Plans

My wife and I are saving up money for the big move. We have already been applying for jobs in the Los Angeles area in the (apparently unrealistic) hopes that we'll have something to go to when we take the big plunge into that traffic-choked, high-priced, city of broken dreams known as Los Angeles. So far it hasn't worked out. :(

Editor's Note (as if all of this wasn't): I'm terrible with resumes. I have no idea what to put on a resume and I hate the hours I spend debating about it. My most recent resume is a total disaster. I must've spent six hours on that thing, fancying it up adding this touch here and that touch there and so far it has all been for naught. I don't have much actual working experience in film production, so I list my student film experience, my video production experience, my skills in Final Cut and Avid. Should I list the months I spent bussing tables at a Brazillian Buffet here in town? Or the years I spent working at a home for people with special needs? The recent years as a substitute teacher in the Salt Lake City School District? I haven't been, but maybe some work experience is better than none? This is what I'm talking about... I literally have no idea.

So the plan for now is to head to Los Angeles at the beginning of next year with nothing but the clothes on our backs, two cars, and a pile of student loan debt. I graduated in Film and Media Arts from the University of Utah, a seriously impractical degree, but it was great to answer people "I'm going to school!" rather than "I'm pursuing my dream as a big shot movie producer" when asked the ubiquitous question "What are you up to these days?"

As far as I can tell there have been two, maybe three people who have graduated from the University of Utah in Film and had any sort of success in the actual film industry. I ignore these figures, A) because who says I can't be the third maybe fourth and b) because if I don't it'll be really depressing. 

Our goal is to save up $5,000 that we can use to live off of once we get out there while we hunt for jobs. So far we have $3,100 and yes we're accepting donations. :) I'm guessing I won't be able to land my dream job right away, so don't be surprised if you soon see me in a handsome In-N-Out burger uniform. I doubt I would be the last hollywood hopeful to spend nights working on screenplays while smelling like a good day's worth of fry grease and hamburger pattys. 

You know what will be great is if in a few years I'm doing this blog and talking about meetings I'm taking with studio execs and you can scroll all the way down to my humble beginnings. That will be nice. Look forward to that. I know I am. 

Uprooting and moving to California is going to be tough. Both of are families are here, siblings parents the whole kit-n-boodle, my friends, my band (I won't get into my rock and roll band on this blog), and the last 18 years of my life. 

But someone once told me that if you are serious about making movies, you must go where movies are made, or at least where they're financed. So California, here we come, right back where I started from. 

A Scary Scary Adventure

"The odds are against you. Incredibly, undoubtedly and insurmountably against you. They rise up over you and threaten to crash on top of you in a wave of impossibility. More people will get struck by lightening in the next five minutes than will ever have a successful Hollywood career. You haven't a chance in the coldest, darkest, uncharted depths of hell (and that's after it has already frozen over). 

You have no connections. You don't have an Uncle that used to do art direction on Van Halen music videos. You don't know a guy who knows a guy who works on the Gossip Girl set. Your cousin never did P.A. work for the Coen's brothers little sister's babysitter. I mean NO ONE. Nadie. Not a breathing soul. You are attempting to break into Hollywood, that great walled fortress of a town armed with nothing but an entirely inappropriate sense of optimism and a couple of student films? Good luck..." Love, Your Ever-Present Self Doubt

Kevin Lacy (Me) experiencing the magic of Movie Making

Thanks, Self-Doubt, I'm gonna need it.. And yet, for all the times I try and talk myself out of my dream before anyone else even has the chance, I know I must try, and I hope to succeed. An irrational hope, probably, but what choice do I have? I was born to make movies. I was born to create stories and worlds that people will want to watch, while eating popcorn and Raisenettes. I may not be great at it yet, but I am determined, driven to become great, and eventually, someday down the road, I fully intend to be paid for it. 

So tonight I sit in my one bedroom apartment in downtown Salt Lake City, my wife asleep in our one bedroom, windows open, fall breeze rustling the blinds, crickets chirping and beginning a blog that I hope will give you (the reader) a window into a journey which in many ways began long ago, and in some ways has not yet begun. And of course (in the spirit of full disclosure) I hope to remedy one of my biggest obstacles... that of having no connections.  (Psst.. If you are in Los Angeles, please say hello.) 

So read and enjoy. I'm sure I'll post a lot at first and then the updates will come in waves, but hang in there 'cause I fully intend for this to be an adventure. A scary, scary, adventure. 

P.s. I know someone else had a blog with this name for a while, and I don't care. She stopped writing in 2006. I took over in 2010. So get over it. I have, and I feel GREAT. :)