My plans collapsed. Now what?
I had great plans for our upcoming trip to New York & Montreal. I had this great film idea I wanted to shoot where Katerina is the protagonist. It’s about a young woman's dream coming true. Katerina loves New York and always talks with admiration about the Big Apple. My film idea wasn't that far away from reality, so naturally, we were both really excited to film it.
On top of this, I was going to shoot an adventure video from our trip to Mont-Tremblant skiing with good friends. I'm an avid skier who hasn't been up on the mountains for more than four years, so I was as excited on the prospect as a puppy ready to go for a walk. For this particular video I carefully planned all the B-roll sequences I wanted to capture, the drone shots of the scenery, the action shots, the interviews and the road trip itself. I was so excited that I even brought more gear than I needed, just in case I needed it.
Things don’t always turn out the way you plan.
Our trip didn't start that well. We had a couple of airport scenes to film, so the plan was to get to the airport with some time to spare. I had already sent Katerina the script and scenes we needed to cover for the day and we were going to start filming as soon as we cleared security. But we didn't clear it in time.
Instead, we ended up going through extra security checks for visas, hand luggages and even an extra final check of my camera bag right before we boarded the plane, narrowly missing it. There goes plan A. My plan B was to shoot the same scenes on our way back, so I wasn't too bumped about it.
Exploring the Big Apple. not.
Less than 24 hours after we landed in New York Katerina comes down with a virus that keeps her restrained in bed for the a few days. Any plans for city explorations and, even more so, filming at iconic locations went out the door. I had to care for my wife so we ended up spending quality time indoors. You know the kind. Tissues, medicines, herbal tea and Netflix.
At least we still had the ski video to film!
Or so I thought. Unfortunately, Katerina's condition didn’t get any better so we canceled our ski plans the day before we were meant to fly. Instead, we packed up our bags and headed home to London. That was it. No films, no videos, no great explorations.
Moments like this creativity takes a big hit in the gut. I could easily give up and reject new ideas as soon as they surfaced. But life will always take unexpected turns and as the saying goes “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade ”. I had all the great pictures I took of New York City the first couple of days to look back to and draw inspiration from. I choose to focus on some other film ideas I previously had and try to make them even more compelling this time. At the end of the day, our last NYC trip are memories and experiences I can later use to create stories based on actual facts. Watch this space Hollywood producers!
When plans collapse, you keep pushing. Not always at the same direction, but rather for ideas that help you restart your creativity.
Looking back a week later, instead of giving up, I choose to put these two stories on the self, for now, and one day go back and shoot them. Who knows, when that day comes, my story telling capabilities might even be better and I end up with an actual featured film.
Have you even been in similar situations were all your hard work and planning goes out the window? How did you manage to overcome that obstacle and what was your reaction? Let me know in the comments below.
Till next time...
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