Friday, October 16, 2009

Offers for Support Continue

I never cease to be amazed by the overwhelming support from friends and family as it relates to this film. We have been working on it for quite some time, and the offers to help keep coming in. It is the only way something like this happens, for certain.

Brian Thacker, an improviser/marketer/entrepreneur, just called me to offer help in scanning. Not only did he offer his own scanner, he is coming over tonight to work on the project with me. And while writing this, another loaner for a scanner has come in from my friend Paul. The network of people helping make this film grows daily, and it is a sign of so many wonderful things. I am so humbled by the continuing stream of willing volunteers to make it take shape.

There have been moments of solitude while working on this film, and others of loud and outright joy about it. Oh, how anxious I am to share the final product with everyone! I ache to say that it is finished, and available on DVD! I ache to send invitations to screening events in Raleigh, Chicago and D.C. I ache to host a wildly exciting fundraising party, where celebrations of finishing the project can be heard and felt from blocks away.

But aching doesn't get a project finished. And being hopeful about the outcome doesn't get you one step closer to wrapping it up. Sitting down and working on the thing is the only way to get it finished, and I am happy to have clarity of thought to make that happen. The past few months have seen a lot of change in my life. A lot of change. And so the project has not seen as much progress as I wished for it.

My friend, Doc, who has helped me with sage advice and digitizing tapes, told me many months ago that post-production is a great roller coaster of emotions. How right he has been! This part of the project has been so challenging for so many reasons.

Surry and I were riding in the car one day, and I laughed at how challenging the process has been. How foolishly I was to think that it could have been finished in merely a few months! We have poured our blood, sweat and tears into this project, for sure. While driving past the Irregardless Cafe with Surry, I sighed a breathe of relief at the thought of doing a second film. How much easier that one will be, now that I have learned so many lessons the hard way. How much simpler it could be to start and finish a second documentary, now having had the experience of working on this first one.

It is days like this, where support floods in, that I am able to keep my head down and focus on finishing this project. Therefore, one of my next posts will include a projected timeline for finishing the film. It will be done.

My cup runneth over.

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