Inspiration

Why I’m making a film a day

April 24, 2025

Identity: They say identity comes from what you do often. I’m an actor and a maker, so I gotta do that every day to keep that identity. Kind of like how a marriage celebrant must renew their license every couple of years.
Presupposition: I don’t have to think about whether I will make a film, the making is a given. Removing the option of not making something means that the only questions I face are What do I want to say? What am I interested in exploring? What excites me? These are also the type of questions that align with my chosen identity.
Practice: Self explanatory really. The more you practice the better you get. A potter must make many pots
Failure: All the best stuff comes from failing. The person who gets in the baseball hall of fame for most home runs also has the most strike outs (or something). When you train a muscle to failure at the gym it’s forced to grow to accommodate the new demand.
Fun: One day I was really not feeling like making a movie. I happened to be flicking through my journal and came across a note from the day I decided to begin this habit. I’d written what would I have to believe in order to successfully make a movie every day? I’d have to believe it was easy and fun and that it is making me better at something I love. I read that and thought- easy I can do that!
Who’s that guy? I’m very interested to see who I become at the end of this. Who is the type of person that can make a movie every day?

Zoom in

April 19, 2025

Find the little gem in your art. The bit you love, that felt successful. The bit that other people ‘get’ or are moved by.

Extract is, examine it, replicate it and see if you can sharpen it.

There’s one of these in everything you make. The sum of these gold flakes is a spectacular master piece in your body of work.

I saw the London Philharmonic Orchestra the other night. Watching the pianist, I could see how the instrument was an extension of his emotional expression. The music ebbed and flowed both with the written structure of the piece and with the natural accents and nuances of his own emotional journey within it.

All the players were on similar journeys of using their instrument and the ‘text’ of the piece to express their unique telling to the musical story.

Zooming out, I saw a sea of artists, ebbing and flowing collectively and individually to form a rippling ocean of beautiful, emotional musical story telling.

Ai image prompt: make a painting “in the style of Seurat” that depicts a blue sparkling ocean made up of hundreds of musicians playing orchestra instruments passionately.

Immediately Obsessed

April 10, 2025

There is this arc that happens each day when I create my daily film.

Beforehand, if I have no clear idea- I’m about an inch from deciding ‘no more’. My brain is VERY good at reasoning why today is a good day to stop and that the whole project was pointless anyway. There’s no need to push through and make something today; it is more important to rest.

After I’ve fought those demons and manage to scrape together a beginning of a whisper of a something of an idea; I’m on the train, in the game, fanning the flame.

Then I make it! It’s not perfect, but it’s a thing! Suddenly I’m aligned again with all the reasons I’m doing this in the first place! I remember that it’s not about being perfect but it’s about gettin a ‘rep’ in, and here it is, my precious rep for that day!

And so I am immediately obsessed with this little thing that I made. I watch it over and over again and enjoy the little seams and details only the maker can see.

I love my little time capsules.

I often second guess whether to follow through.

But I tell you what, I always feel glad for having made something.

The bits that make you chuckle

April 8, 2025

It’s a good sign when there’s a section of something you made that cracks you up.

Or something you’re particularly proud of, the bit you want to watch back over and over. The bit you notice other people respond to as well.

That stuff is special- that’s the spark. Collect them, remember them, build on them.

Let go to get going

March 31, 2025

Sometimes the best ideas allude you until you stop trying to find them.

The mess of inspiration

March 26, 2025

My room is a tip as I head to bed tonight (there is a drawer taken out of the set as a light stand)

But it is the carnage of a day well lived. I’m not interested in making a habit of it.

But I’m okay with it tonight.

Time to process

March 23, 2025

If I’m on a break from work either cooking some food or popping out for a walk, I’ll naturally put my air pods on to listen to music or a podcast.

The idea is that I can squeeze learning in between work or other tasks.

I learned recently that the brain actually needs space to be idle to put things together.

It’s in those moments of being a bit bored:

Waiting for the jug to boil

Strolling around the block

Doing some stretches

that the brain really gets to work. I’m trying not to stack things end to end that occupy my conscious brain. I find, without fail, that given the space the brain comes up with new distinctions and connections that weren’t there before.

Give your brain time to dream, connect and solve problems.

Make believe

March 8, 2025

Tonight we got the best compliment I think we’ve ever had for the show.

It was (fittingly) from a child.

As we served the dahl in the post show of Mrs Krishnan’s Party here in Tucson, a mother and daughter came up to get food.

The mum said “She kept nudging me the entire show asking “is this real!? Is this real?!”

Perhaps I can retire from acting now.

Playing without a net

March 7, 2025

Every day I wake up and I know I’ll be making and posting a short film that day.

I don’t know what it’s going to be and that is completely terrifying.

There’s a slight internal pressure until I get started. Then there is a tiny spark of an idea and I start shooting.

I take a shot here and there, I mic up and experiment a with a character and some lines.

I simply take the next step, then the next and the next; gathering material, looking for things that light me up or make me laugh. Before I know it I’m in the editing phrase (the best part) and I can’t believe I’ve done it again. I made a thing that didn’t exist before.

Each morning, I’m afraid the spark won’t come. And sometimes it hasn’t. But I must take the first step forward anyway.

It’s been the most liberating and illuminating artistic endeavor of my life. When there is no other option but to deliver.

You deliver.

JUSTIN ROGERS

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Why I’m making a film a day

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Craftsperson and instrument