BILLY INACTION CAST INTERVIEWS: PART TWO – MATT GOODLETT

It’s part two of the the Billy Inaction cast interviews! This time around, we have the multi-talented writer, artist, and actor Matt Goodlett. In Billy Inaction, Matt plays the part of Jeff Brisco; in real life, Matt is a character himself with many facets, many of which he reveals right here in this exclusive interview on Space Jockey Reviews! Matt’s inspiring words of wisdom, experience, and aspiration make this an interview not to miss!

1. How did you get into acting?

It was an accident really. When I was in high school I signed up for a typing class. They accidentally put me in option 2000 instead, which was some kind of modern day wood shop. I think they thought since it involved computers it was pretty much the same thing as typing. Anyhow, when I went to opt out all that was open was drama, so I took it.

I remember the teacher, Ms. Bishop whom I eventually came to love, but she grilled me my first day. She wanted to know why I wanted to take her class. I couldn’t very well tell her that it was all that was open. I made up some stuff, about how I wanted to express myself more than just with visual art, which I was very into at the time. I don’t know if she bought it or not but I was in. I really grew to love the class.

That year I auditioned for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. It was my first time auditioning for anything, so I didn’t think I would get cast. I don’t know how but I actually got the part of Claudius, King of Denmark. It wasn’t a big part, but it was a part. I loved it, being on stage, getting the reaction from the crowd. From then on I was hooked.

2. Who are some of your influences or role models?

First and foremost, Miss Nan Bishop my high-school drama teacher. She really pushed us to open ourselves up and realize that when you are playing a character that you have to let go of yourself and be that person you are trying to breathe life into. She also used to drill into us to do our research, otherwise you are just pretending.

As far as picking actors that have inspired me, I don’t know. I mean I really like Jeff Bridges, Brad Pitt, Tim Robins, Timothy Olyphant, Daniel Day Lewis, Jack Nicholson, the list goes on. The thing with actors as influence is they are fallible. They make mistakes, they pick bad scripts, they do crappy movies. Look at Deniro in Meet the Fockers.

I guess what I am trying to say is I am more influenced by movies. Movies are a moment in time that can’t be changed, well, unless you are George Lucas.

For example, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, The Big Lebowski, Cradle Will Rock, Ferris Bueler’s Day Off, Back To the Future, There Will Be Blood, Amelie, Fight Club, etc. I have been influenced more by movies than actors. I always just wanted to be a part of them, to be in something that people could watch over and over again and enjoy.

3. What was your experience like on Billy Inaction?

This feels like a loaded question. I mean the movie took 3 years (give or take) to film, maybe even 4, I don’t know. With that said, it is supposed to take place in one day. My character looks like he has had a rough day, because throughout filming I lost 90lbs. Luckily, all of my scenes were shot in order, so It just looks as the day goes on he gets smaller. I mean I started to look like a little kid wearing his dad’s suit. Obviously, costuming had to change, and we had to figure out how that was going to happen. I’m not going to give that away, but he goes from a suit to street clothes, and looking more beat up.

When you film with Jimmy there aren’t really any rules; actually you better be willing and ready to break a few. One instance that sticks out was filming at U of L. Of course we didn’t get permits or ask permission we just did it. I had a bloody bandage on my head and a very realistic gun held on my back-seat passenger when the police came up and knocked on my car window. I don’t think he saw the gun because he didn’t draw his, but he was very concerned about my “injury”. Anyhow, we talked to him and told him what we were doing. He was cool about it, but told us to beat it. I was able to talk to the officer, and he let us continue filming. Not all cops are bad, I guess.

Goodlett on the set of Billy Inaction ~ “Filming with Jimmy Humphrey is rough.”

4. You also wrote and starred in a short film called Sisyphus and the Rose (featured here on Space Jockey Reviews). Tell us about that.

