I'm sick of working a job I hate.
I'm a writer at heart. I always have been. The problem is I've never been able to finish anything I've started writing let alone sell it for money. So I've always had to find a job to earn money so I can pay my rent and buy food, blah blah blah.
After coming out on top of one of the most stressful periods of my life last month, I took a week or so to step back and assess what is actually important to me. What I worked out is that sometimes we all need a crisis or a potentially life changing drama to reset the mind and snap it out of the spiritual rut it has dug itself into. My priorities have now changed and I am now concerned less with working for a living and more focused on developing a screenplay I have written into an independently produced film.
Still in it's early stages the project is titled Cicada Mondo Cannibal, and is a tribute to early Mondo Cinema that has constantly entertained me, the Australian landscape that continues to leave me in awe, legendary Aussie adventurers like Alby Mangels and the late Malcolm Douglas who inspired me as a boy and remain heroes in my heart to this day, and the true art of entertainment, an artform that has somewhat declined in many films these days.
Instead of jumping through all the hoops and getting a degree in film production or what not, and carrying on trying to get a short film made and entering it into a festival hoping someone somewhere with some serious pull in the industry might like it and give me what would end up being just another job to work while I search for funding for my feature, I've decided that I'm just going to make it myself now.
And yeah, a few people I know have already laughed and told me that I'm dreaming, but mark my words, I will finish this film. In the last week and a half I have been overwhelmed by the support and encouragement by so many of my great friends and family willing to do anything they can to help me make it happen, by the free advice from professionals in academia who are helping me with research, budding and talented actors willing to participate for free, and a musician already on board to create the musical score.
I've snapped out of my rut, and I welcome you all to join me.
I'll have updates on the progress of my project in the coming weeks.
Keep it real.
Tim Woodnutt.