Be an artist right now.

Get out there and make something.

On the set of 'Exodus Road'

Happy New Year!

I was going back through some articles I’ve saved over the years¹ and I came across this TED blog post I first saw back in 2015. Well, the post may be 10 years old now, but I think the info is still timely as we turn the page to 2025.

The post is an inspiring read and I encourage you to take a look at the article and listen to the full TED talks. Resolution #1, Be and artist right now caught my eye because of its relevance to me. It brought up some fond memories.

I've often thought about the fact that there is really no excuse not to get out and shoot some kind of video project. The economic barrier to entry is so low. The tools for making some quality film projects are readily available. Online how-to resources are infinite. The time is now.

I can remember as a teenager calling up my friends at the last minute and saying, "Let's get together and make a movie." And then we would grab my dad's VHS camcorder, run outside and make something up as we went along (I’ve already written about it a lot here on Substack. Oh wait, here’s an example right here):

After filming for a few hours we would bring the tape back to my house, hook two VCR's together, and edit what we had. It was a great way to pass the time.

Now that I'm an adult, things have changed. A job, wife, children, bills - those responsibilities take up time and energy. But every once in a while, it's nice to go back to that place; the place when you just took out a camera, used whatever resources were available, and created something on the spur of the moment. No plan, just the desire to create something.

And over one Christmas holiday while back in my hometown visiting family, I did just that.

While on the road to visit family, I knew that I would have a few extra days off. The question was: what should I do with that free time after the presents were opened and the family reunions were over? I thought, "Why not make a short film?"

My nephew was an undergrad at the time, pursuing film production as a career. He was keen on the idea (as the young people say) so we spent a Friday afternoon batting around some ideas. Once we landed on something we liked, I started working on the script while he worked the phones to recruit some of his friends.

It was a great creative exercise. We were forced to use exactly what we had available to us, which dictated what type of story we could tell. One big advantage we had was the location: My in-laws live on a lot of wooded land with a pond nearby, so we obviously used that as a starting point for our script, “What kind of film takes place in a secluded, wooded location?” We settled on the story of a young couple, trapped for years in a dangerous, isolated religious cult, making their escape together.

Our assembled group could only give us about five hours of their time (They were extremely gracious to volunteer during the holidays), so we really just made up the shot list on the fly. We had an idea of where on the property each scene would take place, but once out there, we quickly decided where to place the camera, how to block the actors, and then just moved as quickly as possible. And we all had to take a turn in front of the camera as well because we had such few people. It was a good experience for everyone involved.

I took the footage back home with me and cut it there. We were pretty pleased with the final result, considering how quickly it had all come together. We even made it into a few festivals.

Here’s the final film, which we called Exodus Road.

I hope that this post, along with the TED Talk article, will inspire you in the new year to make the time to create. Good luck to you in 2025 and to all of your creative pursuits.

1. If anyone has a go-to resource for archiving online articles they find interesting, I’d love to hear about it. Currently I have stuff saved in Evernote, my Notes app, Instapaper, X bookmarks, Gmail, and who knows what else. I need to get organized.