Cynematik • Cyndi Greening

“Throw your hat over the wall and follow it. At least you’ll be committed.” — Irish Saying — My great-grandmother, Jane Greening, was from County Cork in Ireland. When I was a child, I was always most excited about my Irish heritage. I loved irish sayings like the one above. It always seemed so, well, Irish. Committing oneself to an impossible task, no matter what. To me, that was Irish. Wide-eyed idealism and faith that it would all work out in the end. As an adult, my idea of what it means to be Irish is tempered by the inherent challenge of what it must be to live on an island nation. Limited space, limited resources, unlimited faith and optimism. Pog mo thoin flatlanders. (That’s a photo of Blarney Castle in County Cork, Ireland to the right.)

“Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow.” — Norman Vincent Peale — Leave it to NVP to make the Irish look like slackers. Peale lets you hang onto your hat but suggests that you’re only really committed if your heart goes over the fence. For filmmakers, I think this is essential advice. If you don’t commit everything in your heart and soul to making the best film you can, a film you’re passionate about, you’ll never make it because there will be enormous hurdles to overcome. At this point in my filmmaking journey, I would suggest that as big as you think your problems will be, they are molehills in comparison to what you will ultimately encounter. In the end, it is only your passion and your commitment that will carry you forward. And, hard work.

“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” — Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)