Still not regularly posting, but....

Hey, you just have to keep on working on it, right? Let me see, what is new? I'm trying to get a group of people together to do the 48 hour film project in Buffalo, NY. My brother lives in Rochester, NY so we will base our shoot out of his house. The real question is getting a group of core people who want to be in it so I can justify the entry fee. There is a small part of me that says why not do it anyway and deal with what I can. Of course the other part of me is thinking that the just do it part has lost its mind. It brings up that the last challenge I did had one more day thrown in and I had a lot of people participating so the load I carried was a lot less. Of course conversely I did do most of the time consuming things and since I was director and producer (and writer of course) that it doesn’t leave me a lot to worry about overall with adding on other jobs. I just wish I would hear back from one or two more people who are interested, especially in the brainstorming session and the acting part of it. Hopefully my recruiting drive will work and we will be on.

On a side note I’m looking once again at my alterative time threads screenplay and trying to make sure there is enough conflict. I’m not sure there is since act two is mostly a “fish out of water” type stuff, then mixed in with a “how do I get back to my life” part. I’m not sure the conflict is foremost, and if it is, if it’s enough. I might have to do a pager one rewrite just to see if I can get it right this time. I’ll tell you more next month (since it is the 30th. J )

More random thoughts

I just brought home my first HDtv yesterday. First impressions were less than overwhelming. The colors were over saturated, the picture fuzzy, and well, it just looked bleh. Then I realized my media splitter box could have been the culprit. Becky and I took it out and low and behold now I see what all the fuss is about. Beautiful clean picture and this is before we get anything in HD. I think this is the same for a lot of things in life. We have our own splitter boxes, things that we filter all of our life experiences through. For me it’s sometimes being passive and just taking everything in. I talk about doing things, about trying to make differences in all things I do, but I know soon I’ll sink back into coasting mode. I could blame it on my young children, or the work I do, or whatever. In reality the fingers point to me and the habits I have. I need to get better at doing and less at watching or waiting. Writing is a classic example. It is easy to wait for the muse to whisper in my ear sweet nothings of goodness, but I know in reality that writing is a craft that sometimes you need to hit your head against the keyboard to loosen up some ideas that are stuck up there. Is that fun? Hell no, and sometimes I get the s key stuck to my forehead, but it’s truly the only way to get going anywhere.

When I was a kid I wanted to be the absolute best at something. I didn’t care what it was, but I wanted to find something I could be the best in. I just knew I was a natural something; I just needed to figure out what that something was. I searched around low and high and while I could find things I was good at, there was always someone better. That proved to be very frustrating. Where was my niche? What made me special? I know, I was the best me I could be, but that was bull crap, and I knew it. From sports, to school, to whatever I couldn’t find a way I was naturally the best. Here’s the silly part. I didn’t realize that it was the work that separated the best from the rest. Yes they might be naturally gifted in that area, but gifts are only going to get you so far. You still need to put in the time and energy to get better at it. You also need to have the drive to improve since the better you get the less the improvement with the same amount of time and effort (at least in my experience). I am trying to get myself there. I don’t mean I still need to be the best at what I do, but I do want to be more active, always improving so I can honestly say I tried to maximize myself, and that’s all you really can do, isn’t it?

Okay enough philosophy crap. Next time maybe we will start with a germ of an idea and develop it right on the website. We can see how far all of us can take it. (And since I’m the only one reading this…..)

I'm baaack!

Okay, so I haven’t been too good at updating the old blog in the past month. You might ask what has kept you so busy. My answer would be everything and nothing. Everyone has those times where work, family, social life, and community obligations just overwhelm us. Well, that was me for the past month. I think I’ve put my hands around it lately and have whittled away on my side projects down to a mere handful, but we will see how long that holds up.

I am trying to develop a new short movie. I’m not going to put artificial time limits on it, but I do know it won’t be feature length. I have a really interesting set of characters, and one of them has a pseudo supernatural quirk that makes her kind of cool. I know a lot about her social life. I know her upbringing. I know about her boyfriend. I know her friend at work. The problem is I don’t know where she works yet. To me I need that to wrap all my ideas around. My female lead needs to deal with quirk both as a personal thing, but I think it would have a lot of potential at work. I just don’t want to run off and make her something the quirk would immediately fit into since she develops it during the first act of the screenplay. Maybe you would get a gift that makes your job easier, but to me that would be too, I don’t know, contrite? Contrite might not be the right word, but the feeling is correct. It would be cool if the work was unrelated, but then she can start seeing the pluses and minuses of what she can do. So I am at an impasse. Oh, and did I mention I want to shoot this one so I need to have the work function be something I can do in my small rural northern New York community? Yeah, that makes things harder.