Freelance

I just finished a freelance project that was relatively high-profile. It was for a company that was holding a conference down in Los Angeles. It involved cutting three videos that were used as openers in a humongous auditorium. They were projected on a giant screen that was hung from the ceiling, and then would drop in sections at distinct moments in the video. It's called a kabuki drop.

The video was little complicated inasmuch as getting the timing right. I worked with my two producers, as well as injected my own input and feedback based on the parameters they were giving me. I think they turned out pretty well.

The most significant thing that this project has done for me is to get me out of the mentality of relying on one particular source of work. Recently due to the Affordable Care Act, I as an oncall have been officially limited in my hours. Technically it hasn't changed how much I work, but it has got me considering what my options are. And that has led to me thinking more outside the "I work at one place" box.

I have always had the desire to move on to bigger and more emotionally satisfying things; it seems the time perhaps, is now. We shall see.

A New Direction for an Old Blog

Its been a while since I visited or posted to this blog. In fact, I never have really been consistent with it. 

I think I'm going to try something. For the last four years I've been working consistently, and had plenty of work to discuss. Not that the work I've been doing has been all that interesting, but I think it would be good to record my thoughts and process.

Initially this blog was a way for me to keep track of my creative process and behind the scenes of projects I'm involved with. It just so happened that there wasn't much going on the last few years to keep track of. That's not exactly true, or at least not as of late. I actually have quite a few things to talk about, and I realize this would be the place to do it. Moreover, due to some things within and without my control, I'm starting to have a more solid opportunities to pursue these ideas that I wanted before I got pulled off to this job I've been working at in the intervening years since I set it up.

Besides having a way to give details to those interested in the filmmaking process, I think it might be good to have a record of my professional life, as well a good way to keep me motivated and keep my eye on the ball as far as my professional goals are concerned.

Anyway, I'm gonna give it a shot and see where it leads.

Also, I'm going to start posting links to much of the work I've done this last run in the left-hand column. The other day I decided to make a list, and I was surprised how extensive it was.

Benji

here's aubrey

Yesterday, I became a creepy, child stalker-in-training when I jumped up from my computer and breathlessly asked my coworker if I could watch her son without his knowledge. It had occurred to me (6 seconds previously) that her son is the exact age of our Hero, who has been a little elusive lately in regards to what he says when the plot starts to thicken in our screenplay. I haven't been eleven or twelve in more than eleven or twelve years! I just don't remember what it's like! And Chance (our Hero) knows that...and he's not buying what I've written for him.

"C'mon, Chance, " I say. "What are you gonna do now?"

And he just smiles and fades away, till all I'm left with is the setting and three quarters of a plot.

So I figured, what if I show him I'm making an effort to discover him, get inside his eleven to twelve-year-old head, see what makes him tick, see what he does when I shove him into this story with his estranged Grandmother...

Ah, well. I've discovered the life of a writer is a lot different that what I thought when I was in school training to be one. First of all, I never thought I'd be daylighting as a secretary. And moonlighting as....well, a person who thinks of herself as a person who occasionally writes.

Also, I didn't realize that writers sometimes find it challenging to go out of their way to observe life. I've been doing that since I was old enough to talk and say weird things to my mom, but that was easy stuff. What if I my character insists on walking on the moon? I'd need to go find someone who's done that and ask them some questions.

I'm confident our Hero is in here somewhere. It's a matter of time, and finding the right way to look at him. After all the other ways have been exhausted. This is going to be one interesting ride. Next step, stalking my coworker's kid.

(P. S. his mom said I could.)