The Magic Key" Goal #5

When I was a little girl I started writing stories. In fact, since before I can remember; I have been writing stories, and about the time I learned how to spell I wrote a story about a girl who found a magical key that granted her as many wishes as she desired. In the end she found she had become so consumed, and power hungry by the key that she eventually wished it away.
Honestly, I can’t remember the whole story, but I think that is the gist of it.


Now, I have routinely begun to start most of my blog with an apology... this time it’s a big one. Forgive me readers, for I have sinned; it has been almost two months since my last blog.

We’ll just say I was so busy accomplishing goals, that I forgot to write them down. Does that work?
Great.


It’s not entirely false though, I have in fact been quite busy these past couple months perfecting the art of storytelling... I’ve so much to tell you all I’m not sure where to begin.
Let’s go back to the magic key.
As I said; Storytelling, to me, is an art. An art I have longed to become successful in since I was little, obviously. Growing up in the shire woods provided for quite the space to let an imaginative little girl loose with wild ideas. So, I utilized it.
To this day I find myself coming up with stories that usually take place in the midst of a sleepy, little town, or lost in the depths of a redwood forest. Ok, I’ll admit I’m a Twi-Freak...Twilight as in Vampires, not the Twilight Zone. (Team Edward).
What am I getting at? I decided it was time to be a grown up, and do something about all the stories that continually pecked at the back of my mind.
This past month I think I can legitimately say I made one of my dreams come true. Which brings me to a different aspect of my journey in storytelling.
About two years ago I discovered a great new realm of ways to bring stories to life... this great art is called “Film Making”. I fell in love with it. Every aspect; editing to the detail, splicing scenes, directing and crafting each scene, perfecting the set, coaching the actors, making the script breathe MY story.
Now I had dabbled in script writing as a child as well, and dreamed of someone, someday stumbling across it and realizing; The child prodigy had been hidden away in the shire forest all these years... needless to say it never happened, but I did decide to re awaken some of my script writing skills.
Of course the first thing I wanted to direct was “Breaking Dawn” (That’s the fourth book in the Twilight story for all of you uneducated out there). But, I was re directed in a much more practical direction, and told to start small...very very small, by a more experienced film maker. Turns out my church is flooded with more experienced film makers... hmmm... the wheels begin to turn.
With that in mind, and to make a long, and agonizing thought process of mine shorter; I began writing a story with no words. I began listening to music, which is the soul of where my stories begin, and writing. It soon became a project larger than a church skit, and smaller than an oscar nomination - not by much though.
I had this idea for a drama to music video stored away in my diary for... well too long, before I decided I didn’t need to be a film school graduate, or sponsored by Steven Spielburg to start my own film company. Things I have to re learn at least once a month. So, I sent out an email to all my little film minions, and said “Hey let’s start an indi film company”.
Ok, it didn’t exactly go like that, but never the less, I gathered a team and, to my surprise.... it thrived.

What I find myself in awe of still is the fire that ignites in a room full of artists who all breathe the same passion. Ideas begin to grow, and feed off one another. Papers, and notes are fluttering across the table in a frenzy, and frustration to perfect every last detail of our crafting masterpiece has the adrenaline of a hummingbird vibrating through the air. Smiles are cracking with the excitement of a child who’s been granted another cookie, and dreams are sparkling like polished diamonds in the eyes of all who are gathered around the table of life.
I couldn’t have ended up with a more perfect team. Not only did I whittle my team down to a photographer, a script writer, a set director, an assistant director, and producers assistant, but I landed a photographer who knows the art of lighting, and perfect angles like a professional D.P. should, two assistants who are on top of the things I don’t have time to think about, another little assistant who catches all the details I am too excited to think about, a set director who is eager, and serious, a script writer who might be the next child prodigy (after me of course), with a dad who has THE camera we needed.
It’s funny how things fall into place with the right people who have the same drive, and determination. Together we were the perfect team. So, we set out to make a movie, and become famous.

Within our planning meetings I could feel the intensity of brilliance in the creative conversations that bled into the late hours of the night, far past the times we set our meetings to end. Plans for future films would begin coming to life before we even had plans finished for our first film... that was when our brilliant little assistant would remind us to be responsible... she is younger than all of us... which goes to show; maturity has no age.
It is even hard for us to be apart of any social event without accidentally crawling into a corner, and begin feeding our film addictions like withdrawing crack addicts.

I once read a story about the first time Tim Burton, and Johnny Depp met. They were at a little cafe, and Tim burton was hiding in a corner booth with a cup of coffee, his hair a ragged mess while he vigorously scratched away at notes. He, and Johnny sat for hours shaking with caffeine pulsing through their system, wild eyed, and with ideas spilling onto the table faster than their mouths could keep up.
That story always reminds me of our film meetings. It gives me a visual of what driven passion looks like. What dreams coming true looks like on paper, what adrenaline can do when desires are awakened inside of the heart. Even as I write this now, my fingers are beginning to work faster than I can keep up, and my heart begins to beat so fast I can feel new ideas start to spin inside of my head.
With that said, months of this passed.... and shoot day arrived. The early morning sky holds only great memories for me... I never wanted to be up at 5am so badly.
There is something about early, dawn mornings before the sun has even begun to arise that breathes the excitement of new beginnings to me. This day was a new beginning I will never forget. Clip boards were ready, makeup kits being set up, tables assembled, papers signed, camera’s prepped, and “I dreamed a dream” playing subliminally in the back of all our minds as our eyes scanned the empty streets we were about to film, and inhaled the air of arising fame.
The moment came, and the words left a sweet taste on my tongue as they slipped through my lips.... “Action!”

I learned one very amazing thing in the process of all the dreaming coming true as I looked around at my hard working crew.... if you want something done you gotta do it yourself. In other words; no one is going to find you, and say “Hey, you look like you want to be a director, here’s a million dollars to produce a film”. Dreams are the product of hard work, they don’t just fall into your lap. And it sure feels so damn good when it’s really earned. The same way a good meal tastes the best when you’ve put your own work into it, and clothes always fit the best when it’s from your own hard earned money. Dreams are only dreams when they’ve been worked for, and when the work and effort has come from the depths of desire you have pined after for years.

When I wrote “The Magic Key”, even as a child I dreamed someday of publishing it. I wrote screenplays with every angle, and close up, and scene already planned out in my head. I wrote with passion, and with an end goal in my head. I always knew deep down what I was suppose to do, but I just recently figured it out. I think what we are initially created to do is most obvious when we are young, before we are marred with adulthood. Before we begin to take seriously “responsibility”, and what we’re “suppose” to do. When are minds are free, and wild, and don’t understand the concept of limitations, and rules. What if we just tap into that for a moment? How far could we get if we just let go... just for a second, and let the freedom of a child like faith invade us? What if we were all living from passion, and doing what we were always suppose to be doing? Maybe we would all be publishing our “Magic Key”.


“If you work HARD, and you are KIND it is amazing the places you will end up ... I promise” - Conan O’Brien, of the late great Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.