Lessons Learned

You know how sometimes there are things you just need to read or hear spoken to really get it? Even if you know it deep down, somehow having that shared experience (or at least the repetition) makes it sink in real good and you go, "Oh yeah!"

Well, that happened yesterday when I clicked over from The Johnny Bacardi Show to this interview with Brian Michael Bendis over at the Comic Foundry's website.

In Part Two of the interview BMB started talking about the creative process and ended up commenting on his first published comic book and how god-awful bad he thought it was:

"The biggest lesson I ever learned was producing my first comic. When I saw it printed I almost vomited on it, I was so disgusted. The whole time I thought it looked like something else. And then when I saw what it actually was, I was disgusted."

This instantly made me think of my experience on the no-budget and ill-fated Dead End film that I made last year. There was almost nothing that I liked about it and it made me seriously question whether or not I was cut out for this writing/directing thing (even at the amateur level). I did make the decision to do another one this summer but it has always been in the back of my mind that I'll probably screw this one up, too. I mean, I know I'm no Scorsese, but generally if you can't find something redeeming about a project it doesn't exactly give you hope to go on.

Anyway, Reading Bendis' comments really bolstered me up. Every now and then a person needs that reminder that sometimes, no matter how hard you try, it's going to turn out like shit. The only way to get past it is to keep working at it, be smart, be critical of your work but not to the point of actually stopping yourself from doing more of it.

mike