Moeraki Beach. In't it pwetty?As a kid, I drew lots of lines in the sand. Wiggly ones, made with a stick, for chasing along. Straight ones, made with a toe, for racing from. Curly ones, for marking out territory. And later, words, even. Jinty was here/Tom loves Katie [4 eva]. I learnt that lines in fine wet sand stay put, but that even the heaviest stick stuggles to make a deep line amongst pebbles. I leant where to put lines so they (and my sandcastles) weren't washed away by the tides.
So you'd think I'd be used to it. Well, I didn't have to think about it, then.
Lines in the sand. They're not as arbitrary as one may think. One film-maker may draw a deep line in fine wet sand and say Hey, I'm not making any film that takes animals out ot the wild. Another may think, I'm willing to take an animal and put it in a set to capture behaviour that I wouldn't otherwise be able to film. Yet another may take footage and reel it back and forwards to make scorpians dance.
Me? I'm hesitantly drawing a toe through pebbles, glancing nervously at my film partner's line at the same time. Where is my line? What is ethical? At what expense the story?