Sisyphus and the Rose was a very personal piece. I wanted it to be ambiguous though. Without genre, and without a defined ending. I wanted the audience to draw their own conclusion; that way everyone would have a different experience. I have had people tell me it is a horror story, I have been told it is a great love story, etc. None of them are wrong either. It is as you interpret it. I learned a lot in writing and filming it.

When you are writing something like that you have to hold on to the truth, play it out and don’t change it because it may make you uncomfortable. It didn’t hurt that I surrounded myself with very talented and capable people. Jimmy directed it, and I can’t thank him enough for helping me bring it to life. Then, Dennis Stein came in with his score and pulled it all together.

I also had and amazing co-star in Casandre Elyse Medel. Like I said before, it was a very personal piece for me and I had to really put a lot of trust in her. Casandre really brought life to the character and made me feel a lot more comfortable in just letting loose. She was nothing if not professional and blew me away in every scene we shared. Matching her performance was impossible, but I tried.

Luna was also great to work with. Her part wasn’t big, but the short would not have worked without her. She was so gracious and willing to be a part of it. I want to work with them all again at some point, it was very rewarding.

“I don’t always wear a tie, but when I do it’s a bowtie.” ~ Matt Goodlett

5. What else is on your resume?

My resume is all over the place. I have done theater, small film, stage managed, written for stage, and for film, done make up, directed. There are a few different things you can catch me in online. I worked with Anti-Villain for a while and we did some shorts. There was IMatch, which is on YouTube and Tweet Tweet which I don’t think ever saw the light of day… yet. Anti-Villain also did the 48hrfp. Our piece was called Science Fair. I like to think it was pretty good, I mean we did make the top ten, for what that is worth.

I have also worked on the old cable access IEatPoop stuff, too. I could list a lot of stuff here that no one would care about and they would just stop reading, so I will leave it at that.

6. What are you currently working on?

Right now I am working on writing my next piece for Birds of a Feather Films. I want it to be totally different from Sisyphus and the Rose. It is really just about finding the time to do it.

I am also going to be working with Casandre Elyse Medel on her Freak of Nature web series. I am going to be playing a cop and she is letting me come up with his back story, and helping fit him into the story line that has already been set in motion. It should be really cool.

In the first episode it is just her, no lines at all. She acts the whole thing with her body language, and with her facial expressions, and she is fantastic. It is the reason I cast her in Sisyphus and the Rose.

7. What are your long-term goals?
 

If you are talking about acting, which I am going to assume you are, I just want to do things that I can be proud of. I don’t really have any aspirations to move to Hollywood or anything crazy like that. I want to continue writing and creating. I love doing shorts, but maybe I will write a feature. I don’t know. I am just going to go with the flow.

8. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

If you really believe in something don’t let people make you second guess yourself, and never give up on what you love. That about covers it.

Check out Matt Goodlett below in iMatch! (Co-starring Bekah Beran)

Last, but far from least, is Matt Goodlett's Sisyphus and the Rose. The film stars Matt Goodlett, Casandre Elyse Medel, Jimmy Humphrey, and Luna in Exile. It's written by Matt Goodlett, directed and edited by Jimmy Humphrey, and produced by Birds of a Feather Films in association with ieatpoop films. Enjoy!

 

Follow Matt Goodlett on Twitter by clicking here!

Visit Matt Goodlett, Art on Facebook by clicking here!  

To see the review of Matt Goodlett's film Sisyphus and the Rose, click here!  

To see the latest BILLY INACTION trailer, starring Matt Goodlett, click here!  

LOOK FOR MORE BILLY INACTION CAST INTERVIEWS COMING SOON! FOR THE LATEST LIST OF BILLY INACTION INTERVIEWS, CLICK HERE!

BILLY INACTION CAST INTERVIEWS: PART ONE – ROCKO JEROME

Okay, here it is–the long-awaited interview with actor Rocko Jerome! Rocko stars in the latest action comedy Billy Inaction, where he plays…you guessed it…himself. In this exclusive interview, he tells us everything we’ve always wanted to know about the “Mojo Dojo” that makes the man we know as Rocko Jerome!

