Finding joy with small victories
One prop has finally reached the status of being actually finished! “You have only one prop finished?” you say, and to that my answer is “Yes, I am afraid so”. I have many things in various states of progress and some things shifting between “hey this is finished!” and “I just got one tiny little improvement for this..”. I am getting towards the finish line bit by bit and I expect there to come a point where I get to finish things almost weekly as the todo-list get shorter and shorter.
But for now, for a short moment, let me enjoy this moment of having accomplished a small victory!
The prop in question was the inspection device that I wrote about in the previous post. Since that I have
- added a knob for some added visual interest and for the actor to have something more to interact with
- installed a cable for connecting it to the iPad
- without the cable this prop would have cost almost nothing as I made everything else out of scrap pieces but now I had to spend 25€ to get the kind of non-generic look that I wanted and also to have a real cable that could be plugged into the iPad for real
- and finally did a few rounds of sanding, staining and oiling to get a finished look
The genius of having lots of things in progress
Common sense would say that finishing one thing at a time would be a good idea and in a different kind of project I would agree. But in this case I’ve found that starting things left and right can lead to good results and more effective use of time. And as that probably makes no sense whatsover, allow me to explain.
The main reason for that is that as I am treading unknown ground I usually don’t have a very good idea on how to build every single thing. So by starting a project quickly and then putting it on hold for a while lets me process things subconsciously and come up with a better solution. Time is a valuable asset and tool to be used in smart ways and the power of hindsight should not be forgotten!
The gradual progress of figuring things out
The other reason are the random blockers. Very often I am waiting for some part to arrive from the post or that I have to drive out to the bigger hardware stores to find some more specific things that are not available in the inner city stores and stuff like that. Or like that one weekend that I could not find some materials from my workshop and I had to pick up another project. In these moments it is good to have multiple unfinished projects lying around so I can pick the one that I am most likely to have any progress on. During the week I rarely have many hours to spare so if I can pick up something that I can work on for an hour or two then that is a very positive thing and creates a feeling of momentum.
Sometimes this can feel stressful though. Seeing all the unfinished stuff around my home can have the effect of a sinking feeling “I am never going to finish all this shit”, but I just have to live with it until I start to have more finished stuff packed into cardboard boxes and waiting for the shoot.
Next up
At the top of the list right now are finishing up the gun, continuing with exploring the animatronics for the big creature and then of course the creature itself. Big, even massive projects, all in different stages of being finished. And that’s alright.