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Merge our passions into one lifelong project

How do we combine filmmaking, education, holistic well-being, and social justice?

We don’t know yet, but we’d like to find out together—with you. Because when we tried to do them all separately, it was overwhelming and felt nearly impossible.

On top of running Matt’s existing business—creating websites and brands for small business owners—we were trying to build three new, separate projects:

1. Educating first-time parents about child development and health care (Joehey's new thing)
2. Building a community of intentional films and makers (Matt's new thing)
3. Sharing this work together as a couple (our new thing)

Our plan was for the web design business to fade away (or become part of #2) and focus our time on the other three projects.

But, how would we have time for all this? We already felt at capacity with everything else: the web-design business, first-time parenting paired with isolation during the pandemic, financial struggles, family loss, depression in the winter, systemic racism and bigotry, environmental destruction, and on and on.

It just felt like a lot. (Seems a bit obvious now, but not everything is as clear in the moment.)

So, this summer, we asked ourselves:

• What if we could combine our passions?
• Is there a way for both of us to be genuinely happy if we work together on the same project?
• And if so, what would that look like?

(Nearly) everything, together

We live together. We sleep together. We parent together. We’re in a relationship together.

Why not do the best work of our lives together?

In the 17 years we've known each other, we've worked together on several complex projects, such as leading a campaign for international office in our college honor society, creating education programs for film festivals and youth, and helping bring independent films to life in leadership roles.

We often look back at those times with feelings of fondness, pride, and connection. Although there were challenges and times of high stress, we distinctly remember making a commitment between ourselves to maintain the fun during the process.

In those times, when we worked together to solve problems, do meaningful work, and bring joy along with us—that's when we felt most like ourselves. We've done it before, so we know it's possible.

But, this time, it feels different because the project we're choosing (making a film about sleep and sharing the process in public) incorporates most, if not all, of our core values. It combines what we believe we're meant to contribute to the world in our lifetimes. It feels more vulnerable. More important. More fun.

We don't know what we're doing (on purpose)

We've been wanting to build something together for years, but didn't know how to make it happen on top of everything else. So, why now?

The key change for us was realizing and accepting that we don't have to have everything figured out before we start—it's actually better if we don't.

We often wish it was easier to learn how filmmaking role models got started, but it's rare to find useful, genuine answers. "Just do the work" or "I got lucky" can only get you so far and can make filmmaking seem like an impossible feat.

This is why we want to share as much as we can, as early as we can. We hope to be a source of useful, genuine answers about how to make films—the answers we wish we had years ago.

It's worth mentioning that, although we are starting from scratch on this film about sleep, we both have privileges and past experience in filmmaking that will likely give us advantages in our filmmaking process. We aim to be transparent about this along the way, too.

What's next?

So far, we've created this newsletter, A Creative Duo. And, that's about it. Other than maintaining some client work in Matt's web-design business—because it's our family's main source of income—we don't have a clear plan for how to make our first feature film together.

We have some ideas, though.

Here's what we came up with for five focus areas to guide our first steps in building A Creative Duo.

A Creative Duo Focus Areas

1. Merge our passions into one lifelong project.
   What today's newsletter is about—combining our passions, like filmmaking, education, holistic well-being, and social justice.
2. Make a movie about sleep.
   The topic of sleep is important to both of us. Matt is drawn to portraying mental health accurately and inclusively in film, and Joehey wants to help people feel empowered to live holistically healthy through knowledge about human bodies and experiences.
3. Build in public, with the public.
   We want to be transparent about the filmmaking process as we do it. To take it a step further—and challenge the norm in filmmaking—we want to involve our audience in the creation process. This will help us build trust with our audience, make our film more impactful and inclusive, and give people opportunities for project-based learning.
4. Share what we learn and resources we create.
   ​Use our experience to educate and make practical resources to support others in their filmmaking journeys, including how to make it happen in a healthy and sustainable way.
5. Nurture a community of kind, filmmaking people.
   We want to find our people. People who love film, share our values, and are willing to push the boundaries of the status quo to make independent filmmaking more enjoyable and impactful, both on and off the screen.

Today, we shared our thoughts on merging our passions (Focus Area #1), and in future newsletters, we'll expand on Focus Areas #2-5.

Over the next two weeks, we'll figure out what our next short-term goal will be. Some ideas we have:

• Secure more clients to build up a financial runway
• Start a YouTube channel and/or podcast to grow our audience
• Read books about sleep because we can't help ourselves

We'll share our progress as we decide what to do next.

​

Take care,
A Creative Duo

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