What's in store...

This new year is starting out just fine for me.

For whatever reason (probably time, a lot of thinking, and some Divine Intervention) I feel like I'm popping out of the 'season of despair' I've been in since my sweet brother in law died.

I've noticed this because of a change in my productivity mostly.

This 'upswing' might also be due to my wife finally turning me into an actual 'exercise person'. I've gotten to the point, in my current triathlon training cycle, where my body is physically/chemically looking forward to my workouts. I'm swimming, biking and running much further than ever before with much more ease. Case in point, yesterday I jumped in the pool for only the second time this cycle and swam the full race distance (1.5km) in a respectable time. This is a major change from when I jumped in to start my first training cycle three years ago.

Proof that progress is incremental and (if you keep at it) irreversible.

This is encouraging me in my working life as well.

My church is still small (which makes my feel a little tired from time to time) but it seems to be very healthy (as evidenced by people's spiritual growth) and I know, from experience, that healthy things grow.

My show biz life is another story. I feel, on that front, completely perched on the edge of a precipice. It's been three years now that we've been working to take the 'next step' and I feel that this year might finally be the year. We've got several key projects poised to 'pop' from concept into actuality and, if they make that transition, I'll be busier than ever before. I've been writing a lot (with a writing-partner, which has been really fun) and am just generally feeling actualized and ready. We're going to push a little harder to get entrenched in L.A this year (and in the years following) so I expect to be in H'wood a week per month (or so) starting in February, to connect and meet and mesh and see if we can develop some productive synergies there.

I also passed 1,500+ episodes of TV produced this month, so that's something.

I 'get' that progress (personally) can be so intangible so as to make it almost a figment of our imagination, but I can't help feeling like this new year is full of promise.

T

Oh so cold...

Happy New Year!

Hope you've had a wonderful Christmas/Holiday season.

Over the break, the wife, kids and I got to travel to my brother's place in Quebec's Eastern Townships--beautiful country--where we had a great time, despite -27 (no wind chill) temperatures.

Oh so cold...

The above shot was through their front window on our second morning there. Crazy.

I was sitting in the living room after breakfast, watching the light (as filmmaking storytellers tend to do) and saw it creating the above scene on the aforementioned window. I grabbed my phone and spent a few minutes taking various exposures, looking for a great shot.

I was reminded (again) during this process that capturing a 'strong' image requires capturing many 'so-so' ones. I think the shot I ended up picking was one of eight or so options.

This is one of the most frustrating and difficult things about storytelling for the screen, 1) you have to be willing to go through lots of 'so-so' moments before landing on one worth keeping and 2) you have to do a lot of work to get to the point where you have the resources required to do that kind of 'wasteful work', meaning you're able to afford to waste time, energy and money in capturing 'so-so' stuff in the pursuit of that one great moment.

I'll never forget hearing a quote from Susan Sarandon, reflecting on what it 'takes' to be an actor. She was saying that she felt it wasn't the hardest work in the world because, "You only have to get it *right* once, and you have all day to get it right..."

That's the trick, isn't it?

Having the time to get it right.

Assuming, of course, that you're good enough--in the first place--to know 'right' from 'wrong', 'strong' from 'so-so', 'awesome' from 'meh'.

Hoping to leverage myself into some more of those protracted moments this year.

I hope 2013's a great one for you!

See you on set.

T