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?

My goal for last week was to write up to page 25 of the new feature film script.

And…I did not even remotely accomplish that. I didn’t even open the doc!

But, in a shocking twist, I’m NOT going to give myself a hard time about it. It was a choice to let that goal go for the week so I could concentrate on other things.

Last Wednesday, after I set my goal and put out the blog, I got some good news about the future of our horror film, Dead Media. (News which I’m excited to share in the next few weeks!)

But the good news also meant I had some unplanned logistics work to focus on. I’m also working on another short film that’s got a deadline of May 29th and I’m getting ready to travel to the Midwest next week. I’m giving a talk in River Falls, Wisconsin to an old friend’s theater class about the filmmaking process and hosting a screening of Dead Media.

So it’s been a packed week and I needed to let myself off the scripting hook. No typing time on the new feature, but I did get some good dreaming work in as I went for my daily walk.

Sadly, it’s not feasible for me to walk all the way from California to Wisconsin, but think of how much dream work I could get done. I could write the whole script IN MY MIND.

LIGHT PLUGS

DEAD MEDIA: More news coming soon on the future of our horror film, Dead Media! (For now, if you’ve seen the film at the Minneapolis premiere or one of the film festival screenings, we’d love a nice review on Letterboxd!)

SHORT FILMS ON YOUTUBE: Over the last few weeks, I released three short films on my YouTube page. The Narrator, starring Phil LaMarr. A cosmic horror/comedy tale depending on your point of view. The Demon’s Commentary. A commentary track for a 1970s horror movie goes horribly wrong. Deep Into Norway. A travelogue horror about a man finding himself in Norway. All in all, about 24 minutes of film. An old sitcom runtime worth of horror! I would love to get more views, comments, likes, etc. And a new short, Victim Seven, is coming this week on Thursday, April 23rd! You can check out my YouTube page here.

A NICE THING THAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK

A couple of nice things this week. I’m very much enjoying the new Star Wars animated series Maul Shadow Lord and discussing it on ForceCenter. About 50% of this show is people going through a hard time and AUDIBLY SIGHING while running their hands across their faces and heads and it’s very cathartic.

Also went to a birthday party for my podcast partner Ken Napzok’s 50th birthday and got to chat with lots of folks I haven’t seen in a long time.

But my favorite nice thing was seeing something utterly bizarre.

I was talking with my Dad on the phone and heard a weird rhythmic sound outside. So I looked out the window and saw a man riding a horse down the streets of Hollywood.

I looked around for film cameras and saw none. There is a ranch up in the Hollywood Hills above my neighborhood, but this street is not the path to it.

So bottom line: I saw a man on a horse in the city and I do not know why. I will probably never know why.

And I don’t want to know why.

Knowledge is very important for making good decisions about things like your health, voting, signing a contract, public policy, a building’s structural integrity, craft brewing, and on and on.

But a lot of life is deeply mysterious and I think there’s a joy to that. We are all the main characters in the story of our lives. But we are constantly surrounded by the stories of others. Alone in my apartment, I might be starring in the film WILL JOSEPH COMPLETE HIS BLOG ON TIME? But from the perspective of the mystery man on the mystery horse, I’m playing the background role of CONFUSED GUY ON THE BALCONY.

I try to be aware of those moments where you just catch a glimpse of someone else’s story. Like picking up a novel you’ve never read and just flipping to one paragraph on page 66, but never getting to read the rest of the novel. I try to enjoy those moments. I can’t live as many lives as I would like to, but at least I can peek into other worlds for precious and strange moments.

So thank you, man on horse, for giving me the gift of mystery for just a few moments.

MY GOAL FOR THE WEEK--

This week, I need to travel, do behind-the-scenes work for Dead Media, and work on pre-production for the next short film. Out of all of those, I think the easiest thing to quantify into a goal is pre-production needs for the new short. So my goal for next week is to complete the shot list for the new short film.

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--

This week’s sketch is what came out when I thought of the words “glimpse of a mystery horse.” Anyway, hope your weeks include some good mystery animals, creative time, and some completed monsters.