The start of the experiment

This is Katie and I on the plane on the way to Los Angeles yesterday!  We had an awesome 11 hour flight where I wrote 4 blog posts and had a huge amount of fun working on my projects and thoughts.  We landed in LA around 2 pm yesterday and made our way to our Airbnb in Santa Monica

Alan & Katie on the way to LA

This blog post about the start of our adventure in the America and what is going to happen next...………………………...

Santa Monica BABY!

This is the view from the back of our Airbnb!  We are staying in a tiny apartment in right on Santa Monica beach next to the pier.  It is an incredible location!

The view from the back of our house: Santa Monica Beach

We have 7 weeks here in the USA which we have carved out.  I am going to be writing movies and blogging about the experience and Katie is going to learn to play the guitar, sing and compose music.  

Why LA?
Why fly all the way to LA to do that?  Surely you can do that from your flat in Basingstoke? You are absolutely right we could have done all this from our home in Basingstoke!  We choose to come here to LA to it because:

1. The location is so inspiring!  WOW! Sunshine, the beach, surrounded by the movie studios in LA, the people and writers are all here!
2. There is a 8 hour time difference between the UK and England.  I have trouble switching off from my business at the best of times and at the moment PopUp us going so well!  By having an 8 hour time difference people will find it harder to get hold of me and I have less option to interfere with what Simon, Henry and the team are doing
   
3. Creativity can be inspired by a change.  Changing locations, changing environments and changing the people you are around can be a spark for ideas and energy and that is what we need for our projects!
   

Are you ever coming back?  What about PopUp?
I LOVE PopUp Business School and I have got nowhere near the mission.  I set out to change the way entrepreneurialism is taught, to help people build a sustainable income doing something they love and to democratise it all; making it free for anyone!  That is a BIG mission!

It is going to take more than a life time to do all that so this is just an interlude on the journey!  I am going to be back having fun at PopUp and doing more soon.  I love working with Simon, Henry, James, Jack and the gang so much!  

I am just having a short break to follow my dreams and to write a movie or two in the mean time!  

Where are we staying?

we have rented the most amazing Airbnb on the beach in Santa Monica.  You can see the pier from the back of the house and you walk out of the property onto the sand of the beach!  It is amazing.  We are a few blocks from down town Santa Monica which has incredible shops and a lively pedestrian street.  We are loving it so far!

What's the plan?

We are just settling in at the moment, after a crazy week of handing over the business to Simon and Henry we need a few days sleep!  

Then it is on with the mission!  Katie bought me "How to write a movie in a month" a few years ago and I loved the course but never found the month to write the movie and this is what this 7 weeks is all about!

I have 2 different ideas; a romantic comedy and a superhero movie (obviously!) which I am going to work on.  I have never done this before so I have fairly low expectations for my progress but I do have an overall target of getting a completed screen play done before I leave!

So starting tomorrow I am going to:

• Re-read How to write a movie in a month
• Follow the month plan to work on the characters and develop the screen play
  
• Study other successful screen plays.  I am going to start by reading Thor: Ragnarok and learning from the best
  
• Eat amazing American breakfasts with cool people
  
• Organise a table read of my project in LA.  This sounds so cool!  All it means is to get some cool people together and read the lines around the table to see how it sounds in real life. 
  
• Soak up the experience of being in LA
  

Blogging and what's next

I want to focus on writing the movie but I am also inspired to blog about the experience and to share with you all what I learn doing this.  

I plan to update you as I go on what I have written, what I have learned and how I am progressing.  My hope is that me taking this journey might inspire a few of you to follow your dreams, give it a go and take action too.

Thanks for reading my post and being a part of my journey!  

​Love Alan

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