A Tale of Art and Rage
This is Finish Your Monsters, a weekly 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?
Big picture, I’m working away on the post-production of our horror film, Dead Media. I’m editing the film in chronological order. Last week, I committed to the goal of editing up to minute 26.
And I did not make it! Hooray!
I say “hooray” because I knew it was a hubris-laden goal, but striving for it made me get more done than I would have otherwise. I edited up to minute 22.
I also had a great meeting with a potential partner on composing music for the film. I also couldn’t resist the urge to go back and tweak scenes I had already edited when I got new ideas. I might need to change the name of this blog from FINISH YOUR MONSTERS to SPEND LOTS OF QUALITY TIME WITH YOUR MONSTERS.
Back to the spirit of quick bursts of creativity: I’m still asking readers to send in a quick sketch! If you’re interested, here are the very minimal rules: The image can be anything you want. Try not to take more than 5 minutes. Use a pen, marker, or other permanent ink. Send me a jpg of your image at joseph at jokingenvelope dot com and let me know if you’re okay with me sharing it. Onward!
ADVENTURES OF THE WEEK--
Here’s a joke I’ve made before:
Trying to follow the advice my mother taught me—feed a fever, nap a rage.
This week, it wasn’t a joke, it was a legitimate strategy.
I did get lots done this week. I worked on the film. I recorded podcast episodes. I spent quality time with my wife, Sara. I got some great ideas for another screenplay. I contacted my reps in Congress multiple times.
But if I’m being honest, the main thing I did this week was writhe. I found myself distracted going on long internal monologues about the clear and present danger to American democracy.
I had some nice talks with Sara about it all, processing our feelings. But I struggled to contain myself. Here’s how our conversation went from my perspective:
Me: Would you mind talking about all the political horrors? I think it would help me calm down.
Sara: Sure, I think that’s a good idea.
Me: UNHINGE MY JAW AS FLAMES AND COSMIC BEAMS POUR OUT OF MY MAW LIKE A SCRAWNY NON-LIZARD GODZILLA.
The talks did help us both, but I felt bad that I still couldn’t manage the anger well.
Ultimately, two things helped me get a better handle on the anger so I could function, both as a human and a creative type.
One - I made a list of more proactive things to do and look into. I’ve mostly been using Resistbot to write to my reps, but I’m going to start making actual phone calls. I’m planning a livestream fundraiser through my podcast.
Two - On Sunday night, I went to a screening of the David Lynch film, Fire Walk With Me. It’s a film that had a huge impact on me when I first saw it in Minneapolis in 1992. Once at the St Anthony Main Theater right by the mighty Mississippi and once at the Mall of America only weeks after the mall opened. It felt very rebellious to see such an artsy film at the giant shiny new mall.
Initially, I wasn’t going to go to the movie on Sunday. I normally watch the Super Bowl. I enjoy the communal experience on social media. I like watching the commercials to get a snapshot of what advertisers think the American psyche is. Or what they want it to be. But my inner voice was hoarse from screaming at the American psyche all week so I decided to go to the film after all.
It was at the beautiful Egyptian Theater. It wasn’t sold out but the theater was very full. The film did NOT do well when it was released in 1992 so there might have been more people at this screening than the film’s entire original run at the Mall of America.
It was a great theatrical experience. A big dark room, enveloped by deep sound and crisp image. For a few hours, I disappeared in the haunting, heartbreaking world of the film.
Then I walked home on the dark, beautiful streets of Hollywood and pretended the football fans screaming and honking were, like me, just very excited about CINEMA.
The dreamy state opened up my mind. I got some new ideas for editing the film. Ideas for the other screenplay I’m tinkering with. And when I got home and opened up social media the wave of frustration rushed back in, but it felt a bit more manageable.
I know we’re all giving each other the advice to make time for self care, to make time for joy, to make time for art.
They’re good words, but sometimes often repeated words can start to ring hollow. So it was a nice to feel the truth of them.
LIGHT PLUGS—
The Nightmare Adorable! I wrote and directed this explicitly political short horror film back in 2023. It’s on YouTube now and getting more views will help with the eventual promotion of Dead Media. You can watch here!
Speaking of Dead Media, We’ve got a fiscal sponsorship with the great Minnesota organization Film North. They can accept one-time donations that will go directly toward finishing the film: SCORE, VFX, COLOR GRADING, etc. It’s like a Kickstarter where the rewards are A) a tax deduction and B) helping us make the film.
For full info, please check out the page for the upcoming horror film, DEAD MEDIA!
Or if you have any questions about supporting the film, feel free to reach out to me personally!
MY GOAL FOR THE WEEK--
I want to stay focused on Dead Media so I’m going to give myself a double goal this week—both editing and business stuff. So my goal for next week is to edit up to minute 26 (for real this time, dammit) and send out a minimum of 3 emails for post-production planning.
YOUR GOAL FOR THE WEEK--
I would absolutely LOVE to hear what you're working on this week in the comments below. What's your goal? How can I help you literally finish your monsters?
A LITTLE SKETCH--
When I saw Fire Walk With Me in 1992, I became obsessed with the sad, disheveled character of Carl Rodd played by the late great Harry Dean Stanton. I sketched lots of pictures of him. He evolved in my mind as a character called Johnny Skids. For my senior visual art project in high school I made a six foot tall comic book on foam core of his heartbroken adventures. I haven’t sketched him in years and years. So now seemed like a good time. Here he is, trying hard to enjoy some coffee. I hope you DO enjoy some art and a sip of something you like this week. Thanks for reading!
