It's been ages.
I haven't had time to write down a thought or two on my blog. It's been awhile. I've been too busy but I need to write something today. I'll explain.
CATCHING UP
During the course of the week I place emphasis on writing at least one page everyday. Typically this means writing a script, but I also include poetry in this parameter. Lately that one page is exclusive to...graduate school.
It's a bit fitting that I'm finally bringing forth a life update. In my previous life update I discuss the possibilities for this year and mention beginning graduate school for the Master's of Library & Information Science. Between the job and the degree it's been tough. This past month I've been catching up.
Now for May I have to play catch up on a couple of scripts I've been working on. I'm still working on a full-length about the young men who try to rob their grandmother. Unfortunately, due to a constraint with another project I wasn't able to submit it to the Nicholls Fellowship, but that's ok. I'll explain later, The other script, the pilot script, is next in "needs to get completely finished." I'm still aiming for the Austin Film Festival's TV Pilot Script competition. It'll be submitted in reasonable condition, I think.
The issue with these scripts has been moving forward. I'm now able to move forward on the pilot script because I had a reading and the challenges came full force. With moving forward on that script. there's also been work on developing something new. I'd like to have another full length by the end of the year. There's an idea brewing, but I won't discuss it.
One of the main reasons the scripts have fallen behind has been my undertaking of a short film as a directing project. Currently, the project remains without a definitive title, though "Shell Shock" is the closest thing I have to a decently descriptive and not mercilessly pretentious title. The project details a child's nightmare and has been in the works for nearly a year. Through my collaboration the project came to fruition in a way that I felt was truly necessary to grow as a director.
It exhausted me.
For two months my spare time was less concerned with grad school and more concerned with the project. The project required my financial resources, planning, gathering of personnel, location scouting, etc.
It was worth it.
Currently, we're standing with a rough cut. Our hope is that once the cut is color graded and has sound, we can get some outside voice to provide input and move on from there. The deadline I set for the project is June 28th, but that is a deadline meaning "we don't touch this project after June 28th."
Between my initial love of cinema, at the age 14, until now, I've worked on film projects. Many of those projects were in supporting roles such as sound, grips, P.A. work, etc. Other projects involved me as the director, but they were primarily short changed and consequently it's hard for me to see where to go in terms of development. For this project I felt I was fully a director and stepped into that role in a leadership capacity and not just dickin' around. It's a good feeling and I think I can continue on my path of creating one act shorts if not other work.
P.S.
Another one of my poems, "Six Months Since Valparaiso," was published. The road to stardom continues.
TRAVELLING
One of the benefits of my new position has been the expenditures I am now blessed with. With said expenditures, I am travelling again.
For my birthday I was able to make it to Savannah, which I haven't seen in well over 15 years. Savannah remains the kind of city that can rekindle a love of the South.
One of the primary reasons I'm steadfast in avoiding the coastal plain is the substantial lack of trees that I perceive in the region, reinforced by travelling through. In all actuality travelling through Route 1 and 17 -S may be one of the most depressing road trips possible. Savannah, however, was most dazzling in the sleepy Spanish moss that crowds over city streets leading into Bonaventure and to Sisters of the New South. The ability to work in that splendor was a nice reprieve and proof of how wonderful Georgia is...at least for me...and I'm biased.
For many in Georgia my next adventure may as well be a foreign country: San Francisco.
As I write now, I am planning a two day trip to San Francisco. This trip arose as a bit of an impulse. One of my priorities this year was travelling West and as a tree lover the Muir Woods and Redwoods of Bay Area and Northern California have been ideal for my next travels. Really, however, it was my interest of going to a film festival that delivered the idea home. "Boyhood," the new film by one of my favorite film directors Richard Linklater, will be shown at the San Francisco Film Festival with a Q&A for the director. I thought, "Why not spend two days in San Francisco?"
My main priorities are to check out the sites in Golden Gate Park, but truly one of my primary interests is in trekking a bit in Muir Woods and Point Reyes National Seashore. For the first time I aim to actually rent a car to do so. I always felt guilty that the first time I saw the Pacific was in Chile, so I aim to at least see the Pacific in the United States now.
BITTER
I realized I was in love after all.
I didn't understand love and I still don't. It's too foreign of a feeling for me, a socially awkward individual whose luck with women has been sparse.
In my post on Buenos Aires, I mentioned my deep friendship with P (I shall not go into her name). We both felt a connection that deserved a second chance.
After trying to date, after thinking a long distance relationship couldn't work, I realized it could. I realized I should be with P. She had seemed pensive about this boyfriend. He often degraded her, forcing her to send pictures of her weekend outings with friends out of jealousy.
I was prepared to place an offer on the table, that I would come to Buenos Aires again and that she could come to the United States.
Before that offer could come out of hands as I typed...she revealed her pregnancy.
That was it. I imagine a "Love in the Time of Cholera" situation. I imagine I will find someone new.
That is all I care to say
and I will leave this post on that.
