Change of Pace

I only work 12 hours a week at my job now. I was going to flat out quit in order to finish this movie, but they want me to help hold down the fort as much as I can while they find a worthy replacement.

I feel kinda bad about leaving. It was a pretty good job. But ultimately it's not what I want to do and isn't as important as this film. That's what it all came down to.

So now, except for 12 hours every week, I'm free (to do what I want) to work on the movie. I've been working part-time on the movie for 8 months. It's very weird to be able to work all day everyday on it. Or work through the night on it and sleep in.

I set up and awesome new office/editing station in my living room. It's interesting to me how much your workspace affects the quality of your work and your motivation to work. For the past two months or so I had been going back out to my parents' house on the weekends to edit in their home theater which has an editing booth in the back. That's a pretty great setup (obviously, right?), but the same reasons I didn't want to move back in with my parents' after college still apply to that unfortunately. I have a spare room in my house that was my home office for a while. But I worked 40 hours a week somewhere else, so it didn't make a whole lot of sense. It wasn't a great space either. I don't like being closed off in my own house. That's what you do in your parents' house.

So I bought a big L-shaped desk (basically doubling my desk space) and moved it into my living room. It sounds strange, but it works really well and we had a spot for it. I also really like to surround myself by my stuff, art/books/movies/posters/toys/etc., all of which is mostly strewn about my living room.

But it's still weird not working full time anymore. There's this guilt of not sticking with the financially stable option. And making movies stills feels like it always did for me. It's fun. It's some kind of self-indulgent hobby where I make stuff I want because I like it. I guess it's sort of incredible that my parents would back me up on this. They've tried their damnedest to train me to think the other way, but while I'm painfully aware of that I still gotta go with what feels right.

It'll be interesting to see my productivity shoot up too. I have to churn through about 6 minutes a day of final sound mix and color correction in order to have it complete for Sundance. So far I'm doing alright. Got the first 6 minutes completed. Which is crazy. To actually have it really really done. Nothing has been that way in 8 months. It's become this thing that people are interested in that I'm always working on and people are always asking about. It will be interesting when it actually exists. I can actually show people. Which is why it's made in the first place.

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I'm also glad that I seem to be increasingly ready to gear up for another project. I was wondering if I'd get too burned out from this one to jump right back in. I had convinced myself I'd wait and see what happens with GOS before deciding what to do next. But lately I just kind of feel like "fuck that, I'm ready to make another one."
I don't know where the money will come from, but I'm not that worried about it. I'm ready to write again. I'm thinking of doing a short this fall (filmmaking season) and gearing up for another feature shoot possibly in fall 2011.

It feels good to be a full-time filmmaker again.