For the last three years, the better part of each waking day has been focused on 'Strange Factories'. Though this isn't a long time in terms of the development of projects within film, for an FP project it seems like a lifetime. My ideas usually have a quick gestation process, perhaps six months to a year before it reaches the audience as an immersive theatre event.
For a ritual to offer fundamentally positive change, it needs to deal with material that you as an artist want to confront.
'Strange Factories' is the most challenging ritual I have undertaken.
'Strange Factories' deals with the creative process and asks: What would you do to bring a new work into creation? What price would you be willing to pay if you view art as the fundamental reason you draw breath? Who and what would you sacrifice? Would you be prepared to give up all that you love and travel to the farthest and most inhospitable realms of the imagination for no other reason than to manifest an idea that possesses you? Should you?
The bottom line is that the choices I've made as an artist impact the people I love. I'm ok with not having the kind of lifestyle that most 41 year old, professional males have, but I have people who depend on me, little people, and what right do I have to shape their lives just because I know who and what I am?
These questions are central to what 'Strange Factories' means to me. The fact that Victor is on a similar journey of discovery, is of course central to the nature of this film. Over the next eight weeks I'm going to be sharing my personal experience of traversing this aspect of the creative process.
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