I don't want to say playtime's over, because it never really will be, but after the fun of filming Zomblog and the exhilaration of the CrimeFighters premiere, I'm faced with things threatening to get very much back to 'normal'. So as far as I see it, I have two choices:
1. Slip back into working in my minimum wage job and end up exactly where I was before making CrimeFighters.
2. Work my ass off to turn the filmmaking into a business, on the one hand to create new opportunities for employment, and on the other to market my own projects.
Since 1 isn't even an option, it's time to put into practice what I learned while making CrimeFighters, and to some extent Zomblog; that collaboration with the right people can get you pretty far. That I need help from other people in the areas in which I'm not so good (web design, business, money). That accepting the less creative filmmaking jobs isn't a terrible thing (and certainly not a terribly paid thing) as long as I stay true to my creative goals and make sure I do those pet projects as well as bread-and-butter stuff.
Personally, over the next year I want CrimeFighters to screen around the country, Zomblog to catch on big time with fans around the world, to meet new people and explore strange new... no hang on, got a bit lost there. Although I do want us to have a Zomblog stall at this year's Leeds ComicCon. And I do want to make a Zomblog movie, and perhaps a smaller movie before that.
It would be too easy to get scared and depressed about the amount of work there is to do, but then I remember that CrimeFighters is already made and waiting to have the (excuse me) shit marketed out of it, to reach new audiences and film festivals, to seek out new life and new civilisations... ahem. The point is, we've done a lot of the creative hard work, and now we have something to market and bargain with. Same with Zomblog. So I need to remember what we've achieved and enjoy it along the way. After all, when I was a kid I wanted to be a film director with my own film company, not a businessman or accountant. But it's a long, long journey and sometimes you have to wear the grown-up hat...
Tony and I are essentially premiering two features in one year, which makes me smile, and wilt a little as I recall the hard work it's taken to do it. But now MilesTone Productions needs to function as part of something bigger; this York Collective thing I'm always on about, which involves a core group of us consolidating our skills and efforts to go further than any of us have gone before...
It's clear to me that I should stop writing this particular blog, since it seems to be afflicted with a case of Star Trek. It's time to stop writing and just Make It So. I'm SORRY!
