2011 Recap – how did I do on my goals?

Time for one last reflection on 2011 and the goals I set for myself in January 2011 to accomplish by 2012.

First, how I did on the goals I established –

1. Get out and shoot – I’d say I managed to do pretty well on this one. I entered a number of contests, and produced two short films this year.

2. Get out and shoot stills, too – I got to do a few portrait sessions this year and got lots of compliments on them (some even arrived in the mail on Save the Date cards to me). Shooting stills is so helpful for video, composition, and just keeping inspiration levels high, and I hope to do even more in 2012.

3. Learn Smoke – I took the fxphd class on Smoke. I probably couldn’t jump into it right now, but it is definitely not a big scary thing looming in the distance. I also made some great connections and resources for Smoke should I need it in the future.

4. Expand knowledge to other applications – I did just that with FxPHD. I learned a lot more with After Effects, Cinema 4D, and Smoke. The latter two I can’t just produce awesome stuff, but I have a baseline now to work from.

5. Travel – Yep, I definitely fulfilled this and much of it wasn’t even my doing. I spent 41 days outside of Indiana this year, over 11,000 miles traveled – the most I’ve ever traveled in a single year. Much of it was for work, traveling to locations to shoot. I went to San Antonio, Miami, Dallas-Fort Worth, SE Missouri, Little Rock, NW Arkansas, Chicago, Cincinnati, Washington DC, Gettysburg, Las Vegas, and probably some places I’m forgetting. Crazy.

6. Read – I did better on this, but not great. I’m almost finished with The Hobbit, and I finished Make The Cut.

7. Website redesign – I did this to an extent, but it’s time for a real overhaul in 2012. I’ll be switching to WordPress to content manage everything, not just the blog.

8. More freelance – Got this, not as much as I’d like but hey, I’ll take what I can get.

9. Blog more regularly/write more -I made 60 posts in 2010. I made 50 in 2011. Boo. Well, I also wrote a short film, does that count?

10. Do at least 2 good projects – Done! Did the 48 hour film project in July (Support Group) and our film for The Collective.

All in all, 2011 was a great year filled with a lot of learning and growth professionally:

January – Signed up for fxphd and won Best Film at ThreeFest. We invested our prize winnings into a bar trip.

February – Went to San Antonio (personal trip) and Miami (work trip). First time in Texas and Florida. It snowed in Texas.

March – Did anything happen in March? Uh..completed freelance projects.

April – Created a texting and driving PSA that won first place.

May – Finished my first book trailer and shot a great engagement session

June – Saw a film I PA’d and a film I produced on the big screen

July – Completed the 48 Hour Film Project

August – Shot my favorite engagement shoot to date and won a ribbon for my pie at the state fair (YES!)

September – Traveled to Arkansas and Gettysburg

October – Our film included in the Geek Independent Film Fest, traveled to Arkansas and Missouri, started editing Love Dance

November – Traveled to Texas and Las Vegas and started pre-production on the horror film

December – Script supervised Home Security, finished horror film, started Leah not Leia behind the scenes cut.

This provides a great point of reference to establish goals for 2012.