"The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray."

“The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray."

-proverb

“Der mentsh trakht un got lakht” is an old Yiddish adage that translates to Man plans and God laughs.

I mention these because it’s been a week since I posted. I want this blog to be a frequent bts look at life as a writer and producer and consistency is a key part of that. Unfortunately, the universe had other ideas.

On Sunday I went down hard with a 24-hour bug. It wasn’t that I felt so terrible (tho I didn’t feel great), but I was very tired. Ask anyone who knows me and I am rarely tired and don’t need quite as much sleep as most.

But sleep is what I did, most of Sunday and half of Monday, MLK Day.

By the afternoon I started to feel better tho by then my stomach was a little topsy turvy. I did what work I could editing one chapter in “The Double” (Eddie Ankin Book One). Then, editing a couple of videos for YouTube and social media that I had previously shot. I got those posted and called it a day.

Unfortunately, that night my middle daughter caught what I had and woke up sick on Tuesday. So, what I planned to be a full day spent working while watching my son, was also spent caring for my under-the-weather little girl. To paraphrase Maxamillian Schell from The Freshman, “Carmine said one….but there are two.”

At least I avoided the Komodo dragon.

By this morning the middle child was on the road to wellville, but not surprisingly my eldest and my youngest were now sick with the same cold.

So, rather than much writing, editing, or filming, I’ve been hopping to and fro taking care of the whole family today.

Which…while thankless at times…is the greatest job in the world (hard and exhausting…but great)

On the writing front, I am revising a few chapters of “The Double” leading up to the final showdown to be sure the story flows and the tension is ratcheted up before the climax. So I worked on that in fits and starts throughout the day.

Late last night, I spent a couple of hours revising the outline for a horror film I am writing on spec. Then I watched The Last of Us and went to bed.

The Last of Us pilot episode is really really good.

I wrote a script a couple of years ago for a producer at Netflix called HIDE BEHINDS based on a camp ghost story I heard while a camper at Camp Winaukee (yes, Winaukee like the ship gunner who gave Christopher Walken the watch in Pulp Fiction which Walken wore up his ass all those years before giving it to young Butch (Bruce Willis). Or maybe the camp was named after an American Indian tribe. One or the other. But I digress…)

Nothing came of that script but I also never shopped it anywhere else because I was busy at the time with other projects. But, I figure that HIDE BEHINDS, along with this new script, will hopefully be a double-barrel blast of terror when sent to Hollywood producers, directors, and actors.

As for today, the only real thing I’ve gotten to is this blog post which I started writing about 28 minutes ago when all three children blessedly fell asleep for much needed naps.

Going forward, I plan to bring a production mindset to all my work and responsibilities. Rather than trying to multitask writing, filming, editing, or marketing, never mind advertising, developing, producing, plus family time, I am going to dedicate each day fully to one thing (okay two things because apparently, it is illegal in some states to neglect your children…What’s that? It’s illegal in all states? Good to know.)

Next week, I am shifting to a full-on batch mentality:

-Writing days.

-Production days (shoot and edit).

-Marketing days

In television production when you shoot more than one episode at a time (to save time, money, or for logistics) it’s called double-boarding episodes. The schedule is broken down by scenes that can be shot at the same time, even if they may appear in different episodes. Often, a single director will double-board episodes so that there isn’t the same time spent transitioning between episodic directors.

In Game of Thrones for instance a director who shot the big battle sequence that spans two or three episodes may not be the credited director on all three. However, they (along with second-unit directors) did shoot scenes that appeared in other episodes.

Batching is kinda the online video equivalent and has become something of a mentality in the rise-and-grind world we all supposedly live in. Personally, the only rising and grinding I do is for coffee.

With that said, I hope all of you are healthy and remain so throughout 2023 (with wealthy and wise soon to follow). More to come this week.