2020 was a weird year.
I found myself paying attention to and trying to understand politics and global events much more than I ever have before. I was always quick to write off politics as a distraction, and I still very much believe that we are better off when we focus on our own lives, our families, work, community, etc. before politics, however this year did show me that watching and understanding can be a good thing. If our political atmosphere doesn’t affect me now, eventually it will.
I also moved to Utah. I dove head first into rock climbing, meeting tons of great people along the way and growing a love for something I was always just intrigued by. I worked on some fun film projects, wrote a lot, and discovered places I didn’t know existed like Wyoming’s Wind River Range and Utah’s San Rafael Swell.
Work-wise, 2020 was a struggle, partly because of the global crisis, partly because I had just moved to a new city and didn’t know anyone, but mostly because I shied away from taking on challenging circumstances. At multiple points throughout the year I considered settling for a job at an existing production house, but I ended up freelancing throughout the year. It turned into a needed season of retraction and reflection, and towards the end of the year I finally planted both feet firmly into my video production company, Native Films.
All in all, it was a pretty good year.
As for this email list, I’m going to change things up a bit moving forward. I initially started this for 2 reasons:
First, to build an ongoing and direct line of communication between myself and people who might be interested in my work or my story.
Second, I wanted to practice my storytelling by getting in the habit of noticing and telling stories weekly. The end goal here is to improve my ability to tell stories through film. Writing seemed like a good start.
It’s been fun, and thank you for joining along for the ride.
Moving forward, I want to adopt a more loose structure to the list.
I’m directing my creative juices away from writing and more into filming and editing. I want to do everything I can to improve that skill this year, and the best way I know how is to consistently show up. With that said, my new project is to create a short film every month of 2021. Here’s the first one of the year about my team and I climbing Castleton, one of the iconic sandstone towers of Utah’s east desert.
It’s easy to get caught up in client work and forget to spend time creating what my inner artist wants to create. So this is my way giving my creativity an opportunity to thrive consistently.
Along with sharing my monthly film projects, I’ll share general life updates on a monthly basis. I also reserve the right to share a story with you now and then, for old time’s sake.
Do you have any feedback for me? Anything you enjoy or dislike about being on this list? Hit reply, I’d love to hear from you.
See you next month!
-Simon