1) How did you get into acting?

Well, doctor, it all started when I was just a boy…. I think anyone who acts or does whatever the hell it is my friends and I do, it comes as a result of never wanting to let go of “Let’s Pretend.” I was a master of Let’s Pretend from the time I could talk; I was always the hero of some story I was composing in my head. I was never just some red-headed kid sitting by myself out in the country, where I grew up. I was Han Solo or something, whatever the last thing I saw that blew my mind I was a version of that which was sort of puzzling to people, the lengths I would go to. My cousin told my aunt once, “I think he really believes he’s Spider-man.” I only heard that recently; it made me laugh. I’ve been method acting since preschool.

2) Who are some of your influences or role models?

The point at which it all started to come together was when I saw Evil Dead 2. I was probably 14, and dangerously close to the end of acceptable Let’s Pretend age, if not already well past it. Here was this very homemade movie with actors nobody I knew at the time had ever heard of, basically clowning around but making something very clever and entertaining. Before Bruce Campbell, a movie actor was Harrison Ford or whatever tiny percentage of people that we think of as “movie stars.” People I could never be, you have to seriously luck out. But with Evil Dead 2, they didn’t get anybody’s permission, they just made the damn thing and put it out there, and didn’t have to give up on acting out fantasies. They just got better at it.

3) What’s on your resumé?

Once I got in High School, I was very into the idea of becoming an “actor.” That would lead to a lot of heavy conversations with my parents and other adults who would say, “You can’t be an actor because you can’t make money at it, you’re living in a fantasy, get your act together and think about a career” because, again, people have that idea that an actor is Harrison Ford, and that anything that’s not paying bills isn’t worth doing. What I didn’t get yet was that you don’t “become” an actor. You are or you are not, it chooses you. You can be an actor and work at a gas station from birth to death, never step on a stage or in front of a camera, and you could be an actor in the only theater that really matters–the theater of life.

Anyway, the drama teacher at my school was a guy named Phil Hoagland. He was just a kid himself, really. I think he was 24. I wanted to be a James Dean kind of a guy, he wanted me to really come out of that and take my chi someplace for real. Which I guess I did, in my own backwards teenaged way. I played middle-aged business men and old perverts, stuff like that. Never a lead, but the character actor roles, the ones that actually made or broke shows by either stealing them or letting them get monotonous. I might’ve dropped out or got kicked out of school if not for the stabilizing influence of that program. Every time (well, most of the time) before I would do something stupid that would get me in trouble, I’d say, “I’ll get kicked out of the play if I get caught doing this.” That usually worked.

After a few years of doing those little plays, I got pretty good–for a kid in a High School play. You can be King Pencil of your High School, but going out for a real audition and facing that chorus line type scenario, my ego wasn’t ready for that. Hoagland said I rewrote every play I was in, and he was right, I did. I wasn’t ready–or ever will be–to be subservient to a director and be someone’s puppet. It’s great people can do that, I admire that, I’m just not that person, so my fancy flew elsewhere.

I ended up fronting a Rock & Roll band for a couple years. That really got me a lot of kicks, and I never had to go through that “I hope you like me, give me a job” act. It was more “You booked me and gave me this job, now you have to deal with this.”

I didn’t act again until I sort of got drafted into one of those 48 Hour movie things a few years ago and got hooked. I did a few of those; they were a complete terror each time out, trying to collaborate with people that had their own “artistic visions.” People are crazy, you know. I’ll just say that if you’re working with me and our feet are pointing the same direction, we could make something lovely and will definitely have a great time. If you want to manipulate me or thwart what I’m trying to do, you won’t have fun. But we might still make something good anyway! But I’ve got no time for that anymore.

