Learning from mistakes and lucky breaks

OK... Tuesday morning. I'm firing away on my laptop, drinking my tea, mobilizing plans to mobilize. Looking for freelance work, browsing breakdowns and mapping out the next few months. My contract with IZZE came to a close on Friday. And while I welcome the change and a much needed break from the day to day duties as a full-time beverage marketing rep, I will miss that steady pay check. The good thing is I have 2 more industrial video projects to produce... and there is the possibility of doing more.

Last week I finally finished shooting legal video project #2, which was not short on challenges. Project # 1 was a 15 page script and it was a walk in the park compared to the 40 page, 15 actor, big nasty barn dance that was... "legal video project # 2."

Now, dont get me wrong, I am not complaining at all... I love doing this stuff... but this shit aint easy... casting, locations, equipment, scheduling, coordinating and "wrangling" a roster of actors and their "quirky" habits, hard drives and fire wire cables, something I forgot that I desperatley need, something i brought plenty of that I dont need at all.... there is a precarious situation at every turn... and I forget to eat... forget to drink enough water... so I end up feeling like shit when its all done

I still love it.... and of course I find a way to cast myself so I can do a little acting... I do that for fun but I also end up saving myself a little money....

I'm fully aware that every project I will ever work on will offer its own special blend of challenges.... thats part of the fun... I learn from mistakes and lucky breaks... and I take the entire experience with me to the next one.

Project # 2 definitely forced me to work for it and earn my money... But now I have a long list of notes... the do's and dont's that will enable me to be a better, faster and more effective producer...

I could share a lot of the stories of horror and heroism from this last shoot, but I dont want to throw anyone under the bus... and one thing i know for sure is that when you blog... people read it... and if you lack sensitivity... air out peoples flaws and fuck-ups... people get upset... I'm not doing this to get people upset...

I will say this... every thing that went wrong on this shoot was laced with my own mistakes... I have no problem accepting responsibility....

Ok... that being said.... We got it... we shot it... we finished strong... moving on....

My work as a producer is actually moving in a good direction. I have a few other projects in my back pocket that I will be looking to get started in the next month or two. One concept is based in the world of branding and viral marketing... an idea that I've been bouncing around for a year now... and I'm fairly confident that this one will work... be successful.... I think it would be an effective tool for a brand... I just need to find a company or brand who sees the value in using viral videos as part of their marketing game. The other project I'm looking to kick start is based in basic online entertainment... its another idea that I've been playing with for a while... and I actually have a bunch of footage shot with this project in mind... but I need a LOT more to make this one go... doesnt help that one of my hard drives is flatlined right now. I had a 500GB Lacie hard drive that was holding about 2 years worth of work and one day it decided not to power up. At this point, I dont know if all hope is lost on it... it didnt CRASH necessarily... but its definitely playing dead. I havent had the time to explore my options, but I think I'm about to get moving on that....

Ok... this blog post has taken me HOURS to complete... if you figure in that I took a break to have breakfast (just some protein powder mixed with coconut water), watch Sportscenter six times, email my girlfriend, FACEBOOK my girlfriend... then I was forced to get on the phone with Verzion because they turned my phone off... and that was because I was like... 300 minutes over my monthly limit... NOT because I failed to pay the bill... I knew that's what you were thinking.... and I have to say... real quick before I sgn off here... that Verizon was very nice to me today... they told me that I would owe them 168 bucks in overage charges unless I switched my plan to include more minutes...  whihc would cost an extra 20 bucks with the option to go back to my prigonal plan next month.... AND they reminded me to add up to 5 "friends & family" numbers... from ANY network....  that I could call anytime and not use up my monthly minutes...  DUH!!! That is somehting I should have done a long time ago...  but I guess I overlooked that option... so they really hooked me up... instead of just ramming me with the high hard one... like the good ole days.... so thank you Verizon Wireless... that was super cool of you...

I gotta go... I got shit to do...