Laurie Notch(I)

I feel I have missed my calling! I have always had a passion for movies and writing. My cinematography professor encouraged me; my writing professors encouraged me. I was offered opportunities to attend film school at UCLA and AU (where I matriculated), but I chose to live and work overseas as an anthropologist and educator. Decades passed. By the time I returned states-side, the work-a-day world caught me up. I pushed myself to write and gain a toe-hold in the media industry. In 2007, I worked with a small film crew from a local college in Southern Maine to produce a movie concept trailer for a contest in LA. It did not win or even place (in fact, the judges wanted to throw it out for its disturbing imagery), but it prompted a Hollywood production company to call me. Deals were being made for a 5-picture deal! A publisher picked up my novel, and another production company optioned it! I managed to open my own studio. Prominent producers from Disney, Animal Planet, National Geographic, would come through my office. My ship had finally come in! Then the economic tsunami hit and washed everything out to sea. My ship had tanked and sank. I was high and dry, broke and bereft. Still, I got back in the saddle to write and produce short films, documentaries, and commercials in conjunction with local production companies and TV stations while I struggled to make a living driving a taxi, doing door-to-door surveys, and teaching as an adjunct faculty at several institutions of higher learning. Another decade would pass before that same ship sailing to the world of movie production would come into my port again. I am now working with professional writers and producers interested in making my novel "The Spoiler" film-worthy. The calling once again beckons. I will not miss it this time.