It was an easy shoot.
We captured a feeling, an transcendent nature of time and space, in a relatively short period of time. I was a witness to greatness, not the greatness of myself or our Actresses or even our DP, who accomplished greatness.
I was a witness to the greatness of Nature. Of Love. Of Harmony.
Of The Nature... of the Flame.
We developed the story from a simple, yet dark script, I had written about the traditional student-sage relationship. I wanted the story to be a feature film but on the seventh page, the story spoke to me “I am finished. I am done.”
There was no point to continue the story further. It has awakened, I thought. It is.
The project was on rest for perhaps a year. In fact, after contacting a lady film Director in Los Angeles about the project, I was discouraged that I never heard back from her. Perhaps she was busy doing other things. No matter.
The Nature of the Flame was mine. My Zen Feminist statement of sorts.
But why such labels? Why such pain in them?
Chris Hunter, my visionary Director of Photography and capable Editor, put together his thoughts, upon meeting each other at something called The Rhode Island South Filmmakers Group. Something to the effect of, I sit in my apartment and want to film. I sit in my apartment and film little things.
I had a script buried in the trunk of my car. It was released. It was... The Nature of the Flame.
Are you serious, I asked Chris some weeks later? Are you serious to create this?
He was. We did. Accomplishing the task required reaching out for help. Where is there a Zen Center? Where is there... a Zen Garden? Oh, there is one in Providence. Oh, there is one for you.
Our Actresses love each other, truly. Lindsey Elisabeth Cork and Jocelyn Padilla. They were my first choice and they worked hard to audition. They memorized and learned lines of dialogue that we never used.
We did not need to. To tell the story.
The Nature of The Flame burns brightly.
This is.
Written by Mike Messier, director of "The Nature of the Flame".
