3 New Things I Learned During This Year’s 168 Project

As opposed to last year, when I experienced 168 Madness, after which came, 168 Clarity, I give you the following:

  1. In moviemaking, money gives you time.
  2. Time is fixed in this competition, therefore
  3. It doesn’t matter how much money you spend.
And that last one goes in either direction, meaning, it is possible to spend almost no money in making a 168, beyond the aforementioned entry fees. If indeed I have mentioned them before.

Time is Money

A cliche I’m sure you’ve all heard before, which leads to the following syllogism: Time is money. Money is power. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts, absolutely. Therefore, man is inherently evil. As money approaches zero, and your time is running out, it’s necessary to think creatively, and quickly. We had a situation where we didn’t have a boom. Was borrowing the mic, but we didn’t have the needed boom pole to go with it. Had we had the budget for it, I would’ve probably purchased one myself. However, we did have a C stand. Or two. Problem solved.

Let’s “Fix it in Post!”

Well, almost. Turns out we had some buzz on the cable, that made it to the editing process. As I couldn’t afford a sound guy, complete with boom, mic, and mixing box included, we plugged the mic directly into the camera. I did this last year on Three of Clubs, with no problems. Probably because I had a guy that had his own boom and cables. Not so this time. Prayed. Made a few phone calls. Prayed some more. The writer called in a favor. We were indeed able to fix it in post, however, not without a lot of headaches, and stress.

Money, Money, Money!!!

In conclusion, I do always wish that projects like the 168 could be filmed for next to nothing, however, we did indeed incur some expenses. Without boring you with the details, my friend was wrong. You may remember before this whole thing started, that I posted that I had two naysayers. I probably had more, however, only two were vocal about it. One was right, but for the wrong reason. I wasn’t able to make a movie for $4400. Had I had that much, I probably could’ve made at least three, and had some money left over for a great wrap party. I’m reminded of an oft misquoted verse in The Bible, which I’m sure you’re aware of, as most will tell you, “Money is the root of all evil.” Wrong. Read the entire verse, which I shall quote here, and link to: For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. I Timothy 6:10, from the King James Version, to be exact. Other translations read slightly different, and I ask you to compare and contrast, to get the gist.


In any case, well, really specifically this one, Having a million dollars would’ve been a good thing, however unnecessary. Maybe next year….

72 and sunny in Redondo Beach.


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