At the beginning of each new year, tradition calls on us to make a resolution.
This resolution is supposed to start our year off “right,” by allowing us to single out a part of our life or our personality that we find unacceptable, and committing ourselves to changing it.
I find the notion a bit, well, “stupid,” and I typically don’t do it.
This year, though, I’m going to give it a shot.
It seems foolish to resolve to do something very broad like “quit swearing”, or “no more candy”, or even “lose fifty pounds by the next new year.” Those are just cherry-picked from your internal laundry list of issues with yourself, and you have no additional motivation to actually follow through with any of them. I feel, if you’re going to make a New Years’ resolution, you should pick something that doesn’t die with the New Year. Something that you can continually motivate yourself to do; something that will have additional driving forces throughout the coming months, as your will wears thin.
That’s why, this year, I’m resolving to continue finishing films.
I often forget that my “filmmaking career” didn’t really begin in earnest until April of 2005, less than a year ago. So far, it’s been vastly different than anything else I’ve ever tried before: I’ve actually stuck with it. That’s monumentally difficult for me to do. Typically, I’ve given up on projects. Any projects, big or small, I haven’t ever had the drive to follow through to completion. With film, though, I always seem to follow through if I am at all capable. I can’t and won’t just give up and let it die.
This trend is something I’d like to see continue.
To do this, you need people by your side, behind and in front of you, all around you, constantly providing help and motivation. Unfortunately, if you have a history of failure or non-completion, it’s virtually impossible to rally this kind of support. I’ve already managed to pull one fairly large project from conception to completion: Selling The Faith. Now, I aim to do the same with The Last Regret.
I feel like, if I can put those two projects behind me, and have a finished product to show, that will convince people that I am serious, and that I will actually do what I say I’m going to do. Right now, it’s still a little bit like vapour. “Yeah, he says a lot, but has he ever produced results, or is he just blowing hot air?” I aim to have people reply, “He’s serious. He’ll finish. He always does.”
For me, that’s a much better resolution than “reduce stomach flab.”
Tags: Rants
You can do it!