In the eye of the storm

When a great film or production comes together, it's beyond the control of mere mortals: it is force majeure. Hyperbole you say? Maybe. I say: keep reading. From the early developmental stages of a script, to the agonising labour that is post-production, a great production greedily sucks in any and all influence it can, to make itself the best it can be. It's like the story of the snowflake which gently descends from above to crown the mountain peak, gradually building momentum on the way down until a roaring avalanche invades the bottom of the mountain. In the film industry and other adult occupations for that matter (i'm talking as if yall are exempt), you "work hard to work harder". What I mean is, most people have goals, which they work towards dedicated to the hope that when they "make it", it'll all be smooth sailing. Well, sorry to disappoint you, but YOU'RE WRONG. It gets harder and more complicated as you move up the proverbial hierarchy in life, which means the only reward for hard work is more hard work. So if you feel like you're in the eye of the storm, like I do right about now, smile, because its about to get worse, waaay worse :)

Why do they even call it the eye of the storm??? For those who don't know, the eye is the middle of the storm, usually referring to hurricanes or tornados, the eye being the most violent place in the storm. The eye of the storm... hai (sigh), sekgowa (english)...

I digress... Last weekend at this time, I was in the eye of the storm of one of the most gruelling yet most rewarding filmmaking competitions in the world, the 48 Hour Film Project. In a nutshell: you are given a film genre, character, prop as well as line of dialogue at 19h00 Friday evening and you have to deliver a polished 7minute film by 19h30 Sunday evening. Yes, "johweh"/"wow" is right. I am still cleaning up my house and debriefing from the experience; albeit we didn't make the cutoff time, it was an enriching experience and I am proud of my team's effort. Point being, when a film, or rather, a great film happens, it calls the shots (no pun intended, that sounded better in my mind). The film is boss and everyone and everything else are just "Despicable Me"-like minions tasked with satiating its every last desire. I mean we had 16-20 hour days and I wouldn't have it any other way. We pushed right down to the wire to deliver a final product yet the film just became bigger than us and only when we accepted our fate (after cutoff), did the work become gratifying. See sometimes you achieve the goal and sometimes you fall short, but either way you can win or lose. If you achieve your goal but don't grow, don't learn, I believe you've lost and vice versa. The same goes for falling short of the goal: if you grow, learn and enjoy the ride, you've won; you're better off than someone who has stayed inside their comfort zone and just met their target. You might say i'm crazy but if you're always striving to be better, you're bound to eventually beat the guy (or girl) who just does the bare minimum and collects their salary at the end of the month.

Oh wow, this rant just got deep. I'm not trying to be controversial, I promise; that last part is just a metaphor.

Doing what I do, freelancing, you often find yourself in a place where you don't have a salary and you're waiting for a phone call or email to come in promising you work or the possibility of work (an audition/casting). I've always wanted to not have to live that way, i'm not about that life, which is evident in my stress levels and frequent acne breakouts (shout out to all the make-up artists out there ;). Most freelancers will tell you, the best way to alleviate the problem is to make your own work (or sleep your way up the hierarchy, which MY constitution won't allow me to do). My production company, Lekholo Moving Pictures, has just come into being with the 48 hour film project being its first production (link coming soon), a vehicle via which I intend to make my own work and thus alleviate my problem. "Be careful what you wish for" much... this pro-active approach has brought about more work, more opportunities and more ideas which keep me up at night, thus placing me firmly in the eye of the storm. Scary but exciting because I know what the rewards are: more work, which in a weird way, means less stress for me... i'm about THAT life.

Alrighty then *Jim Carey voice*, time for me to stop this rant. As you can tell by the mixed up nature of this post, I still need rest after last weekend. I hope I have done something for you with this slice of my mind; feel free to share your thoughts. Dig your heels in when the world tries to push you over, the best is yet to come... Have a best week (no typo), til next time as usual tell-a-friend!