The Juggling Act

I filmed a video blog last weekend, but after a week of not being able to find the time to upload it online, I've decided to nix it. Also, it was overlong, and in some portions, over and underexposed, so it's probably for the best I don't upload it.

I've been struggling lately with the juggling act of taking care of so many different things. I'm pursuing several career paths, all in hope that I can get the hell out of Social Security soon. It's tough, though, keeping so many balls on the air.

For starters, I've got my return to UMBC. I'm happy to report that the Writing for Film class is actually gotten better. Mrs. Scooby Doo, the teacher, is finally warming up to me. I'm connecting better to the students also.

I'm writing one interesting short film right now for this class. This project is due in about two weeks. I don't foresee I'll be able to make this short anytime soon--it's the second writing assingment later this spring which I hope will be my next film--but I think this piece has some future possibilities. It's called THE BLADE. It's a horror piece, and it involves an agoraphobic man trapped in his house while a self-possesed guillotine blade is keeping the city outside under siege. Won't say more about the piece for now, but it could be expanded into a feature film later on.

I got UMBC going, and I also got Horror-101.com. Last week, I was having lots of pessimistic thoughts about the future of Horror-101, because the website will take considerably work to establish at a good level. We're doing decent now, having been online about 6 months, but we need more hits, and specifically we need more subscribers. I got several backdue articles to write for the site, and we're continuing to update the site's features. After having some doubts, I've decided that the site's worth continuing, at least for the rest of this year.

I've got to figure out a way to finish PRETENTIOUS POOCH, the short I filmed in October of 2006. I've been meaning to have a finish soundtrack on the film so it can be submitted to some film festivals later this year. The challenge here is that I wanted to secure a piece of music from the indie band The Foundry Field Recordings, and I've been lackadaisical about contacting them and asking for the rights. Also, I'd planned to work with a local friend of mine to finish the music for the rest of the film, and we've not started on that. I don't want this film to sit around unfinished for too long.

I'm bit concerned about money too. Some of these things I'm planning to do will require some mulah.. and my financial situation is pretty dire right now, and will continue to be so for the rest of the year unless I become clever about making extra cash.

So, I'm struggling to keep all these 'balls' in the air. Fortunately, my coffee habit has given me much energy this winter, and I don't have a relationship to take time away from these things (although I do feel a bit lonely these days). I got some smart thinking to do to figure out the most expeditious way to finish some of these projects, to keep this juggling act.