Resolutions...
Happy New Year!
Three words we casually proclaim at the stroke of midnight, and for about 2 weeks afterwards (I guess when the ‘happy’ fades and it’s just another standard year again), and I just had one of those moments where I’m like:
What does ‘Happy New Year’ actually mean??
‘Have a good upcoming year?’ ‘Congratulations for successfully completing another year?’ What if you’re Chinese living in Britain, and you have two New Years? Which one takes precedence? Does it really matter?? What is Time but an abstract concept? (I’m not stoned, I promise.)
Anyway, congrats for getting through another 365 days, and I hope the next 365 are as good or better (but not worse).
I had a pretty decent year. I shot 2 short films - Drone and Viola - which are in various stages of post-production. As always, they were learning experiences, and a few things could have gone better, but that’s nearly always the case with filmmaking. Hopefully they will be completed (sound design, music and the final touches) fairly soon, and then ready to submit to festivals! That’s quite exciting.
I also went on an adventure in Nepal, which was an experience, to say the least. (To quickly summarise: went to Everest Base Camp, got rather ill, climbed a big mountain, got air-lifted off by helicopter.) I hadn’t been eating or sleeping well, so when I returned to Blighty I comfort ate … and ate … and apparently ate a bit more, because in the Christmas sales I was trying on some clothes and witnessed myself in the mirror … Apparently ‘Dad Bods’ are favourable with the ladies at the moment, but this man certainly didn’t approve.
Di Caprio rocking the Dad Bod
So New Year’s Resolution #1 is to lose weight and get back in shape.
Which involves drinking considerably less alcohol (which is going
moderately well so far, apart from some weird headaches that
mysteriously disappeared after a glass of wine!), and alternating
between 14 different types of tea and other infusions.
New Year’s Resolution #2 is to write more.
That means more blogs, more films, and more short stories.
I realised I hadn’t written much for ages (particularly film), mainly because I’ve been so involved in producing films, which I find rather draining. I went to a training day with the FEU (Bectu, Writers’ Guild etc combined) entitled ‘Blogging for Creative Freelancers’, presented by the excellent William Gallagher, and not only did it make me realise that I’ve been neglecting my writing, but that
(a) I do it because I enjoy it, and
(b) I should always be able to find a couple of hours a week to write something, even if it’s just a brief Brain-Jizz.
Aside from that, I also need to finish a couple more feature film scripts, in between actually making films.
New Year’s Resolution #3 is to be an Entrepreneur. As in, I have a couple of ideas for businesses (products of my over-active creative mind) which I’d like to make happen. But I’m not exactly a business person … anyone wanna help??
And lastly, New Year’s Resolution #4 is to write a couple of Dance Tunes, and release them. That is, fairly chart-friendly EDM/Dance like Guetta, Harris etc churn out (as opposed to more eclectic trance/techno). Although that said, there are a lot of artists now, like Kiasmos, Jon Hopkins etc, who are making nice ‘background music’ which is very listenable. Given I studied music theory and a fair few instruments back in the day (including the French Horn!), it’s high time I put some of that knowledge to good use…
So there you have it. Plenty to be getting on with.
Happy New Year again, and I hope the remaining, er, 358 days are constructive! (Clearly I got off to a flying start as it took me a week just to write this!)
P.