THE PROJECTS WE LEAVE BEHIND: WHERE DO THEY GO?

Okay, I'm not inspired enough to write this. Well... did you catch the wink to Billie Eilish's debut album in the title? (I'm listening to it right now, by the way.) I’ll make sure to put it in all caps. I’ve kind of been missing the humor from my last posts (if there was any), but I’m just not in a funny writing mood anymore. Is self-deprecating humor my ONLY humor? Well, let’s see what I can bully myself about today.

Silly digital illustration I made for the post.

Now, this brings us to the topic of today's post: the fact that I gave up on a project for which I stopped showering and sleeping. I know, tragic, huh? I basically became the straight-up hermit I always thought I would become. Here I am, fulfilling my dreams. I ended up writing a half-hour-long script, which should've given me a hint of its future but, of course, I didn't see it even though I need glasses for a reason.

Nevertheless, El Misterio de Los López: Capítulo III was finally happening. It was also ending the series of short films I started with the kids from my village. The story was about eight orphaned siblings—because who doesn’t want to be siblings with their friends and not have parents? I’m not going to lie, it sounds appealing until you realize you have to unveil your beauty secrets (only Vogue gets those!). Sorry for the detour.

We finally got into production and shot the film for three days before deciding to call it off because, clearly, we weren’t going to finish it; there were too many scenes to film, not enough time to do so, and a workaholic as the only person behind camera (not the best work ethic). I think I was overly ambitious with this project (you think?). Now I regret not having split the script into two parts to create a four-film series. It’s too late now, and regret has started creeping in—more like stomping in, to be honest.

Why? Because I always considered myself someone who doesn’t give up, and having to abandon something I’m so passionate about has really left me doubting myself. We all have projects we abandon, right? I guess it’s part of the process. Not everything is going to be a success; sometimes you’re going to fail. I know that, but it still hurts.

At the end, we decided to have fun! We made silly shortfilm that I turned into a 90s-inspired fake documentary through editing. We also made a trailer for the film we gave up on and held a little event for the parents, featuring a marathon of all the El Misterio de Los López films and the new short film at the end. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the 10-minute iMovie trailer I made (shhhhh). Apple wasn’t joking when they said it would look professional—I fooled the whole village!

This is turning into a great ramble; I was supposed to talk about the hardships of creative projects, and instead, I’m talking about iMovie.

In conclusion, projects often go sideways and it's completly normal as much as we would like everything to go our way all the time. I guess we have to think of everything we've learned from the experience and try and let go of the regret and guilt, we can't change the past. At least not yet. Thank you for staying till the end and feel free to share your own thoughts on this topic.

P. S. If anyone happens to have acces to a time machine, please contact me :)