Clearing Up Confusion of "Coat Tail" Conundrum

I've always assumed that Somerset Productions is a model based around teamwork. We all work together to achieve our film making goals. With About The Girl in particular, it was extremely difficult to distinguish between people's specific duties and roles: there were actors, and producers, and directors, and shooters, but there was also an overlap to everything we did. Scan through the credits and you will quickly see the number of repeated names throughout. Any 'official' titles have been more token assignments to identify the perceived roles of film.

I've been joking about our nominations yesterday - about riding coat tails, or being the handsome face that gets our cinematography noticed, or about sending condolences to me as the one person not nominated. A few people have now mentioned that they were sorry to hear I was shut out.

The thing is, in my mind, I wasn't. Our movie is nominated for another pair of awards and for that I am grateful. It is a great accomplishment and I really do see it as the success of our team being acknowledged. We are in this together and while I definitely surround myself with talented people, it is a conscious choice. I want to create the best possible versions of my stories and Kevin and Pat are the guys I turn to most often to make that happen. Ed was a part of that equation to while we were still working together.

With these nominations, you can all rest assured that I am as excited for our team as I would be if I was nominated myself... That is the way you need to be in the world of no-budget film making. You are part of a team and part of a process that is about collaboration, team work, and shared success.

I'm proud to be part of this team and I am hoping that we continue to grow, develop and succeed with our productions. At the end of the day, we do it for the thrill and the art. Don't get me wrong, awards are nice, but they are nice because they reinforce the fact that we are doing what we set out to do in the first place. More to the point, we are doing it well and that's the best reward...