Thoughts of Michael: My Massively Personal Creative Experiment (MPCE)
Meandering Life & Creativity
Peter Diamandis, author of several books including The Future is Faster Than You Think, talks about MTP, or Massively Transformational Purpose (I do like acronyms in reference to yesterday’s post.)
In a nutshell, he urges entrepreneurs (and others) to think about the major purpose you want to achieve as an individual, an innovator, business or organization. At the risk of sounding cheesy, he’s referring to the desire to seek something transformational on a potentially global scale. Diamandis also talks about something called moonshot goals, where you literally shoot for the moon.1 This topic can be for another post.
After reading his book and looking further into his work, I started thinking about how this can apply to my life as a creative, and as an artist and writer.
I decided to create an acronym of my own.
Massively Personal Creative Experiment2 or MPCE
My MPCE is Henry Beetle. As mentioned before, I’m currently working on a feature- length screenplay. But my goal is not just to just write the screenplay, that’s only Step One. I’m planning on bringing this baby to life. I will direct it, and personally be involved every step of the way.
What’s the big deal? I’d like to break it down for two reasons. First, for you to see how big this is and secondly, for me to scare the crap out of myself.
To be honest, I believe in taking this step publicly. To put it out there in the universe and say ‘Hello! I’m here! I’m doing this! Hellooo??? Anybody out there?’
Massively?
Writing. It’s a huge undertaking to write and craft a screenplay. All the parts and characters and conflicts. The structure and pacing. I’ve read several books on the craft over the years, and I’ve written short films but nothing of this magnitude. Then there’s the rewriting, and more rewriting. Finally I plan on testing the script out on small audiences where we’ll sit around a table and read it. This is called a table read. At that point, I’m hoping it’s hitting all the marks I want and will adjust with feedback given.
Funding. I will create a budget. Then I will seek funding from investors. Don’t worry, I’m not here to ask for your money3. (And if you’re family reading this, relax!) I plan on being very careful and selective in how I get the film financed. After all, I don’t want to lose creative control, and I definitely don’t want to lose family either!
Pre-production. This is all the planning that goes into the film making. Meetings. More meetings. Building a team. Hiring a producer, cinematographer, assistant director, sound mixer, editor(s), production crew. Hiring craft services(to feed cast & crew) Renting high end video and audio equipment. Contracts. More Contracts. Scheduling. Hiring security. Hiring a locations manager. Renting a specific house for the shoot. Permissions. Permits with the city. Working with agents. Hiring a cast of actors and actresses, background performers (extras). Rehearsals. Working with lawyers. More lawyers.
Production. This is the shooting of the film, on location. There are a few locations. I’ve always been told fewer locations = easier shoot, less $ and less time. To get to this point will be a massive feat, all duck feet in a row!
Post Production. The film is shot and ready to edit. A team of editors work on scene editing, sound editing and music integration, titling, transitions, special effects (very few in this film), colour grading and credits. By the end of this point, the film is ready to be shown, publicly. Phew!
Distribution. If for some reason no one is interested in distributing my film, I will do the legwork myself. I’ve heard stories where this happens. You’ll get a whole bunch of no’s and then suddenly they’re fighting over it. This is the part where you’re getting your film into theatres on large screens and/or distributing deals with straight to home streaming services like Netflix, HBO Max, Crave, Apple TV+, Google, Prime etc. It also includes things like DVD sales. Yup, they still exist!
Personal?
The story is personal. It’s not my personal story, though writers often use references from their own lives. It’s personal as in I care deeply about it. I love the characters and the story. I think it’s a unique story that will resonate with a wide audience. It’s personal as in a personal goal to pull this off and make it happen. A challenge to say the least.
Creative?
This is why I’m do this. It involves:
writing, exploring my own imagination and pushing it further.
playing and acting, two of my passions among many.
dreaming of something bigger than myself.
working with diverse people of various cultures and backgrounds.
community collaboration, growing something for my city and the people who live here.
creating jobs.
innovation.
inspiring others to do something crazy. Their own MPCE?
using cameras and sound equipment. I love what the tools can do with the right people using them!
editing, which might not sound like fun, but it’s so pleasing.
coordinating. This freaks me out, but all those years in coordinator jobs are making sense now.
music! Hiring a composer or finding the right music for the film.
selling. Convincing others to jump on board. To buy it. To show it. To experience it.
Experiment?
This whole project is an experiment.
Experiments can fail. They often do.
But…
…with commitment, careful thought, intense planning, magical collaboration between team members, cast and crew…
I am crazy enough to believe I can pull this off.
If life is an experiment,
and we only have one big trial to explore it,
why not mess with the variables and see what comes of it?
With Gratitude,
Michael
PS. If you’d like to see my other posts, simply click the photo below. Thank-you!
All this motivational talk might sound cheesy to you, it did to me at first, until I looked further into Diamandis’ work. It’s pretty impressive and eye opening.
FTR(oops, for the record), I don’t plan on using acronyms in every post.
However, I probably wouldn’t turn it down either. Conditions apply.