Lamentations of a Would-Be Filmmaker

You may or may not remember the brief talk of a "Sutton At The Movies: The Movie" in the comments two weeks ago. Let's discuss that for a little while, shall we?

I've been wanting to write my own movie for some time, but unfortunately, nothing has come of it yet. It's mostly a big combination of writer's block and a total lack of originality on my part. What I'd like to do is something akin to Clerks, Mallrats, and Office Space, but everything I come up with ends up being a total Xerox copy of them. I'll admit I'm not the most talented writer there is, but you'd think I could come up with something that was in the same style without totally ripping them off.

Sure, I could always do a total ripoff. That never stopped anybody before. But where's the fun in that? I'd rather do something original, but still keep the vibe I'm aiming for. I mean, Waiting was a Clerks-esque movie without totally stealing from Clerks, so why couldn't I do something like that?

I do have some ideas for certain characters and set pieces, but I've been unable to really come up with anything major. I keep a file full of dialogue I'd like to use, and I wouldn't mind aping the "lost scene" from the big Clerks X DVD, but I've just been struggling to put two and two together. You writers out there know what I mean, right?

And then the idea of writing a movie leads to the much more ambitious idea of actually producing it. Would it be something I could make for a few thousand dollars with some friends and a high-end camcorder? Or would it be something I should shop around to people who know what they're doing?

I don't know the first thing about making a movie, but if I'm sure I could if I had to. However, I have to bang out the script first. I guess I have to start somewhere, but that first step is a doozy.