Do all good things come to an end?

by Ronnie Apteker

I have never really understood this saying. Do all good things really come to an end?

My mother always asks me why I work so hard. But I don’t see it as work. If you love it then it is not work. I do love what I do, even those most days end in frustration and sleepless nights, but I look forward to each new day, to carry on the adventure.

Yes, I love what I do, but it doesn’t always love me back. Film making, like writing software, is a creative process. I can speak from both of these perspectives: when you are in the zone there is nothing quite like it. There are many frustrations and there are always things to fix and change. But when it all comes together there is no better feeling.

But, developing software and film production have two very different trajectories. Software can grow and become popular. A film, on the other hand, has an opening weekend and this generally determines its path. If the opening weekend is not mind blowing then the prognosis is not good. The Footskating movie opened this weekend and the numbers weren’t great. But they were not great for any movie. Looks like our timing to launch a movie was not ideal; the big sporting action this weekend kept people glued to their TV sets.

So, what does this mean? Well, next weekend there will be another bunch of Hollywood movies that open and fight for supremacy. And our indie film will have to contend with the hype and attention that this new big studio product will receive. In short, we got a real battle ahead if the long weekend coming up, in our second week of release, is going to be ours.

So, does it have to come to end? If the movie doesn’t land up doing the numbers this next long weekend does it mean all is lost. Considering that we spent two years on this journey I think this tough weekend that just passed now only means that our team needs to be more street smart next time round. Every venture, be it in software or in film, needs luck. Perhaps our timing was off now because of the all the sporting activity on the box of late. And perhaps we will still shape up over the long weekend coming as we move into the important tactical period of school holidays. One thing is for sure, the Footskating journey has been brilliant and inspired and we love the movie. We know who ever will watch will love it too. We just hope that this coming week people start going back to the movies. All movies, especially Footskating 101.

We constantly remind ourselves that it’s just a movie; no one dies. And, to answer the question, does it have to end. Well, we got another film in development, and we are more excited than ever to carry on our journey.