In thinking about this past 4th of July holiday my mind turns to giving thanks to what we have in our country. We certainly don’t appreciate it as much as we could.

Along those lines, there are many people in the film biz who don’t appreciate where they are. For instance, I’ve never quite understood divas on sets. One always reads, and sometimes as a filmmaker experiences, people behaving ridiculously. And you wonder, what fuels that? What fuels childlike behavior on set - yelling, demanding, and not seeing the whole picture?

I’ve always wanted to be a filmmaker. And when I’m hired to write, direct, or act, I’m beyond grateful to actually be fulfilling my childhood goals. And of course it’s never perfect. On a big professional set there are always compromises. But still…you get to be following your dreams.

So I would ask filmmakers and actors, when the going gets tough on the set - don’t throw a tantrum, don’t yell - and just remember that we’re getting paid to make magic. And if your younger self (the one who was struggling) ever saw you act like that, they’d slap you across the face.

There was a moment I had on the set of one of the “Mayfarers” shoots when I thought not of the future of filmmaking, but of the past.

To me, I love watching old footage of the early days of cinema. I love reading about Mack Sennett, Charlie Chaplin, and the Keystone cops. In those early days there seemed to be a crazy rebel spirit - a sense of comraderance, and a circus like atmosphere of “putting on a show.” They worked fast, and had fun. It seemed to have none of the rigidness that most big budget productions have.

I would love to time travel back to those big old studio lots and see those guys putting on a show.

In many ways I think that fun and sense of joy is passed down in today’s world to the projects online. Instead of a factory made type product its a fun joy de vivre.

But I wouldn’t totally want to go back there. I don’t think I could give up using color, sound or the HD cameras we have now for what they had then.

Also, it would be mighty difficult to update this blog.

Making movies sometimes affords you some special opportunities you wouldn’t normally find. One of my favorite was in pre-production of “Tricks of a Woman.” We were doing location scouting at the Southwick Zoo. Being that we were a week or so away from shooting, we were juggling many plates, and so we arrived late.

We pulled into the zoo parking lot around closing time. We met with the Zoo’s owner and explained in detail the scenes we were scouting for. In my typical wild and impracticable ambition, I had written a scene where the male lead jumps into a Rhino pit to take a photo of the rhinos. The rhino sees him and in turns fiercely charges at him.

Of course within a minute of pitching the story that idea was laughed down. I soon learned how ferocious and dangerous these Rhinos were. She suggested we walk through the zoo and find perhaps another animal for him to take pictures of in the scene.

And so that’s what we did. The four of us were led on a private tour of the zoo. We strolled by camels, giraffe, and deer. It’s was a perfect, quiet mid-summer evening at sunset, and was blissfully relaxing. We tested out the light on various animal areas. We even went to visit one of the rhinos, who was sleeping. We went inside his den, which not many people get to do, and then were allowed to pet his skin, which felt what I imagined a pet dinosaur to feel like, if cloning technology ever creates such a thing.

I thought to myself how lucky we were to be able to do this, and realized that these experiences are what making movies is all about.

Realizing how perfect a location it was, we ended up changing a number of scenes to be shot right at the zoo. We added “walk and talks” through the zoo woods and the deer preserve.

And what animal did we decide to film, after visiting with the whole of the animal kingdom?

Why the rhinos, of course.

But the part of the scene with the angry rhino attack?

Yeah, that had to be cut.

It’s moments like these that make me love filmmaking.