Is This How Spielberg Got His Start?

Sam has many careers that he intends to pursue in his adult life. Number one is a lifeguard right now, although, I have to admit that with each passing swim lesson I do wonder about the plausibility of that aspiration, but that's for another post. He also flips between wanting to be a fireman and a superhero--totally age appropriate goals, yes? Of course.

But his abiding passion lies in the world of drama, which comes as no shock to anyone that knows him. His imaginiation is the core of his essence and if any of my children have inherited any of my positive traits, it is Sam and his ability to improvise, imagine and create. It's as if every microcosim of my creative DNA that was intended for all three children was transferred to Sam by mistake. From an early age, we've played "The Emotion Game" where he acts out different emotions (as if the name wasn't indicative) and he's taken role-playing to an extreme. He crafts intricate stories and then repeats them over and over, changing characters, making his own sound effects, assigning other people supporting roles, etc. It's really something to behold when he's "on" in one of his story-modes. HOne of his more recent themes dealt with something called Shang Gon Wu or something such crap that he's picked up from television with the brothers and I have to admit, that one isn't nearly much fun as Jack and the Beanstalk was. He is also quite fond of a small "friend" that he's made out of Magnetix whom he calls "Little Jack." Little Jack is good for hours of fun and adventure--except for the unfortunate times when Sam loses Little Jack's neck (it's made from one of the teeny little magnets out of the end of a Magnetix stick piece).

Naturally since I'm a drama person, I have encouraged the dramatic play (to a point--and then even I have had enough of Little Jack or being a family of owls). I explained the concept of actors to Sam a couple of years ago and asked him if he wanted to be an actor someday. He thought that sounded like a grand idea. For about two days. Then, after careful consideration on his part, he informed me, at age 3, that he didn't want to be an actor. He wants to be "a corrector". That, btw, is Sam-speak, for director. Correctors, you see, get to tell the other people what to do and they get to make up the stories. He hasn't been interested in the whole acting thing since, as a profession anyway. He likes to act, yes, but only to bring his ideas to life since he cannot stand to have them bottled up inside his head.

Which leads me to the current conundrum--he has decided it is time that he "go ahead and make a movie now, so the people can come see it at the theatres (which he pronounces fee-aters)." At first, I sort of dismissed the idea, but I should have known better and any mother of a child with even the slighests Aspergian tendencies is probably laughging at me for even entertaining the idea that he would "just forget about it". This idea ain't going anywhere any time soon.

The vague idea of making a movie has now turned into a project with:

• A title-Dracula Returns
• A "genre"--a "brand new" kind of horror movie for the people who like horror movies and think they are "cool"
• Two protagonists-"Let's just say they are two ridiculous men in white".
• Special effects--he'd like to have Dracula "suck all the blood out of the victim's neck" so that will "freak the people out". He thought maybe he could use goat blood, but we've compromised with Kool-Aid.
• Marketing--"we're gonna make posters all over the town".
• Product tie in--"If we buy that popcorn (he saw at Wal Mart), we can use it for the people who come to see my movie and give them a prize".
• Funding source--we should have either a lemonade stand or a garage sale. Or both. Or "maybe Dad can get another job."
• Leading actor--Big brother Five gets the honors because if Sam played Dracula, "Dracula would be shorter than everyone else and who would be scared of that?"
• Makeup/costumes--Five gets to wear lipstick, but not the kind that "looks like a girl" and we have to draw black circles around his eyes, too. There's also wax involved, but I can't for the life of me figure out how.
  
• Tag line/summary: "Dracula Returns--this time he's back and he's got a plan. He's gonna make himself the master of all dead and Halloween scary tales."

Like I said, this one isn't going away anytime soon, oh and also, just a disclaimer: The child has never seen a Dracula movie or anything in the horror genre in his entire life. I have no idea where he's come up with these things.

So, being the "creative" mommy that I am, I've been offering up a myriad of affordable and techno-simple suggestions, which have been met with disapproval on any number of levels:

1. Suggestion--We could draw pictures of his ideas and then hang them up on the fridge like a cartoon. Reply--"That's not a movie!"(his tone of voice clearly indicated that he thought the idea was totally "lame", but to his credit he didn't say so).
2. Suggestion-We could take the pictures and scan them to the computer. Reply--"But they wouldn't move. And what about the sound?".
3. Suggestion--We could let him tell the story to us one night like a play. Reply--"Uh, then how would the rest of the town see it? And what about the screen?"
4. Suggestion--"We take pictures with the digital camera of the scenes." Reply--see suggestions 1 and 2. Add in, "You won't let me use the camera by myself."
   
5. Suggestion--We use action figures to act out the movie and Sam can be the voices--Reply--"But my hands would be in the movie. You can't have a movie with hands in it!" (if I could have only captured the expression on film...I'm not sure if he was offended that I thought Rescue Heroes were an option or if he was puzzled that his own mother was that stupid....I really think it was the later).

In other words, I suppose I'm going to be finding some sort of video equipment that is adequate for a five-year-old's cinematic vision and cheap enough that when he drops it/steps on it/tries to pry open the door with his finger instead of the pushing a button his mommy won't have a stroke. I've got until his birthday, I think, to figure this out, if I'm lucky. September 15 is a looong time away, but I'm hoping that I can distract him with little mini-movies on my digital camera for now. The sound isn't too great, but he loves to see the movement, so it's still novel...but not for long, I'm sure. I'll rig something up in Windows Movie Maker to amuse him, too. It could be worse, I guess. He could want to be a surgeon.

Oh, and he also thinks we need "one of those stands to put the camera on", too. I'm sure if he thinks long enough, he'll want one of the clackers and a chair, too.