- The most recent photo I could find of myself. (And no, there is no option to make photos smaller)
7/10/2021
I've recently learned that I can sometimes sound sarcastic so, sarcasm might be sprinkled into my future blog posts...
Man, where to start?
Well, I tend to start things in the hopes something great comes out of it. But then I always forget that things take time...lots...and lots...of time. As of right now I cannot promise consistent everyday posts. Either because something came up, or doing this might feel boring. But! I am a person who will at least try.
Now, how do I run away from a boring o'l life?
Simple. Projects.
A couple days ago I recently finished editing for a documentary called Broken. It's about homeless women in NYC. That's right. One of the richest cities in the world has people living on the streets.
The producer I work for is 82 years old and this is her second film. She used to be a professor in literature, has a lot of energy for her age, and has some problems with her memory. Despite her trouble remembering things here and there and her age, she's doing what she loves! And to me that's pretty awesome.
Back to Broken. I think she and my friend started filming in 2019. Once my friend and his wife moved out of NYC, he asked me to take his place in working on the documentary. At that time I was working with my dad cleaning up this mansion (a friend's place) we were Air B & Bing for. I agreed to work on Broken. At the time it had been a while since I worked on a film, but I was happy to get back into it. Also, this would be the first time I get to be paid on a film project.
Yesterday, I came to the producer's place (she doesn't have an office so we worked on the doc in her apartment) with a list of film festivals we should apply to. I thought it would take an hour, but the producer lost her memory pills. She said she we couldn't work unless she took one of those pills. IT took a while until we found them. She looked at the bottle and said, "I already took them." She got out of the kitchen and pulled out her chair to sit down. I was at a lost for words because either we wasted time looking for her pills, or that her last statement was false.
We finally sat down in front of her lap top. I was about to go to Filmfreeway (a website with thousands of film festivals) and the producer started talking about a friend she's known since he was a baby! She told me about his story. It was so interesting that I said, "That should be your next documentary."
It took 2 and a half hours to go through my list of 15 film festivals. In the end we put 13 film festivals in the shopping cart. Before I clicked "purchase," I did a quick prayer to God, "Please let Broken be successful! Please let us get in." I held my breath and *click.*
We did it. I only worked on this film for a year...but we did it. We still have to promote it. Which would be me posting it on social media, making some clips for Youtube and whatnot. But I can finally tell my friends and family that it's finished.
After the producer and I said our goodbyes (for the day), I was punching the air with enthusiasm! It's finished!!!!!
So now I'm at home and I don't have to meet the producer until next week. We usually meet once a week and the rest of my week is nothing. What do I do with my time now?
Well guess what? I have some footage from 2017. Footage of my bro, dad and I building a tiny home on wheels. Last week I went through the footage and labeled as much as I could of what was shown in each clip. I really want to finish this in two-three months. Hopefully!
Here's the link to the time-laps
Besides that I signed up for a roller skating dance class once a week. I like learning new things. Dance is fun and I really need to meet new people. I've been spending a lot of time at home siiiiiiince junior year of college.
Yeah, don't go to a commuter school. It's not fun.
Now for the stuff I should have put at the beginning of my first blog. If you've come this far, you are awesome.
I decided to do this hoping that something will change for me. That somehow if I practice putting myself out there I will build the confidence of being happy to share the films I make, the stories I write and whatever else I do; to friends, family or whoever. It's hard to put your stuff out there, and even harder to put your stuff out there when there's no audience. I just want to be proud of the things I've done because sometimes it can be kind of fun when there is no audience.
Best,
Emel