Things like “Make a film completely out of focus,” “Use only circles to tell a story,” and “Make eyeballs out of hard-boiled eggs” were on the list.

In this original form, they were never meant to be films that people actually connected with, that had a message, backed by my personal voice. Just some non-client-sanctioned fun.

So one day I said to myself, in my Bronx accent, “fuck it…I’m doin’ it." Those 5 words ended up opening the floodgates to a new era in my career and in my life.

By the middle of 2016, I had already announced to friends, family and colleagues that I was setting out to make experimental animated micro films every week for a year with no help and no money. By December, it was Facebook official!

Among the many well wishes, there were also chuckles. Lots of "good luck with that’s."

My family didn’t quite understand what the fuck I was doing. They also didn’t understand why someone would do all that work with no financial reward attached. “Oh ok… well that’s good. What else are you doing?” they said.

Even some industry colleagues asked, “How did you broker the deal?” I laughed. “What deal?” They laughed too, then lost interest.