The Reinvention Game Revisited

So, I'm still pondering this idea of 'reinventing' oneself.  As I've discussed before, it is a term that gets bandied about a lot, but there is very little in the way of specifics out there as to how it is done, other than the usual bunch of online 'gurus' pouring out their usual management-speak and vague new age style platitudes.  In essence, all that 'reinventing' yourself means is jumping from one occupation, or lifestyle, to another, completely different and unconnected one.  Which is more difficult than it sounds.  As I said, I've been thinking about this a lot of late and have come to the conclusion that I'm clearly living in the wrong era as, back in the day, it seemed much easier to switch tracks in this way.  There seemed to be far more opportunities for average blokes like me, (I'm sounding like a bad seventies tabloid article there, aren't I?)  Talking of the seventies, back then I could just have started making adult films.  Everyone else did, it sometimes seems.  They were cheap to make - you needed only the most basic resources - and there was a ready market for them in seedy fleapit cinemas.  You could shoot them in your spare room with an 8mm camera  (if you didn't mind a grainy quality) - you could recruit your leading ladies from the local strip club, pay David McGillivray five quid to write a script (he was banging them out left, right and centre in those days, such was his eagerness to break into the movie business), and away you went.

In fact, you didn't even need a script.  Or sound.  You could try knocking out those short 'glamour films' that he likes of Harrison Marks specialised in and which usually ended up being shown on loops clubs or sold for home cinema viewings.  Nowadays, thanks to the web, viewers of this sort of stuff can see much of it for free, in the comfort of their own homes.  Even if they are inclined to pay for it, they can just stream it into their homes, with a lot of it being live webcam feeds from someone's bedroom.  The artistry inherent in even the crudest of those 'glamour films' has, sadly, gone from the adult sector.  At their peak, British sex movies weren't just about sex - most were ostensibly 'sex comedies', often featuring 'legitimate' actors and featuring half decent production values and witty scripts.  But those days have gone, unfortunately.  Obviously, I could still reinvent myself as some kind of purveyor of adult entertainment, but it would be of the current sleazy internet type.  Which doesn't really appeal to me.  Of course, back in the late sixties and seventies it was altogether easier to get into the film business altogether.  Particularly if you could scrape together some capital - there was always some kind of low budget movie production being put together somewhere, be it the likes of Lindsay Shonteff or Cliff Twemlow. looking for investors.  Those were the days when low budget film makers just went out onto the streets and shot films, without all the tortuous pre-production  'development' they seem to have to go through these days.

When all is said and done, I suspect that my own 'reinvention', if it ever happens, will be somewhat more modest.  I doubt that I'll be financing any films, adult or otherwise.  I say 'if', but it actually has to happen: my current employer clearly has no regard for my health.  Despite knowing that I'm under medical advice to reduce my stress levels, they've ensured that my workload has steadily increased, so that it is now higher than it was when the work stress finally pushed me over the edge health-wise earlier this year.  They are also still deliberately putting me into hazardous situations, which isn't helping my stress levels.  The key for any personal 'reinvention' is to find something I can earn money doing which is less stressful and completely unconnected with what I'm doing now.  In fact, it should be completely different to any of the many paid jobs I've had - I have no desire to go back to any of them.  Moreover, I'd like to do something more 'worthy' than my previous employment.  After all, my main reason for working these days is to ensure that I've accumulated enough credits for a full state pension, I have no ambitions regarding power, fame, wealth or social advancement.  So I might as well try to do something worthwhile, not to mention enjoyable while I pay for my pension.