Something off-topic I wanted to mention first. I was thinking about "The Last Gods" today, and about how Balbimach says that one of the best things about humanity is our ability to work. That we don't just make things magically appear. As I was thinking about this, I recalled that part of the Gospel where Jesus and his disciples are on the boats, and Jesus has them cast the nets into the water. They can barely pull up the nets afterwards because they are overflowing with fish. I think it's interesting and significant that Jesus didn't just make the fish appear when all of them were sitting around on shore. They physically cast the nets out, and physically pulled the fish into the boat. I think that says something about work. Maybe it doesn't; maybe I'm crazy.

Anyway, I've been working on "Rocketfalls" for awhile now, and its coming along. Thank God for that. Things started off bumpy at first. But now, I've only got one more scene to shoot, sound work to do (with the help of Pete), Emily is doing a voice for me (yay!), Trevor is doing animation, Jim is editing, and Ian is helping me with another set of animation. Also, I have this guy Seth doing music, and I'm exited about that. I've had a lot of help, and that's really been a Godsend. Melinda's done a TON of stuff (costumes, chairs, etc), Chad helped out a lot, and various friends from school pitched in here and there.

And I thank God for my better-than-usual attitude about things. Usually, whenever something starts to go wrong, I feel like the whole world is crushing me. Just before we began shooting, I watched "Wag the Dog" in my CFV 370 class. In it, Dustin Hoffman plays this Hollywood producer who helps fake a war. Everytime something goes wrong (and a LOT of things went wrong, BIG things), Hoffman would just wave his hands, and go, "Aw, this is nuthin'! This is nuthin'! One time, I was shooting Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and three of them died before principle photography was finished! (etc, etc)." So, everytime something went wrong on set, I tried to remember Hoffman's character, and go, "Aw, this is nuthin'! We can fix this! This is a piece of cake!" Stupid as it sounds, it works to some extent. It got me past the whining stage and into the "okay, now let's do something about it" stage. Filmmaking is a constant compromise; it's problem-solving; it's a bitch.

I will say, after this whole thing is done, I'm not sure if I'll direct ever again. Honestly. I'm really unsure about that.