I’m incredibly grateful
A filmmaker walks into a whiskey distillery…
On a Wednesday afternoon in November, I grew frustrated sitting in my office. I had a million ideas bobbing around in my head; each one not quite landing long enough for me to grasp onto it and run. But at least one of them has been floating around for about five years: a travel show about the hand-in-hand evolution of humanity and alcohol. With invoices sent off from jobs earlier in the month just waiting to be paid, I decided maybe today was a day for research. So I Googled the closest distillery to me, hopped in the car and headed to Mystic Farm & Distillery.
I arrived a little after 2pm. Nobody was there. Did not see a single car in the parking lot. But again, it was a Wednesday. I walked into the tasting room and started browsing their collection. Just about as I finished looking over the bottles they had on shelves, the master distiller came in and started pouring me samples. Whiskeys of different proofs and flavor profiles in little plastic cups small enough to fit a couple corn kernels.
After a few tastes, one of the co-owners walked in to relieve the master distiller. “I’m not the bartender",” the distiller joked. Along with the co-owner, an older (than me) couple walked in and sat down next to me. Together, we continued small tastings and chatting for the next hour or so. I told them I was a freelance filmmaker. They told me they were on their anniversary camper tour, stopping at different distilleries, breweries and restaurants along their trip to and from their home in Richmond, VA. I also learned that the woman was a marketing executive. So at the end of our fun, genuine and whiskey-fueled conversation, we exchanged business cards.
“Can you send me a reel?” she asked.
“Of course!” I replied. But did I actually have a sampe production reel? No. Not in the last four years, at least.
So that is what I set out to do immediately. I spent a week going through all of Scrapt’s best stuff from the past almost-decade. Everything from sports to music, food and beverage to nature and science, fiction to non-fiction - I put all the best stuff into a tight one-minute video highlighting all the things I’ve been grateful to work on.
You never know who’ll connect with over a drink. Whiskey, wine, coffee, tea, beer or kombucha - it doesn’t matter. The face-to-face interactions are the ones we should value the most. When we make them a priority, great things happen.
What I’ve Been Watching
Arcane (2021-2024): Netflix’s adaptation of the game League of Legends just released its final batch of episodes this past weekend. Lasting only two seasons in four years, I’m extremely sad to see this show wrap up. The animation is top-tier, the action sequences are spellbinding, the emotionality is riveting and the soundtrack is just plain bad-ass. That said, I felt like this last season was missing dots that needed connecting. While I was still absolutely engrossed in Arcane, I felt I was missing context for a lot of the major events. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoyed every minute of this show, but for its final season, I personally needed more closure. The show is exclusively available on Netflix.
A Man on the Inside (2024 - ): Ted Danson has teamed back up with Michael Schur! Their previous collaboration, The Good Place (2016-2020), was one of the great half-hour comedies of the 2010’s, and the pair pick up right where they left off with the wholesome, hilarious and emotional A Man on the Inside. Danson plays Charles, a retired engineering professor, who gets a new lease on life when he answers an ad from a private investigator and becomes a mole in a secret investigation in a nursing home. It’s a ton of fun and sneakily devastating while still paying homage to the spy-thriller genre. All the episode names are plays on classic spy movie titles! The show is exclusively available on Netflix.
Follow me on Letterboxd to keep up!
Happy Thanksgiving, y’all! See you in December.
