Formerly Blocked Artist
by Anne Flournoy
For decades, I lived a life of intense frustration as a blocked artist, only occasionally able to get past my inner critic to finish a project. Ambition and high expectations combined with the fear that I was ‘not quite ready’ kept me in a state of almost perpetual hemming and hawing. Instead of working, I usually found a million ways to distract myself and became increasingly jealous of artists who were working and making names for themselves. I heard the suggestions that ‘perfectionism’ and ‘procrastination’ might be my problem but knew that wasn’t it. I had standards for God’s sake.
And then, in 2007, Delta Airlines gave me my lucky break. A suitcase, filled with all the notes for the final rewrite of the feature film script I’d been rewriting for 17 years, vanished. I didn’t know how to proceed without the notes collected from the best scriptwriters I knew. And in that moment, I remembered that the only reason I had ever wanted to make a feature was to have a career. Shorts were where my heart had always been and I’d recently heard that this might be a new golden era for short films- that they were even starting to make money on the internet. With some regret and even more relief, I put the script for my second feature on the shelf.
It was 2007 and YouTube was teeming with videos of cats on skateboards. No self-respecting filmmaker was putting their work on YouTube but I was going to do just that. Picking up a camcorder, l began shooting everything in sight. Birds, cats, my kids… I’d seen Charlie Bit My Finger with its 50 million plus views and knew that I could match that. Three months later, embittered by a summer of just-missing every great moment, I heard a producer-friend’s suggestion: “It’s easier, Anne, with a script.”
And so, my 17-year effort went under the knife. I gutted it of its juiciest moments and began shooting Season One with friends. Seven years and three seasons later, we have forty two episodes online for free and without ads, with three more launching before December. It’s called The Louise Log, and it’s a comedy web series, the story of an insecure New York City wife and mother who’s an emotional train wreck. Her over-active inner voice keeps you up-to-the-minute on her anxieties, resentments and over-the-top expectations which, of course, alternate with doomsday scenarios. If you like it, please subscribe at http://thelouiselog.com and or on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/user/anneflournoy Here are some of my favorite episodes so far:
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BIO
Before making her award-winning, crowdfunded, comedy web series The Louise Log, Anne Flournoy wrote and directed shorts and a feature film which played in festivals from Sundance to Berlin. She’s a Guggenheim Fellow and can be found on twitter as @anneflournoy and at http://thelouiselog.com.
social media links:
The Louise Log website http://thelouiselog.com
The Louise Log on facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheLouiseLog?ref=ts
The Louise Log on twitter https://twitter.com/TheLouiseLog
Anne on twitter https://twitter.com/AnneFlournoy
tumblr http://anneflournoy.tumblr.com/
Creative Thresholds 