Empowered By Action

Ever feel more empowered by doing something that you've never done before? Ever feel empowered by something thwet you did before, only you've gotten better, or even learned something new about something you already know? Well, in the past several months, I've done things that I've never done before. I have never driven a pickup truck. That was before I did work picking up used doors from neighboorhoods. The truck was a Ford F250 (late 70s-early 80s. It had two gas tanks, which helped me a lot after stopping in the middle of I-5. I filled the back tank, but unknowingly kept running on fumes of the front...). I never been to writing seminars before the highly successful inaugural Wordstock literary festival at the Oregon Convention Center. I even had the pleasure of meeting the writers of Bull Durham, Ron Shelton and John Norville.

For years, I've always wanted to operate a motion picture camera. I've marveled at the Aaton A-Minima, a minature Super 16mm motion picture camera; the Arriflex 16 and 35mm camera (16SR3; 435; etc). But I have never operated one. That changed today when I attended the "Stop By, Shoot Film" seminar, sponsored by Eastman Kodak.

The A-Minima is easy to use. Yes, I panned the camera a bit as traffic went by on Southwest Jefferson Street. But it was fun. It was empowering, and now I'm feeling even MORE encouraged to stay the course in my goal of taking film and video production classes this- or next- year.

I cannot tell you enough how strengthened I am over this- and the other activities- I've done thus far this year. Only, I can say that having done this, I want to do more. And I will, this year, or the next- in Los Angeles as I get deeper into the production waters, taking both digital film anc video courses. By the time all of this is said and done, I'll be able to say that I'm living out a dream.

Actually, I can say this right now. And I couldn't be more proud of myself.

Copyright 2005, by Darren W. Alexander. All Rights Reserved.