Outpouring of the positive

Today's a great day!  Well, honestly, most of my days since I've started this "love project" have been great, even the crazy, frustrating, exhausting, time crunching days.  It all feels like living to me! 

I heard from the Scene Magazine writer today who sent along some Meryl info that he learned regarding her shooting "The Deer Hunter" in Cleveland.  I had to tell him that was not one of the films on my list but it made me feel great that he's clearly thinking of this story as more than just an article.  I sucked him in!  It really is contagious.  If I get to talking about A to Z with anyone, people start to get pumped and want to be involved somehow. In fact, today I had another shoot in Lodi (paying gig) and I spoke with both of my castmates, the son and husband on the shoot.  They want to be involved in a future scene!  I want to use the son in "The River Wild" movie and the husband will be great in "Out of Africa".  Ultimately I want to get the producer/director who shot our video in Lodi, to be a shooter for one of the future scenes.  I'm waiting for his schedule to free up and I'll be asking!  Oh, you know I will!  I've lost all pride or bashfulness when it comes to A to Z. I have myself convinced that it helps everyone in some way or another and I'm beginning to see evidence of that fact.  

I heard through the grapevine that Noel Maitland, the Dir. of Photog. from the "B" scene, will be using our scene as a feature on his reel.  Yippee!  That means he is happy with both the quality and the acting.  I also heard from several people that they loved my Aussie accent, well at least those who could understand it.  It was great to hear words like authentic, well done, an inspiration!  Am I lucky or what?

What's next, you ask?  I'm waiting to hear from Devon and Jeff  for the "D" scene.  I've sent scripts and the clip of the scene and it should be a fun one.  It's light, not at all dramatic ... even a little humor in it!  Humor is hard to find in a Meryl movie but it could be found here when we actually shoot it.  I really want to get on that asap so we can remain a bit ahead of schedule.  Oh and I just booked another voice over!  I just knew that if I got good and busy, my other work would pick up too, thank goodness!

Last thing to mention is the proud factor.  I have NEVER in my life had more people say they were proud of me than I have since I began this venture.  I'm not just talking about my Mom, either.  I mean family, friends, colleagues, actors, crew members ... they have all said it!  It blows my mind.  I've been looking at this year long project as a labor of love and the biggest of opportunities but oddly enough, I've not once considered failure.  I've fretted about missed deadlines or obtaining crew members or even syncing schedules but I've never thought about quitting or failing.  I realize people may dislike what I do or how I do it but I still don't think of that as actual failure. As long as I continue to produce my best, whatever my best is for any given day, I consider it all a huge success.  Other affirmations that give me that warm, fuzzy feeling, are the random people who know every inner thought because they have been behind the scenes reading my blog or Carla Petroski who pulled me aside at the Cleveland Auto Show to tell me that she thought it was amazing that I feature other actors besides myself.  The list of daily affirmations goes on and on and I especially love when someone tells me all about what I'm doing and I can't even guess who clued them in on it!

It's all a precious, wonderful thing.  Now if I could just get a new laptop, I'd be thrilled beyond belief!