In The Trenches—The Founder’s Daily Report: Day 278: Crusade Time

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In The Trenches—The Founder’s Daily Report:  Day 278: Crusade Time

Day 278:  Ok, I have failed miserably this week at all of my goals.  I have not once done my 30 minutes of attention on my screenplay.  I have not edited at all this week so far.  I have been consumed with preparing for the Declare Your Dream Experimental Motivation Project Discussion and Workshop.  And I’m still not ready for it!  Oy.  I have a handful of wonderful folks who have RSVP’d to attend so at least we’ll have a nice gathering of dreamers.  There’s still so much to do though.  And do it I will, but today, I’m putting my foot down.  Today, I have to make time to edit on scene 5!

I had a breakfast meeting with Amazing Unexpected Mentor yesterday and when I told her I was back to editing on my doc she was all, “are you serious?  What’s wrong with it?”  I explained 1200 hours of footage, nobody knows it like me, what happened with my not so Dream Team of Editors and that I’m a better editor than I thought and I have to go in and do real rough cuts of each of my scenes instead of string outs, blah, blah, blah.  That wasn’t the reason for the meeting though.  We were actually discussing my second film project.  She generously read it for me this past weekend and we were talking it out, which way to go, what’s next, etc.  It was awesome.  The thing I was most excited about was the first thing out of her mouth was she saw it as a potentially huge movie in the vein of exactly the same movie I see it as.  So that’s exciting.  We’re on the same page.  We’re going to talk again next week.  Oh, and speaking of mentors, I’m so excited that my Women in Film Mentor is going to try and come to the Dream Discussion!  This is so very kind of her because she’s insanely busy.  Have I told you lately how much I love my mentors?  Well, I love my mentors.

But, I’m off topic.  Back to editing.  Back to starting an editing crusade.  My crusade for today, is after my breakfast meeting with Dear Friend—who by the way has an amazing column she’s working on and I’m trying to get her launched on the site—I’m going to sit down at the Avid and finish scene 5!  I don’t care how long it takes me.  If I have to work all night, I work all night.  If I can just get through this scene I think it will get me back on track.  You know how that is sometimes?  It’s like one small thing—a block—seems to be holding you back, psychologically.  This last part of scene 5 is a complicated emergency medical call on the freeway and I’m totally psyched out about it.  I have been for two weeks—thus, not a drop of editing has taken place.  There’s four cameras, four channels of audio and it feels impossible for me to edit.  But edit it I must.  If I write tomorrow morning that I didn’t do it, someone please kick my ass in a comment!  I will deserve it.

Until tomorrow, create from what you have…blocks you need to break.

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.

2 Comments

  1. Hi Kelli. Just wondering how you went about getting mentors? It sounds like a good idea.
    Thank you.

    • Hi Susan! Thank you for your comment and question. Mentors have been a good thing for me! I have two. The first one I got through the mentor program at Women in Film. They do it once a year. There is an application you fill out, you include letters of recommendations and then a panel, headed by Linda Weitlzer, work to find you a match. It’s about a three or four month process. You do have to be a member of the organization first. The second one came to me through a suggestion and referral from a dear friend when I was chatting with her about a challenge I was going through with one of my film projects. She said, “oh, you need to talk to my friend about that.” So that came about by total accident. It was an unexpected gift. 🙂

      Hope this answers your question. If you do decide to get a mentor, I wish you the best of luck in finding a great match for you and your goals.

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  1. In The Trenches—The Founder’s Daily Report: Day 286: Crusade Restart! | Think Outside the Box Inside the Box - [...] 286:  So, not long ago, back on Day 278,  I softly began a new editing crusade for my documentary. …

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