I fell in with Jimmy’s menagerie not long after that. I like to play a sort of more cartoonishly oafish version of myself in these things, which is mainly a reaction to how many “filmmakers” like to make movies about how cool and virtuous they are, or how tough and ready they are, and women swoon all over them. I think that’s just about the worst thing you can do. So the movie version of Rocko Jerome is ultimately a parody of that kind of approach, where nobody but me thinks I’m anything at all like I think I am, because I’m just completely devoid of any sense of self awareness and have this huge ego with not a single shred of validity.

I did one time not play that guy, because Shawn Coots dared me to. Without telling anyone until we shot, I became the opposite character for this short. I’m proud of what I made that day, but I hated that guy I became. I basically took everything I hate and embodied it for the amusement of others. I proved I could so I would never have to again.

 Ironically that's probably the best thing I ever did.

4) Any long term goals?

Just really to have fun and make my friends laugh, and make more friends of like minds, and keep trying to make something that's really good. Not just "Oh, that was good considering..." but actually something sharp and clever. Each thing I'm in is better than the last thing, I'll say that much.

5) What was your experience like on Billy Inaction?

It's been a blast. It really has. Whenever we sneak into someplace to shoot something there's this thrill of "we're really doing this, this is happening" and nobody gets that more than Jimmy. We're all co-conspirators in Jimmy's Circus.

It's funny, he's been working on this damn thing for years, and I still don't really know how the pieces fit together. His direction to me is always very vague. That's not a knock at all; I love that he trusts me to do that. But on this it was "You're a mob boss, ninjas work for you, you want Gustav dead, GO." I had no idea what any of that was! "What's my motivation?!?" So all the stuff with the Mojo Dojo and doing all that Elvis Karate stuff, I just did that to fill this big hole. Jimmy just let me do that. That's a very amazing thing to be granted. Jimmy has never told me "no."

I respect the hell out of him. His fate will be the same as mine. I hope this thing catches big time and people get into it. But if I just get to hear my friends laugh--that would be enough.  

Check out Rocko's awesome website! Front on This: Salisbury Snake  

To see the latest BILLY INACTION trailer, starring Rocko Jerome, click here!

 

LOOK FOR MORE BILLY INACTION CAST INTERVIEWS COMING SOON!

FOR THE LATEST LIST OF BILLY INACTION INTERVIEWS, CLICK HERE!

CLAIRE WASMUND: EMBRACING IMAGINATION

Space Jockey Reviews is happy to feature an interview with one of its favorite indie filmmakers–Claire Wasmund. Claire is the wonderfully-talented writer and director of The Tale of the Heroine & the Cad (also featured here on SJR). In this interview, her optimism, perseverance, and creative spirit shine as bright as any star this Space Jockey has seen. Enjoy!

1. How would you define Claire Wasmund?

I checked Urban Dictionary and so far it’s not there, so I figure I have a little time to be sure I get a positive entry. I guess Claire Wasmund material is a little quirky; a little dark; perpetually and happily wounded; hopefully never melodramatic, and maybe realer than you initially suspect. Let’s hope no one defines that definition as a “load of crap”.

2. What made you decide to become a director?

Power… Ha! I have a lot of stories to tell, and at a certain point writing them down didn’t feel like enough. If you have an active imagination, this is a great way to actually be able to touch part of it.

3. For most big things I’ve done as an adult, I have memories of playing the role as a child. Do you have any such memories of playing director?

 I started making “movies” really young; I had a German Shepherd named Max whom I would run around with at around six or seven years old, and we were both deeply influenced by Lassie. I would order my younger brothers to go out into the backyard and get into some sort of situation, then Max and myself would run over to save them. My mother would be standing there holding the VHS camera and capturing the entire film in one long take, all in a wide shot. Fantastic.

When I got older and could safely hold the camera myself, I would always do a movie for a class project in school whether it was some educational rip off of Power Rangers or an impromptu recording of Romeo and Juliet. I would force my friends into them, direct them and play some sort of side character (like Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet). One of my favorites is my own version of Titanic done with Barbie dolls. I put the dolls into a small plastic boat, put it into the sink and then dumped a tray of ice cubes on top of it; then I sang “My Heart Will Go On”.

