Tomorrow is my first day at AFI.
I had planned to write something like this a while ago. But a lot has happened since those plans were first made, and I just couldnāt get around to it. But tomorrow is my first day at AFI, and I felt like this was as good a time as any Iāll ever have. So, here goes.
The last month and half has been one of the best times of my whole life. Over the course of that time so many things have changed for me, so drastically. And so far, I love it all. Hereās how that month or so has gone down:
I got to hang out with my amazing friends in NY, and got to reconnect with some great people I hadnāt been able to hang out with in awhile (Iām so thankful that I have the privilege of knowing so many incredible, supportive, and talented people). Then I packed up my apartment in Brooklyn with my best friend/girlfriend, we shipped all of our stuff to California in a truck, and then had a great going away party in the empty apartment. Then, the next day, our very last in NY before setting out to LA, I asked that best friend/girlfriend to marry me. And she said yes! (I know, thatās crazy, right?) THEN, we got in a car and drove ACROSS AMERICA. I got to see America, you guys. At least one 3000 mile-long sliver of it, primarily via I-70. But it was the first time I had ever seen anything like that in my life. It is beautiful, and vast, and so many different kinds of places, itās hard to even wrap my head around the fact that itās just one country. We saw Lincolnās Log Cabin in Illinois (FYI itās fake. The real one was allegedly stolen during the Worldās Fair); we saw the Worldās Biggest Ball of Twine in a literal ghost town; we saw all of Kansas, which, to be honest, was terrifying to me - there was nothing but farms and 2 roads. The livestock outnumbered the people and Iāve never seen the sky touch the ground, unimpeded for such a long period of time - roughly 9 scary, beautiful hours. Also, we almost ran out of gas in the middle of a field, surround by thousands of acres of corn and zero human beings. Then we drove through the Rocky Mountains. We DROVE through MOUNTAINS. I have a T-Shirt and a can of oxygen to prove it. Then we saw the Grand Canyon, which I had never seen before. Trying to show it in pictures or video does not come close to doing it justice. It is the biggest thing. Seriously. Itās impossible to picture in your mind a single thing so large. I stood on the very edge of the Grand Canyon for a really long time. I took many, many photographs. It was crazy to think that 4 days earlier we lived in New York City, and now here we were standing in the middle of the desert on the edge of a massive cliff, looking into the BIGGEST HOLE ON EARTH. You can see that shit from space.
Then we got to our new apartment in LA. We got in late at night, and it was empty and we didnāt have electricity and we slept on an air mattress that required consistent re-inflation at approximately 3:30 AM every night until we got the power on. And that was the best. It felt like we were living in the best treehouse ever.
Now weāve lived in LA for almost a month. Katy has already been making huge strides in what I know will be an amazing writing career, while Iāve gotten to shut myself in and watch dozens of movies and read great books about movies and call it āwork.ā Weāre still getting settled in LA, and havenāt quite gotten used to everything yet (I still get traffic rage, people think itās weird when we say weāre gonna walk) - Iām sure thatāll take some time. And maybe itās the freedom of being unemployed for the first time in a while, or leading up to this point with an engagement and an amazing road trip with my best friend, or knowing that I get to spend the next two years making movies, all of which are pretty unusual circumstances under which to move to a new city. So maybe my perception has been slightly altered from what it might be normally. But I love it here so far. It feels good. It makes sense. Itās beautiful outside, pretty much all of the time. I miss my friends, but Katy and I are incredibly lucky to have another group of fantastic friends out here. And Iām looking forward to meeting a bunch more amazing people in the next couple of years, a process which will start tomorrow, when I go to my first day at the AFI Conservatory.
I couldnāt recite any of the 7 years of Latin that I studied through high-school and college. But I remember seeing Jurassic Park in the theater the afternoon of my First Communion. I remember dressing up like Dick Tracey and making my Mom pretend to be Breathless Mahoney. I remember spending an entire family vacation watching the Star Wars trilogy no fewer than 10 times (I also remember cornering James Earl Jones in a grocery store parking lot and grilling him about the prequels). And so many other memories (likely corny and long-winded), which take up a lot more room in my head than a lot of other important things that all amount to this: movies have been a huge part of my life.
It took a long time to figure out that people actually made movies, and then even longer to admit that I wanted to be one of those people. But I did finally. And then got insanely lucky to get an opportunity for a start down that path through AFI. I donāt know whatās going to happen after tomorrow, or after we all make our first shorts, or whatāll happen two years from now (I donāt know whatāll happen 10 minutes from now other than that Iāll probably get really embarrassed that I wrote all of this). The only thing I really know is that I get to spend the next two years making movies. And I get to do so with a bunch of other people who, like me, probably spent too much of their childhoods in front of screens being dorks. But itās paid off so far. Iām so excited to start this thing, and to spend those years working with those insanely talented people, and hopefully for a long time after that too. This is an incredible privilege that I feel very lucky to have been given. I hope I can make the best of it. I hope I donāt screw it up. I hope we can make some awesome stuff together. And I hope I can one day pay back those loans. In any case, Ā I canāt wait to see what happens. And no matter what, this time that Iāve had leading up to tomorrow (today, now) has been amazing. I couldnāt have imagined a better way to move to a new city and start a new life here. This has been the best so far. And I wanted to write this all down to remember how this feels, because Iām sure a month from now I will be in a much different place. Things are going to get rough. But Iām gonna work my ass off, and hopefully itāll all be worth it. And then, at some point, Iām going to get married to an amazing person who I love so mother-fuckin much, as long as she doesnāt leave me when I cry to her too often about how hard it is to make short films.
This has been one of the most beautiful and amazing times of my whole life, and Iām so thankful for it. And Iām thankful for the people who shared it with me. And Iām thankful for whatās to come. Did I mention that I really love comedies? Iām sure you could tell by the tone of this letter. Anyway...farts and butts and people falling down manholes!
Alright. Thatās it. See you guys on the other side of whatever this is. And AFI kids, Iāll see you in the morning.
