2024. Musings on a Fresh Start.
A fresh start seems like a weird thing to say. Honestly, it’s only been a few days since I last did work but it feels akin to that feeling when you’ve been driving through a super long tunnel, and your eyes adjust and then BANG - daylight. And suddenly driving is a bit more difficult for a few seconds. Or, at least, it’s unnerving. I don’t know, similes have never really been my strong suit. The point is, I got into a real groove in the last four or five months of 2023, and now 2024 has started, I have no idea what I’m doing. I’ll give you where I finished 2023:
My short film “Tomorrow” was funded and produced, and is going to be finished…soon.
I made a wonderful connection with a producer who believes I have something to offer him and the industry and he’s trusted me as a co-writer on one of his next feature scripts.
I’ve secured an associate producer position on an upcoming short film.
I met a wonderful director in LA and we got on brilliantly, and he’s agreed to come on board and direct my next short film “7.5 Billion Years”, which I could not be happier about.
I connected with a wonderful writer/director that is casting me as a lead in his upcoming film (when the production gets put together).
So you see - things seem to be looking “Up-Henners”. Indeed they feel “Up-Henners”. One feels that one’s career is headed in a decent direction. But I find myself feeling pensive in the first week of 2024: for the following reasons.
My agent just called to let me know we’re no longer going to be working together and I have to begin the arduous and unrewarding process of looking for another agent.
None of the aforementioned jobs are paying me a cent, so it looks like I’ll have to be finding another terrible job on the side to survive.
A film that I’ve been trying to shoot for a year has stalled at every stage and still hasn’t received funding.
Admittedly, these are problems that can change on a dime, but you can understand why I’m a tad pensive. Well, the title of this blog is “A Musing” and musing I am doing. The frustrating thing is feeling in limbo - I have a couple of films that are about to drop, but until they do, I can’t really show anyone that I have done anything: people need to see things to believe that you’ve done them. And I want to put the film clips into my showreel, but I can’t even do that yet. I have new headshots about to be edited, but until I do, I’ve got nothing on that side to show for myself. It is, simply put, a limbo. Which is eternally frustrating, as a doing things person. You see why this is a musing? I’m happy with my progress, yet frustrated at the immediate future: I’m feeling needed, but useless. I offer no solutions, but I’m still working towards one. Like hands reaching in the dark, for a rope that might be there.
I’m eating a lot of biscuits; I find that keeps me on the straight and narrow. Biscuits are nice.
If you or anyone you know is also struggling with the same things that I’ve listed above, get in touch - we can muse and be pensive together.
See you next week. Love x