Day 163: The Secret Ingredient

Day 163.  I officially pass the editing baton for the documentary to my producing partner this morning.  He’s the one sitting in the fancy editing bay now.  He’s the one sifting through all the footage and the scripts and working with Dan the Amazing Editor Man now.  I’m the one in my new office, writing.  I love it!  It’s going smoothly until I hear, “hey Kel, do you know if we put the Grozier call anywhere?”  “Yes, we did.  Let me think where it went in.”  I momentarily take the familiar seat where I spent so many hours during my editing crusade.  “It should be in scene 5.”  It is not in scene 5.  It’s in the card bin but somehow I never transferred it over to Dan the Amazing Editor Man’s scene bin.  So therefore, Dan the Amazing Editor Man didn’t include it in his rough cut of scene 5.  Crap.  Producing Partner is quite agitated by this news.  “Sorry,” I offer.  “I have no idea why I wouldn’t have included the string out I did.  I put it in the script.  A total oversight on my part.”  A few minutes later I have an idea.  “Let’s just let Dan do a rough cut of that scene from my string out.”  Producing Partner just gives me a talk to the hand gesture.  I gently ask, “Why are you already so annoyed?”

The Secret Ingredient

In his defense, he’s coming off a long, grueling show he just finished on Friday.  This week is a transition week for him.  He’s grumpy.  Not to mention the obvious…I’m not the only one who has some serious baggage around this documentary film.  I’m not the only one who has been working on it for the last four and a half years.  I’m not the only one it has almost killed.  And this is when I realize he’s missing a key ingredient in this early reentry back into our passion project.  Why was I finally able to do what I hadn’t been able to do the previous year and a half—get through all my editing work?  I let go of all the baggage.  I stopped being pissed off that the project was the bane of my existence, robbing my life and sucking my soul dry.  I stopped hating the project.  I started loving it instead.  Love is the secret.  I share my realization with Producing Partner.  “You have to let go of everything that’s happened up to this point.  Forget about all that history, crap and pain.  From this point forward just love the project.  See it with fresh eyes.  Rediscover it.  Love everything about it.  Just love it.  That’s how we’re going to finally finish it.”  I can see the tension release from his brow.  He spent the rest of the afternoon loving our documentary film.  I spent the rest of the afternoon loving my screenplay.  We both got a ton of shit done.  I’m loving it!

Until tomorrow, create from what you have…and love it.

Kelli Joan Bennett is a filmmaker, actress, writer, entrepreneur, advocate for creative thinking and Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Think Outside The Box Inside The Box Media. Follow @FromWhatYouHave