Archive for January, 2009

I just watched Steven Spielberg accept his Golden Globe lifetime achievement award, and his speech was really thoughtful. He mentioned how he, and his friends like “Marty” Scorsese and George Lucas, would never have been able to do it without having a mentor to look up to, to be inspired by. Spielberg hinted at the creative community’s duty to continue the cycle, and become somebody else’s mentor – to pay it forward.

I love that idea, so I am here to scream a request out into the desolate emptiness of cyberspace: I would like a mentor! I want to make films, and I need an enabler! I’m sure Spielberg would be an awesome one, but he’s probably already got a protege, and so I’d settle for someone else. Jared Gerbrandt, down there in Burbank, you gotta know some people, right? Hook me up, man! (Remember when we were at Universal and you saw Mr. Spielberg and I didn’t because I was buying a t-shirt?) Scott Derrickson, I know everyone from 10 years of graduates classes from the Biola Film program are looking for handouts now that you directed The Day The Earth Stood Still, but it’s me, Tim Oberg, from your European Cinema class. Fellow Reedleyite Leland Garton, you were in the process of getting funding a Zorro-like film not too long ago about local historical Joaquin Murrieta: can I help out in any way at all?

I’m on the verge of begging, but not for instant success or any kind of freebie. I want the whole process, starting where I am right here in Reedley. I want to learn. Like an addict desperately searching for a dealer, I just want to be enabled.

And Steven, in case you’re reading, I think we have a mutal acquiantance in Fresno Film Commissioner Ray Arthur, and I would, under no circumstances, turn down the chance to become you’re Enablee, if you’re looking for one.

In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot going on at Reedley Creative. We have some bang-up contributors and a few new one lined up for the next few months. We’ll also be announcing our first offline Reedley Creative-sponsored event in downtown Reedley soon (think poetry and art), so stay tuned for details!