AN AD-FREE MOMENT TO BREATHE

I know it seems like every post I've written over the past month has been about festivals, distribution, and sales. (Did you preorder yet?) But there has still been a ton going on behind the scenes. I think I'm nearly as busy now, if not more, than my time during preproduction. After the release, hopefully you'll stick around so I can tell you more.

During times like this, a kind word or quote can sometimes lift you up. I was reading about a director whose release didn't go quite the way they had planned. The head of the studio shared the following with him:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

--Theodore Roosevelt, “The Man in the Arena”

In TLDR-speak: Failing sucks, but it's better than never having tried at all.

Good luck to all who try!