Looking back on my experience in Pearl Harbor, I would have rather been on crew, but I still had fun running around on the set without being closely watched. It didn't even feel like work. It felt more like somebody with a lot of money just wanted to have a party with a violent, kinky "sailor at sea" theme.
Some of us would be oiled up, walking around in boxers and tight shirts, asking ourselves what the hell we signed up for? Then, there were some extras who were asked to get naked. I knew one guy who got paid extra to wear a towel that fell off of him while shooting an anti-air craft gun. Was it necessary? No, it obviously didn’t make the final cut, but somebody had to get his or her kicks. It was funny to see what they’d tried to do, but it made me question what the hell was going on?
Anyhow, I completely agree with the methodology of writing, directing, and producing your own films. When you’ve created something on your own terms, it’s natural to have a sense of urgency to accurately translate it as close to what you had originally envisioned, or else it defeats the purpose of doing it to begin with. The most difficult task of being a director is balancing the artistic hand and the iron fist. That's why I think filmmaking can be so challenging, because you're supposed to be free and artistic, yet you’re also expected to enforce a set rules that to some degree limits another person’s creativity by having them conform to the set of artistic standards that the writer, director, or producer has set fourth to see through. It takes one hell of a dynamic individual to pull off that balancing act, but when they do, it can be a beautiful thing.
