{"id":2900,"date":"2013-04-28T17:06:50","date_gmt":"2013-04-28T21:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=2900"},"modified":"2013-04-28T17:06:50","modified_gmt":"2013-04-28T21:06:50","slug":"hows-this-for-a-second-verse-lights-camera-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=2900","title":{"rendered":"How’s This For A Second Verse? Lights, Camera, Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Mike Kravinsky went to work at ABC News in 1981, he figured he would spend a year there and then head out to Los Angeles to become a filmmaker.<\/p>\n

\"Mike<\/a>
Mike Kravinsky directing actors Rick Kain and Connie Bowman. Photo Credit: Liza Kravinsky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Well, it didn\u2019t quite work out that way. It took the 59-year-old more than three decades to follow his dream, and he\u2019s not in Hollywood, but Arlington, VA.<\/p>\n

Kravinsky\u2019s first feature film, \u201cThe Nextnik\u201d<\/a>\u00a0the story of a worker who has been downsized after 25 years without warning and must reinvent himself, has hit the screens at independent film festivals around the country, such as Trail Dance Film Festival in Duncan, Okla. and the Alexandria Film Festival. And he\u2019s now working on his next screenplay.<\/p>\n

Talk about pixie dust.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lots of boomers know how it goes. You start off someplace, and in a blink of an eye, the years have collapsed into time. \u201cABC turned out to be a great place to work,\u201d says Kravinsky. \u201cThey gave me great opportunities and great experiences and one thing led to another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kravinsky worked for the network for 29 years as a video editor and technical director. It was a good Emmy-winning run, but three years ago, he accepted a buyout.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was ready,\u201d he says. \u201cIt had become routine. I probably could have stayed there longer, but I said why not give it a shot? Everything was lining up to make the move and take a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

At his back, Kravinsky had his wife, Liza, who urged him to \u201cdo what makes you happy.\u201d And the couple, who have no children, have a knack for living frugally. \u201cWe\u2019re not living on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but we do drive a seven year old car, and we don\u2019t buy expensive clothes and furniture. It\u2019s just our lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Financially, his first move was to tap a no-load mutual fund company advisor for some minimal guidance. He wanted to be sure he was making good choices with the funds he had accumulated in his former employer\u2019s retirement plan, and, of course, to sort out how to manage his buyout monies.<\/p>\n

Baby steps at first.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kravinsky had \u00a0launched a web site about change and transition even before he took the buyout package. \u201cI had wanted an outlet to do some writing, do some videos, and talk to people who had taken professional leaps of faith,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

With the web site up and running already, once he was flying solo, he started a blog. \u201cThe same technology that gave ABC the ability to let more experienced people go, was the same technology that gave me the ability to do the things I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kravinsky soon realized, however, that he was doing the same thing he had always done, but doing it for himself this time. His magazine-style video and online stories about career changers, were all newsy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should get out of my comfort zone here,\u201d he told himself. \u201cHow do I do that? Why don\u2019t I create a character, based on what I am experiencing, as well as what those people who I had done stories about had gone through. So that\u2019s where the film was born,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

In the first two minutes of\u00a0The Nextnik<\/em>\u00a0(a word that is meant to riff off of the term beatnik), the fictional lead character, Larry Zimmerman, 55, gets fired, after 25 years on the job. The yarn is about him searching for something new and experimenting with different careers.
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