Opening Up
It's Spring and new things are coming up and blooming like crazy. For Girl at Play it means becoming a production company located in Santa Monica CA, hiring people, creating sites and series and taking on new projects. And, if possible, fitting in naps.
As Girl at Play evolves, so will this blog; sharing all the events that are going on alongside all that is being learned by us. I believe that the more we share with each other (including the struggles, the good times and all the information we learn), the more we can each become what we are meant to be. In 2004 I took time off from writing and sharing after having confided so many ideas and information to friends who took it all, used it and then stopped returning calls. I had also come to feel as though all I was doing was writing about creativity instead of actually being creative and that the more I shared, the more people wanted which left me feeling very drained. I was left to wonder where the value in sharing was since after years of it, I had lost site of its value. But as I begin anew in production and am once again starting from scratch, searching for information and finding it hard to learn the secrets and dish, I realise how important it is to share what I can.
So many people are too afraid to share and I don't want to fear it too. What I'm doing is not unique; there are now blogs upon blogs of people who write out what they're doing, how they're doing in a what they ate for lunch. However, the focus for the Girl at Play blog will be more to inform and update, trying to list resources, information and insights that hopefully will be of use to those who read. Not every entry will rock out or have importance to everyone, I'm sure, but the goal, as always, is that if it helps one person, we've done our job. Another reason why I'm sharing again is that I've been learning from many amazing, talented and well known Hollywood Women is that there just isn't room for women in Hollywood at the moment; scripts are few and far between, directing jobs almost nil, producing is hard and on and on. I recently has lunch with Fay Kanin who, at 88, has accomplished so much. A screenwriter for 40 years (she wrote for Clark Gable no less) and as a president of The Academy, she's been discouraged over the last several years about women in power and creative positions in Hollywood - they just aren't there. I was stunned to learn from a well-known producer who is creating a movie that he couldn't use Annette Benning (who would be perfect) because she couldn't carry a movie on her own - that they might rewrite it for a male lead. If it's one thing I've learned over the past 4 years it's that women can do anything and that they are mighty powerful when they connect. They just have to trust themselves more, fight a little harder, create the work they want and connect with each other. Hopefully with the site and with my own work in Hollywood I can help this.
Yes it is my goal to create, make a great living and have a good life but it is also my goal to make sure that I don't do it alone. To get you must give. To be helped you must help. To learn you must share. Keep the cycle going. This leads to Girl at Play once again becoming a viable web site, with lots of updates, information and news. It's once again going to chronicle how a company makes its creative dreams real. Hopefully, you'll enjoy it and more so, do something because of it.