Guest Blog by Brian Durkin
This past fall I was asked by a close friend, director David Branin, to take a part in an indie feature he was planning to shoot around the Los Angeles area. The concept surrounds a man, played by Gregor Collins, who has reached the end of his seven year promise to "make it" and travels around LA to say good bye to those he has known and loved over the course of his efforts.
It was an idea close to my heart because I had experienced it. Not only from the perspective of the person thinking of hanging em up, but from the view point of the man who had had to say goodbye and let so many friends and loved ones go as they took that drive out of town.
I've thought of that drive "back east." I think of it vividly as the inverse of the drive "Out West." It's hard for us as we get older to remember the energy we had at that waking age of the early twenties. All promise and spark and fire. The world was going to be glittering sapphires on the bottoms of our conquering feet. Things were easier, decisions a bit quicker...the consequences seemed small...and anything bad, surmountable and laughable. What could happen? Like young marines told to take that hill, we were going to take it. No matter what career we decided to pursue, we felt this conquering, bright eyed belief.
And so it was on my drive out West. The sun was out there setting on the land that held a future I saw so clearly. Everything was set. I even had my inspirational mix tape planned out...a tape...cough...pencil at the ready in case any re-spooling was needed. Zepplin's "Going to California" was cued up first. Then Petty's "Running Down a Dream." If you give your self five minutes and a chug of cliche, you can probably conjure up ten more of those songs. They were obvious, I was obvious...but man did they work and wow did I believe.
The first shot of the Mississippi, the impossible horrifying claustrophobic flat of the Mid West, the relief of the Rockies, the Roadrunner cartoon Buttes and rock formations of Utah. All leading to the bursting green video game freeways of LA. I wasn't even sure where I would live and it didn't matter. I had hope.
This film "Goodbye Promise" is about the other end of that necessary hope, a hope we all had that is the engine that turns a better world. The other end fills the eyes with a haunted quality, something Gregor Collins brings in spades. The other end tests belief. The other end makes a person question every decision, beginning with the first one...the decision to believe in the big dream.
I believe this film will act as medicine. To anyone, anywhere, who is in the midst of their career, their lives, their dream...to those maybe wondering if that dream has faded, this film demands you question if you should give up or find a new. This film lays out in stark terms the consequence of walking away and urges you to take another look at the costs of one more shot.
Are you committed? Committed to living your best life? In every respect? Committed to your loved ones? Committed to your health? Committed to bringing your best everyday?
If you are reading this I think you are or are finding your way back to that place, back to a grounded and directed rebirth of your first "waking" energies.
I'd like to ask you to visit "Goodbye Promise" on Facebook or follow the link to their Kickstarter campaign.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1231856438/goodbye-promise-an-exploratory-feature-film
Take a look, take a listen. This film represents the effort of many folks giving it their all and the filmmakers David Branin and Gregor Collins could use some encouragement, maybe just by you becoming a fan, leaving a note or donating a few dollars to help them finish the project through KickStarter.
