I'm not one to cry, but I could not help but feel overwhelmed with so much emotion as President-elect Joe Biden, and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris walked out on that stage in Delaware to accept their nominations. For a whole 30 minutes, I felt peace, I felt hopeful, I felt relief, and for a minute the future did not seem so bleak. The kind of momentary calm that swept over me was one I hadn't felt in years.
Although this is one victory, there are 70 million other reasons why we must never feel complacent. As US citizens, we need to make sure that any other person who decides to hold the highest office in the country, is one who always has the nation's interests at heart, and serves with empathy and compassion, otherwise what is the point of a government that does not look out for its people?
I had also carved out some time this month for self improvement, focusing on my craft. As a filmmaker, it's easy to get excited about all the great ideas to produce, but execution can be a beast. For me, as much as I love a good story, I feel like I've always been a lazy writer. So I set out to take a couple of classes that could help me as a screenwriter, and as a director. The classes were put on by Film North, and have been a lot more affordable - being half the price that they typically are - so it was definitely more of a motivation for me to sign up and participate. I'm so happy that I took the time and effort to attend those classes. It wasn't always easy, but I realized as I left the classes each week, that I had a little bit more energy to create and work on my ideas - as well as the proper processes to improve on my writing and directing. If possible, cost and time-willing, I would like to continue to take screenwriting classes.
I have already started applying some of those principals to my works in progress (it's painful, but it's needed), and working towards a newer concept for a potential web series (more about this next month...or in January's recap). I'm also working on getting out of my own way where I feel like I have to dedicate all my time and energy to one project at a time. Instead, I would like to be able to focus on the ones that fuel me in the moment to prevent myself from feeling stuck, or not being able to make progress.
With only one more month left in the year, I'll be focusing on closing the gaps on some of the writing that I have started. Hopefully, if we are able to get out of the social distancing phase by mid-next year, I'll be looking forward to 2 productions during the later part of the year. Last thoughts, we can only go up from 2020.