Great success can be found through incremental efforts. I asked my team to write for twenty minutes a day this week about their experience working on Delta Phi. I’m completely confident that this will give them clarity about the film and about their own goals going forward. I myself have been setting aside half an hour every day this year to write about and research metafiction, and the amount of certainty I felt after just a week has me advocating for this method. One insight a day, even one every two days, gives you real progress in a month. I’ve always written every day, but setting aside focused time dedicated to a particular project or practice is something that I’ve neglected during other productions.

This past Sunday we had one of our longest days yet, and successfully gathered assets for four different scenes, including one reshoot. The holiday break refreshed all of us and made us sharper. We got to shoot in one of our more comfortable locations, and the beautiful weather brought out even more affection and generosity of spirit than usual. I did not move one from a shot until every member of the team was completely satisfied with the last take, and I can hardly believe how much we got through. Footage came out beautiful and strange, like minerals carved out of an imagined cave. Left me feeling in love and excited and a little nervous about sharing this thing.

All that said, it only goes to show how important rest is to making good work, particularly for long term projects. I know that the few of you reading this are likely still neck deep in your own projects. How’s it going? What are you making? Let me know in the comments.

Peace,

Ayah

#DeltaPhiFilm