This blog has been lying almost completely dormant for me this year, aside from a few sporadic posts. Based on the traffic stats I can see it’s not completely dead.

2014 was a submarine year for me. I started off by rebuilding and relaunching Screenwritersutopia.com and getting all of the data from the various legacy databases migrated into a newer, more streamlined system. Over the course of the year, time permitting, I built a new forum system from the ground up, since just about every COTS forum package out there is hacked within minutes of going live. I was tired of trying to fix other people’s software, and decided it was time to just make something new.

In February, I lost another close friend: Gene Witham. He was a veteran of the film industry and a former Navy SEAL. It was a devastating blow to me. He was one of the first people in this business who believed in me as a writer and a filmmaker. The fact he died on my birthday made it all the more of a gut punch.

The death of Gene made me go back and reconsider a lot of what I was doing. It came to the point where I was ready to hang it all up and go back to coding in a stuffy office all day with a hellish commute for a soul-sucking company. Yes, it was bad enough I was considering going gray again. Gene’s widow, however, said he would have kicked my ass for even thinking something like that.

It’s one thing to think you may have something but deny it. It’s something else when someone you trust tells you to keep going, overcome whatever doubts linger in your mind, and let it all move forward.

So I took most of 2014 tackling a new challenge and also inventorying my life and what it was all leading to. I think that’s something we all want, to know what the ultimate outcome of what we do will be. For people working in the arts it’s not so cut-and-dried; it can be hopping from one project to the next. Add to that I was still getting acclimated to the new city I had moved to, so I’m a veritable stranger in a strange land as it were.

Asphalt She-Wolves

In the meantime, life went on. I joined on to produce a web series project called Asphalt She-Wolves, which I also cleaned up and worked on the pilot script for. We shot the pilot in July, and had our online release November 20th. It was a small endeavor in terms of crew size and budget: $660 for the whole thing. We did an IndieGoGo campaign, which fell extremely short. But we decided to do it anyway. Unbeknownst to anyone, I had resolved that if I couldn’t get this thing produced and out the door, it was going to be the last thing in this business I attempted.

But it did come out, after working hard on CG effects, color correction, foley recording, editing, sound mixing, and scoring. I would love to do the rest of this series, but right now I’ve put my foot down and said that we can’t unless people actually get paid. Strange concept, isn’t it: people getting paid for their hard work. And don’t let anyone tell you this isn’t hard. Making any film, no matter how short or long, is a long-haul process of many thankless hours.

The campaign left something of a bitter taste in my mouth about crowdfunding. I know it works well for some, but that value of “some” can be small. And yeah, I’m sure we made all kinds of mistakes along the way. Is it worth pursuing again, now that we have a pilot under our belt? Possibly. The one thing I do not want to do is try to sell this to a television network and have the really awesome story arc ruined because of Standards and Practices, or some smartass MBA that thinks he knows better than the writers and creators about where to steer a show.

You can see the results for yourself though, for free:

(watch to the very end)

Write Vault

Write Vault is something that’s near and dear to my heart. From an idea that my business partner Stacy and I decided to try, and it has grown at a steady pace since we launched mid-2013. We took the time to go back and clean up some of the codebase, then get SSL always-on activated. This was in the works long before the revelations of the NSA were made public, but we had known that encryption helps us all stay secure. We also went to taking credit cards directly on the site, but still offering the option of PayPal. We also made an effort to speed up load times and get everything HTML5-compliant.

We also quietly introduced credit gifting, where someone can buy credits and then gift them to another member. This was on my laundry list of features to add since we launched, but we had deemed it not critical during startup. Now that we’re further along, we can do these things with a stable codebase and sane system.

Where are we going in 2015 with Write Vault? We have a few plans in the works right now, including the ability to copyright your works in addition to the third-party registration we offer. While screenplays do make up a significant percentage of our registrations, we also do handle photographs and other types of written works.

There will always be something going on with Write Vault in my opinion. We can always do better. We do like to hear from people though if they have any constructive ideas or suggestions about the service, and you can always let us know.

One thing is certain: Write Vault isn’t going away. It was created not with the purpose of making a huge profit, but to be a sustainable business and viable and easy alternative to other registration services out there.

Writing

There’s a couple books that I started and didn’t finish. That’s partially my fault. One of them is very close to complete; the other is coming out of its gestational cycle and waiting for me to fill in the blanks.

There’s also a few more scripts rattling around in my head that I’d like to get out before they force their way out of my head. Notes were taken, beat sheets written on them all, and again, it’s a matter of sitting down and writing them instead of something else.

Ludum Dare

This year I finally bit the bullet and jumped into my first Ludum Dare. I didn’t finish, but I came damn close. And I finally conquered how to make a platformer game. It was intense but a lot of fun.

Uncensoring Myself

I got tripped up during the year. Some timid part of me took over and I started posting less and less not just on my blog, but just about everywhere else I haunt. The reason? A stupid, irrational fear brought on by a select group of people who have now been exorcised from my life.

It didn’t feel right censoring myself. If I’m going to offend somebody (an increasing possibility these days), then I’m going to do it whether I know it or not. Having creative paralysis because of fear of offense is tantamount to murdering your soul as an artist. So for once I decided to stand up for myself and not let that happen. I can only hope I catch myself slipping into it if it happens again.

All good art is at least a little dangerous. It’s what helps us step outside our comfort zones and examine the familiar in new ways.

Making 2015 Mean Something

I want next year to mean something to me personally and professionally. This last year has been focused solely on licking old wounds, finding out what it is I really want to do, and then figuring out how to do it.

I’d like to see Write Vault grow and be seen not as some upstart new kid on the block. We have a good grounding in our fundamentals, and I don’t want to lose that while reaching out further on the vine for some other fruit.

Making more films is also on the menu. At last count, I have 34 screenplays sitting on my hard drive waiting to be made. Earlier this year I invested in a decent camera and some gear, the first fruit of which was Asphalt She-Wolves. This laid the groundwork for making more in 2015, hopefully at a steady pace.

What everything boils down to, no matter the endeavor, is that I’d like to get back to that place where doing something creative helped pay for at least some of the bills. Hell, it’d be nice if it did pay the mortgage, but one step at a time, right?

Have a good, productive, and fun 2015. And may your through-lines be straight as an arrow.