Happy New Year!

It’s probably because I’ve been a student for most of my life, but as the summer cools off, and the light changes, I get excited to be starting again.  Labor Day is my New Year’s Day.

Although this industry is a little less predictable than an academic calendar, it is exciting to be in a creative mode.  Last year was about getting the movie done.  Don’t get me wrong, being in pre-production and especially in-production and then on-set is extremely exciting.  I have found I love the schedule of it, the problem solving, the controlled frenzy of working with dozens of people that you may or may not even know.  But these next few months are for reading, researching, writing, absorbing, collaborating.  It’s time for the next projects to roll out.  It’s time to take what I learned in the last year and see if we can do even better.  It’s time to find a new challenge!

Luckily one of the things I learned last year was that my UPM from Driving By Braille, Colleen Kelly, and I are alter-egos.  Separately we have great producerial skills, but together the synergy results in SUPER producerial skills.  Our new partnership lead to this year’s challenge, called “Reality Television”.  A few months ago Reality wasn’t even on my radar as a producer.  I watch a few shows but had never thought of making one.  That was until a wonderfully creative woman, April Glover, thought that Colleen (and hence, I) might be a good fit for producing her concept.  This was already after a few months of working with April to develop a feature-film idea of hers.  So, Colleen and I have been working to get a reality show off the ground.  And April’s movie.  And urging to get Richard to finish the script for the next feature, Parallel (A tech-geek cop goes up against a madman who is using a new technology to turn innocent victims into extensions of his own mind).  And, just recently, a new short film has snuck itself into our consciousness and we are outlining it now.  It is thrilling to have tons of ideas to be developing and getting ready for pre-production.

I’m not too sure what this year’s plan/resolution is.  It seems like it’s to go a little crazy – new types of projects, new collaborations, a new school and schedule for our daughter, and even a new exercise routine.  Yet, like any New Year’s Celebration I have to think about “Auld Lang Sine” and remember how I’ve gotten to this place and who has gotten me here – to thank my friends, colleagues and family for their support…especially as I head off the deep end.