My dream is to live in New York City and be a movie star.
My dream is to invest all profits from my films towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
My dream is for myself or my brother Joseph Billings to be cast as Batman/Bruce Wayne, as well as write and produce two Batman films.
It is written...
Where you at, Jacksonville? Rochester, Louisville?
Will you live in New York City...and, more importantly, how important is it?
Um, I'd say it is important. The European citizenship bodes very well. That was such a crucial insight/decision, albeit sans surrounded with much fanfare. If nothing else, that's the most positive outcome of this trip.
So NYC? Well, so much of it either is contingent upon a remotely self-sustaining income or perhaps just a work/savings binge à la that leading in to this trip. Either/or, but the latter feels less sustainable...or does it?
This business plan requires some pride of place in priorities soon enough however. Béziers. Mañana mañana.
Correction: I don't want to live in New York City. Just for perhaps a month or dos at a time. That'd be ample enough for now. I actually anticipate it'd be a little wearing to make it one's abode for an extended portion of time. The couple months in Europe and month or so in New York speaks well. Or 50/50. As for next year, a more rounded trip across the United States from sea to shining sea speaks more fondly.
So the Maltese passport ought to tie up one side of the Atlantic and ensure a sustainable model of visiting there. New York however? Well, I'm nearly happy to put aside the $5,000 (or far less if flying from the other side of the pond) to make a go of it once a year during September. That's the incentive of living off filmmaking, innit? Calling New York your abode?
You made a promise to yourself under the moonlight on your final night in the Big Apple. That the next occasion you dappled under that same moon, you'd be able to lay claim to being an actor, screenwriter and producer. That the dollar dollar bill y'all would reflect that.
Now let's clarify something: you ain't need no Banjo, no regent Elizabeth Dos, no Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton, Honest Abe, Benjamin or cynical exercise in Europeanising the deutschmark to further the franc to justify your love.
You can transcend the means of exchange. You can transcend the fiat currency of any one nation-state, the central bank which underpins it crumbling in your disregard of its sovereign reign.
So...how then to measure 'Movistar'? Because, c'mon, surely you must be able to define said object of your desire with clarity and purpose. So What Do U Mean?
If only 1 question need be answered come 2016, what ought it be? Surely, it must be, "define your expectations".
Movie star = fame. What is 'many people'? Quantify that shit muthafucka. Grow that shit. Increase your audience. Set a goal, an objective and strategise toward it. Your Strat Plan is your audience #'s. Actualise your #.
But, come on: does your heart and soul speak in numbers? Mmmm, most certainly not. Then what is its currency, if you'll allow the liberty of the cheeky analogy?
Is it setting your cinematic creations free, welcoming what may? Mmmm, I...I need something more concrete than that, I sense.
Will you recognise it once it's in your grasp? What will it look like? What will it smell like? What would the path toward it appear as if, on a day-to-day basis? Well, it'd look exactingly as your life appears as it has for the past 10 years. That's its appearance cast in relief.
Will you be a movie star in a year's time? Nein. But your films may well be on the way to attracting an audience of 1,000 for that calendar year.
But is that what you want? Do you actually care about those 1,000 individuals? What of your fucking original community, who've been with you from day dot? What value do they hold in the hierarchy of this aspiration toward movie stardom? Surely the currency they hold trumps that of any more comers thereafter? What is the charade you're at? Who gives a toss about the masses? Have not the crème de la crème or its vegan counterpart gathered as the congregation of your proverbial cathedral in the form of a movie palace, chipping in to the offertory to allow your conceit of basking as Boabdil for one night? Is this not enough? If not, then what is?
What model does this represent? Who must you be well-known to as a leading man on the silver screen? How many people must know outside your immediate coterie of your cinematic pursuits?
Are you a community filmmaker or a commercial filmmaker? Is the answer not clear to you? Has the past 10 years taught you nothing? Nothing, Dominc? Nothing at all? Is a decade of service, much of it as a volunteer (aka gratis), instructive of who you are, and the values which you espouse and embody? Look further, at your employment record even: what pattern can you recognise? Yes, yes! That your priorities lie with non-for-profit organisations. Not the rapacious pursuit of wealth.
Then why, oh why, do you find yourself in the silly game of entertaining the possibility that after an adulthood - no less the values inherent of one's childhood, if your Catholic schooling and upbringing are to suggest anything at all - that at the threshold of 30, you pivot to the pursuit of happiness via personal enrichment.
I'm getting far ahead of myself here and even being unfair, as with clarity I can ensure that my aims are that of a not-for-profit model. But my talents and track record do not demonstrate a model of fundraising. Being one cog in a fundraising organisation, certainly. Holding a fascination with the machinations of financial flows, check. But pushing sales and marketing oneself beyond the pale of one's immediate community? Nein, nein, nein.
So...if you allow, I'll rephrase: Would you settle for being a movie star within the circle of your community?
YES, YES, YES!!!
That is all I want. It is all. If one day, that community extended out to the World, so be it, Jedi.
But graciousness, gratitude and an actualisation of your gifts and dreams will cultivate outward from INVESTING IN OUR COMMUNITY.
That's my marketing plan, my business plan, my Strategic Plan. Point blank. Your guiding principle.
Throw out the rest: INVEST. You must INVEST.