Every so often I look at the title of my blog and realize that I'm not giving you guys as much "production" as just plain "diary". For that, I apologize, but I'll address the reasons behind that today.
I currently work as a "lone wolf". I'm self employed. My own boss. Make my own hours. King of my domain...to a point. This all sounds great, but in reality it creates problems most of the employed population doesn't have to deal with in their every day lives. In ways, we all set our own deadlines, but at work, most of the time, someone else sets them for us. Even in life deadlines are set for us. This sale ends today or the kids (I have none and that does simplify things) have a project due next Monday. Whatever it is, 80% of the time I set my own deadlines. Even with recent clients it's more when I can fit the work into my schedule than when they need things done. That should be great, but it carries a need for balance.
When you make your own work decisions how do you balance it with life in general. I need to finish an edit on this short that is long overdue for my own self-imposed deadline. Sometimes, putting the finish off on a film is important to keep in line with upcoming film festivals. If you won't be ready for this year's maybe don't finish for another month so it will fit into the timeline requirements for next year. Junk like that. I've got the shows and I need to reschedule the shoot for the "File Error" and post a new webpage to raise funds for "Alien Vengeance III-D". All of that would be easy enough if I was a bachelor, with an apartment and a new car that some dealership takes care of for me. However, I'm a married guy, approaching very early middle age, with a 12 year old house, a 6 year old work SUV, and a 16 year old daily driver that I try to maintain myself. I'm trying to get back into the sleep pattern of a normal human being, lose some weight, and do some repairs on the house. Some I'm doing myself and some we're hiring people to do for us.
So, my schedule goes something like, work, house, work, personal, work, car, work, work, sleep, eat, exercise, work. During "File Error" sleep, exercise and house will suffer. No two ways around it. The movie will dominate my life for 3-4 weekends. In between props will need preparing and cards will need archiving. The key is to find a time when my work will least disrupt Nancy's life and the lives of other people around us so that I have a structure to drop back into when the dust settles.
Honestly, I don't know how my friends with kids do it. There's also the waiting game, while I try to schedule stuff, but it takes days to get pieces of information. My off work schedule has had me playing phone tag with two friends since the weekend.
Today, the termite inspectors come, so they'll be disrupting my afternoon. I'm uploading the show for tomorrow (CGM-TV) and I thought while the computers work I'd do some yard work. Then, if after they're gone Nancy has some time to shoot a quick episode of "The Simplest Things" we'll get that done. Afterwards, we'll have lunch and she'll head to the Pharmacy for a few hours. I'll probably do grunt work then. Process some photos for a client I'm undercharging and hopefully (if I have any energy left) shoot some F/X sequences. Stop motion and miniature stuff, which is terribly time consuming, but I absolutely LOVE.
Thanks for reading. I may fire off another of these theraputic entries later today. Been up for about 4 hours now. That sleep cycle thing isn't going real well.
I currently work as a "lone wolf". I'm self employed. My own boss. Make my own hours. King of my domain...to a point. This all sounds great, but in reality it creates problems most of the employed population doesn't have to deal with in their every day lives. In ways, we all set our own deadlines, but at work, most of the time, someone else sets them for us. Even in life deadlines are set for us. This sale ends today or the kids (I have none and that does simplify things) have a project due next Monday. Whatever it is, 80% of the time I set my own deadlines. Even with recent clients it's more when I can fit the work into my schedule than when they need things done. That should be great, but it carries a need for balance.
When you make your own work decisions how do you balance it with life in general. I need to finish an edit on this short that is long overdue for my own self-imposed deadline. Sometimes, putting the finish off on a film is important to keep in line with upcoming film festivals. If you won't be ready for this year's maybe don't finish for another month so it will fit into the timeline requirements for next year. Junk like that. I've got the shows and I need to reschedule the shoot for the "File Error" and post a new webpage to raise funds for "Alien Vengeance III-D". All of that would be easy enough if I was a bachelor, with an apartment and a new car that some dealership takes care of for me. However, I'm a married guy, approaching very early middle age, with a 12 year old house, a 6 year old work SUV, and a 16 year old daily driver that I try to maintain myself. I'm trying to get back into the sleep pattern of a normal human being, lose some weight, and do some repairs on the house. Some I'm doing myself and some we're hiring people to do for us.
So, my schedule goes something like, work, house, work, personal, work, car, work, work, sleep, eat, exercise, work. During "File Error" sleep, exercise and house will suffer. No two ways around it. The movie will dominate my life for 3-4 weekends. In between props will need preparing and cards will need archiving. The key is to find a time when my work will least disrupt Nancy's life and the lives of other people around us so that I have a structure to drop back into when the dust settles.
Honestly, I don't know how my friends with kids do it. There's also the waiting game, while I try to schedule stuff, but it takes days to get pieces of information. My off work schedule has had me playing phone tag with two friends since the weekend.
Today, the termite inspectors come, so they'll be disrupting my afternoon. I'm uploading the show for tomorrow (CGM-TV) and I thought while the computers work I'd do some yard work. Then, if after they're gone Nancy has some time to shoot a quick episode of "The Simplest Things" we'll get that done. Afterwards, we'll have lunch and she'll head to the Pharmacy for a few hours. I'll probably do grunt work then. Process some photos for a client I'm undercharging and hopefully (if I have any energy left) shoot some F/X sequences. Stop motion and miniature stuff, which is terribly time consuming, but I absolutely LOVE.
Thanks for reading. I may fire off another of these theraputic entries later today. Been up for about 4 hours now. That sleep cycle thing isn't going real well.
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