Quintessential Studios' Weblog

Walter Murch at LACPUG via Zoom Feb 2025

Last night, I went to the 4th-to-the-last-ever LACPUG meeting.

It was great to see some old friends, meet some new people, win some raffle prizes and watch the documentary that I donated to the crowdfunding for: Her Name Was Moviola and to listen to the Q&A with Walter Murch (via Zoom) on the big screen at the Barnsdale Art Theater in Hollywood.

One thing that stuck out in my mind is that he has been editing for sixty years. Sixty years! Thirty on film and thirty on digital formats. Unbelievable! That’s dedication and that’s love and commitment and passion.

I’ve recently become obsessed with MrBeast, well, at least interviews with him. He’s someone that’s number one in his field, many fields actually, but for sure mainly YouTube. He’s been obsessed from an early age with it and has conquered it.

I really think obsession and passion are the ultimate keys to success.

Last night I had a dream where I was in Oceania running from Australian gangsters. Actors Mark Webber and Teresa Palmer and at least one of their kids was in it too, as well as a mix of characters from my own life. And you know how dreams go, some of those characters were an amalgamation of various people I know.

I’m doing this thing where I try to document my dreams now (to practice my storytelling skills) and so after waking up from these dream sequences twice, I decided to write them down. (I forgot to write another one down, like a month ago and completely forgot the whole thing, like I knew I would. So I agreed with myself to write this one down, so I wouldn’t forget it too.) So, I write down all my Aussie and NZ dream adventures.

After I was done writing it down, I was kind of up for the day, so I did what I normally do and popped open Facebook to doom scroll until my actual wake-up time was supposed to be. And what do I see?

A random Australasia FB post! (That has the word “syndicate” in it!)
Weird, right?!

Completed the online Post Super training for Post-Production Principles & Deliverables bundle.

I’ll spend some time reviewing before I test on it but glad to have made movement in this direction.

So yesterday, I did not edit a thing.

I did parent things, a lot of parent things. I listened to a podcast and took four pages of notes. Grabbed lunch and some coffee. I did some webpage updates. Studied a little. I checked up on some taxes and unemployment things. I read some great replies to yesterday’s post (Thanks everyone!) I did noodle around on the Internet. And I watched two episodes of The Sopranos with my son.

Highlights for me: Being there for my kids. Especially when my daughter smiled back at me after she glanced over during circus practice to see if I was watching.

Oh wait. I lied. I did edit something yesterday!

Please excuse this small rant. I just feel like I should start getting things off of my chest and not hold them in.

Damn. February is slipping away and I can’t say I’ve accomplished much in these 11 days…

in 2024, after nearly a year out of work, I was lucky enough to replace a friend (who took another career direction) on a show that turned out to be a great experience. Sure it had it’s frustrations; my wife wonders why I picked this career. She said, “I thought you’d be happy but you seemed upset a lot of the time.” (Yeah, I thought that too! But I guess that’s part of growing and learning. Or is it?) And now I’m back to being unemployed, as of Feb 1.

As I’m preparing for my trailer course to start soon, I’m rushing through a Post Super Post-Production Delivery Deliverables course while also trying to cut a practice trailer. But I end up spending a lot of time just noodling around on the Internet… (There’s also this story-telling course I’m pecking my way through…) I know at the root of what I want to learn is rhythm. (I also have this Rhythm Course and a Trailer Music Course that are on the back burner…) I just feel there’s so much to learn and not enough time and then I just end up not doing anything, it feels like.

I’m “busy” and as I’ve learned, that is not a good thing but ultimately, I do get small gains, here and there. There are successes in parenting, which is the most important thing to me. So, that’s good. But so much of my life is out of whack.

I’m in an ungodly amount of debt and have had to cash out my retirement just to survive.

The funny thing is… I still have hope.

I’m going to employ a “make small gains” philosophy and just continue to push and try to focus.

Wish me luck! I wish for your success too.