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2016! The year you do what? The year I do...what? Nobody knows. I'll reference an old blog post from my old blog here: Goals, Not Reolutions . I wrote this at the start of 2013. The idea still remains the same. Resolutions are made to never be completed. But this post is to look back on my year of 2015. What did I accomplish and what I was trying to accomplish and what I accomplished but hoped never would have to fathom accomplishing. The last one is because I turned 40 in May of 2015. Yikes. 40! My parents are old. In January 2015, I directed a short I wrote called: The Trans-Candidate. A comedy about inter-office politics during a campaign for office of state senate. It hasn't been released yet, but the trailer is viewable here: I entered the short in a myriad of festivals and obtained a myriad of rejections. I'm still entering it. But we did get into the ITV Fest which was a nice weekend. This was September 2015. So that's where TC has taken me and the people involved. Speaking of these people involved, we're all teaming up for a new project. Technially it started in 2015, but it's probably more of a 2016 thing. And that's Life Ends @ 30 , a web series about growing up and doing it badly. (I just made that up.) But it's really about that. We've started a crowd-funding campaign and we'll be shooting promos for the series this month. What else happened in 2015? A script I wrote, Kiddo, became a quarterfinalist in the 2015 Nicholl Fellowship. That was a big deal, to me, at least. I love Kiddo. I love the story and its potential, but it's big budget and it's not something I can do on my own. I wrote it to see it done by others. I'm holding out hope that one day, it'll be on screen somewhere. Being a quarterfinalist furthered that feeling. Check out an excerpt on the script page of the website here . I've also kept writing. A few short stories. Some web series episodes, one about a swimming pool possessed with the spirit of a dead pool boy. I'm not done with that one, I'm just not sure where to go with it. I've also started a new book...novella...short story kind of thing. I never really start a new writing project with an idea of how long it will take to tell the story. Whatever the length is the length. I have no expectations of 2016. I know what I'd like to do. I know what I'd like to have happen. If I can work to get to those goals, than that'll be great. If not, and I tried my best, than I'm okay with that, too. #2016 #2015 #HappyNewYear #writing #indiefilm

New project! New projec So check it out and make sure to "like" the Facebook and follow along on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr Grindr, etc. And take a look at the other players in the game. All good people, who were also behind "The Trans-Candidate." Life Ends @ 30 Official Web Site Facebook Page Twitter Tumblr Instagram #webseries #indiefilm #writing #comedy

When you start rummaging through boxes in the basement, you know you’re going to find memories. You’re just not sure what kind of memories. Mostly good ones, I suppose. The photo you see (recently instagrammed by yours truly) is a stack of HI-8 tapes with various, as they call it today, forms of content that I was part of back in the 90s. Remember the 90s. It seems so long ago and when I look at the calendar, it feels even longer. I have different memories from all those Hi-8 tapes and they’re all enjoyable. Just a bunch of naïve 20-somethings thinking they were the next coming of Kevin Smith or Richard Linklater. And if you’ve seen any of the content on those tapes, you’d soon realize that they were not. No. You can’t watch it. Who could forget “Grievances Foregone”, the most pretentious title ever put to a Hi-8 tape since the sequel “Retribution” was concocted and subsequently attempted. I’m a little hazy if we even finished “Retribution” or if that was the sequel or first movie. I don’t have the emotional strength to watch it and find out. No. You can’t watch it. The rest of the titles are skit shows we used to do. Just quick comedic bits that, as I think back are probably mildly offensive on many levels. Oh, to be young. You can’t ever go back and sometimes your old content reminds you just how far (hopefully) you have come. For a while, amongst our friends, we were known for the Santa skit. Thankfully, that subsided. I hope. No. You can’t watch it. We had fun. We learned some things. No matter the size or the professional level of the production, if you’re genuine in your intent you’ll always grow as an artist because of it. I should also note that “Kissery” was written and directed by my friend, Keith Lynn. We all loved Misery and we knew someone that loved the bad Kiss. Put your hands together and you got that fourth tape down from the top. No. You can’t watch it. (You saw that ending coming, didn’t you?) #90s #filmmaking #video #Hi8 #indiefilm

