Career Change: Dream Travel Job. Yes.

Hello Dear Readers,

Over the years I have traveled here and there while shooting photos and video while thinking:

Maybe one day I can be a travel filmmaker and do assignments for National Geographic or something...

But how?

Well, Viator.com has created a window of opportunity to becoming a travel videographer with their Dream Travel Job contest.  I created a video entry for Kelly and I.  They are looking for 2 more travelers or filmmakers to go on a 60 day, 20 cities, travel adventure and document it.  All expenses paid.  Not only would this be awesome, it would open doors for more travel assignments.

So please, check out my video entry and vote for it.  You need to be signed into your Facebook account and "Like" the Viator page in order to see the video.  The Vote button is bottom-left under the video.  You can vote once a day!  Thanks!

WATCH AND VOTE HERE!  THANKS!!!

Peace!

-Marty

Letting Go: Change at Work. Change of Control

[This is partly a response to my earlier post about my frustration and failure in first attempting to shoot a commercial in Puerto Rico.]

The last month in Puerto Rico flew by with lots of changes!  First off, I successfully shot a commercial in Puerto Rico!  It's a fun surf spot produced for a contest held by a brand of whisky.  I applied the lessons learned from my first failed attempt at making a commercial here:  I sought out reliable non-actor locals and gave myself plenty of time to shoot it while anticipating delays, cancelations, and/or reshoots.

I cast two surfers who I met on the beach to play father and son.  The "father" is the owner of a surf shop and the "son" was an employee.  I cast the two because they looked the part and there was already a natural chemistry between them from working together.  This meant I would be able to use less energy on trying to direct a performance.  I approached the project very much like a documentary which was a change from my recent work.  There was very little staging and very few takes.  I basically gave them simple actions to do and I would watch them and capture different moments and angles I found interesting.  

I was a one man crew with all my cameras and lenses in a backpack with a tripod strapped on the side.  It was very empowering to know that I could carry everything I needed to make a commercial in one backpack with my own two feet.  Larger productions can get so complicated once you start adding tons of gear, people, etc.  This was liberating.  Everything was shot daylight exterior so there was no need for lights which I didn't have a budget for.  A few times I used the white bottom of a body board to bounce the sunlight.

One of the most rewarding parts was just hanging out with the surfers, getting to know them, and becoming friends.

Over the past month, I've humbled myself a bit while learning to "let go" and not attempt to control so many things that are beyond me.  During the commercial shoot, I had no control whether it would rain or not or whether the swell would come in and the waves would suffice.  I also had to adapt to "Caribbean Time" where nothing or no one exists on a set schedule.  There were three days where we were suppose to shoot that fell through... luckily I was the only crew member and I had to just accept it, not stress over it, and say to myself, "Okay, I guess we'll shoot tomorrow."

The great thing about it all was that everything seemed to work out perfectly as I let go of control.  We got the waves, we got the sun, we got the shots and everything we needed in time and it all happened right before the owner caught the flu.

When I arrived in PR, I started looking for ways to make some extra travel money.  After the commercial, the one employee left to take a commercial fishing job in New York.  Now with an employee gone, and being sick with the flu, the owner who I became friends with asked me to work at the surf shack.  And thus the universe provided!

Working @ the Surf Shack is a pretty good gig.  The only real work is running 6 miles on the beach there and back everyday.

I had a really busy week while the owner was sick.  I was working in the kitchen at the health center and at the surf shack nearly every day.  I worked a 60 hour week while commuting 6 miles a day via barefoot running on the beach.  I was exhausted.

I've had some time now to rest and recover a bit.

I've adapted better to the Caribbean and am much happier with this new perspective of giving up control.  That's not to say I don't make plans and have optimistic intentions for outcomes... But rather, I don't stress or get too hung up when nature, people, or other things happen that are beyond me.  I realized I was some gringo trying to bring a whole different attitude from the film industry with expectations and scheduling that simply don't fly too well in Puerto Rico.

Also, the Surf Shack is right next to the yoga studio where I tried to cast the two people that flaked on me in the earlier failed commercial attempt.  That failure and my earlier expectations aside, they are totally nice and cool people and I see them on a daily basis.  No more hard feelings.

Now that I've changed a bit, I recognize other people who attend the health institute who bring similar expectations from busy city life.  They too would be better off if they let go a bit.

For example, the power frequently goes out here for long durations while storms pass through.  The last power outage lasted about 36 hours.  During these times I have to run the generator for a bit to power the kitchen and prepare meals.  One woman complained to me that the generator was very loud and inappropriate for the nature of the institute... She said we need to have a "sound barrier."

Really?  Are you serious?  You want me to make a sound barrier?

I simply apologized politely for the inconvenience.  But in my head, I'm blown away by her non-constructive feedback.  What does she expect?  My only two options are to run the generator and prepare her meal, or allow her to enjoy silence and solitude which will require her to fast.  I cannot control nature and its storms.  I cannot control power outages.  I cannot build a silent generator nor quickly organize a crew of volunteers to help me build a "sound barrier."  Come on lady!  Let go!