4. The movie Alien skyrocketed my interest in movies like no other. You could even say that it planted the seed that grew Space Jockey Reviews. Is there any movie that had such an effect on you becoming a director? If so, tell us about it.

Ugh… I might actually say Muppet Babies which is a TV show. Seriously. It inspired fan fiction from me and everything. Those muppets were all about embracing imagination. I wondered how I would get to tell so many stories like they did, and go to and create so many fantastical places through the powers of my mind. Yeah… Muppet Babies.

Otherwise, my dad made me try out for “The Music Man” when I was a little girl and that sparked a desire to be a playwright, which led me down the slippery-slope to film.

5. How do you decide which movie or webseries to make? What are your considerations?

I love flawed characters; truly flawed characters. One of my pet peeves is stories about characters whose fault is being “too nice”; a lot of women do stories about that and in reality I feel like women could write some of the meanest stories out there if they let themselves.

Since I’ve moved out to Los Angeles I’ve done my projects with Fernando Noor whom I feel is a brilliant actor and storyteller and serves as a major muse for me. A lot of times we’ll pick a story that speaks to both of us and go from there. Flawed characters with darker comedy worked in there somehow is what inspires us.

6. Tell us about your experience making The Tale of the Heroine & the Cad—especially about making a fantasy film on a lower budget.

I had a short story about Tallulah and Himo from a few years ago. I played Dungeons and Dragons in high school, and I had a half-elven sorceress named Tallulah who was rather successful. My youngest brother played a character we decided was her half brother, a full elf named Himo; Himo was a bard. Himo died and failed often. Himo then retired. I felt like that must really make family dinners an awful thing; because, who wants to constantly hear about the success of your younger half-sister? I wrote the story and it was cute… and then put it away. Fernando remembered it and made the suggestion that it be changed to a husband and wife story to amp up the tension. Good idea, Fernando. I think most filmmakers hopefully know how much extra doing fantasy or sci-fi adds to a budget and prep time. Usually there is makeup, there is the time that goes with makeup, there’s the set which needs to be completely believable or things fail, there is the time it takes to make that set, costumes, sometimes even tone. It’s not something you can rush along.

We knew that this short would take a lot of extra time and work from us in order to keep things cheap. We had worked with Longlost Pictures (Greg and Lex) before and immediately knew they would be perfect on this project. They’re exceptionally gifted and creative, and always give about 200%, give or take a few. Lex made costumes, Greg built the beehive IV, Longlost, Fernando and I stained the wood that we then put up on the walls in a spare room. We paper mached a fold-out couch for Tallulah’s bed and took turns painting it and covering it in vines.

Tallulah’s bed in The Heroine & the Cad (starring Melissa Malan and Fernando Noor)

I knew Fernando would do a fantastic job as Himo and bring the same sort of vulnerable intensity he always does, and so we needed to find an actress who would sort of stand up to him. We’d seen Melissa Malan in one of Longlost’s music videos and she had such a fragile sort of strength that we thought she would be great for the part. I feel like Tristan Scott-Behrends was born to play anything classified as an attractive race of beings so I knew he’d do a great job as the doctor and bring his usual quirk and depth to the part; Malia Miglino’s got a great spunk and realness so we knew she’d bring a lot to the part of the nurse.

Laura and Tokiko, our makeup team, really went out of their ways to make sure the application, supplies, shading, etc. were all remarkable enough to stand up to the scrutiny of being projected feet high on a wall.

We shot it in a little over two days and most of it takes place in one room. To keep it “moving” Longlost pushed to have us continually shift shot angles in the room so we weren’t looking at the same thing over and over again.

Because it’s a fantasy piece with some more “human elements” we wanted music to keep it completely in the fantasy world. I love Brandon K. Verrett’s talent. If I could have Brandon score my life for a day it would be the most epic day ever. Brandon’s music for this film enhanced the world so much.

