Making your first movie is a piece of cake, look at BLOOD TIES...

Making your first film is all about convincing yourself you can do it. And you can. Anybody can.

We've grown up on watching TV and movies. Subconsciously we know - more or less - how to construct a scene. A bunch of scenes strung together and suddenly we have a movie. Might be a short. Maybe a feature. Might be fantastic, hinting at abilities previously unknown, certainly unproven before now, or it maybe we grew up watching a lot of really bad movies and worse TV and we get nominated for the worst excuse of a film ever made - and that would be pretty cool too.

Those we recruit and entrap on that first movie project also know how movies work - so they bring a lot to the table. Our enlisted cameramen and our actors, our best attempt at make up and special effects, the music and the sound and the artwork - they are all done by those who at best case have done it before and so know even more than we do, and at worst case have also watched a million shows of every sort. The collective knowledge/skill pool is well on its way, unencumbered by realistic expectations and the dreaded 'in retrospect'. Probably the single hardest thing of all is convincing yourself to just do it. Not a NIKE plug I swear... But the fear of failure stops us time and again.

Just the same - for some of us - delusions of grandeur overwhelm and squash our fears and before you really understand what's going on - you've done it. Made your first film! And when you look back, with all the struggles and the obstacles that stood in your way defeated, the now empty pockets and empty bank accounts and empty friends' favors account, the deep circles under your eyes and the few extra gray hairs - it turns out it really was a piece of cake.

But now... a few pats on the back. A greater standing in the community. A few accolades from the industry. And we either go back to our pre-completion existence or... we're faced with our Second Movie. Fear rears its many faces and the mythic struggle with our personal Hydra starts all over again.

In my own case, even while finishing post on BLOOD TIES, the quirky, international action epic that stretched me in ways sadistic medieval torture masters could not have envisioned, I was able to find brief respite in tackling the short film AM SESSION. Even that delivered 11 minute interlude of digital celluloid took nearly 8 months from start to completion. It can be found playing now on HBO.

It benefited from lesson learned, equipment purchased, and skills honed on BLOOD TIES, and I was able to confidently approach and conquer the directing, the editing, and the musical score.

After all, I had 100 minutes of feature film finished, this would be a piece of cake. And in retrospect it was.

But now... looming over my every conscience thought, the many-headed serpent's poisonous breath warm and fetid across the back of my neck... The Second Movie.

More coming soon...