I wrapped filming on a project nearly a year ago. I haven’t finished it yet. The film is about a rather spontaneous decision to run a marathon. I text my friend on a Tuesday and asked him to run a marathon with me. He replied rather quickly.
“Oh cool, I thought all the marathons were cancelled, (#2020 problems), which race did you find?”
I told him it was a race I had made up.
“Bro, I am down. I haven’t really been running so this might be a slow one, but I am in.”
The next day I turned the race into a trail run, that was going to be filmed, and it was also going to be a fundraiser. I got a camera guy who believed in the project, (Tyler you’re a freaking angel), I started a go fund me, and I ran a damn marathon.
I couldn’t walk correctly for about a month, but it got done.
It has now been a year and the check has been turned into the charity. Everyone who ran with me has gone on to run in other marathons. I have developed a new daily running habits, but the film isn’t done. It feels too overwhelming. I keep thinking that maybe I am going to go and film some pick up days. I keep thinking the script is too hard to write. I don’t know which direction that I want the story to go in. The list of excuses goes on and on.
I often wonder, “how in the hell did I get so much done in 8 weeks?” It certainly wasn’t the preparation that went into it.
It was the deadline.
I announced the project publicly. I could have backed out but that would have been career suicide. All of the people following me could have never trusted me again. So I had to figure out how to make the pieces of the puzzle fit together.
The wonderful thing about a deadline is that you know how much time you have to spend. Open ended projects have the potential to never feel done. If you are working on a passion project no one is going to make you publish it. You have to give yourself a deadline.
It is the only way.
