Welcome to 2006! Change is in the air

(Delayed reaction from January 1st follows:)
Sure, it's just another day, but symbolically a new year represents so much!

Here is a chance to change direction, to focus, to boldly go where you haven't gone before (which for most people is challenge enough!).

I don't make new year's resolutions, but the new year just happens to have coincided with a fairly major turning point in my life, so maybe I have accidentally made some resolutions!


New Year, New Direction
It all started last year when I was involved in an abortive attempt to make a film. It was a dive into the deep end of independent filmmaking, and would have been great if it had worked.

The outcome of this promising project was so scarring and emotionally exhausting that I thought the film industry must not be for me. But time - and the friendly advice of others - helped me see otherwise. After all, I'd had some of the best times in my life working on that project.

So this year I am planning to go back to school - film school!

Interim plans - between thunder and lighting
Of course, school costs money - film school more than most because of the toys, er, tools that you get to use. So while I know film school is what I want, there's a gap between the desire and the wherewithal to get there.

So in one way, while my fundamental direction has changed, things look just the same. My business card still says Story Listener / Story Teller - which will still be true when I'm a filmmaker - and I still write articles for magazines.

But even there something important has changed. I'm - to coin a much-used phrase from the 90s - proactive. I'm not just waiting for editors to commission stories, hoping there'll be something I'm interested in. I'm looking for areas I'm personally interested in, passionate about - and then pitching stories to editors.

And if they're not interested, I'll try again. And keep trying.

Back in Business
I went through a stage last year of resenting the business world. I had tried so hard for several years to be a good business person, then realised I was, at heart, an artist.

But artists are businesspeople - at least right now in New Zealand they have to be. So I can choose to be the bitter grumbling poor artist, or I can put on my best attitude and accept the realities of the marketplace - and play to win.

Again, this is a very internal change. A change of approach, of attitude. And that's where all the important changes start.

All the best to you for 2006.