Why make films?

Somewhere in between cajoling an actor, changing the dialogue, choosing a costume, reading a legal document, signing a cheque, calming the fraying temper, finding the right lens, waiting for the right light, running from the rain, cutting out a scene - we were making a movie. What is it that makes us want to rise at 4.59am, reach the location at 6am and work like bonded labour till 10pm only to return the next day where every possible variable would have changed and yet we aim to find that continuity to everything as the day before and the day before that?

Surely there is a streak of masochism in everyone who willingly works on a film set. "Willingly" is a strange word- it can also mean some one who would rather not do something else. Which is actually the case with most people. The phenomenon seems to be alive whether one is a spot boy, an propmaster, a boom swinger or a director.

They tell me that the feature film is the most peculiar of addictions, though I am still in limbo about this. "Despite it all, you want to do it again". Maybe once my joints cease to ache and my voice comes back to its normal tone and I stop dreaming of that one scene I forgot to shoot, I'll ponder on it.