Three Movies in Three Weeks: Introduction

In which I reveal why I've neglected this blog a bit this past month.

Exactly one month ago, I realized I was going to have to make three movies in the next three weeks: "Mr. September," a short film I was gripping for my friend, Nadine; "A Multitude of Sins," a First Sundays audience film I was writing and directing myself; and "Proud Mary," a short student film that I was producing which was a bit more ambitious than anything I'd ever done before.

Making this many movies in this short a time is, for lack of a better phrase, stupid. Movies are tiring. Film crews work long hours (12-hour days are the norm) and it can be trying, stressful work. And it wasn't like I was just crewing these movies - "Sins" I did completely on my own, and "Mary" I was producing, so I was ultimately in charge of everything for both those films. These were ambitious projects on their own - together, they would have broken a lesser man.

I want to write about each of my three movies, but for now, I just want to say that I did it. I survived. I did a good job - everyone was happy and well fed, I did my job, we got the footage, we made our deadlines, and I couldn't have expected any more out of myself. That alone is cause for celebration. I celebrated by sleeping for a week. Then I cleaned my apartment. I haven't been happier.

Making all these movies in such a short time, along with all the time I've spent as an independent, no-budget film producer (since about mid-January) has taught me a lot about where my skills are, what I'm capable of, what I've learned from a year in the business, and, more importantly, what I don't know, what my options are, where I go from here.

Trying to go back and write about my experience from the beginning is going to be a little tricky, like starting a story with the epilogue. I'm not expecting too much out of myself, but I hope to at least tell you about where I've been and what I've been up to. It's been a hell of a ride.