Day One

My senior year of high school I kind of made a reputation for myself. I told everyone that I was going to be a filmmaker. I planned to go to a film school but later settled for a community college with a film/broadcasting program. I later dropped out of that school to work in an office doing work that had no relation in any way to film. In recent months I've found myself inspired again. I was tired of hearing stories of people I know partaking in artistic ventures while I sit back and go about my menial day to day life trying to get by. I began to write the screenplay that I wanted to write years ago. Just the idea of writing got me excited. Creating a world of characters and making them tell a story, it's like playing God... Not that I have a God complex by any means. This was thrilling. I was finally taking it seriously. The first night that I sat down at my computer and started plotting out... well... the plot. I was so proud of myself. Then the writer's block hit me like a fucking brick wall (can brick walls hit you, or do you hit them?).

I don't have any formal education when it comes to writing other than one screenwriting class that I took at the aforementioned community college. A class that I attended regularly, but rarely participated in when it came to assignments. The only reason I passed the class was because the instructor was a really cool guy who was easy to get along with and I assume passed me because I at least displayed some sort of liking for the subject, or at least I assume. I thought it would be easier than this. Everything these days is DIY (Do It Yourself for those who are not in the "know"). Hell, I even started a podcast on my own because anyone can have their own radio show if they want to. I guess this was my first step into my artistic venture.

I started the comedy talk show podcast called Minor Detail in April of 2008. I thought that maybe this hobby of podcasting would take off. I thought that like some of the podcasts I still enjoy listening to, this podcast would gain some attention and I would be able to make some money off of it. It sounds so cool to make money off of doing something you truly enjoy, but it has not worked out that way two and a half years into doing it on a regular basis. Sure, I've gotten some donations from the couple dozen or so regular listeners we have on the podcast, but it has not come close to equal the amount of money that I have put into the equipment to make an internet radio show that sounds professional, and that's okay. At this point I see Minor Detail as a hobby. It's something fun and creative that I can do on a weekly basis that I enjoy and it's an outlet for myself. Having my own talk show is fun, but it's still not something that I can do for a living. I'm 27 and I still have not become the filmmaker that I told everyone that I was going to be nine years ago.

So tonight I started this blog to chronicle the writing process and, hopefully at some point, the filming process of an indie film. Maybe this blog will help me continue to write and work out all the problems and writer's block that I come across during the process as well as tell you a little about myself along the way. This is day one of "The Chronicles of an Aspiring Filmmaker."