Five Questions For You All

1. Favourite movie?

2. Most watched box set?

3. Favourite rom-com moment?

4. First image that pops into your head when I say 'Dustin Hoffman'?

5. Favourite cinema in all of the world?

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Get The Work Done Before You Arrive

"It takes twenty years to become an overnight success" -Eddie Cantor

The X Factor paradigm got it wrong. They made it about being 'discovered' and instantly succeeding. Sometimes it works, but then you have nothing to fall back on. You get defined by what you are once everyone knows your name. The chance to learn your craft and become an expert comes when you're in the wilderness, when no-one cares about you.

Being discovered isn't what you need. What you need is to become an expert, and you're better off on the outside. Look at sports, we stand in awe of the 19 year old geniuses, but then you find out they started playing football/basketball when they were 4, and it's the only thing they've ever cared about. In sport, you can't skip the hard work if you want to make it and sustain it.

It's a journey. Look at your writing or acting or directing from five years ago. We improve. But remember five years ago when you were desperate to be discovered... Did you deserve it? No way!

Stop worrying about 'making it'. Instead focus on becoming so good that you're unstoppable. Talent is great and you're privileged to have it, but it doesn't mean anything.

Some people stand out. Let's take actors; there are thousands doing the rounds, auditioning and fighting to make it. Very occasionally you meet one who just HAS IT. That's a natural thing, a fluke, luck, who knows. They have that thing that people thought was "special" when they were young, and they believed it and followed their dreams.

That's the easy part. The hard part comes next: putting the work in. Someone with the spark, who couples it with dedication, is irresistible. And I mean dedication to their development, not to 'success'.Talent comes naturally, but expertise is for the select few who have the dedication to achieve it.

When you get 'discovered', whatever that means, make sure you're prepared. When a director is rude to you, or a producer demands you nail the script in one draft, you need the tools to handle it. They come from experience, from learning, from challenging yourself. Even the task of going to an audition can take years to master. But after you've been doing it for ten years you learn how to play the game and you learn how to be yourself.

I am seeing this time and again with my peers. We're reaching a period of accomplishment, based on experience, on putting the years in. Those failed projects, those nightmare meetings, those awful scripts, they MEANT SOMETHING!

The thing you think is your big break probably isn't, but it is part of the journey. Don't look to The X Factor for how the world works, the winners may get famous and make some money but they're ultimately meaningless. You just wish those shows had been about nurturing talent rather than making money.

With success, comes rules and deadlines and personalities that are difficult to navigate. The period prior to success is your playground, a chance to discover who you are and where you want to go. Follow your fascinations, work hard, and become an expert in your niche. You'll be unstoppable. Knowledge is power. Yes, this is an art form, but you can shorten the odds on creating great work by doing the unexpected: you can dedicate yourself to nurturing your own talent.

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Text Message

Here's a text message I received from a director friend today, HA!

Just saw this amazingly hot girl on the train and was going to use the excuse that I'm a director and could I get her number to be in one of my films. Then she started speaking to her friend saying that she really wanted to act and would love a showreel and to be in some short films. Perfect!!.. but didn't want to say anything as it may seem a bit dodgy on the tube. Then she got off at the same stop as me. At this point I was thinking everything happens for a reason but still I didn't say anything. Then she dropped a letter from her coat pocket, surely this must be fate. I picked it up for her, she thanked me and at that moment I hear someone shouting her name, it was only her fucking boyfriend! Oh well!

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Land Of Hope and Dreams

I want to sleep beneath peaceful skies 

In my lover's bed

With a wide open country in my eyes

And these romantic dreams in my head

In case you had any doubt, let me tell you: I love Bruce Springsteen. 

Every single thing I've been through, for better or worse, I can tell you the Bruce Springsteen song that carried me through it. He was there when I was on road trips, he was there when people I love passed away, he's here right now, he's here all the time. Without the sound of The Boss, my life means next to nothing. His music, his words, his voice; the meaning permeates through everything he does and in turn, informs everything I do. This might sound insane or obsessive but hey--- I talk the same way about Chaplin and Wilder, this is why I do what I do. This is why I've blogged manically for three years, it's why I write, direct, and breath. If you're not gonna love something to the very limit of how much it can be loved, then what's the friggin' point? That's why people who don't commit to relationships suck, because they're not willing to go on the full journey and see where they land. 

Springsteen's new album has just been released - and of course, I'm loving it. And yes, I'm biased. Bruce is like God if you're religious, or the love of your life if you can't get over her, he's everything and everywhere. It's good just to hear him again, to see him continuing the dialogue he's been having with his fans for over 40 years.

But Clarence Clemons died. 

If you know anything about Bruce Springsteen you know exactly what that means. That's why we love Bruce, because he's a true artist. He didn't just release a bunch of songs and get famous. Instead, he stuck around for the long haul. He sang our lives, our sorrows, our dreams ("Born To Run," "The River"), and he guided us through September 11th ("The Rising",) and the Iraq War ("Devils & Dust"). He doesn't leave us alone. He didn't take the money from "Born In The USA" and become a celebrity, instead he kept focus and remained an ARTIST. 

There's a Springsteen song I have always LOVED called "Land of Hope and Dreams". It was debuted during the reunion tour in 1999. Later on he'd do heartbreaking solo acoustic versions during the "Devils and Dust" tour. But he never cut an album version. 

Until now. 

The new album version is a celebration. I don't know how to describe it. It's part gospel, part rock 'n roll, part something else I can't even describe. Like so much of Springsteen's work, it feels like an ongoing part of the journey. I quoted the song in a 2009 article I wrote called "It's Now Or Never". Little did I know that three years later, Clarence would be dead and there'd finally be an album version. 

Here's where your heart breaks. 

When you hear the saxophone. Clarence is on the record. 

He passed away, we thought it was over, but here he is. We hear him. And wow. It's unmistakable. The thing about Clarence Clemons on sax is that it's a distinct VOICE. You hear HIM. Who he was, who he IS, and what he means to us. The legacy he left behind lives on. Literally, LIVES ON. You listen to this track and when you hear the saxophone your spirit soars and your mind flies and you hear that same sound that has been carrying you excitedly and determinedly through life this whole entire time. 

That's what it is to be a Bruce Springsteen fan. That's why we crave it. That's why we pack out the stadiums. 

The great thing about "Land of Hopes and Dreams" is how it includes EVERYBODY. 

This train
Carries saints and sinners

This train

Carries losers and winners

This Train

Carries whores and gamblers

This Train

Carries lost souls

This Train

Dreams will not be thwarted

This Train

Faith will be rewarded

This Train

Hear the steel wheels singin'

This Train

Bells of freedom ringin'

This Train

Carries broken-hearted

This Train

Thieves and sweet souls departed

This Train

Carries fools and kings

This Train

All aboard

The new version has a beautiful refrain of "People Get Ready" at the end. A perfect ending. That's the sad thing about the artists, things end. The band as we knew it, is forever changed; Clarence is gone. But do things ever really end? Bruce Springsteen has kept the story going. 

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The Friendly Pencil - A Short Collaborative Story.

Let's watch creativity happen right in front of our eyes! I am going to provide the first and final sentence of a short story, and the rest will be created by people in the blogosphere. 

Each person nominated will write one sentence, and then pass the baton on to a different blogger. The 9th person will finally link back to here, where we will have a complete story. I have chosen Jayne at Surburban Solioquy to write part 2, then she will nominate someone to do part 3, and so on, and till we return to this page again!

1. Angela was convinced that her pencil was the friendliest pencil in the whole entire world. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10. "That's why I'm the friendliest pencil in the world," screamed Pencil, the pencil.

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