SATURDAY MORNING:

I woke up early today to attend a lecture at NYU by Steven Kampmann on Writing and Directing for film: Studio, Independent and Low-budget. Since I usually wake up early, I thought to myself why not miss an opportunity to hear his story? He is an American writer, actor, and director. Regarding his latest movie that he just produced, he told the audience that writing something he cared about and not something commercial or for a studio was liberating. Low budget movies have forced him to be more creative. Sometimes adversity and a limited budget sharpens the mind and helps us focus on things we otherwise may overlook. Imagine this scenario: you are given unlimited words and you have to describe the same thing with a limited amount of words. Just like the recession has reduced what is available to us as we face adversity, it also presents us an opportunity to focus on those things that are essential and more meaningful. This may allow us to be creative, to judge what is valuable, and to finally recognize what was superflouis. So when you are confronted with less and you can't do anything about it, look at it as an opportunity to enhance your own abilities by creating more with less. And because we are unsure of ourselves, sometimes all these choices are counterproductive and make our lives more stressful.