by Marlon Wallace, The M Report
On March 29, 2008, his 23rd birthday, I spent the day, the entire day, with local filmmaker Eric Walter. Now, I know quite a few guys, post college, who don’t make big deals out of their birthdays, and as I spent the day with Eric, basically following him around like a shadow, he didn’t make a big deal out of his either. Never even mentioned it the whole day we were together.
Still, something struck me as fascinating. I’m wondering if it even dawned on him that it was his birthday. He got up that morning and got ready for what turned out to be a full day of work without the mere mention of it. Since graduating college, I’ve had to work on several, if not all of my birthdays. The only difference is I got paid for my work.
Eric is an independent filmmaker, which is of course an easy euphemism for a guy who makes movies with practically nothing, for practically nothing, if not absolutely for free. Eric and his crew of no more than a half-dozen, who were all volunteer, were out running around, lugging equipment and props, dressing sets, and standing outside in a sunny, yet still very chilly, early Spring morning for about six hours shooting the first two scenes of his movie, a short film tentatively titled Whistle.
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