You need to adapt. Change. Rethink the things you do in this life. Always. You can’t allow yourself to become complacent. I’ve often said that when I feel stuck or in a rut, it’s due to the fact that I’ve become content with my life. And while the sentiment behind that statement is true, the choice of the word ‘content’ was wrong in my usage. I am content. Complacency should never be associated with being content. Being content is a good thing. To paraphrase Jane O’Connor the writer of the popular children’s books Fancy Nancy: “Complacency is a fancy word for lazy.” And I’ve become complacent in my professional life. Writing. Directing. Filmmaker. Producer. What exactly am I? In my situation, I don’t have the luxury of being a full-time creative. It’s a struggle to balance making a living and trying to make a living as a creative. And while this forces me to become someone who tosses out slashes between titles, (i.e. writer/director/producer), it also spreads my energy and time a little too thin. I have countless files on my computer that are not fully complete. Scripts that end during different acts. Episodic web series that end after the first 3 or 4 episodes. I have multiple features that are unfinished, so much so that I have a folder marked: Features - Unfinished. I write treatments without endings. I have books with only five chapters. Right now, I’ve got one project that is in an early, early stage of development. I’m excited about it. I’m optimistic that it will get going and hopefully create an opportunity for all involved to be part of something fun and mildly profitable in the sense of getting us to a next project. I have another possible pitch idea that I think is too good to be ignored. Unfortunately, it requires a lot of moving parts that are out of my control. And I’m writing. Always writing. And that’s where this comes to a head. I want to always be writing. I want to, possibly, only be writing. Right now. The only thing I can carve out time and energy for is writing. Writing. Writing. Writing. I like directing. I like bringing any written word to the screen. But I’m not a director. I’m a writer who directs at times. I’m not a producer. I’m just a writer who spends his own money to direct. This new website is geared towards that. Up on the Roof is around at times and you’ll see it, but there’s a reason the website is my name. What once was a production company started by 5 guys became an LLC run by one writer. And with the LLC taking a back seat. It’s just me. The Writer…which is fancy for Michael Field. #Writer #FancyNancy #Writing #MichaelField

My wife and I, channeling our über geekdom, have been watching The X-Files TV show from start to finish leading up to the return of the show this coming January. We’re currently on Season 4, Episode 11 “El Mundo Gira” or the Chupacabra episode as some of you may know. With all due respect to Star Wars: Episode VII , The X-Files return is my most anticipated moment in the coming months. Most people I talk to already know this. And it came up about a short I had written many years ago called A Pickle. It’s the first thing I’ve written that was optioned by someone else to direct, which of course was uncharted territory for me. But I’m happy to just be the writer sometimes. In fact, most of the time. Being in the director’s chair has allowed me to appreciate just what it takes to transform the written word into moving images on screen. Here are the details. Karen Nielsen of Blue Finn Productions optioned the script and was the director on the short. The movie was shot in Canada, I believe around the Vancouver area. It went on to be an official selection in 14 film festivals across the country and it won a few festival awards. Not bad, right? I’m completely taking zero credit for any of that. I mean, yes, I wrote the script, but the short could’ve just as easily been disastrous with the same pages and a different crew. It takes a talented village to tell a good story and Karen and her crew did that. Why bring up The X-Files ? Well, look at the poster. You’re looking at Cigarette Smoking Man ( William B. Davis ) as one of the actors in the short. Pretty cool. This isn’t me being an unprofessional douche. It’s me taking a step back and enjoying the fact that an actor that’s part of one my favorite all-time shows on television is also in a short, saying dialogue that I wrote. It’s just something I think is pretty cool. Thought I’d share. Check out the trailer below: #shortfilm #williambdavis #karennielsen #writing #XFiles

Why change the website up? What I had before wasn't really a web site. It was a blog disguised as a web site. It served me well. I guess. I never really got feedback either way on it. But it was a useful tool in getting some of my content out there. But I wanted more. I wanted a site. I also didn't want to pay someone to monitor posts and updates, when it's really easy for me to do it. I tried several times, unsuccessfully, to get a site up through Wordpress. Unfortunately, I'm really dumb. And that site is not the most user-friendliest of places. I'm sure it works well for many others, but when I started building this site on Wix.com, I knew this was what I wanted with Wordpress. Very easy. Very smooth transition from blog to site. I'm sure it helped that I already had content ready to go, so it wasn't like I was building this web site from scratch. That helped. Immensely. You'll also notice the lack of this: For those of you who don't know, that's the logo for my first production company, Up on the Roof productions, which became Up on the Roof LLC. The LLC is still around. But I'm trying to shift focus for my content and brand it with my name more than Up on the Roof. (Side Note: Up on the Roof productions was 5 of us and one day, if I can dig it up, I'll get that photo we took actually on my parent's roof. You know, because we were clever like that.) My best friend, Adrian, and myself were talking about life as a creative and he made a great point about always re-evaluating your progress. Always adapting. Always looking to hone your focus. This web site definitely part of that way of thinking. So here's the site. It's going to be a work in progress. I need to get those script posters made up. I also need to add a few more items. But for now, I think it's a nice move in the right direction. #website #MichaelField #rebranding #writing #filmmaking #indiefilm