Perspective Shock
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 105 of the film.
And I got close! I made it to minute 100. So a little shy of my goal, but a lot of good work done.
I’m getting toward the end of the film which means there are a lot more horror/action set pieces, intercut scenes, a montage, etc. Stuff that takes more time to edit than two characters having a conversation.
This week, I got to edit some very fun stuff. A creepy scene with a plastic bag and an extension cord, my wife Sara’s cameo, and now I’m on to one of the major emotional scenes that we filmed in my childhood bedroom.
Filmmaking is multi-layered time travel. Looking at these scenes, I’m reliving writing them in October 2023, filming them in December 2024, sitting on my bed in the same room listening to The White Album and reading Moonraker in 1987, and thinking ahead to the future when the film is finished.
If you’re interested in helping me pull this film across the finish line, I need to raise a bit more money for post-production. You can make a one time tax-deductible donation via Film North here.
ADVENTURES OF THE WEEK--
This week was very, very work focused. I spent most days, many nights, and all weekend editing. I’m lucky that my part-time day job is co-hosting a Star Wars podcast, but it also means my work flow gets affected by the changing winds of a galaxy far, far away. This week was the Star Wars Celebration convention with lots of breaking news and the launch of Andor Season Two. So I had some (very joyful) work staying caught up on all of that.
Beyond the work, I had two adventures that made me think of PERSPECTIVE and how important it is to creative work.
First, my wife and I made time to go see a new documentary at the Egyptian Theater called I Know Catherine, The Log Lady. It’s a film about the life (and death) of Catherine Coulson who is perhaps most famous for portraying The Log Lady on Twin Peaks. She was also a jack-of-all-trades who helped David Lynch with all of the behind the camera work to make his first feature, Eraserhead. She went on to work as a First AC on Wrath of Khan and many other films before returning to her love of theater and working on stage in Ashland, Oregon for many years.
She passed away during the production of the third season of Twin Peaks in 2015, filming her scenes with Lynch over zoom only a few days before she left this world. The documentary is framed around how she handled the end of her life—both accepting it and making an effort to control and shape it. It’s really beautiful and poignant. In the context of this documentary, the inevitability of her passing doesn’t cast a shadow on her life, it shines a light on it.
I was prepared for the film to be about the end of her life so I was surprised that what affected me the most was the BEGINNING of her life.
I first watched Twin Peaks in my teens so I “met” Catherine Coulson when she was middle-aged. Her character, the Log Lady, is stern and set in her ways.
The film details that Catherine was wild, fun-loving, and rebellious in her youth in the 1970s. Which felt surprising even though there is literally nothing surprising about it.
Intellectually, I know that she was not stern like The Log Lady—she was playing a character. Intellectually, I know Catherine Coulson was not born middle aged. And yet, because that’s the way this person entered my awareness, her youth was still an emotional surprise.
I think it’s a great thing to think about in our personal and creative lives. How often do we know something intellectually but don’t make the time to imagine the emotional truth of it? How often do we put people in boxes in our minds without realizing it? “Every time I hang out with Susan she’s really happy and laughing and drinking a beer so I was BLOWN AWAY to see her post on social media where she was sad and drinking herbal tea. Wow, Susan, wow!”
I think it takes work and imagination and empathy to not brand the people we encounter based on the tip of the iceberg we see.
Anyway, after all these years and a truly shocking number of times watching Twin Peaks, it made me appreciate Catherine Coulson’s performance even more. Perspective!
The second adventure in perspective this week was a zoom meeting with a team of filmmakers.
One of my old friends and an actor in Dead Media is involved in an upcoming short film. It’s the director and producer’s first film so she asked if I’d have a quick zoom call to share what I’d learned over the last few years producing several shorts and now the feature film.
The folks on the call were great. They had great questions and we had a fun talk about both the practical (crowdfunding, insurance, location scouting!) and the creative (casting, the vibe on set, storyboarding!)
It was a nice reminder for myself of how much I’ve learned about filmmaking in the last few years. When I’m working hard and exhausted, everything feels like just another hill I had to climb to get here—the film festival circuit, fundraising, setting up the business infrastructure, actually getting to do the fun creative parts of writing and filming and editing, etc. All of it can feel like levels of a video game I made it through just so I can try to fight the next boss battle.
It was a nice reminder that each step in the process has value in and of itself. Those steps will be easier for me next time. I can try to help other people navigate those steps. In my ideal world, I’d love to have a small studio and systems in place to help other filmmakers get their work out there.
In the middle of a very stressful week, it was nice to see myself in a different light. Not just exhausted and persevering, but evolving. Perspective!
LIGHT PLUGS—
The Nightmare Adorable!
I wrote and directed this short horror film back in 2023.
AWOOGA: Can you help us get to 1000 views on YouTube? I’d love to get more views on this short film as I look ahead to the promotion of Dead Media.
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--
Well, readers, this is it. The blog is called finish your monsters—a fun way to advocate for pushing to finish first drafts, knowing that they’re just the beginning. Soon, I’ll be traveling to Minneapolis to begin work on the score for Dead Media so I must complete my first draft of the film edit. I might not make it by next Wednesday, but setting the goal will help me get as close as humanly possible. So my goal for next week is to finish editing the first draft of the feature film, Dead Media.
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--
I had fun doing a quick sketch of the Log Lady’s log. I’m enjoying leaning into the things I like drawing—thick, gnarled shapes and lightning bolts.
Amazing