Random Career Thoughts on a Wednesday

In addition to spending some quality time with my family last week, I spent time pouring over and refining my personal entertainment industry business plan. Although on a day-to-day level I enjoy spontaneity, I've always carefully planned things out when it comes to long term goals, with two recent examples being the plan to be in and teach Vanguard (1982-1994), and the plan my pals and I put together to get the Renegades off the ground back in the days of two horn players (1999-2002).

My current entertainment industry plan started on a napkin in a coffee shop in the San Francisco Marina ... and continues to this day here in LA.

The key of a personal business plan, IMO, is to constantly learn from books and those around you, and continue to refine your plan as circumstances dictate. For me, the big push of 2009 was to spend less time on creative or business endeavors that were not productive, and put more time and effort into those that were. I am not sure I am putting that the right way, but basically it came down to focus and time allocation. I made some hard choices coming into this year, but my progress has sped up considerably as a result.

One key goal of this year is to move one of the three motion pictures I had a hand in writing into production. The process is taking longer than I anticipated, but it is going well. I am currently in discussions with German production companies about My Immortal, and the "drum" project has experienced progress. Soon, I will put some time into Sympathy for the Devil to get that project into a more prepared state. I'm not sure of the time line, but I know that I will produce a vampire film in Berlin, and bring the drum and Sympathy projects to life. The lack of qualification on that statement does not come from over-confidence or cockiness, but rather that I just know it's going to happen. Why, I have no idea. I just do.

In terms of ongoing productions, Dark Woods has just finished post, and 1,001 Ways and Greyscale are close behind. Harimaya Bridge is in Japanese theaters with the US deal probably coming soon. The new film, Lords of Chaos, is generating buzz in Hollywoood, as we added a killer director and one of the stars from Twilight. There are also a handful of other films I am working on that I can't yap on here about yet, lol, but the production end of things is going well.

Anyway, I am not sure where I was going with this post, lol ... but that's the state of the union for now.

If you are going through a rough time in this awful economy or are in a dead end job, don't worry about it, we've all been there.

Sit down with a nice beverage, pull out a napkin and a pen, and devise your plan.




Lee