My Misspent Youth: the movie

Written by Meghan Daum | 14 April 2010

This is pretty much the coolest thing ever  . . .

Last year I got a call from a Canadian  filmmaker named Cam Christiansen. It seemed he was a fan of a my 1999 essay (and New Yorker article and title piece of my essay collection) My Misspent Youth and wanted to turn it into an animated short.

Now, as someone who has been through the usual and predictable Hollywood ringer with the non-moviemaking process of my (ahem, currently temporarily out of print) novel, The Quality of Life Report, I was of course immediately skeptical. But not only did Cam, who uses an amazing animation technique using motion capture and green screen techniques that I won't atttempt to describe beyond saying that it results in this beautiful and poignant and haunting collage effect, send me my option fee right away on PayPal (which bought me a nice pair of jeans) he got started almost immediately. He cast an actress named Stacie Harrison to read the essay in a voice over and play "me" and, as illustrated in what may be my favorite photo of the year so far, rounded up extras to play various other "parts.

I think his list of the roles for the extras may perfectly underscore  the essence of my 20s: students, people on subway, landlady, roommates, students, dentist, homeless man cats, movers.

Ah, youth . . .

Anyway, Cam has a blog chronicling the making of My Misspent Youth. A trailer should be ready in a month or so and I'll post it then.

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