When September starts…
Seems like summer has been swept away by a lovely cool breeze… I really enjoyed this summer; our first real one sans masks, the heat, the beach, the patios, the music, the movies…. hugs and full face smiles. They say you don’t miss something till its gone. I missed your smiling faces. Though I found it easier to look you in the eye when you were masked.
I’m hard at work on preparations for the American Film Market in November. To say I’m excited would be an understatement. I’ve been watching airfares like they were a futures market, and now I don’t have to do that anymore. Our trip is greenlit, so now we enter the pre-production phase on a whole bunch of deliverables… prepare… and prepare… and prepare… to produce.
I’ve set the next two months up for myself kind of a school schedule, because I have multiple projects moving forward at the same time, in multiple stages of production. I’m proud to say we’ll be bringing a piece in post production to show, along with two series (with bibles!), and a handful of features, one a Christmas movie I’m pretty stoked about. In order to avoid getting overwhelmed and burnt out, I’ve prepared a list of documents I need to render, as well as schedule of when they need to be done. I used to be able to carry a 9 subject course load… when I was 16.
I’m not 16 anymore naturally, I turned 50 this year, and that milestone hit me like a boulder. I realize I’m not going to be young forever. Age brings with it a certain fatigue, but it also brings with it an energizing confidence and wisdom to know your limits, and play within them. This brings a certain power you never knew you had, and suddenly tasks that seemed monumental, become easy… just because you don’t see them as monumental anymore.
When I first started out in media, I created a reality series about my life, and learning to sing. I loved singing to my kids, and in the shower and the car, but had never learned to do so well, or in any way that would make my voice suitable for anything but karaoke. My first producer made a point of teaching me that I could not sing, humiliated and traumatized me with the sounds of our recordings together… I stopped singing in front of people after that… for a long time.
After many years of closeted practice and training, this weekend I sang for someone at their request. For once I confidently killed a number, right there in the alley behind my house. I didn’t get applause, but I got a smile and feedback… “I didn’t expect you to be that good“. Nobody ever does… least of all me. But I’m grateful I’ve learned that with enough training and preparation… you can exceed even your own expectations.
I’m off to get my homework done… compiling a list of contacts I want to meet with, and potentially do business with. Oh, and to finish off our first one pager for our catalog, for a documentary feature film in post production we call UnPunk.