O.K, sometimes it is cool...

Right?

Isn't that cool?

I mean, I freaked when I saw it.  My Director on the series hadn't said 'boo' to me about it, he'd just been quietly implementing the idea he and I had had together a month back while we were trying to figure out how to build a set that we could afford while still making it cool and full of possibility.

We had a 'eureka' moment on the phone call, he ran with it, and that was the last I heard of it.

Until yesterday.

We were at 64 Steps, the production design firm (and it's a real honor to be working with them, they're a bunch of serious dudes...) having a meeting on our two shows and at the end he took me to his workstation and dropped THAT on me.

Holy frickin' smokes.

It's a wonderful thing to work with talented people.

First I punched my director, then I punched my production designer, then I called my wife, then I called my 'other wife' (aka: my executive producer), then I sat at home and stared at it for a bit.

I do realize it's just a set.

But the thing is, it's not.

It's the beginning of the fruition of an idea, the realization of a dream, the fulfillment of a decade's worth of work getting to this point and then (DV) moving beyond.  And the lesson I continue to learn from this biz is the lesson I've been learning this week as my contractor has built us a second bathroom (yes, we've been living for years with four kids and one toilet...pretty awesome...) and a workspace for me that's something other than an IKEA desk next to the water heater.

Every time I made a suggestion he said one of two things.

"That would be better..." (insert Polish accent please)

Or...

"That would not be better..."

And I realized that that's how I need to continue to embrace criticism and comment from the people I work with.  I don't have to take it personally (which is hard for me, I'm a 'personal' kind of guy...) I just have to take it, then throw on my best Polish accent and hardened construction worker attitude and figure out if implementing the idea would be a "that would be better..." scenario or a "that would not be better..." scenario.

Simple as a bathroom in a basement or a smokin' set in a studio.

Simple as better is better and sometimes even awesome.

Like that set!

T