I’ve never been the kind to make resolutions in January. I think it’s mostly that there is so much pressure on it – if you dare go for a walk people assume you’ve made a promise to yourself to work out more and now just the more likely option that you’ve got a hankering for toast but a real lack of bread.

3 years ago though, in the midst of the pandemic, I decided to focus my attention on the end of the year. I’d spent the better part of a year anxious and depressed (I mean, lets be honest, it’s been longer than that but things really ramped up a notch) and I made a spur of the moment decision to focus on being intentional about what I wanted to leave behind in the grey blur of 2020, and what I wanted to carry through to 2021 with me. I made a big deal of it on social media, it became a project that a bunch of others signed up to do with me, and it really worked … for about a month. Much like a resolution, it fizzled out pretty quickly and I found myself in a vicious cycle of not completing the objectives, ignoring notifications from other participants, feeling guilt about that and that then stopping me from picking it up the next day.

So here is where this year is different.

I’m prioritizing me this year, and more than that – I am focused on joy. Film and TV make me so happy, and I love nothing more than to analyse the heck out of some lighting, giving shows the scene by scene media studies teacher treatment. I am not one, and honestly I have never even been a media studies student, but I am passionate about cinematography and what better way to put myself first than by indulging in something I love on a daily basis. I’m really looking forward to some shot analysis, some attempts at recreating lighting on a much smaller budget, and hopefully, who knows, a little inspiration for my own projects.

Lock it up, folks.