You’ve got to have people dedicated to the project for a fantasy piece. You can’t have people in and out, it’s really a complete team effort that’s a hard but rewarding thing to find.

7. Who is your favorite director and why?

It changes day to day, I’m very fickle. But I have enormous respect for writer/directors and those who successfully balance dialogue heavy scripts.

8. As a director, what has been your most rewarding experience?

Besides meeting great people? As overly studious as this sounds, probably one of the most rewarding experiences has been just how fast you learn as a director. I feel like you learn quickly as a writer, but you never “see” the words (well, you do, but..), in writing, it’s sort of easier to claim something is subjective and that’s why it didn’t ring true to this person, or that person. With directing, though everyone has a style and tone that some people might not get, it’s much easier to see what works and what doesn’t work on screen. You can’t make excuses when it’s there in front of you.

9. What has been your greatest challenge as a director?

Since I was a writer first, I don’t always think as visually as I need to. I spent a lot of time writing (unfinished) novels and plays before moving on to screenplays. What works in one medium doesn’t always work in the other. You can write what you think is a brilliant scene of dialogue, high-five yourself, and then — if you just sort of leave it in a wide for three or four pages — you can then watch it fail… it might fail even if you add that dolly shot in. You need to surround yourself with people who balance your strengths and flaws. I’ve been so lucky to work with Longlost Pictures who are extremely visual and creative and come up with all sorts of ways to keep things moving.

10. Have you done any acting? If so, tell us about it.

I did a lot of acting when I was younger… a lot of community theater acting. I was big into musical theater, and my ability to project and be heard in the back row of the theater always really impressed my mother. I liked acting a lot; I just never felt I was “great” at it. I was “good enough”, I guess; not “awful”, but people seemed to respond a lot more to my writing than my acting. I took the hint.

11. You have two webseries—Partners in Pretension and Delayed Teen Angst. Tell us about them.

Delayed Teen Angst was a webseries I wrote back in 2007 or 2008 over a few days and then we shot it over a weekend. Through that I met Tristan Scott-Behrends (the elven doctor) who continues to be one of my favorite performers. It was a fun crash-course and a great chance to hear my lines on screen and figure out what worked, what didn’t work. When you write, it’s a rare opportunity to hear your lines read out loud by other, competent people. Great learning experience.

Partners in Pretension is a seven-episode series we shot, and was maybe the second time I had directed? It’s about two members of the current lost generation who want to improve their desperate financial situation by profiting off the ad revenue of their online “how to videos.” It stars Fernando and Tristan. We’re currently on four online networks, were selected for a few festivals and local screenings, and have about 400,000 collective views. I’m proud of the series and very proud of the experience I gained from it. We met the obligatory awful people through it, but also cemented some relationships with some truly fantastic human beings we never want to be without again. On a self-centered note, when I see the series I can see my own improvement in every episode. There are always things I wish I had done differently when I rewatch, but usually I can say, “but I
haven’t repeated that mistake”.

12. What else is on your resumé?

I produced a feature film called “The Grover Complex” which was written by and starred Fernando Noor (Himo in The Tale of the Heroine and the Cad). We got into sixteen film festivals and came away with some “Best Comedy”, “Best of Festival” and some “Filmmakers to Watch” awards. A feature is such a huge undertaking and I’m so proud of the work we did on it, pushing it from pre-production to finish. I’ve worked in reality TV which I enjoy; I did some story work on NBC’s Fashion Star. I directed an episode of a great web series called Diary of a Weddng Planner and a few other films here and there.

13. What are you currently working on?

We just shot a noir-nspired comedic short film written by Fernando and produced with Longlost Pictures. I have a featurette I wrote that I’m planning on going into production with once again using Fernando Noor, Longlost Pictures, Melissa Malan, and hopefully a few other familiar faces.

