Words of Caution

BACK-UP YOUR FILES.  We had multiple people backing up all the dropbox.com files every week from week 1 and this saved our butts more than once.

HONESTY.  Don't lie to yourself or your team about your skills or your availability.

NO EXCUSES.  Own up to your mistakes when you make them.  Just apologize and amend it.  Nobody wants to hear why you missed your deadline, they only care that you missed it and the production is suffering because of it.  If you know you're going to miss a deadline, give everyone a heads-up ahead of walking into class and being late.

BE AVAILABLE:  not necessarily as in "drop everything when the team requests it" but make sure you have at least 2 forms of communication that people can use to give you feedback or changes that you will receive AND ANSWER in an efficient fashion.

Words of Wisdom: Torrey Loomis

As our team moves into the final stages of production and some of the team prepares to face the terror that is graduation review, a few words of wisdom to keep us on track:


"Sometimes, you get the slight urging to revise your material, change a page or two on the script, tweak a line...or just fiddling around in general.


This isn't that time...And this isn't about your project, your material, your whatever--its about you.


These are the times when you are so gripped by the realization of the potential of what your life could be that it would be a crime to not allow it to be razed to the ground and rebuild it from the ground up.  Its the kind of awakening that haunts you at first, it says "this could be a lot better" but we dismiss that little voice of perfection.  We all have that inner voice and if we listened to it every time, nothing would ever get done.  But on this occasion, the voice persists.  It doesn't want to be ignored this time.  "Neglect me at your own risk.  This WILL be better, or my voice will be the last thing you hear as I pester you off a cliff..."

Your odds might seem incredible, your deadlines impossible, your challengers overwhelming...All ventures of this sort are immense.  Yet, you are compelled by the voice that won't let up--it keeps pushing you forward.  It is something far greater, far stronger within each of us that knows where we draw our own lines...and exactly how far we can be pushed past those self-imposed limits before we truly keel over.  You may hate the voice for how much it pushes you, but sometimes that voice is the ONLY thing propelling us towards our maximum capacity.  It would rather you hate the voice than to hate yourself for squandering your true potential.

Remember that night before it is molded into something incredible, clay is crushed down to it's core--destroyed beyond recognition--before its reformed.  You might be at a point in your life where you feel like you have no form, no structure.  Guess what?  You're probably right--and you're exactly where you need to be. 

Its okay.  You can be destined for greatness even as it seems like the world is imploding around you. 

Let it explode.  It just means you're being prepared for something amazing.  

And listen to the voice--its your friend"

Torrey Loomis

(originally posted by A. Woodruff to the team's facebook page)