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I like to play basketball. I like to play hard. And apparently, I like to get injured. I've had stitches in my forehead from a another man's teeth ramming into my head. Also, had to have a tetanus shot because "teeth are dirty." I've sprained ankles, sprained knees, sprained my shoulder capsule, collected several deep thigh bruises. Back in High School, I partially detached my retina and broke the growth plate in my ankle. A few years back, I obliterated the ACL in my left knee while playing. This wasn't a partial tear. It was full-on destruction. My excellent orthopedic doctor took a chunk of my hamstring and fashioned a new ACL. I was back on the court in a year. A year from that, I finally started playing back to my old self. The latest entry: I was preventing an entry pass into the paint. Pop! My thumb decided to dislocated from its proper place. Now, the pic in the slideshow is the aftermath of the resetting. If you're curious as to what it looked like before, feel free to click the arrow. Don't be scared. It just looks weird. But it hurt like a son of a gun. Needless to say, typing on the keyboard is somewhat of a challenge. My wife and mother-in-law think I should stop playing basketball, to which I laugh and laugh and laugh. See you on the court! #basktball #injury #thumb #dislocation #writing

I don't know if I believe in fate, but I know I don't believe in coincidences. I started my next semester for my graduate degree in Interactive Media and one of my classes is about Community Management. I'm also having multiple conversations about living and working on-line, working in a community-based ideal with certain projects and yes, I'm being vague for a good reason about thee conversations. My other class is more a production class, but the project I just worked on and will soon become my capstone project is a base in building a community. Community. People. It's always about people. People you meet, people you talk to, people you have late-night discussion about. People make this storytelling thing go round. If you focus on people, you will find that your goals are more attainable than you realize. At least, I'm starting to believe that. Unless you're a jerk who only talks about themselves and doesn't bother to listen in a conversation, rather waits for a pause to regale everyone with your various deeds. If you're one of those people, well, then...I'm sorry. You're missing out on some great stuff. #community #filmmaking #storytelling #indiefilm #writing

There's a double edged sword to being ambitious within the indie film world (any industry for that matter). We develop a mindset of "Get my shit done" and you really need to in order to in fact, get your shit done. No one cares about your story unless you tell them how much you care about it. So we constantly talk about ourselves and our work, even if its our least favorite topic. (That's my tragic flaw) The other side of that ambition is that you rarely succeed in championing the community side of indie filmmaking. Even though we're the driving force to get our shit done, we cannot do it alone. We need each other. We need to support each other. We need to prop up one another. We need to help each other. Community is a major part of indie film. I met Jen Prince at a now defunct film festival in Nashville too many years ago to remember because I'd like to forget how old I am. She is a fantastic producer who gets shit done and her new movie is ready for its close-up. Check out the trailer for the movie "Quality Problems" below. Hit up the Seed and Spark page. See why everyone involved with the production is working so hard to get their story seen. Donate. Share. Tell your friends. Whatever it is you want to do, do it. Help get their shit done and one day when you've got your story to tell, someone will do the same for you. Kick ass, Jen! Quality Problems Seed and Spark Page Quality Problems website #indiefilm #QualityProblems #filmmaking

