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#4thofjuly #IndependenceDay

Editor's Note: I wrote this last week for my Project Planning class, for which I'm taking as I earn a Master's Degree in Interactive Media. Thought I'd share. I've always been a procrastinator. This goes way back to elementary school. I specifically remember my very first time. For sixth grade, I had Mr. Maguire. He was a big, burly man who wore a big mustache and loved jokes. He was an army veteran who fought in The Korean Conflict and when he spoke about how he left the army, he would always say that he got injured. "How'd you get injured, Mr. Maguire?" "I fell on my knee." "Which one?" "Not my left knee or my right knee, but my heinie." Oh yeah, sixth graders loved that joke. Mr. Maguire assigned us a U.S. State to cover. We had to do a 4-5 page report on the state. I had Alaska and I did nothing for a month. The night before came around and I panicked. Suddenly, I'm scrambling. "Why'd I wait so long?!" was repeated often. I wrote the report for most of the night. Handed it in on-time and then began to worry about it until I was handed the report back to me the following week. A+ That A+ gave me the permission to procrastinate for the rest of my life. I was proud of that grade, because I pulled it out of nowhere. Every time I had an assignment in Middle School or High School, even college - I'd procrastinate and think back to that report on Alaska. It was a badge of honor. That grade also was an indication of the type of student I turned out to be: The Straight-A kind. I became a perfectionist, not because of my parents lording over me, making sure I did well in everything. Honestly, a lot of the work felt easy. The math was easy. The facts were easy. But also, I was able to understand exactly what the teachers were looking for and satisfy their needs. This week's reading brought to light the two reasons why I procrastinated: 1. I was bored with the material, because once I knew it, I stupidly wanted to move on. 2. I was afraid of failure. I didn't want my perfect grades to be ruined. It was only after school, when I woke up and realized that procrastinating wasn't a good thing. (I'm such a great student, that it took me years to figure this out. Real slick.) Putting together productions for short films and web series, you have to plan ahead. It's imperative. So I was able to break the history of procrastination with organization and pre-production skills. I probably could've continued my procrastinating ways, but I cared too much about the final product to let that happen. And I didn't allow my perfectionist ways to intercede in my productions. The arts are so subjective that you'll never make everyone love your story. Ever. No matter how universally heralded it may become, someone won't like it. Once I understood that, I was able to rid myself of procrastination. It may crop up every now and then, but I recognize it just as fast and I move on and get the work done. Side Note: For all those perfectionists out there, I find that having children was also a great way to break my ways of making sure everything was perfect. Maybe it's just my kids, but it's a losing battle when it comes to trying to be perfect. I just try to keep up with those little human tornadoes. #procrastination #writing #filmmaking #indiefilm #nutmeginstitute #gradschool

Awhile back I wrote a piece about the struggle to create content versus creating good content. The urge to create content never goes away for me. I do have other things I'm focusing on right now with grad school, a new job search and something I can't talk about right now. (Teaser!) But lately, I keep thinking about shooting something...anything. I just keep hearing the opening line from "Can't Fight This Feeling" from REO Speedwagon in my head. It never fades. I'm writing, but not enough. And even when I'm writing, that doesn't quell the desire to get behind the lens and tell a story. It's a bit different this time around. It''s not about getting a reel together. It's not about submitting to festivals. I just want to tell a story. I just want to create good content. That's it. Ideally, I'd like to shoot something once a month or once every two months. Churning out short film after short film. That should quench that thirst. Yeah. That'll do it. Here's the REO Speedwagon music video: Pretty sure that's Tony Sudol on piano. (inside joke) #filmmaking #shortfilm #contentcreation #writing

Cue the "Boys are Back in Town" by Thin Lizzy, please. Movie Night is coming to my house. My good friend and I, while texting about how much we enjoyed The Nice Guys - one of my favorite movies from last year, each remarked a really good movie night would be Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Nice Guys, both movies written and directed by Shane Black. And it's on! Tonight! Movie night! And I may just live tweet it. Maybe. Probably. It's happening. I encourage you to check these movies out, if you haven't experience them already.

Friends, family and self-help gurus will extoll the virtues of having confidence, but you can't make someone have it. You can't teach it. You can't learn it. You can't develop it as a skill. It starts with belief. Belief in your choices, in your abilities, in your talents, in yourself and who you are, what you love, what your passionate about. Only then can your confidence grow. Then what happens? You share everything that makes you believe in yourself and someone responds in a way that's not what you expected. They make a joke. They criticize. They're not impressed. They simply just don't support you. And all that confidence you built up comes crashing down with ease. If you've already figured it all out already, I know. This doesn't happen to you. You shrug of any direct or indirect attack at your confidence. You've found success. For everyone else, it's a struggle. It's hard. I fight it every day. Keep on keeping on. Even though confidence is so fragile, once you master it, it hardens like a rock and nothing will break it or so I'm told. #confidence #selfhelp #wrtiting #filmmaking

This will probably make me feel old and make you think I'm old, but remember when songs and movies were thought of in the same breath? When you can listen to a song on the radio and remember the movie it either premiered in or was a big part. The Breakfast Club - "Don't You (Forget About Me)" Top Gun - "Danger Zone" St. Elmo's Fire - "Man in Motion (St. Elmo's Fire)" Rocky III - "Eye of the Tiger" Footloose - "Footloose" (Duh!) The list is long. (I know my wife is yelling about "Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing with now) And yes, there are still movies today that have songs associated with them. I'm not disputing that. What I'm merely suggesting is there seems to be a lack iconic songs in movies occurring today. 10, 20, 30 years ago - songs and movies were equal partners. Now, it's waned. Could be cyclical. Could be an adaptation to the way people get their music. Perhaps musicians don't need the power of movies anymore to help catapult their careers. They have YouTube, Vimeo, etc. Maybe I'm just old. #music #soundtracks #movies #RealGenius #Footloose #Rocky #TheBreakfastClub #StElmosFire #TopGun

