Principle vs. Principal

I ain't always the goodest grammarian, but I do my best to follow the rules I used to teach my fifth graders. I fear my skills are declining. I won a spelling bee in elementary school, but now I can't go more than a few sentences without referencing dictionary.com (one of my favorite websites).

The homophones of principal and principle have never given me trouble. I've always known to only use principal when referring to the head of a school, and to use principle for everything else. I've scoffed at the resumes of actors who claimed they played a principal role in a production, and I've applauded those who knew better and claimed to have played a principle role.

Then I looked up the words so I could give concrete evidence to support my superior grammatical intellect. I was the one who had it backwards. That sucks. Principal is indeed the correct word to use when referring to "something of chief importance." Now I know. At least in principle.

- Justen

Chicken vs. The Egg

For most it is understood that you unwrap a candy bar before eating it. That is the appropriate sequence. First unwrap; then eat. Most things in life have either explicit or implied sequences. I have yet to learn the appropriate sequence of the preproduction phase of making a movie.

In the countless (okay, dozens) of books I've read on the subject, no book has offered an ordered list of preproduction tasks. I have a good idea of what needs to be done, but I'm juggling the sequence hoping the horse can find the cart no matter where I end up placing it.

One thing I wish I'd started sooner was fundraising. So much of the forthcoming decisions depend on our final shooting budget. How much can I afford for location rental? How much can I pay my crew? My actors? Myself? The latter, of course, is going to be the last to get paid, but that is just fine with me.

So, here in my eighth post, comes my first tactile piece of advice: Get financing in place early. In the end, I don't think our finished product is going to suffer due to the later-than-ideal securing of funds, but my nerves would be better off had I raised the money about six months earlier.

- Justen