Still thinking about the end to a gorgeous day. It truly was gorgeous outside and it's a gift when you even get to experience it for an instant. A few circumstances made my day complete. First, I'm working on five projects from my company and all seemed to have a positive move forward within a 24 hour period. Is that luck? Nope, this took months and years of patience, learning from experience and some fantastic teamwork. My goal at this stage is to be writing and directing full-time by 2016--with a commitment to continue my role as an educator/mentor as well. What was really cool is that after 15 years in the business, now is the time to have eagle-eye focus on what your strengths are. When it comes to writing, I have good original ideas, but when it comes to screenplays, I quite enjoy writing adaptations. For Spring 2016 I am planning to be in production on a microbudget feature. It takes discipline to film on $75,000 budget, but if you start out with a character-driven script in essentially one location on a 15 day shoot, it is quite possible. My friends are doing it and now I'm joining the club. I'm excited. Thrilled even moreso since I recently gobbled up a book that was sent to my mailbox by a contact from a documentary I filmed last year. After the first few pages, I knew it was the perfect vehicle for a 90-minute drama with some incredible insights. I spoke with the author a few hours ago and she's quite excited. We're workig on the contract as early as next week. What makes this dream real is that I am surrounded by folks who want to help. That's gold. That's the gold that gave me the wings for my first documentary feature all of those years ago. I can't wait to start writing and I'm considering enrolling in a workshop to keep me on schedule and accountable for my self-imposed deadlines. Writing a new script takes about three hours a day for me, and when the characters are speaking to you it's tough to take a break. I can't wait. I'm cleaning off my desk by Monday. The work starts next Tuesday. Happy times.
Keep your eye on the prize!