry S Truman I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier. After all, all through my career I was frustrated by how people reacted to bad news. Time and again I ran into a lot of… Read Article →
After substantial procrastination, I’ve taken a break from my transportation planning stories to work on my short film for the 20th annual $100 Film Festival. Wednesday I picked up a camera (a Canon Scoopic) from the CSIF’s new production coordinator Yvonne. It’s been a while since I used a 16mm camera, so I had to… Read Article →
Over the years I tried several different approaches to character names. I’m still not sure which the best way is. When I started I just picked names “out of the air.” It turned out that wasn’t always easy to do, and some of the names were uninspired. Later I developed names that were similar to… Read Article →
I just posted a new short story. The Gladstone Barrier https://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/stories/the-gladstone-barrier/ This story is set a traffic operations office, but has some of the same characters as The Glencoe Project. Although I wrote it later, The Gladstone Barrier happens before The Glencoe Project. I found this story much harder to write. It could be because… Read Article →
In my next transportation planning story, The Gladstone Barrier, I have a couple of scenes that involve what some people would call political interference. They are relatively minor parts of the story. One case in my story isn’t what I would call political interference. In that situation a person at a public meeting gets upset… Read Article →
I got a second draft of my short story The Gladstone Barrier done this week. I think it is much better, but I still think I’ll need two or more drafts before I think it is ready to post. I wish I could do it faster. I have trouble with some of the dialogue. While… Read Article →
