Archive for October, 2008

When The Dreams Role In

When I was ten years old I had this dream that I was in that was so vivid and clear that when I woke up I remember thinking how strange it was, how much I felt a part of that dream.

I couldn’t fathom that it would cause me to be where I am today, but it sure did cause some of my life choices early on.

I had just started taking clarinet lessons at school and was in love (well what I thought was love) with a girl named Katie. She had long curly blonde hair and the deepest blue eyes. She played the flute and would be in my lessons at the same time I was. I never thought the clarinet was that cool, but it got me in to the whole music thing which I thought was cool.

The night I had the dream was like any other night (although thinking about it, I may have eaten just before my bedtime, which would cause some weirdness in my dreams).

The world started to change to this strange place where music was blasting through the hallways of this castle type structure which was warmly lit, and almost felt welcoming. I was running, to where I don’t know. There were at least three other people with me ( they had no real identity to me). I kept running until I got to this stage where I jumped up on and started to sing. I remember the lyrics to this day and like my dad said of music of the day, it was always repeating the same damn rhythm.

From that day forward, I felt like it was my destiny to become a rock star. I went back the next day and told Katie that I was going to be a rock star. I told everyone from that day until I was thirty that I was going to be a rock star.

In a brief 20 year period I took voice lessons, joined bands, formed bands and wrote lyrics to songs that to some were rememberable, if not only for repeating the same damn rhythm.

At thirty I had a life changing event, I will tell you about someday. I still wanted to write, but for me I felt that the days of me rocking were over. It sounds depressing but it wasn’t. I was opening a new door to my life and that made more sense than a silly dream or did it?

I was in my mid 30s and working on my first movie. I decided to place a piece of music from one of the songs from my band in it. It made me reminisce back to the dream. “What about that dream, was it wrong?” I remember asking myself.

No it wasn’t wrong, you see I left out details of that dream. Before I started running, I had to make sure that the people running with me were going in the direction that I wanted them to. The warmly lit room was because I made people turn on the lights and the fact that we were running was an idea I had to make it more presentable to the crowd that was there watching the show. (Plus there were monsters that were there, but I still haven’t figured out what that was about, but again eating late does not help).

To me at this point in my life, I do not believe in dream theories, or that they are the signs of things to come or that they are repressed memories from some previous life. I do believe however that this particular dream did have some effect on my life because I let it.

Would I have become a director without this dream? Would I have been a singer without this dream? Would Katie still remember me without this dream? (Hell she probably doesn’t even know who I am now anyways). Who knows. What I do know is that I am leading the life I want. This little dream when I was 10 is now 32 years old and somehow it still exists as a reminder that my dreams can come true.

October 26th, 2008 by EddieLeonardo

When to Fold Them

Knowing when to give up on a goal is a hard realization. (Not really giving up, but I am postponing it indefinitely.)

There were several factors that led me to this decision. Not one of them, I believe, were of the “chickening out” type.

1. There just wasn’t enough money

I believe that 3 months salary was what I was shooting for. I could have come up with about a month. If I knew I had enough income once I got to California, then this would not be a problem, but nothing was 100%

2. My demo reel was lacking

The demo reel I had was over two years old and I couldn’t get a job off of it. It is kind of sad as I know that I could make a really great demo with some time.

3. The economy is really unstable (duh)

Unless you are living under a rock, you know that the economy has tanked. We as a people haven’t seen it hit us… yet. (Is this what they ment by trickle down economics?)

So as these things may have prevented me from going to California, they have not stopped me from my dreams. I intend to sink deep into my writing over the winter and would like to emerge with a few screenplays and shoot one of them in the spring.

Also, I had been approached to direct a music video. I am really, really looking forward to this.

I appreciate everyones support and believe me I can stil use the wtgs and OMGWTFs as I continue to embark on my filmmaking journey.

Have a great week and I will update soon.

Eddie

October 12th, 2008 by EddieLeonardo