Although it's frustrating working without power in the kitchen, I don't mind doing without power, internet, and sufficient water pressure for a while on my own.  But this is really hard for city people...

Another lady was very sassy when we ran out of papaya.  I told her I'm sorry but the only papaya I have left isn't ripe yet.  In my head: There's some parts of nature I simply cannot control.  And I'm sure the papaya would ignore any verbal requests to ripen faster on my behalf.

Last week I started working in the greenhouse too!  I haven't practiced growing much of my own food which is one of my intentions this year.  I love it in the greenhouse and I'm learning a lot:  For example, don't wear flip flops while shoveling compost because ants will bust out with no mercy and leave you with the itchiest of bites on your foot.  Growing the wheatgrass and sunflower sprouts takes about 6-8 days so we always have to prepare for groups far in advance.  We have to be very careful because we run low at times and can't make nature grow any faster: Another lesson of control.

What I like most about the greenhouse is the occasional fresh coconut break.  The other day one of the workers chopped a bunch of cocos with a machete for each of us.  A fresh coconut water break is much healthier and cooler than the typical cigarette break most people have at work.  The world would be much better off if we replaced all cigarettes with coconuts.  I can picture myself now walking outside of a bar and a hipster asking me for a cigarette at which point I reply smugly, "No dude.  Just a coco..." And I pull out a machete and chop the coconut right in front of their face!  They then walk away with their tail between their legs realizing how uncool cigarettes are and how cool machetes and cocos are! Boom!

So, if you find yourself getting too stressed out... Maybe you should let go of some control... Or have a coconut... It helps!

Change in Career: Contesting Day Jobs

Watch the Mountain Dew commercial I directed here:

http://www.mofilm.com/watch?movieID=7524

This was the BIG (now dated) news alluded to in my last post.  I won a $10,000 Grand Prize and a trip to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona for the Mountain Dew contest hosted by MOFILM.  Kelly, Danny (the "director" in the spot), and I had a great time in Barcelona thanks to the awesome hospitality of MOFILM.  It seems this is the beginning of several opportunities.  We we're also featured in an article on AnnArbor.com.  Check it out!  See the full cast/credits below, all of which are great friends and regular collaborators.

Around that same time, I almost won a commercial contest for Trident Layers too... but I ran into a snafu when I didn't have all my paperwork in place... which cost me $7500... lesson learned.  Do your paperwork in advance, even though it's obnoxiously boring.  Hopefully, Trident will come back and buy the spot though.

Also, Kelly and I just entered another MOFILM competition for Chevrolet. We cut an awesome spot together with our Alaska road trip footage from last summer. It was a very happy coincidence that I drive a Chevy!  Grand Prize is $8000 and a trip to Tribecca Film Festival.  I'll keep ya updated on that one!

All this contest stuff has certainly created a new career push towards directing commercials.  Some new opportunities are developing.  I'm making money as a director where only a few months ago I couldn't get a job as a stock boy.  So hopefully I can put off getting a day job since it's tough to find one even if you want it.

Things are looking good!  As is the Michigan sun that is finally coming out to play!

-----

Mountain Dew - "The Pitch"

Cast: 

Danny Mooney: "Director" 

David Roetman: "Executive" 

Natalie Condon: "Secretary" 

Crew: 

Marty Stano: Writer/Director/Producer/Editor 

Debashis Mazumder: Producer/Assistant Director 

Natalie Condon: Producer 

Benjamin Dell: Director of Photography 

Joey Ostrander: Art Director 

David Fienup: Sound Recordist/Sound Designer/Audio Engineer 

Chris Miller: Gaffer 

Geoffrey Gilbert: Camera Assistant 

Josh Condon: Sound Assistant

Change in Happiness: "What the Hell Am I Doing with My Life?"

[Wikipedia says, "The smiley face is a well-known symbol of happiness."  However, how to find happiness itself seems to be less well-known...]

I think a majority of us at some time may pose the question in one form or the other, "What the hell am I doing with my life?"  At least I do.  You may ask that question everyday... or perhaps when checking off one of those life mile stones: Graduate from high school, graduate from college, get a job...

I find that most post-college graduates pose this question somewhat frequently.  At least I did when I graduated from a significant college (University of Michigan) without a significant job, nor a significant other... That question came frequently on weekend mornings when I was still recounting my attendance at college parties...

"What the hell am I doing with my life?"  The question itself asks about the present:  What "am I doing" now?  Well, I am writing a blog post now.  But, that's not what I'm doing with my life- at least I hope not.  So, this question seems to be a reflection on one's present, while asking oneself what to do with their future...

The key verb of the question is DO.  The underlying premise of the question is that there is something to do in life.  I don't know if that's completely true but I'd like to think so...  So then, what do you do?

