PANDEMIC BREAKDOWN!

Normally, I talk about writing, but I’m going to take a brief detour for this post and talk about movies!!! Well, one in particular. PANDEMIC BREAKDOWN.

For the past several months (six, maybe?), I’ve been fortunate enough to work on a movie! We filmed it all remotely–none of us interacted directly–and, while the movie is largely based on phone conversations and interview-style, it’s really funny!!!

It’s about a man who gets fired by his boss (who is the ultimate douchebag) and decides to hire a hitman to kill him. And I’M THE HITMAN!!! His name is Phil and he’s…very unique. He often uses a traffic cone to take out his targets.

My point to all this is that this was way outside my normal realm of creativity. I’m used to writing books, but making a movie was never really something I thought I’d do! I doubt I’m the next big actor, and Hollywood certainly isn’t going to be pounding down my door to hire “that guy who played Phil the Hitman in that one movie on YouTube” but I really did enjoy it!

I was also the voice of the douchebag boss on an answering machine.

My lines were largely improvised. I was given a couple of specific things I needed to say but the rest I just sort of made up as I went. This is what I’m most proud of–being able to throw something out there without any preparation.

If the situation presented itself again, yeah, I’d do another movie. It was fun, it was new, and it allowed me to flex my creativity muscles. I even learned a few things about the movie-making process. Until then, I’ll be endlessly tapping at my keyboard, writing the books I want to read!

And I have two currently slated for publication!

You can watch Pandemic Breakdown on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewxSxpk53Ms