Work Well Worth It

As many of you know, I spent the last two months working on the Macbeth documentary in hopes that it would be something that could get my foot into some career doors, my "white bronco" if you will. I worked pretty hard to make it look good and upon it's release to the school, I received many gracious compliments on my work. I felt that I had done a job worthwhile that fulfilled it's purpose and improved my skills. I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing. Feeling that the film was worth entering into some competitions, I submitted the documentary to the local Westwood Film Festival in hopes that it might gain some greater notice. The video was shown at the Festival yesterday (March 6th) and was well recieved. That night, the award ceremony took place. There were 4 categories:
- Best Picture
- Best Director
- Best Performance
- Best Editor
Each category would be judged by a single person who had experience in that field. Click here to read more about the judges. I was hopeful, mainly hoping to recieve the award for Best Editor. But I wasn't really expecting anything.
I ended up winning the Best Editor award as well as the Best Picture award! I was caught by complete surprise. Having not expected any awards I didn't prepare any sort of speech. So when asked to give one (twice) I stumbled through some nervous gibberish and ended up sounding pretty idiotic. Lesson learned. But I am pretty excited and feeling really pleased with how things have turned out concerning this documentary. I look forward to bringing everyone bigger and better things in the future. I now have a prepared speech that I would like to give:
I just want to thank everyone who supported me in this process and helped me develop my talents and lift me to where I currently am. I want to thank all the filmmakers, those I know and those I don't, that have taught me how to be a better filmmaker myself and how I can really bring forth good things. I want to thank Richard Clifford and John Thompson for allowing me this opportunity and providing me with the necessary tools to accomplish the task. I want to thank my wife for her loving support and patience with me as I worked almost endlessly to put this video together. I especially want to thank my Father in Heaven with blessing me with these talents and opportunities and surrounding me with people who lift me above what I can accomplish alone.

To see the film, refer to a couple posts back for a link to the video, or visit www.abbottd.com