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Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Filmmaking Lesson of the Day: Adapt

As I sat here working on my Born Good script, my mind started to stray... and for good reasons. I'm about to move to Boulder with my husband for an undetermined adventure. With all the packing, cleaning, scattered boxes, financial details, garage sales, donating, thinking about how to comfortably transport three puggies, saying goodbye (temporarily) to friends, getting film projects tight for transition, and applying online to other (paying) jobs... yeah, it happens.

Overwhelmed, I started to wonder if the people who are attached to this film will hang in there with me, through the move, and into even into next year, if needed. Then there was a shift. I began envisioning half of it being filmed in Texas and the other half in CO or NM.... Sure, things might turn out differently than originally planned, but they might be better, too!

Lesson of the day for us indie filmmakers - learn to adapt to whatever circumstances are thrown your way. Chances are, our filmmaking experiences will only be perfect in their imperfection. Chances are - they will be more imperfect than anything else. Hopefully, through these experiences we grow as artists, get a little stronger, and learn to adapt easily.

Adapting has been particularly huge in my filmmaking life. Sometimes working for, and other times working against me. It's a good practice to be often exposed to different, sometimes challenging, situations as if we're conditioning ourselves via "exposure therapy".

I've found that my ability to adapt and detach from most things is great - keeps me from being materialistic and a hoarder. :) But there's a line from which we have to make sure we do not stray too far... and that's the line where detachment meets vulnerability and connectedness. That's another thing I'm working on.

Vulnerability keeps us open and relatable as artists, writers in particular. I hope that I'm able to use my (sometimes) loneliness and reflective periods as building blocks in my stories. I believe that it's those kind of emotions that create believability and connection. It's those kind of stories that touch people, provoke thought, and move them to action.

Without an ability to adapt, we are confined to our "normalcy," or what we think is normal, possibly hindering our abilities to grow as human beings and artists.

Happy adapting!

Behind the scenes of What I Know For Sure documentary.

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