My life up to now. Part 6: The Alamo City

Cutting to the chase, NewTek did hire me but it took about 2 months of constant emailing them to make it happen. I think I emailed them 3 times a week the entire time until they finally scheduled an interview. Have you ever lived on welfare and food stamps? It's great! Not. Just as our last dollar bill ran out, I found myself with my first NewTek paycheck. God always has a way of giving us what we need when we need it. My first project at NewTek was to design, well.. it's not terribly important. That product never really went anywhere so let's not discuss it. But, my second project at NewTek was to design the workflow and interface for what was to be the very first Windows platform Video Toaster. Yes. That same product that changed the DNA of television production forever. Remember that? Me. YOURS TRULY was designing that! WHAT!? I felt like the luckiest guy on the planet! The Amiga computer was no more… dead. NewTek decided to start making products for the PC. Who was the lead workflow/ui designer on the first Video Toaster for Windows? Me. Who was that? Me. (This is the conversation I had with myself in my head like 100 times a day). Anyway, to me this was a huge deal!

During the years between 1998-2004, Robin and I were working on short films. We were meeting people in San Antonio and making crew connections. We produced several projects to keep in the game and Robin was continuously trying to sell a script. Robin had been trying to sell a script since school, years before… that was her dream. Her and I would sit up at night reenacting our Oscar speeches. Lol, actually we still do that, but I remember them back then too. I heard a story once, can't remember who said it but it was something a pro basketball player did as a kid. He said that when practicing, he would always imagine himself raising the ball, aiming and swooshing the basket. Over and over again. Raising the ball, aiming and swishing the basket. Swish. Swish. Swishing the basket and never touching the rim. He imagined himself doing that so many times - the constant mental and physical training of swishing that basket that it finally became a reality. We do that. We imagined ourselves selling a script, producing a movie, directing a movie over and over again. It's a mind game but it works.