Accountability is not a bad word. Sure, when you say it like: "I'm holding you accountable!" then I guess it could construed that you did something wrong. But when talking about accountability, I try not to use it with a negative connotation. Especially when I talk about it before it actually happens. Before a production begins, there's a level of expectation that I have for different people on the cast and crew and it's the same expectations they have for themselves. Usually, we're all on the same page. If those expectations are not met, then I'm accountable as well as the people involved. Honestly, the director is accountable for everything on screen and all that is required to make everything on screen work. I talk with the cinematographer about the look of the movie. We both make ourselves accountable to make that vision happen. I meet with the cast about their characters and eventually, we all become accountable for the choices that we've made. The cinematographer works with his A.C., G&E team, the gaffers, and PAs to build an efficient team and they all hold themselves accountable if that doesn't happen. And while we all hold ourselves accountable, the producer makes sure we stick to it. They are tasked with getting the production to the finish line. (That's a broad idea because producers do so much, but that would take eight pages of what a producer does. A good producer is one you should keep.) Now, what I've described is the ideal production. Anyone involved in productions knows that this is very rarely the case. There's always one PA sitting on a crate checking their phone when they're supposed to be helping. There might be an actor who hasn't bothered to learn their lines. Even directors are guilty of not being focused. That's why accountability and expectations really only work when communication is clear. You must communicate before you begin production. You need to let people know what you expect and what they should expect. That way, when you walk up to that PA and explain that there Facebook feed is not that important right now, they know this already because of the conversation that was had before the production. Much like children, people will push the limits to see what they can get away with. If you've already communicated your desires, then holding people accountable no longer is a negative term, but rather a positive reinforcement of expectations. #accountability #production #expectations

Remember when trailers were not good? Not what we thought in 1980! Actually, I was 5 years old in 1980, so I probably didn't see this trailer then. Much, much later. Enjoy! #Fridaythe13th #movietrailers

I had a table read for some scenes from the Life Ends @ 30 script recently and I was asked why I wrote this story. My reason for writing it being that I was feeling many of the emotions when I turned 30 years old. The madcap comedy is more of an exaggeration, but the idea of being an adult when you're not quite ready to be an adult was present in my mind when writing. So why do you write anything? Move writers are introverts. Most. Not all. To an extent, I keep a lot of my emotions and feelings to myself. But I have to get them out somehow. Writing helps with that. Much of the stories, while my imagination may run wild, are rooted in what I'm feeling or thinking at the time. I'm not going to pretend that I'm searching my soul with everything I write. Some things I write because I think they're funny (Many of the sketches I write) or because I love historical adventure stories (Kiddo) or because I always feel things happen for a reason so what if that was a result of someone killing for my happiness (The Best of Intentions). I don't write because I can. I don't write because I want to. I write because I have to. #writing #storytelling

Do I raise money and wait until all the stars are aligned to create the best possible content I can? Or do I simply just create content and create as much as possible? I've been on both sides of the fence. I've had endless conversations with my friends about wanting to get something done and then weeks later have conversations with the same friends about wanting to get something down right. Can you do both? You can, but not alone. You need to assemble a team of people who have the same passion for content creation as you do, but also have different skills in the field of content creation. Pooling together five writers is only going to get you a lot of scripts. You need talented people in different facets of content creation to get your content. Sure, some of the elements can combine. Writer/Director. Editor/Animator. Writer/Actor. Actor/Social Media Expert. There are countless combinations that will work. But you can't do it alone. I know this for a fact. You do it alone and you'll create something you don't want to show anyone. But if you do get yourself a small group of like-minded, uber-passionate, highly-talented-at-different-things kinds of people. Then create as much as you can. Just a bunch of people who made a feature back in 2003. #create #content #writer #filmmaker

