It was a mad March. Lots of stress at the beginning of the month as my students got through 12 short films in just over 2 days. That was exciting but also overwhelming, especially as it involved set building and some other logistical challenges. They performed well though, so I am very proud. Elsewhere, my earlier cohort of students graduated at the Royal Festival Hall. That was a lovely occasion to see.
Then later in the month I made an executive decision to wind up Idiosyncratic Media. I had set the company up on my fortieth birthday as a vehicle to make more projects with but the reality is that the costs to even run the company outweigh the small revenue that it makes, so it was time to lose it. Sentimentally I felt it was worth it, but that’s crap business logic and I’m not prepared to subsidise it for the sake of vanity. If I need a company in future I will set one up, but there seems little point in the next few years while I am back to a full-time job and have no films planned.
Somehow, I am managing to keep my own hobbies going, which I felt was important given the stress at work. I used to forgo my own interests when doing something big at work, but I think it contributed to a longer form of burnout and made reconnecting with creative things very hard. I think it is far better to sustain even piecemeal engagement that grounds me rather than stopping/starting.
Musically, I am still stuck in a mastering hell with one project, but have started recording another just to prevent myself from going crazy. The new project builds on the ethos of the finished one, but the approach is slightly different (that was made using an iPhone, this will be made using predominantly stylophone products.) I don’t know yet if I will record seventy draft projects and then whittle them back, as that leads to a lot of attrition and the workflow above (Stylophone Beat patched into a Valeton CP-100 pedal and into Logic Pro) is more time consuming that an iPhone into GarageBand via iRig. That said, the iRig patching has led to the mastering being a pain in the ass, so it was a false economy of ease. I’m sure it will work out in the end.
Still managing to type away on a story too. Not ready to share much on that. Elsewhere there is still a lot of family drama; in-laws stuck in Tehran during the bombing, other family attempting to move home, Mum in and out of hospital for a planned visit. Real life doesn’t seem to offer much rest/relaxation at the moment. Hopefully next month will be a bit calmer.
READ: Target Iran: Drawing Red Lines in the Sand – William John Cox, The 13 Clocks – James Thurber, Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Truman Capote, The Sea – John Banville, What They Don’t Teach You At Film School – Camille Landau and Tiare White
WATCHED: Pulling Teeth, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Killer of Sheep, The Thief of Bagdad, The Lady Vanishes, Straw Dogs, L’Atalante, In The Heat of the Night, Brakhage, TVTV: Video Revolutionaries, Méditerranée, Blur: To The End, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man
