Serendipity: Trusting Life's Amazing HardForks

We're gearing up to start shooting the trailer for @hardfork-series. Looking back over my life, I've found the least expected turns have had the most profound outcomes.

When I was 10 I was at a party and the family had a video camera sitting around. I asked if I could play with it, if I was careful. Lucky for me, they had the confidence to let me. I filmed the whole party, and never really put a camera down for the last 27 years since.

(Future's so bright I gotta wear A.R. overlay goggle props from @hardfork-series)

When I was 17...

I finally made it to film school. I Hated it. The same week I decided to drop out I spotted an ad down by the school's camera rental cage looking for a fourth year students for an editor position at a multimedia group. I called them up and said "I'm a first year but I'm last year".

I got to tell my parents that I'd gotten a salaried editor position in the same conversation I had to tell him I'd dropped out of college.

A Cinematographer's Invoice

I quickly got bored of editing corporate videos and saw a cinematographer's invoice on a communal desk at work where it shouldn't have been. I decided I wanted to do what he did--and make $600 a day--instead of my $600 a week. But then I got sidetracked when my girlfriend at the time moved to Africa, so I quit the job and followed along.

Paying Off

My girlfriend cheated on me and I figured it out days before leaving for Africa. I almost didn't go but then decided to anyway because I was just too curious about where it might lead. I leased a $10k camera package on spec and spent a year in Malawi, suddenly understanding how the world worked, and more importantly how it didn't work.

I met a guy from Harvard who ended up hiring me on a side project (and later had me speak at the Kennedy school... first year college dropout that I was).

I then got a call a few days before I left from UNAIDS who were trying to get rid of the last of their year end and between that and the Harvard gig I ended up paying off my entire camera package by the time I landed back in the west.

With Friends Like That...

My long-time producer stole the script I'd emailed him from Malawi, taking my name off and replacing it with his own then entering a competition... and winning. I was apoplectic, but as a result of his actions was able to easily raise $50k to make my first narrative short film, The Straitjacket Lottery.

Round the World in 270 Days

When that same girlfriend cheated on me again, instead of breaking up with her I allowed her to convince me to travel around the world with her for a year (call it the folly of youth) landing back in America for my brother's wedding. I flipped a coin between New York and LA. (12 years later I'm still in the big Apple).

Bachelorhood

In the height of my mid-twenties-NYC-bachelorhood, I woke up from an alcohol-induced feverish dream. I wanted to go back to sleep, but I also suddenly had the framework for a film about my grandfather I'd been mulling the possibility of making for years. I told myself if a specific grant deadline wasn't imminent I could go back to sleep. Checking the laptop, the deadline was in 3 days. I wrote the script, got the grant and that film, Ten For Grandpa, changed my life.

But I nearly didn't let it

If it was up to me I would have bungled the whole thing.

As we were nearing completion on the rough cut, the Sundance Film Festival deadline was suddenly upon us. I told my business partner at the time, Eddie, who was one of the producers of the film, not to bother submitting, that we'd never get in.

He didn't listen, outputting a DVD and skateboarding to a fedex box with barely an hour to spare before the deadline. We got in. We went to Sundance...

...and I met my wife!

(directing a wedding on "Anniversary Present". Look at that hair!)

And Then...

I wrote an introducemyself post on steemit. It did better than I expected. This gave me the courage to reach out to
@ericvancewalton and @the-alien, then randomly meet @andrarchy and rope @bakerchristopher and the rest of an incredible team together.

And now we're a few days away from beginning production on the first stage of the @Hardfork-series.

The least expected turns have the most profound outcomes.

I used to call myself a secular Buddhist. Now I believe my religion is keeping my eyes open to serendipity.

Thanks Steemit!
Doug

P.S. this post was inspired by @ericvancewalton telling me last night that he's opening the next chapter of his life. Congratulations brother!

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I am a Brooklyn based writer, film & commercial director, and crypto-enthusiast, my projects include @HardFork-series an upcoming narrative crypto-noir and my novel Dwelling will soon be premiering exclusively on Steemit, and you can check out more of my work at dougkarr.com, piefacepictures.com, and www.imdb.com/name/nm1512347

Please comment, up-vote and resteem and I'll gladly upvote your comments!

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10% of all profits from Dwelling will be donated to Amnesty International.