The consensus seems to be that 2016 sucked. Without going into detail, the general vibe I get on social media is that 2016 can't come to an end fast enough. And while I definitely understand many people's frustration and depression over this past year, I will not succumb to that thinking. I cannot. No one should. Just because the calendar turns the page doesn't mean life gets better. Last year, at this time, I made a decision to pursue a graduate degree. It was going to be a two year process. We have now hit the halfway point and I've never been more happy of my choice. It's been hard work, it's been long nights, it's been hectic weeks of writing, school work, day-job, kids, family, etc. It's been all of that and it's been worth it. I also made the choice to be a writer. Not a director. Not someone who was trying to be a filmmaker. A writer. I focused on writing, whatever it was. Blog posts, articles, scripts, books, short stories, etc. And I told myself that no matter what happened with my writing, no matter the success I found with it, I wouldn't leave school. Once I started school, I was going to finish it. Flash forward to this year and I'm having the same conversations with the same people about the same things. And in the past, I was always either coming away hopeful or depressed. (The nature of the creative mind, I suppose) But this year, I was neither. I was determined. I had made a decision last year and I was still on that path. Those same conversations did nothing to me. "He's starting to believe" - Morpheus, The Matrix What changed? It wasn't overnight. It wasn't some light in the sky epiphany moment. Gradually, I started to believe that the only person holding me back was me. My stupid lack of confidence in my abilities. My stupid belief that I wasn't worthy of the things I wanted. My stupid, stupidity about stupid things. "Daddy. You stupid." - Dexter Field (numerous times in 2016) I don't like giving unsolicited advice, but I'd like to offer this. Instead of doing resolutions, make choices. Come to decisions about what you want to do with your life and do it. Stop telling everyone what you want to do and just do it. Figure out why and what you want in this world and go for it. The only thing that stops you is you. Not your friends or your family and definitely not a year. It might be a hard look in the mirror. You might have to realize that your just playing a rigged game and if you want to get anywhere in your life, you might have to change the rules. Then go change them! "The future is what you make of it." - Doc Brown, Back to the Future III

My little boy turns 5 today! What?! It's an ice cream sundae kind of celebration today. Happy Birthday Dexter! #bithday #family #michaefield

SlideShare is a valuable tool in the world of information sharing, so why not do one myself. I think it's extremely useful in terms of presenting a resume in a different light. No matter how great your resume may be, it's still something people have to read. We're living in the visual age. Why shouldn't our resumes be visual experiences? There are countless examples of interactive resumes on-line. They're eye-catching and full of information. Creativity shouldn't be discounted in a job search or an employee. I was going to make one with my entire resume, but I wasn't liking how it was turning out. I didn't want to drop a slide show of 120 slides. I'd even get bored with that. So I tried to break it up. This SlideShare is focusing on some of my writing. Enjoy! #SlideShare #resume #writer #michaelfield

In this day and age of personal brands, we're all franchises. I tweeted that about 5 minutes ago. All this talk of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and every other franchise being extended, rebooted, re-imagined, expounded upon, one sits back and wonders are there really any new, original stories? No. There's not. All stories have been told. What's original is how you tell the story. And even then, some people are unoriginal and they'll retell other people's stories and try to pass it as their own. Novelists create series of books with one character. Comics, by their nature, are franchise makers. And now, we are in the franchise business. Star Wars: A New Hope was a brand. The rest is the franchise. Toy Story was a brand. Pixar is the franchise. Michael Field is the brand. What's his franchise? This world is all about the outer-self. What you put out or don't put out on social media speaks about your brand. Your franchise potential. It doesn't mean whether your sincere or not. Most people post updates and comments for their own mental and emotional health. We are the greatest at lying when it's to ourselves. Everything you post. Everything you don't post. Comments, non-comments, interactions on social sites, indifference on social sites - It all goes to your brand. And as you build that brand, the next logical step is a franchise. Your brand is your image; your legacy a franchise. I'd rather take control of it then allow it to shape itself. #branding #marketing #brand #franchise

For my final project in my graduate class of Advanced Multimedia Tech, I had to do a video with had an advanced 3D element. This class is designed to incorporate the use of effects from After Effects in helping to propel your story along. Around this same time, my two daughters have been begging me to do a video with them. So I killed two birds with one stone and we did a music video. It was fun. Editing was not as much fun, but it was not a terrible experience. The girls sang so fast, I had to speed up the background music to catch up. My oldest, Veronica, is hesitant on camera and I completely know the feeling. She wants to do it, but she's too busy thinking about how it will look, what people will say, if she'll get the words right. She's definitely my daughter. My advice to her was simple. You have to be okay with getting it wrong. Nobody is perfect. Nothing in this world is perfect, so don't try to be perfect. Be terrible. Be bad. Make mistakes. It's the best way to learn. #mistakes #indiefilm #writing #music #kids