Great News about FGH moving along! Finally

I guess you really have to hit bottom to dig your way back out. (If you read my previous post you will know what I am talking about).

Late last week, I finally decided to do a Vision Board... I had been wanting to do one for a long time now. For years I had a bulletin board where I would make little collages from images and text. But when I moved to LA my places have been so small there was no room. In my last place I made collages on just regular paper... but have been wanting to do a mammoth vision board. I completely believe that what you put out there comes to fruition. Mediation fueled by action equals results. So for the last year I have been collecting magazines (okay stealing them from doctors offices and - well vet offices) then this last week I finally started cutting out text and graphics... I even photoshopped a little here and there. And I also printed some images from the net, if I could not find or create what I wanted.

Then Sunday... when I was having a particularly bad day because a friend was giving me the cold shoulder aka the silent treatment... again... I decided to turn it around... and I started cutting out the images and laying them out.

The largest segment was, of course, the film. And when later that day I was finally putting smaller panels of what I had completed , it was one large collage, I received a phone call from Ariana. She helped me a few years ago when we were looping. One of my lead actors moved to Taos, New Mexico and Ariana helped us loop her lines for the film. She did a fabulous job... and Sunday Ariana decided to check up on the films progress. When she saw I was still struggling to finish, she called me and offered to help. Slicing her fees and doing some work deferred. (WOW this vision board stuff really works!)

We talked for a while... not just about the film... it is clear to see she is one cool cat!

Now all we need to do is to fly her here or fly me and the project there (she is in Northern California). And waalaa... we have an editor!

http://ariflowerimages.com/

To see Ariana click here and click on the filmmaker link http://www.ismschism.com/

Of course there is always a catch... since I have been out of work since May, I cannot afford to do flying in either direction... therefore we will again miss the deadline for Sundance. But you never know... miracles do happen.

When I started this project, I just began shooting and hoped everything would fall into place. I received the location of the old Long Beach Animal Shelter to film on - and went to Wyoming to open the film...

Here is a quote that is on my Vision Board

"In fact, the ability to start out upon your own impulse is fundamental to the gift of keeping going upon your own terms, not to mention the further and more fulfilling gift of getting started all over again never resting upon ones oars of success or in the doldrums of disappointment... getting started, keeping going, getting started again-- in art and in life, it seems to me this is the essential rhythm..." Seamus Heaney.

I am very passionate about everything I do and touch. About living life. When I set out in life embarking upon adulthood (have been thinking about all this lately because of my ever silent friend who is a blast from the past) I wanted to experience life to the fullest. I did not want to just travel some place I wanted to live it and experience it and learn the local culture. America is so rich and diverse and from growing up in conservative Cleveland suburbs I knew that there was so much more out there - that people would form their opinions but I wanted to decide for myself - I wanted to LIVE and EXPERIENCE what this world and AMERICA has to offer --. I have lived in New York City, Wyoming, Colorado, San Diego, Los Angeles and been in every state in America (except Hawaii) and I have camped on the Arctic Circle in Alaska having driven to Alaska from Wyoming alone (albeit with my dog and my cat)... I almost died from hypothermia in the Adirondacks on a backpacking trip when it snowed 8 inches... I wanted to feel everything passionately from pain and sorrow to overwhelming joy.

Here is another good quote I just heard today...

Moderation in all things is a mantra we've been hearing a lot about of late. It is healthy. It is sane. It is morally correct. It is also very boring.

I much prefer people with passions. There is nothing more exciting than watching someone fall so deeply in love- with a food, an object, a way of life- that they throw caution to the wind and follow their heart. Although they may not be entirely reasonable, I find that people who allow themselves obsessions are much more interesting than those who don't.
Ruth Reich

I'll take passion over moderation any day. Oh how much more interesting it truly is!