Why can't it be the actor's fault?

I’m currently trying to generate interest in shooting another movie. A group of friends and I participated in the National Film Challenge last October. This is a contest where you write, shoot, and edit a five to seven minute movie in basically a weekend. This sounds easy, because come on, it’s only seven minutes max. How difficult can that be? In reality it’s pretty demanding. For my part I put in over forty hours in three days working on it, we still almost didn’t meet the deadline. It was a blast to see our finished product. When I finally get my butt in gear I’ll get it posted on Youtube and then link it here.

I now want to shoot a short or two before the next challenge so we can work on our skills. We’ve brainstormed a couple of ideas, but as usual no one wants to get in front of the camera. I’ve been thinking about this. Why is that? Most people say they are worried about embarrassing themselves, but I wonder if it isn’t because it ruins the illusion we create of ourselves. You’re you all the time. You know yourself better than anybody else, but the you you know, isn’t quite right either. You know your emotional and mental landscape. You were the one who planted the trees, put in the koi fish pond, and created that rose garden of emotions and trivia locked up in your mind. What we don’t have a grasp on is what we are outside, how the rest of the world sees us. That’s what sends us running away from a camera.

In the challenge everyone was in the film since I promised them they didn’t need to watch the finished product if they didn’t want to. What was amazing is that it worked. We had 100% participation in front of the camera. What was even more amazing is that everyone wanted to see it afterward. Now this should bring up a question. Why can’t you find people to act now? It’s probably my script. Ah back to the drawing board.