Musings on Self-Prophecy....

Almost five years ago I was interviewing for a job at a facility for the disabled. Sitting across from me was a man I would come to respect, admire, befriend, and loathe in equal portions in the years to come. But in one moment he became one of my favorite interviewers of all time. And he did it by asking one question:

What would you like to be doing in five years?

Having family members in HR gives you baggage when it comes to your answers in interviews. I had been coached, instructed, and outright ordered not to say too much about my creative ambitions. I had no real background or experience at that time, and one member of my HR mafia had told me that talking about myself was verboden. It was all about what the company needed. I needed to focus on that at all costs.

But, seeing as I already had a bad temp job to go back to in an hour... I figured what the hell.

So I told this man that I was going to be a writer. In five years I would be making a living – if not a profit – by my pen. I believed it. And so did he. I got the job.

It took me three years to get over what I had to go through at that facility. But as the past slips further and further behind me, I can put things – and why they happened – increasingly into perspective. I may not have been able to admit it when I walked out the facility’s doors for the last time, but my time there made me what I am today. It gave me calouses I didn't have, understanding I couldn't have seen otherwise... and a determination to make that one statement true.

I didn’t realize how deep that determination went until I updated my resume (Me go through another round of job searching? How shocking....) and realized it had been almost five years since that wonderful little interview.

Life isn’t perfect. I’m certainly not raking in truckloads of cash I envisioned, and my fiction career has taken a backseat while I’ve built up a client list. But I’ve found a way to write things and have people pay me for the privilege.

It’s been nearly five years and I am a writer. That’s something that would have blown the mind of the girl sitting in that interview. But I honestly believe that the road to get here started because she wasn’t afraid to answer that one good question.




.

And Now, A Word From Our Co-Producer

Howdy all. Your co-producer Leigh here, in her first 'Dark of Moon' related blog post.

Now, despite having experience with independent shoots before, I have to say things are somewhat different from the co-producer's chair. The decisions are strangely personal, and knowing what our DP, Ass-Prod, and Writer/Co-Producer/Creator o' Worlds think has become critical. Unlike some of my earlier projects, everyone at the top is on the same wavelength and coming up with the same conclusions. And man oh man... is that ever a good feeling!

But like any new experience, I've been learning things about the process of film-making as we go forward. And I thought I might share a few things I've learned so far, just during the first round of auditions for Dark of Moon:

* SOMETIMES IT'S JUST NOT YOUR DAY - We've seen dozens of talented and ambitious actors audition for us. Actors with stellar resumes and true, honest skills. But if they can't make us see them playing one of the characters, we have to wince and move forward. We've already start thinking of how we could write several people into a project further down the line... but that's not helping things right now.

* THE AMOUNT OF TALENT IN 'NEO' IS OBSCENE - Don't get me wrong. We had more than a few 'American Idol' moments during the audition. (Our DP Noelle had to physically restrain herself from screaming 'Next!' once or twice.) But, overall, we have some damn talented people up here. I fully expect to be as blown away during our second round of auditions as I was during our first.

* LOOKING AT AN ACTOR'S AUDITION FOOTAGE IS CRUCIAL - People we thought were spot-on, can suddenly seem just a little off. And actors who we were less than impressive start looking like George Clooney. The suave can look goofy and the drama queens can come across as subdued. And at the end of the day, it's how a person looks on film that counts.

* I SHOULD NOT BE GIVEN BOOZE OF ANY KIND WHILE REVIEWING BAD AUDITION FOOTAGE - Let's just leave it at that.

- Leigh, Production Goddess

Cross Posted To the Official 'Dark of Moon' movie blog

Some thoughts on Fame and Glory via the Internet

In getting at least three major projects off the ground, and trying to keep four regular clients happy while I do so, I've been doing alot of thinking about promoting. Especially how to promote using the internet.

Like many things in life, internet success is simple but not easy. I’ve read a dozen or so articles about the most used formula for internet success. Many have used it. Quite frankly, anyone can duplicate it.

1) Find something you love. That is, something you love to the point of mental illness.

2) Create a vehicle (blog, webpage, podcast, etc) where you can express this love.

3) Set up a schedule as to when you will post updates.

4) Follow it religiously, making sure each new post/page/episode is the best it can be.

5) Talk to people who love what you love, and mention the work you're doing through your vehicle when appropriate.

6) Wait 18 – 24 months.

Julie Powell of “Julie and Julia” fame used that formula. So do my favorite movie sites Spill.com and Rotten Tomatoes. When Brunching Shuttlecocks stopped doing it, it stopped being one of the most popular sites in the world.

That’s another thing about the internet. You can’t stop when you’re tired, or hope the momentum you need will eventually come. There’s no such thing as resting on your laurels.

It’s easy to blame your readers when an internet venture stalls or outright crashes. (And trust me, I've seen more than one mod do just that...) But it’s how consistently YOU produce YOUR content that will make or break you.

And that's one thing the internet has in common with 'real world' ventures.

It doesn’t matter how cool the concept is. If it only stays a concept, it has failed.

That’s something Potential Social Media Moguls - and absentminded bloggers like Yours Truly - need to keep in mind.

Once more with feeling...

Since it seems there needs to be something here to adequetely bring my page back from the dead, let me just say that neither Blogger nor my computer seems to like me very much at this particular moment.