Finish What You Start

Drew Ott

Drew Ott

Wish I were banned.
This is a gentle reminder to always finish what you start. I've been paying close attention to my dreams lately, and it seems that my unconscious is structured largely on unfinished ideas for movies or other art. It's as if a work art haunts you until you complete it.

So always finish what you start, and be careful not to start too many projects. The more unfinished projects you have going on in your head, the more tormented you will be.

Is this true for any of you?
 
I am a strong proponent of finishing. Unfinished projects haunt my waking hours, perhaps my dreams as well.
 
I had a short film i started in the early 2000s, actually started shooting it then ran into a location issue and never resolved it, just sort of let it go. Am i destined to be haunted forever?
 
All smart assery aside, I think there's merit in recognizing when a project isn't going anywhere and your investment of time, energy, etc is better spent elsewhere. I recall reading once that The artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince and also currently known as Prince had upwards of 1000 nearly finished unrecorded songs. He's not exactly a slouch, so my guess is he didn't think they were good enough to spend his time on any more.

There is a form of perfectionism where the perfectionist avoids completing anything in order to avoid scrutiny of a finished work. There's also a form of perfectionism rather like Captain Ahab, where the damned dirty deed is getting completed, damn the cost. Wisdom lay somewhere in that middle ground.
 
I would only not finish something (now, that is) if I got very early into it and realized it was just not worthy (that's how I feel about the idea I mentioned above, now. For 25 or so year old Bass, it was funny, and worth pursuing. At some point I realized I kind of "outgrew" the idea, if that makes sense, and at that point stopped trying to finish it. The idea now is not to start down a path unless the idea/project merits being "born" in the first place. Now I would probably power through and try to salvage it if I got to the middle of something and realized I'd lost passion for it.
 
I've cut few dozen decent projects where in the end, it was just me. No director, producer, no authority there to guide me or contribute any creative input. They lost their passion to continue what they started. So, somebody's gotta finish it. Guess that'll be me. Take it as a challenge to stop stalling on your personal prospects and don't allow what you've experienced to be experienced by others. You can be the one to be there for the project until the end.
 
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"He tasks me! That whale. He tasks me!"

I have lots of abandoned scripts but after I shoot something, I want to finish it!
 
This is HUGE. Regarding projects, I have a lot of unwritten, or partially written scripts or stories... but once I shoot something, I always finish it. Most of my short films are operating on a very small budget, and everyone volunteers their time to get it done. I feel I owe it to them first and foremost to complete the project in a timely manner. Time and time again I have my former crew and cast coming back and saying how much they love working with me because "the projects actually get finished". I think finishing projects makes you stand out from the crowd. I am cautious about taking on too much as well, and balance paid work with unpaid/passion work as well.

Hope this perspective helps.
 
I've felt this way a lot recently. Right now I would say I have 5-6 projects "going" in my head, and I don't know how I could stop thinking about them except to do them and move forward. I find myself sometimes thinking "let me just hurry up and do this project so I can move on and not think about it any more", basically like a check list, which i'm sure isn't the smartest approach to a project.

I really hope in the next few years to be able to find a place where I can focus on one project at a time, but being in a place right now of needing to prove myself, I have accepted the chaos for a little while.
 
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