Breakthrough

I’ve been sick for nearly two and a half weeks. Because I’ve been home with very little energy, I’ve been working on my skating film.

And I had a breakthrough.

I don’t know how many hours I had to work to get there — I wish I’d counted. Maybe then I would have a formula.

2 years + breaks + 7 give-ups + illness + 10 days’ work = finished draft

Oh, it’s not done. But it’s a completed draft. And it makes sense to me! I can watch the cut in its entirety. It has meaning.

That’s huge for me. 18 hours of footage and 17 cuts later, I have a 6-minute version of the film. And the clips that should resonate, well — they resonate.

My partner describes a phenomenon in film and theatre like this: often there is this one scene that only works if the entire piece works. If that scene falls flat, then something needs to be changed. But if the moment fits, then the piece is right and you’ve got to trust the work.

Well, I think I have that. It’s raw, but it’s there.

I asked my partner to watch the most recent edit — he thought it had merit. He didn’t quite know what to say about it, which is a good sign for us, in case you’re wondering. (We both come from creative and managerial backgrounds, so we talk shop a lot).

So I'm taking a break from the cut. Sometimes you’ve got to step away to come at it with a fresh and renewed perspective. But not for too long…!

I don’t know if writing this blog, even in its early stages, helped with this breakthrough. As Lisa Simpson would say, “There’s correlation, but is there causation?”

I’ll take anything I can get. And this feels good.

I’m excited. I’ll write about that more in another post. But maybe by then, I’ll be back in the struggle.

Joy for now, joy for now.