February 25, 2025

Suddenly, Perspectives

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 32 of the film.

And I completed that very reasonable goal. I got up to 32 minutes and 35 seconds.

The blog is out later than I planned today because I was having too much fun editing. I’m building momentum and moving a little faster but I’m also getting to some fun stuff—what I sometimes think of as the Batman pages.

When I was a kid, my parents got me a couple Batman and Robin coloring books. Some pages just had the criminals. A whole page full of boring buildings and boring men dressed in boring suits. (In retrospective a very honest and forward looking depiction of the existential threat of white collar crime.) I did not want to waste precious seconds of my life filling in browns and beiges and taupes. I wanted to get to the lurid, giallo-esque thrill of drowning Batman and Robin in blues and reds.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun editing one of my “Batman and Robin” scenes over the last few days.

I’ve also been continuing conversations about the post-production of the film—color grading, music, sound mix, VFX, etc. If you want to help me raise the funds for post-production, you can make a one-time tax deductible donation here!

ADVENTURES OF THE WEEK--

Last week, Sara’s aunt and uncle (and by extension my aunt and uncle) were taking a vacation in the Coachella Valley about 40 minutes outside of Palm Springs. They invited Sara and I to join them for a couple of days.

I definitely wanted to go because I really like our aunt and uncle. I also recognize I’m ridiculously lucky to be invited to chill out in a nice house with a jacuzzi in February. I also just really like the strange, ethereal mood of the desert. The vast expanse of sand and mountains dotted with palm trees, wind turbines, and little communities made out of utter hubris. The sun slowly rolls over it all, glaring down as if to say, “Really? You’re still here? Amazing. Congrats. Remember to hydrate.”

But even with all of those checks in the pro column, I was nervous about going. I really need all the time I can get to work on the film. I’m addicted to checking the news on my phone. Sometimes I move my phone and realize I’ve reached over to try to scroll on the spot where my phone used to be. My mind feels like a bouncing leg.

I wasn’t sure if I could relax. And worse than that, I was afraid of spreading my jittery intensity to others.

As it turns out, all those people who say “take some time for self care” are right. I had a lovely time.

I got a lot of perspective on a lot of levels. We all spent some time checking our phones and discussing the horrors. I was able to share my opinion that the Republicans’ reckless agenda will start hitting people in all walks of life. I shared that people in my Star Wars action figure group are concerned about tariffs affecting the price of a Darth Vader since all Darth Vaders are made in China. My aunt and uncle got to learn that adults are the main target for collecting Star Wars toys and I am one of those targets. Perspective!

I put on five layers of sunscreen to read a book outside for one hour. It was a James Bond book written in 2022 but set in the 1960s when 007 must infiltrate Moscow. During our trip, my uncle told a story about visiting one of the elaborately decorated underground metro stops in Moscow, but not being allowed to take any photos. When I got home, I read a few more chapters and Bond visited the metro stop my uncle described. Bond was not allowed to take photos either because a guy was trying to kill him with a knife. Perspective!

And, finally, I got a lot of creative perspective by taking a break from editing. After our trip, I revisited several scenes in the movie and saw them with a fresh eye. Minor tweaks made them much better and I don’t know if I would have seen those changes if I hadn’t stepped away for a little bit.

The name of this blog is FINISH YOUR MONSTERS because I really do believe in the process of trying to get the first draft done as fast as possible. Getting a first draft edit of a film completed is (for me) extremely time consuming. Finding all the shots, choosing the best performance, matching dialogue and movement. Each scene is like its own little movie with its own rhythm that then changes the rhythm of the scene before and after it.

But taking a break made me more happy with my process. Dive in, get the scene put together as best you can. Then when you’re looking back, fixing one little problem feels far less arduous. You can give that ONE THING your entire focus. I think the same is true for writing, drawing, choreography, gardening, etc.

Ultimately, it was great to get some perspective on my monster.

LIGHT PLUGS—

VOTE FORWARD! The letter writing campaign to encourage voters to actually, you know, vote is BACK. They’ve got a campaign to write to voters in Wisconsin about the upcoming Wisconsin Supreme Court election. Full details on how to write letters here!

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 need to stay focused on Dead Media editing. So I’m going to attempt to ramp up the number of minutes I can get done in a week. So my goal for next week is to edit up to minute 40 of the 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 I tried to draw what’s in my heart: A sentient book screaming at me to read it. I’ve got a lot of books I want to read and I hope I’m not letting them down. Anyway, hope your week is good and filled with the exact right amount of books.