Two Thousand and Ten or Twenty Ten, which are you?

2010, we made it in one piece, took a while to get here, but here we are. I have plans for this year, I thought I might share them with you. Maybe look back a year from now and see if I achieved any of them. I'm happy to say I achieved most of last years plans, plus some surprises. So we'll see how this year goes.

Plans:

First off is of course 140. I'll get back on that in about a week, and it should only take a week or so to complete. I will then get to all the 140 filmmakers for their previews and premieres, then perhaps set up a youtube page with all the clips in their entirety to view, and then start hitting festivals, see if we can't get any takers. I also have Slán agus Beannacht to promote, although a few copies have all ready been sent out into the world.

As for new projects, I really want to start writing again, just writing, without a view to making films. I miss it. I have been working on two novels sporadically over the last few years and I'm really anxious to finish them. I really like the stories and I love the process, I really do, maybe even more then filmmaking!

I've found as I've struggled to make films I feel a sense of dread and anxiety when I get ready to go into production, and it never really lifts during the production. It eventually goes away on the final day. And although I love editing and am often proud of the accomplishment, it is several months of stress and anxiety nonetheless. Whereas with writing I don't have an ounce of that, it's pure pleasure for the love of the story and the process, me, my thoughts, the computer, endless cups of tea and biscuits and the clatter of the keys late into the night as the story unfolds, surprising and delighting me at every turn. Hopefully someday I'll get on of these stories published and it may give a reader somewhere the same feeling.

That's not to say I want to give up on film, no way, we battle on regardless! I have three short scripts I would like to make, Adam, Zombidge and perhaps Angelina. I would also like to look at my puppet trilogy Puca, The Perfect Word and Jimmy - all short films involving puppet characters. I'd love to set up a shop to make the creatures and put all three films into production, release them as a set. But it's money. Might be one to think about for the future.

Iscariot has had some interest, so Thomas and I are going to tick along with that. The script needs some more work, not much, but some essential pacing. And we're talking about the idea of taking a scene, or a couple of scenes and shaping them into a short film to shoot later in the year and using that to attract investments.

Perspective:

Having just had a baby girl, Evelyn, now two weeks old, my perspective on things has changed. Sounds a bit of a cliché, and I have heard other new parents talk about it and rolled my eyes, never really took it too seriously, but now I know what they mean and I know it is very real. Suddenly there is this tiny human being who is completely dependent on you and who you are entirely responsible for. But it's not as if that responsibility is a burden, it's an incredible aching need to provide for this person you love beyond all explanation or comprehension. Everything and everyone (sept me wife! ;) ) else in your life takes a backseat.

To that end the importance of the projects I'm working on changes. I've started asking myself, do I really want to put this much time, energy and probably money, that could otherwise be spent on my daughter, into something I don't fully believe in. If I'm going to be spending time away from her, it had now better be for a bloody good reason. I can only be something I'm really going to enjoy, something I know I'll be proud of, something that means something and might make a difference - in my life and perhaps the lives of others and something of quality. So at the moment I'm weighing up everything that's in front of me and considering if it's something I really want to take irreplaceable time away from my first born for... so it better be freakin' amazing!

Also in the new year I hope to mount another photographic exhibition at some stage, perhaps release a DVD of my films for sale. Continue writing as I mentioned and perhaps write a couple of spec screenplays I've been thinking about and see if I can't sell one or two and make some money at this for once in my life! That is a real need now, to provide. I've let it slide before and perhaps not given it 100%. But I have no excuses now. If I don't make this work, make it pay - and soon - I think it will be time to hang up the spurs and try another line of work, one that puts food on the table and clothes on the back. No more winging it. I think 2010 will be the year I take full responsibility.

--

Hope you had a great holiday and hope you can ease back into the grind without too much trouble. Just one question remains however, now that the naughties are over and we begin the teens, how will you say it "Two thousand and ten" or "Twenty Ten" - I think I'm a Twenty Ten man myself!

Happy New Year All.