My parents continue to live in my childhood home and I continue to be my mother’s default handyman. You name it, I’ve done it, everything from changing light bulbs to repiping their entire house! My mother’s most recent repair order was to rebuild two decrepit gates, one on each side of her house. So after a few weeks of resistance, I finally gave in.
It took me an entire Saturday to replace both gates, from scratch. It was hot and I made plenty of mistakes, but the day ended up being immensely fun and rewarding. It felt great to work with my hands and apply myself in a tangible, concrete way. But in the end, the best part was to see and experience the fruits of my labor. There was immediate satisfaction and a sense of completion after mounting the gates and shutting them closed.
I wish filmmaking was more like building gates. I wish the turnaround time of a feature film was in days, even months, rather than years. It would be amazing to see and experience the results of my filmmaking work on a daily basis, rather than a monthly, even yearly basis.
Don’t get me wrong: I do feel a sense of accomplishment nearly every day, whether working on my script or composing important emails, but nothing compares to sitting back and watching your completed film with an audience, which doesn’t happen too often.
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Tags: Art, Carpentry, Creativity, Encouragement, Filmmaking, Inspiration, Writing
