01-05-07

core / life master / 2007 / january / 1/5/07 1/5/07)
competency and directorial acumen

the degrees of competency. I think one thing that is demoralizing is when we take on too many new things, lacking competency in all we loose our sense of competency in general. i was thinking about how reassuring it feels to be have a high degree of competency in something cool. i think the design of my life is such that the things i really prize having high competancy in i don’t at present, or at least i perceive i don’t. like being a visual artist, i’d like to have high competancy in that, always have but never saw the way clear to getting it. do i now? perhaps. we all have to find our own way to things, but certainly we know enough to map out a course. but after all this time our skills are baseline mediocre and even with tons of practice unpredicable. this is coming up because of storyboards and the directors ridley scott and james cameron, who are both able to express themselves very clearly with visuals.then cameron on top of this knows something about effects and miniatures etc, perhaps because of his history with roger corman. it’s interesting to think about ridleys lack of interaction with the actors and even inconsideration during alien, one could say that was deliberate neglect to achieve the purposes of the project or he didn’t really know how to interact. let’s just say that he did know, and we can add that to our list of essential competancies. courage, patience, determination, endurance, etc. some call it a war zone, which is duly noted.
ok, so here’s some fun with categories.
– expert, extremely competant (extensive experience and analysis)
– fluent, competant (experience, course correction)
– scholar, learning (plan and map)
– familar (study, research)
– identified, interested

so with these categories in front of us, we can now slot in our various practices and decide where we are going with them, up or down the scale. what we are interested in, what we are good at, not always the same thing to start. what my idea of a director needs. what my idea of a warrior needs. for that matter – artist, shaman, monk, trickster, lover. able to pick up women on the street. etc.

so on a scale of 5 being expert and 1 being simply aware that the practice exists, where are we as a visual artist? I would say currently somewhere between 2 and 3. I’d like to be at least 4 and eventually 5, which is why i came to nyc in the first place. so we can say that plan is still in play. how about filmmaker? definitely 2, prepping for 3. Am i a 4 or 5 in anything? yoga, was once a 4 and could be again in a month or so. raising excellent cats, 4-5. napping 4. writing say 3-4. and so on. this is a worthy practice, it’s a control panel. real quick, what would we say our map is for filmmaking?

map for filmmaking see 3, scholar…
– make several short movies requiring various techniques
– enter film festivals
– develop and maintain a collection of new stories, build an archive – a universe to draw from
– identify design a technique incorporating low impact, low budget, high creative, high results. (time?) deploy and practice.
– identify the essential qualities competencies for my ideal director, plans and implementation
– expand network and collaborate creative projects, meet investors, distributors and mentors
– construct legal framework, off shore corporations
– profitable by 5th project.
– recognition leads to farther reaching projects
– talent coming to me to collaborate, beautiful evolved women seek me out for pleasure
– earth population educated and empowered for stewardship and sanity
– break tyranny and oppression
– earth saved
– species and wilds rehabilitation
– leave earth for univeral exploration and friendship
– become enlightened
– deage and realize my full potential
– soak up love and pleasure