A Ceiling Where Ideas Live
This is Finish Your Monsters, a weekly blog/newsletter/blogletter about the creative process. I'm sharing adventures in art and life as well as setting CLIFFHANGER goals for myself, so--
--DID I MAKE MY GOAL?
Last week, I committed to finishing my short horror film, The Demon's Commentary. And depending on your definition of "finish", I totally did. The great sound designer/director/editor Ben Burtt has said in interviews that "films are not released, they escape." You can tweak them endlessly until some external force makes you stop adjusting the exact audio level of the third beast growl.
For me, the third beast growl event horizon is this Thursday the 21st. I made this short as part of an accountability group where everyone agrees to make a short horror film in 2 months, then celebrates with a private screening of all the completed films. So by Thursday, I must stop fussing.
But the film is technically done. It's edited, all the music, dialogue, and sound effects are in. The credits are designed AND spell-checked. The color correction is done (until I change it again after I finish writing the blog.)
All of which is a great relief. Editing means a long time looking at raw footage you're pretty sure will work once you get all the other elements right. Watching a half-done film is like eating a dish with half the ingredients missing and promising yourself it will taste good when you add sauce, cheese, and a plate so you're not eating it off the floor.
Anyway, this project has been great fun, all of my collaborators have been fantastic, and I can't wait to share The Demon's Commentary with the wider world!
ADVENTURES OF THE WEEK--
Besides working on the short film, I also had a lot of podcast prep and recording, a hair cut (I like to think of my chats with the stylist as a podcast we choose not to record), and a lot of work on the feature film. Having finished the pitch deck for the feature film last week, I sent out several very scary emails.
It was also the anniversary of my wife and I arriving in Los Angeles. We left Minneapolis in our little Toyota Yaris on March 14th and arrived in our little LA apartment on March 17th.
That was ten years ago. I can't even type it without saying it again in all caps. TEN YEARS.
On these kinds of anniversaries, I know I need to get ahead of myself to focus on the positives rather than obsessing on the things I haven't done yet and, you know, the reality of aging. (I await a ballot initiative where I can vote to stop aging.)
In the last ten years, I've written for a television show that was sponsored by frozen pizza (an animated show called TIGTONE), wrote for a mobile video game that flew me to Vienna for story conferences, started ForceCenter Podcast with my partners Ken and Jennifer (a Star Wars discussion podcast/youtube show that focuses on ideas and empathy), co-hosted multiple variety and storytelling shows, wrote five feature films and five TV pilots that I pitched all over town, and made several short films. And, as I keep reminding myself, lived through a traumatic and time-warping pandemic. I write it all out to convince myself I've kept busy.
I've also--just as a human--deeply loved living in Los Angeles. It's a strange sprawling place where the membrane between fantasy and reality is ridiculously thin. From my front door, I can walk to the fantastic in multiple directions. In about 25 minutes, I can be sitting down for a movie at Grauman's Theater or be in Griffith Park being menaced by a coyote. Options.
So I wanted to be sure to CELEBRATE my life here as a human and an artist-type. Sara and I walked through Hollywood stopping at a couple of our favorite places--Amoeba Records and Larry Edmunds bookstore--and sitting down for a cocktail in the gorgeous lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel. It was also a priority for me to make time for ideas.
A lesson I've learned repeatedly: Creating always makes me feel better. Active, engaged, leaning toward life not away from it.
So after we took our selfies and reflected a bit, we both took 15 minutes to physically write down some ideas in a notebook. Out of all the ideas I have simmering, my mind raced directly into the arms of...one I didn't like.
It's a short film idea. I knew the basic premise, the opening image, several lines of dialogue. But it had no shape. No point. Why did my mind keep coming back to it even though I was concerned it was just a one joke idea better shared at a party than fleshed out with hours of labor?
I stared at the ceiling of the lobby and let my mind wander. I put myself in the shoes of the main character and realized what they were upset about. And it all clicked. The WHY of the story. The central idea of it. And everything fell into place--a beginning, a middle, an end, and most importantly, what larger emotion was bubbling under the surface of the joke, animating it.
Creators are all very different and for some people, being analytical about the WHY does not work. But for me, it's the key.
So thanks Los Angeles anniversary, for the 15 minutes of peace, clarity, and unlocking the WHY.
MY GOAL FOR THE WEEK--
It's time for a very honest week! My wife's birthday is coming up and we're headed out of town for a nice mini-vacation with Sara's mom. So goal-wise this is a week for nibbling not chomping. (Clearly, I shouldn't write this blog when I'm hungry.) So for my goal this week I'm jamming on my producer hat. I'm going to make a list of targeted tasks I need to complete for the feature film I'm working on this year. There's the show and the business, and goal-wise it's a business week for me!
YOUR GOAL FOR THE WEEK--
What's your goal? Is it creative? Do you need to tidy? Write a sonnet? Do your laundry while writing a sonnet? Feel free to reach out to me on social media or respond directly to the email version of the blog and let me know what projects you’re working on this week!
LIGHT PLUGS--
THE NARRATOR! All members of my Patreon now have exclusive months-early access to my experimental comedy film--THE NARRATOR starring the great Phil LaMarr. If you're interested, you can check out the Patreon here. Thanks for the kind words from those who've watched it!
You can also check out Strange Path t-shirts and wall art on Threadless. And, of course, multiple comedy albums and cosmic horror on Bandcamp. Thank you for the kind support!
A LITTLE SKETCH--
This week's sketch is a celebration of ideas. Here's a lightbulb getting an idea because it seems fair they should get them as well as being a cartoon representation of others' inspiration. I hope you all get and give many lightbulbs this week. See you in the FUTURE TIME called next Tuesday!
