More than six years ago when I came up with the germ of an idea for “Dreams Awake” I never would have believed the amount of work it took to get here.  In fact, I’ve been wondering that if I knew then what I know today, would I have even taken this path?  But that seems to be the way with paths.  How can we know where they go unless we take them?  And once we take them, I guess we can continually second-guess ourselves all along the way.  But then, what’s the point of that?  If we do that too much, how we can we ever learn what we’re supposed to learn while taking that path?  And then think of all the other paths we leave behind by deciding to take this particular one.  As you can probably guess, I’m feeling a bit philosophical at the moment.  When actually I guess I should probably be feeling a bit more pragmatic, what with our DVD now finally being released.  Well, at least today you can start pre-ordering it, and next month you’ll be able to actually pop it into your DVD player.

And none of that would be possible if but for some decisions that had to be made more than six years ago.  And the hundreds of decisions that had to be during the past six years.  But not just by me, but lots of other people through that extended period.

From the years of script development, working with a script consultant and getting input and analysis from colleagues, friends and family.  From the involved pre-planning that went into finally getting the money, the scheduling and the production people all together.  From all we went through during the pre-production, production and long post-production processes.  From working on marketing and distribution strategies that mix with our transmedia strategies we are still currently in the middle of (and which none of you have experienced yet).  From all that to finally getting something in your hands that you can do something with.  A long and winding path, from the very beginning.

Yet now a new beginning is getting ready to happen.  A beginning for you to experience something I have been a part of experiencing for these last several years.  But it will be different for each of you.  And so liberating for me.  For now, I have to totally let go of all this.  I have been the driving force of this project for more than six years, and have had a lot of help from a number of people.  But in the end I had control of this process, at least as much one person can actually ‘control’ anything like this.  And now all that control will all be gone and evaporated.  Yes, lots of feelings hit me now; a bit liberating, a bit joyous, a bit sad, a bit anxious, a bit proud, a bit of some feelings hard to describe.

A part of me wonders at the fact other people would actually want to purchase something that I was instrumental in creating.  Another part of me thinks, well, you’re getting a good bargain when I think of all the work that went into this.  But in the end, I only hope you get something out of it; maybe you learned something, or it made you think or consider something you never had before, or maybe it was just fun, or maybe you thought it was just different.  Whatever it is I think it won’t be a bad way to spend a couple hours.  I figure if you plop down the $ for a piece of work that took some effort and time, you owe to yourself to spend a couple hours with it, by yourself.  And then put it down, and think about watching it with others.  And then, we may have some other things for you to do, if you’re up to the challenge.  That will be the next phase, the next beginning of the next path.  I hope to see you there along the way.

JAD

Oh, I almost forgot.  Those of you who read this blog and want to pre-order the DVD, here is a coupon code to put in and get  a discount: BLOG15.  When you go here – http://store.dreamsawakemovie.com and click to the shopping cart you’ll see a place to put this coupon code.  Your credit card won’t be charged until we start shipping the DVD’s next month.  Enjoy!