2025 03 03

Night house. Chicago, Illinois. January, 2025. © Clayton Hauck

In the dead of the night, I was awoken and caught a glimpse of what my brain was working on while sleeping. It’s always remarkable to me how busy our brains seem to be while sound asleep. Maybe this isn’t always the case, but it seemed as though mine was working in overdrive. It felt like my brain was rewiring itself, shifting its focus entirely towards video production. I had all sorts of videos playing out, filled with specific concepts, shot ideas, lighting schemes, transitions, edits, experimental techniques, graphics, etc. It was both exciting and daunting, waking up to realize the ideas exist in there but to actualize them will require focus, dedication, and time. That’s the main hurdle that has kept me away from video for a decade now.

I think watching the Oscars and seeing best director Sean Baker’s enthusiastic acceptance speech shamed my subconscious into attempting to make up for a decade of neglecting the artistic passion (filmmaking) that got me started on this journey I am currently on. The challenge will be avoiding decision fatigue and over-analysis, resulting in nothing being accomplished at all. There are a hundred ideas floating around in my brain, which is exciting, but spending each day thinking about them all — dreaming of them — while not doing anything about it will only give me a blog full of mediocre posts that few people see and not much else to show for it.

Enough dreaming. Time to create.

-Clayton