Update: Perpetual Forward Motion Restored (2024)

Greetings, loved ones,

We are approaching the last quarter of 2024 which felt like it flew by. They say time flies when you’re having fun so I guess that’s means I was having lots of fun this year. 

I did lots of traveling, tried lots of new experiences with friends and even got engaged! I’m kind of worried any Riley Wood content production will decline while we plan this wedding, but I don’t foresee that. I just have an irrational fear of slipping back into old complacency. My creative juices are flowing and the art is plentiful, so not to worry!

We just hit the one year marker for Tales From the Exit Door, which again, I’ll say is my favorite venture I’ve ever been apart of. I actually got the extreme pleasure of appearing on the No Street Lights Podcast to talk about it recently. This is my first ever interview about anything to do with my creations so if you haven’t tuned into that please do! Also, I want to support Aaron and Tim. They run a great program that has the distinction of helping people, sharing meaningful stories, and bringing light to overlooked topics. We talk a lot about the film and what it means to me so please check that out right here. 

LINK TO THE EPISODE

Plus, in honor of this one year anniversary, I actually made a video about that whole thing with a very special announcement at the end that I don’t want you to miss so go watch it right now if you haven’t. 

LINK TO THE PSA

Did you see it? Don’t read this if you didn’t see it. Click the link. Good? I’m happy to announce that yes, I’m well WELL in the process to completing this next film. It was deep in production earlier this year before I realized I was rushing it and needed more time to get things just right. I’ve spent the last half of this year refining and reworking the details and I’m much happier I did because I think the product will be greater as a result. It’ll be completely different in tone and approach, but I want to continue to push the limits on how the story telling format operates in contemporary media. I think I’ve found a way to tell stories that’s really interesting and I want to continue honing in on that. I'm hoping for a late 2024 release date but if I find that more tweaks need to be made to perfect it, we may be looking at early 2025. 

Anyways, while that’s been in the oven, I haven’t been stagnant. In case you may have missed it, I posted a mini docu-series about my softball team called Pink Tapes in the spring. It was a blast to work on and had my full attention for much of this year. I’ll probably do a second season when it calls me, but there’s over an hour of funny content in it with some very over-the-top production choices so I’d say if I don’t manage to get this next collection of stories/film out this year, I’m happy calling that my contribution for 2024. Definitely a silly project to be proud of considering the amount of work I put in. 

LINK TO PINK TAPES

Expect my usual end of the year music list at its normal timeframe in December/January. I’m stoked to be sticking with those and I’m proud to say I never wavered on that despite some lulls in confidence in myself. I just think it’d be really cool to have them lead up to one ultimate article in 2030 discussing the best music and art of the decade. My list to end all lists, you feel me? Anyways I’m not going to let that take precedence over film number four per se, but if it’s calling my name louder and I need time to breathe again then that’s what will happen. 

I’m in the process of releasing some archived footage from over the years over on the main wtfRiley YouTube channel so if you’re curious about that, I do think it’s beneficial to watch, especially since I don’t like to put out anything if it isn’t worth checking out. I care about my audience at least as much as I care about me! Anyways, yeah, anticipate more of that possibly, plus, you’ll probably be able to expect a Directors commentary for my first ever film, Endless, in the next several months. Perhaps for the anniversary in November? That’s something I’ve been working on casually all year and I want to have it out there eventually just so people can see my growth as an artist. The original film keeps getting taken down because of the music rights so dropping a version of it with my yapping will have to do, I guess. 

That’s all I have to update y’all on. I haven’t done one of these formally in a couple years and figured I’d share what’s new and exciting. I can do more recapping of the year's ups and downs in the 2024 music article around the holidays.

Bye, for now! I’ll see you guys next time I have something cool or important to share, which if all goes to plan should be fairly soon, no?