First off, to have a life with a future, you must survive the present.  If you do want to survive, then there are things you must do like drink water, eat food, find shelter, and maybe make time for sleep.  Okay... so what else is there to do in life?  Well, if you're thinking further into the future, that is, the future of you as a species, then you must find a mate, do that mate, and reproduce.

That is is pretty much what most animals do with their lives.

I'm not really sure what humans do with their lives, or rather, what they should do... But, it does seem that most of us need to do more than animals...

And so we did.

One of the biggest things to do for an animal is to eat food.  To eat food, they go around and find it.  Humans use to do this too.  But within the last few thousand years, a majority of human culture changed all that.  Agriculture was introduced, then industrialization came and the majority of land was now owned or claimed.  If you tried to find food or water on the land, now known as property, an owner could rightfully shoot you dead and you would no longer have anything to do.

So you see, over a few thousand years, the majority of humans changed one of the essential things that they must do, that is, find food.  This was the thing to do for humans for hundreds of thousands of years.

Skipping over several evolutionary and cultural details: The great majority of food is no longer found it is bought. Yes, of course you know this.  Nearly everyone buys food.  But, this brought a new thing we must do within our discussion of what to do in life.  To have a life, the thing you must do is survive.  To survive, the big thing to do is eat food.  The majority of us must buy food to eat.  So, to eat, you need money.

So the new thing we must do now is find money.  And because you usually can't find more then a few coins on the ground, the thing we must do is get a job.

I still believe that you don't need a job to survive and there are small groups of people and individuals who continue to prove this... But for the sake of this discussion and mass culture we'll say you do.

The question again, "What the hell am I doing with my life?"

We know what we must do in order to have a life: survive.  But the question is not, "What the hell am I doing with my life to survive?"  People already know how to survive, at least to some degree.  I certainly wasn't waking up black out drunk on a stranger's couch in college wondering, "How am I going to eat today?"  I was really wondering if I would be content to do this day after day...

So we should rephrase the question: "What the hell am I doing with my life to be happy?"

Now that makes the question even more difficult.  Survival is a big thing, but happiness is huge!  That's what most of us want right?  To be happy.

So what do you do to be happy?

There are many things to do that bring happiness to certain people: love, share, act, create, compete, play, build, imagine, dance, listen... to name a few.

But, no one can know what you should do to be happy except for you.  And there's always a good chance that you don't know either.  I know I'm not certain for myself.  No single person is the same, so what works for person X may not work for person Y.

But we do know there are things we must do to survive: drink, eat, sleep, work a job (maybe...).  So why not start with that:  Enjoy drinking, enjoy eating, enjoy sleeping, and enjoy your job!

A 1/3 of the average life is spent sleeping, another 1/3 spent working, and the last 1/3 is spent eating, drinking, and a few electives or hobbies.

If you cannot be happy with the things you must do, then you may have a difficult time finding happiness with the electives...

You may be thinking you've heard this a dozen times, "Do what you love," or, "Enjoy your job."  But that is not what I'm trying to say here.  What if you don't have a job or haven't found what you love?  Then, you may not have anything to really do... except survive... if you want to, which I hope so.

What I am saying is this:  STOP doing everything that doesn't make you happy. Period.  No excuses.  Then, maybe you can find happiness.

If you're not happy with your job, stop it right now.  You can be nice and give a 2 weeks notice, but don't wait any longer.  If you are not happy with you're college classes, drop them.  Don't take any of those "back up" courses or majors to "fall back on" just because your parents wanted you to.  If any parent asks that you study something you don't want to, they do not have your best interests in mind and that is completely unacceptable.  A parent that asks their child to study something they don't want to is saying, "I don't care about your happiness, I only care about your survival."  Animals are able to survive, but humans want something more... or so it seems...

Some may argue that certain people or themselves are destined to be unhappy.  I would like to think that's not true... but I understand, unfortunately, that very difficult circumstances beyond ones control can exist.  However, I would think the majority of people in the world have the power to take control of their happiness.

A lot of us may be misled in our pursuit of happiness by mythic cultural dreams.  The big one in America is: Start at the bottom, and work your way up!  This myth may work for the functioning of an economic system but it doesn't really work for an individual's happiness.  I think a lot of people are realizing this after the recent economic depression.

Certain religions may also mislead us in the pursuit of happiness.  They may contextualize certain happiness as sin while preaching the delay of gratification and the acquisition of wealth as noble.  I'll spare further details to spare a religious argument...

So, "What the hell am I doing with my life?"

I'll continue to ask this question of myself... these thoughts are just my own reflection and I'm not sure if I made any progress...  I don't really intend to tell anyone else what to do except myself.  I'm concerned with my own survival and the survival of my own happiness.  That is the only person I can be responsible for.  However, I do hope that my thoughts and consequent actions may contribute to the survival of happiness elsewhere.

[Comments always appreciated.]