The rules are changing. Technology is breaking down how it used to be and leaving an empty space which very few people are willing to fill. Make a movie and get it into film festivals. That was the goal in 1991. But that game was rigged and it's even worse now. The best part is that you don't need it. You can find an audience on-line. You can connect with fans over social media. You can build your community of followers without the guise of dropping $1000 in festival submission fees per project. This is a business. Every project you start is a small company. When you make a feature, you should be creating a small LLC for that feature. Your company is My Awesome Movie and your product is that awesome movie. We need to stop doing it the old way. We need to stop doing it "the way it's always been done." Screw that thinking! The market is out there for us. Go get it. We're starting a business. We need to act like it. We have the tools. We have the talent. (No, we're not the Ghostbusters) We have the access. We have the technology to make it happen. #technology #indiefilm #webseries #writing #filmmaking #storytelling #Ghostbusters

Would it be fair to say that the indie film world or maybe this whole industry is based upon hope? Potential? Wishful thinking? Is the major commodity that's being traded amongst storytellers the idea of what project they could possibly be working on? I get it. This is how the business works. When we realize we want to tell stories, we naively go into it thinking: Just give me a chance and someone will see the talent. We all know the end of that story. Even the most talented get overlook, so we persevere. We keep at it. We struggle until opportunity and luck meet. And that way works. I wanted it to work for me. But is it the most efficient way to get it done? Isn't there a better way to do this? This is a business. We need to start acting like it. Every project you make, you're starting small business. Your product is the content. She doesn't sell seashells by the seashore in hopes to get to sell more seashells. She sells them to make money to help her sell more seashells. (Say that three times fast!) Note: Why the hell is she selling seashells by the seashore? Wouldn't the seashore already be loaded with seashells for people to pick up on their own for free? She should go inland where seashells are scarce. Or open up an Etsy account. We make content, we want to find the best place to sell it. Stop making content in hopes it'll get people to notice you. Make content that you can sell. Make content that you can market. I'm not saying to make content that goes against your style, but if you like to make black and white silent horror films, you have a niche audience. Find them. Promote to them. Sell to them. We always hear: Tell the stories you want to hear. Maybe it's time we tell stories that we want to sell, not the stories we want someone to like and then maybe give us a chance to make more. #indiefilm #writing #content #etsy #SheSellsSeaShells #filmmaking #storytelling

What happened to the rom-com? Where'd they all go? I did a quick, unofficial Google search for romantic comedies and the closest one I found listed was Silver Linings Playbook. While I enjoyed that movie, it's not a romantic comedy. It has elements, but it's not a rom-com. The next closest was Crazy, Stupid Love, which I like quite a bit. But again. Not a romantic comedy. The Proposal. Ok, not bad. That works. After that was Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Now, I wasn't a biggest fan of that movie and while yes, technically, it's a rom-com, I also think it delves into a straight-comedy at times. But that's when I started to think about comedies that have rom-com elements, but are not in that genre. I watched Dirty Grandpa the other day. And it was a raunchy sex comedy that somehow attempted to squeeze in a rom-com element, as if to give it heart. That seems like a trend. Elements of rom-coms being placed into movies for heart. And this leads to the demise of the rom-com as a genre. While You Were Sleeping, Sweet Home Alabama, Just Friends, Sleepless in Seattle, Notting Hill, Dan in Real Life, The Wedding Singer, 13 Going on 30, etc. - Where have these movies gone? They'll be back. It's all cyclical. Just like how soon we'll be seeing the reprise of slasher Horror movies, which went into hiding after the late 90s. #90s #romcoms #romanticcomedy #movies

For me, it's a toss-up between "Kingsman" and "Mad Max: Fury Road". Those two stand out. Although, I do like "John Wick" quite a bit. Sure, I can toss out "Edge of Tomorrow" or "Live. Die. Repeat.", but that's part sci-fi as well, so I'm hesitant to choose it. Plus, I like the top two choices more. I also thought about "The Nice Guys" but that's not action. It's mystery and noir with action elements. I do like "Pacific Rim" as well and while it's dumped on constantly, the final 10 minute action scene in "The Lone Ranger" is pretty darn good. Remember. We're going back to 2012 only. So what am I forgetting? And...go! #Kingsman #MadMaxFuryRoad #actionmovies

I'm antsy because I'm not creating content. I'm writing (not enough), which quells it slightly. But I'm doing no content creating and that's annoying me. I'm even entertaining the idea of doing a fake trailer for "Sous Chef", the Tina Fey-American Express commercial joke that she pitches as a TV show. That's how bad the drought is. I'm resorting to these tactics. And now my children are getting into the act. My 10-year-old (seen to the left) told me on Sunday: "I want to be in a YouTube show." So clearly I'm creating a legacy of content creation or maybe it's all the YouTube videos she watches. Yes, the younger they are, the more they care less about where to find their content. They want it now. They want it on any device. And I need to start creating it. #contentcreation #writing #video

It's Jackie Robinson's number when he came to the major leagues. It's the answer to question: What is the meaning of life? ​It's Fox Mulder's apartment number. And now, it's my age. Happy Birthday to me. #May5th #CincoDeMayo #42 #XFiles #FoxMulder #HitchhikersGuidetotheGalaxy #JackieRobinson