#WHYISLIFEWORTHLIVING






The Beginning of the Making of

Friday, December 16, 2011


someday. by avalonne hall is taking a new direction. When I first started my the girl from hk, ldn & sf blog, it was solely for the purpose of documenting my style. After I made the decision to abandon it, I started this blog and my blog became more writing oriented, which I absolutely love. I miss documenting my outfits, because I miss my photo sessions with Caro, but I just love writing and expressing my thoughts, opinions, hopes and dreams.

At the beginning of the year, my blog was going strong. I blogged religiously and frequently, it felt good to have a routine and write regularly. But I got "busier" towards the end of the semester, i.e. I was kind of busy, but mostly just lazy and felt slightly uninspired and unmotivated. Once I graduated, I was still in a demotivated mindset. Even when I moved to New York in June, I still didn't pick it back up and it felt so awful, but I just didn't feel the urge to document anything.

I started again at the beginning of November, because I told myself enough is enough! Granted, I started to get busy from mid July to end of October, so that's why I started blogging again in November, but only for three days. How pathetic is that? So my last week from December 6th to December 15th, I had the MOST STRESSFUL nine days of my life. No exaggeration. Now is the time for me to just let go and release that stress into my writing. I am completely physically, mentally and emotionally stressed out, burnt out and exhausted. I worked on this ultra low budget feature film as the second assistant director. It was one hell of a learning experience. I won't go into too much detail, but I'm glad that I was thrown into this situation and position (I volunteered) and I gained so much experience and I've grown up so much over these past days.

Now I am absolutely confident that I have the mentality, emotional stability and strength, competence, passion and motivation to MAKE MY VERY FIRST SHORT FILM. When I say make I mean write, direct and produce. I already have a first draft and I haven't touched it in three weeks, since I've been so busy, but after tomorrow, I want to do rewrites and work on it. I will lock down a pretty decent draft by the end of the year. My goal from that point is to campaign and raise money for this project. I have confidence in myself that I can sell my idea and raise awareness and peak people's interest. Then when I am raising money, I will be finding crew and I'll try to lock down an actor for the male lead. It's NOW OR NEVER at this point. On December 10th, I "celebrated" my sixth month in New York. I've been here for half a year now! It's shocking how fast time has gone by and I don't know if I've really achieve much since June 2011. What I have achieved:

1. Assistant to an independent producer (July 2011)
2. Art intern on Revenge for Jolly (August 2011)
3. Set intern on Sinister (September - October 2011)
4. Additional Set Production Assistant on The Dark Knight Rises (November 2011)
5. Office PA Intern, then Second Assistant Director on Me, You and Five Bucks (December 2011)

I don't know if that's a lot or not? But I know I have to bust my ass in order to make my film and hopefully work on this feature in February till April. Which means I'll be shooting my short in April, if all goes well. And I need to stop working on movies for free. Note to self: I really need to stop interning. I am so exhausted, but I love it. As tired I am, I have loved every minute of it, because I know I'm gaining the skill sets to be a reliable, efficient and business-minded filmmaker. I always thought I was 100% right brained, but after this second assistant director position experience, I've noticed that I'm pretty left brained too. Since the second assistant director job is completely administrative and not creative. It's good to know that I'm an artist who considers logistics when it comes to making a movie.

I want my blog to be a place where I document my journey of making my short film and making it a reality. I can talk and write about it, but the reality is that it's now or never and I better make it happen. I can't just sit on my ass and be all talk. I have to keep reminding myself that this has to happen, because my future is completely up in the air. I have no idea what's going to happen to me in June 2012 when my OPT expires. I am deathly afraid of not knowing, but all I can do is make a movie that I'm proud of. I want to build working relationships and work with hardworking, dedicated, talented people who love their craft. The reality is that no matter how big a movie is, there is corruption and/or lack of morale and low work ethic, but I want to create a working environment where people have fun and get shit done basically. It's okay to have fun, but work hard and fast. There has to be a balance or else it's not worth it.

How will my short film stand out? Well every film needs a niche right? What's my niche? Honesty. Let's skip all the bullshit and let's be real for once. Fuck Hollywood endings. The boy doesn't get the girl. They don't fall in love. Life goes on. What's our purpose here? What happens in the end?

I am ready to kick start my career. Who's with me?

9 comments:

  1. i am!

    seriously, am excited to see how your short film develops, as well as following your journey as an auteur in the making.

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  2. As an aspiring filmmaker myself, I'm totally with you!

    Good luck. :)

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  3. Oh hell yes! I think you've got potential to be a great film maker, you're an awesome person already. So why not? ;) I'd love to see your work someday!

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  4. looking forward to this! I always liked the way you talked about your dreams and the things that make you excited about life...I missed it!

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  5. I love reading your blog because you remind me of what I truly want in me life&to not bullshit anymore. Simply you inspire me (: And I honestly think you'll do great because you have such motivation&sometimes that's all you need!!

    -Tina.

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  6. Wow, that's absolutely fantastic. As much as it sounds like you've been killer busy, the things you've gotten to do sound absolutely fantastic and, to be honest, I'm a bit jealous.

    I'm so glad you are back though, and I can't wait to hear more of what you're going to have going on.

    If you ever need a photographer, let me know ;)

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  7. Absolutely delighted to hear I be may be seeing your voice back on my blogreader again! I've just graduated, and only now realizing how much I want to be in the film industry. I can't wait to read about your experience with the short. Movies always tend to disappoint me in their endings, especially romantic comedies. When conflict is tied up in a little bow, it makes what I just experienced ring false.

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  8. yes yes yes can't wait for your short film to come out! ahhhhhh i wish i could be in new york to help you out with this ( although i'm pretty sure i'd screw up, oh well )

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