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