14. What else is in the future for Claire Wasmund? Are there any big plans, or any special movies in the works?

I have a feature script I love written with Fernando and Tristan in mind; it’d be a great low-budget flick, but I’d love to raise a little more to actually pay a few people (*cough*, actors, Longlost Pictures, composer Brandon K. Verrett) a little bit closer to what they’re worth. (Which is unmeasurable, by the way. ;p)

I actually have two book series ideas that are both fantasy. Both of them are sort of in various drafts, one has spent time being a television show idea, then a feature, and has now sort of settled itself back into book form.

I have a psychological horror script I’d love to finish, a fantasy animation piece, and a boxing script with Fernando and Longlost.

After our featurette we have one more short film idea, and then we’re really pushing to film another feature. Since I was trained for writing and not directing, every piece I make here is hopefully a successful learning experience. I’d like to keep getting more under my belt before I make a big leap into a feature…but that sort of thinking sort of slides into what I warn about in a question coming up… Oops.

15. What advice would you give to the aspiring writers and directors out there?

Number one: don’t beat yourself up over any “failures”. When you analyze it, is that failure a failure? Meaning if you make a list of the positives and negatives that came from that failure it might be very likely you end up with more positives. You went over budget? Well don’t you know even more so what is needed and what is not needed on set next time? You lost the audience in this scene? Well don’t you have a great example of something now that maybe works on paper but doesn’t work on screen? Your trusted crew member botched the SAG/location/whatever paperwork? Great, since you had to fix it you probably know more about the whole process now than most people.

Sometimes a lot of these things take a while to reveal themselves as positives, but it’s there…lurking.

Also, just write and film things. Do it. Be responsible, but don’t second-guess yourself out of experience.

16. Now, I’m going to ask the question that always gets asked, but never seems less interesting for interviews: If there was one thing you could do differently in your journey to where you are today in life, what would it be?

I would have moved to Los Angeles sooner. No doubt about it. And I would have moved here with more of a “career” mentality instead of an “education” mentality. I have friends who moved here to attend school, and I have friends who moved here to work…even if they did attend school at the same time. Those who came here to work with no excuses made about what they knew, who they knew are all probably a little farther ahead than those of us who came here with the thought: “I’m coming to learn, THEN work.” I notice that it seems harder for some to get out of that “I’ve got to learn more and THEN I’ll be ready” mentality. I’m in no way saying school is a bad idea; I just think people need to remember that school is not the only way to learn, and just because an institution finally gives you a pat on the back doesn’t mean you are in fact good to go.

17. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I think I’ve posted this before somewhere, but it’s something I have to constantly fight with myself about. There’s that great quote: “A closed mouth doesn’t get fed”. Some of the most talented people I know are also the humblest, they don’t brag near enough and because of this they don’t get opportunities to add things to their lists of achievements. Then you have other people who talk and talk and talk about how great their stuff is, how much they’ve done and, even if their stuff is well below average, this constant barrage of declarations is eventually going to get someone’s attention.

How many times a day do all of us sit there and go, “why that person?” I do it all the time. And then I’ll see that person took the time to go out to a screening and meet people, or went out to a mixer and threw their business card into twenty people’s hands, or makes a point of promoting themselves online daily.

You can’t just sit back and say, “my talent will speak for itself” anymore. There are too many people for it to speak loudly enough. I think all shy people reading this need to take at least one day a week to turn into some kind of self-promotion monster. It’s okay to pat yourself on the back publicly periodically. Let’s all try. You’re all talented.

Thanks so much for your support, Chris and Space Jockey Reviews! We need more people online who approach independent film in such an open and encouraging way!

Claire is truly the best in the Space Jockey spirit of creativity. We salute her brave and passionate search for the supernova sun within herself–that fascinating, limitless engine of ideas and wonder we call imagination!

Be sure to visit Claire’s website at www.clairewasmund.com

Check out and “Like” Claire on Facebook at www.facebook.com/missclaireabelle

Follow Claire on Twitter too! @ClaireLWasmund

Visit The Tale of the Heroine & the Cad website: www.heroineandthecad.blogspot.com

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