In the new bio-pic "Walk the Line", we see young Johnny Cash
singing a gospel song to record producer Sam Philips. Sam stops
him and says:
"I don't believe what you're singing. But if you were hit by a
truck and were lying out there in the gutter dying and you had
time to sing one song. One song people would remember before
you're were dirt. One song that would let people know about how
you felt about your time on earth. One song that would sum you
up. Something real. Something you felt. What would that one song
be?"
Johnny thinks, then starts singing a song he wrote, "Folsom
Prison Blues".
I hear lots of writers and directors saying, "I got this one
idea, and than there's another idea, and I might do this other
idea......." I always reply, "Do your last book. Your last
movie. Your one ultimate story."
If you can't raise the money yet, to make it into a movie, do it
as a book. It just takes a PC and time. And if you want to make
it a little more special, do it as an Audio-Book. It's just takes
an extra thousand dollars, cheaper than a week vacation. You can
even get a professional sound mix on your PC with recording
software. And if you want to make it more special, hire a famous
actor to read it. That'll take a few more grand and you must
record in a studio.
And then the next time you are at a party and introduce yourself
as a writer or director or producer and they say, "What have you
done?" You can pull your book, CD, or DVD out of your bag and
give it to them. You can tell them to find it on Amazon (they'll
take anything with a ISBN number and a bar code).
And that will be the one ultimate thing that will "sum you up".
And I'll guarantee you, vacations are great, but there is no
greater creative satisfaction than "summing yourself up", in a
book and being able to hand it out to people that are interested,
or being bought by people you don't even know.
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