I’ve reinvigorated an old project recently. It actually has a budget, which is nice (even though that budget’s partially coming from my own funds), and features this gentleman,
a title screen that almost definitely won’t look like this,
and a lot of stuff involving these two:
It’s exciting stuff. We had things withholding us before. No money, for starters - this project is going to cost just shy of £200, and back when we were writing it none of us had jobs. I won’t say much more - other than we’re likely going to start filming in February - but I feel on the ball again.
I listened to an episode of Professor Blastoff today that talked about New Year’s Resolutions. One point I took away was that we spend a lot of time leaving the in-between moments - those couple of hours before you go to bed, the extra fifteen minutes you sometimes get before work - empty, when we could be filling it with all manner of things. I’m trying to get out of that loop. I’m scheming again.
Moving to another country, when you’re in the home stretch before packing your bags, can feel a little like being aware of your own mortality - albeit one where the mood’s altogether more positive. You realise that your time in the country of your birth (rather than on earth) is limited, so you pack in more stuff. The attitude towards your family and friends shifts a little. I back out of arguments more often now. I’m more aware of my parents, not as my carers, but as human beings. I’m more conscious of the happiness (or lack thereof) of my friends. And there is stuff I want to do - things that will be a lot harder to do in America, at least initially. I want to see a couple of places in this country. I want to try and get into MENSA. I want to buy a bottle of Talisker, which I know isn’t sold at the liquor store near Arden’s house. I want to know what it feels like to be a valued employee, to take advantage of the fact that there is a cinema twenty minutes’ walk from my house, to get outside a little more often. I want to finish my book before I leave, too.
So. Come February, I’ll be shopping for puppets and fake blood, filming someone, continuing to write and pouring more activities into those moments in between. Making my life a little busier. Giving the world a little more of myself. We’ll see how it turns out.