Ritualistic Rants: Breaking into the industry

Can you put a price on a dream? When is it time to pull the plug and give up? How much time and money has to be put into something before you throw in the towel? For me that point just does not exist, mainly because I always think to myself what if Hitchcock would have given up? What if Romero after one negative comment said to himself I'm done? Where would we be if the great directors and writers of our time would have given up?

Many of you know that Shawn and I plan on diving into the industry head first in hopes of one day getting to make a feature length horror film. Currently we are still in the saving and buying equipment phase to ensure that even our first attempts are given 110% we are really trying our hardest to make sure we have everything we need to give it an honest go as far as visual and audio quality goes.

We are not well off in any shape or form we are both small town raised, lower middleclass citizens, meaning every last piece of our gear will have to be worked for and bought used one piece at a time. Sure this can be frustrating especially when you're so close to being able to start seriously shooting footage yet at the same time it seems so far because the anticipation is tearing you apart inside.

I am very aware of the fact that the road we have chosen is a very difficult one where money talks and who you know matters. I realize we will have many failures before even seeing a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. And I welcome this because I know with each failure it will bring us another piece of knowledge forcing us to work harder and learn from our mistakes.

What is the point of this rant? You may be asking yourself as you ask me nicely to put down whatever item I am clutching in an angry manner in my free hand. Why is this strange blue bearded fellow going on and on about coming up in the business?

Because I want to send a message out to you film makers, writers, makeup artists, actors, etc. Who find themselves discouraged maybe even contemplating saying fuck it and giving up and embracing the 9 to 5 grind of everyday life to the fullest. Don't give up, keep doing what you love to do if this means you have to work a normal job and work on your passion in your free time don't feel bad about it, don't overly stress it, be happy and content with the fact that you even have the opportunity to do what you love because its more than most have the luxury of doing.

When I first started working on The Liberal Dead with Shawn I never in a million years thought we would be where we are today. I want to take a moment and thank all the readers who keep coming back and giving us feedback helping us improve the site. And a thank you to all the directors and other industry people that have given us pointers, breaks, and words of inspiration on the process of getting ones foot in the door. Horror is our passion and a huge part of our lives and it's truly an honor and privilege to do what we do. Never will I stop having nerd moments where I realize I'm talking to someone I grew up idolizing, I will never trivialize any fragment of time of this journey because each second is a second to remember and cherish.

In the end I guess what I'm really trying to say is, as cliché and cheesy as it may sound, do what you love while you can because none of us know how long we have here on earth. Life is hard and everyone hits a rough patch now and then that's just how things work, but whatever you do don't give up because success is only as far out of reach as you allow it to be.

- Ted "Ritualistic" Brown