Insanity, it's business!

One of the best days on any shoot I have been on ever! Last night was so amazing. We didn't get started until after 10pm and then we shot a bunch of footage until after 2am. I didn't get home to sleep until after 3:45 am. Then up again at 6:35 to see that Rob left my coach and got to his day job on time(he's awesome after everything last night he wakes up and drives an hour and a half to get yelled at all day in the photo-lab at Wally World. AKA Wal-mart.

The shoot started out normal and we where getting the shots we wanted. The only bad part is that it was freezing cold. So we decide to try and find a place that was open and try to thaw out while planning what we would shoot next. Then Spiro suggests that we go a friend of his place called "the Joint" and we decide to check it out.

At first it seems like the guy at the door is not going to let us in then he finally gives in and as soon as we get in the place Spiro goes straight to the back and right up to the owner, who when he seems him gives him a hug like a long lost relative and Rob and I are introduced to Stan and his associate Paulie. The nicest guys in the world, Stan grabs us a couple of beers and we go to separate lounge so we can hear each other over the band.

For the next 20 minutes the four of us talk shop about the site, Stan of course understands the merit of what we are doing and starts telling us of all of these other events that he would like us to film that he is apart of.

We tell him our going rate $$$ and he likes the price. At this point Rob and I are really pumped, it's just par-for-the-course for Spiro and Stan.

The next thing you know we're are filming in the bar! Stan gives us the green light to film some raw footage for our opening for the whole show right then and there! So of course we put Stan in the shot next to the best looking blond in the room!

I know I am forgetting stuff but it was all good and a crazy gorilla shoot. We had the band get in on it "Vangando" that's there name. They we're really good to work with and some of the other patrons of the bar to fill up the shot. By the end of it I am getting handed business cards and shaking hands(getting um....very affectionate hugs from some of the women). As it turns out one of the cards I got was from the General Manager of the biggest night club/bar in the city. He handed me his card between takes and was like "We should talk, we gotta work something out" and began selling me on how great his club was.

I can't believe it, earlier that day we had tried to deal with the business office of a well known but smaller club and they sent me a curt email stating that they where "not interested".
Now usually I am not offended by rejection emails, but this one was really cold. Then the same day we get a Club that is so big I had not tried them yet because they are so intimating, and then they came to us.

It would seem that the moral of this story is that no matter what happens keep shooting. If you keep at it, and you have the right team together. Eventually they will come to you.

I should say that by "keep at it", I mean all of it. Specifically shooting though. Rob said something on the way back to my place that struck me as very profound.

He said "I love working with you" and I of course tried to respond with a similar platitude, but Rob being the mind that he is took it a level deeper and explained further.

He said "I love working with you because things get done. I worked with a way bigger company, more people and it was a whole lot of talk."

Rob explained that the ratio of talk to actual filming for the resources they had was ridiculous.
Something that both he and I learned early is that if you want to find success you have to keep filming, you have get on a set or whatever in pre-prod. Most important is to keep shooting, that's it.

FINAL THOUGHTS: on last nights shoot

I am sitting here in my apartment, with no real good prospect for what I am going to eat today. Not a whole lot of hope that I will be able to pay rent (and I am 1 month behind) this week. I can't seem to go back to sleep so I am tired. Most of all I am content, it's strange, it's some kind of strange monster but it is mine.

Many of you may not know this but I am a man of a certain faith, I've prayed about this specifically the night before. This was more then I asked for and more then I dared hope for, but I had faith that it would be taken care of. Do what you want with that, to me it's just giving credit where it's do without shouting about it in the courtyard of some church/synagogue/mosk/temple. He gives to me and I am grateful.

Hmmm, I wonder-maybe now I can sleep.

The first shoot for "aroundchicagonow.com"

Getting ready to shoot downtown. Just got off work and am scrambling to get all of the prep done. Had a location shoot me down as though I was a pest and in reality we where doing them a favor. It's OK though, when they come to us after they realize that they need the press we will charge them a little extra.

Also lost a crew member to "the motivation monster", that is when somebody for what ever reason looses their juice. They are not excited about shooting anything and everything. It happens to everybody even me.

Projects

Currently I am working on:

1. Feature length documentary; that I am primarily producing and directing. It is related to some work that I have been doing on a case through a non-profit organization that I am a consultant for. The non-profit is Families In Crisis Support Programs or F.I.C. Support Programs. The title of the documentary is TBA.
2. A web-site; The site is (www.aroundchicagonow.com). If you go to the site you can enter your email and be on our mailing list. The site is basically going to be about different current events that are happening in Chicago. Our first show will be about New Years, and what parties are where and why people are going to them. We will try to do a video every week. Spiro Fentzas and Rob Rhodes are my business partners in this venture and we have the ball rolling in many ways.
   
3. Flashpoint; by far the best film environment I have ever been in. Wait, it's the greatest creative environment I have ever been in. My goal is to go to that school no matter what. At any point in my career if I went there it would not be a waste of the two years. For sure I will graduate from that school and my career will have gone to another level no matter how much success I have had previously.
   

Also it is worth mentioning that my current job is working at a gas station. I have only been there for a week and a couple of days so I don't even have my first paycheck but I am already hearing people mention that I may be promoted to manage the station in February.

What about the pitch to the studio? Great question, it's gotta wait. It's been pitched, Rob and I have basically done as much as we can at this point. Now if we bugged them too much it might be detrimental. Timing really is everything, and in my last conversation with my contact in the production office I was told that they would not even be ready to work with the concepts Rob and I pitched until April. It is almost guaranteed that a publicity piece will be done on Rob and I to bolster box-office sales after the films release. The unique way in which we got onto the film, has gotten around some in the industry and would probably boost sales. This is what the PR department of the Studio believes and who am I to argue with that?!

My short, "No Picket Fence". Well to sum it up it's dead. I had some creative differences with some of the talent and could not move forward on the project. It's sad, but that is the way things go. I wish everyone on that project the best and hope that they have amazing careers.

Moving on...

The current living situation is still really good. Am scrambling a bit financially but I should be in way better shape by the end of the month.

I hope to post specific blogs about each of the current projects soon.

My Next Step

A quick update is due. I have finally been able to move closer to the city, and have moved in with one of my fellow film students into the apartment that I share with two other people.

It's been a year and some odd months since I left LA. Now I sit in a living room that belongs to no-one but the people that we wish to have around us. NO drugs, no mental patients, no people that don't understand film and what it means to be in love with something greater than ones self.

As I speak one of my room mates is at her third job the other is sitting on the couch next to me doing a script break down for her Directing class.

It's overall taken ten years and thousands of miles to get to this point. A sense of contentment that fills my vision has made greater my determination that the goals I have set for my self are not only attainable but truly a part of my life that will be achieved. Two years ago I was sleeping in an field, three months before that I had spent the night on Sunset blvd after being stranded.

I was trying to chase film, with no resources no hope. Now, not only do I have hope but I have look into the face of one of the greatest names in film on the planet and seen in him what I see every time I look in the mirror.

It's like my dad always says: "press on, this too shall pass".

It did and now the opportunity to truly challenge myself is all around me, and I can hardly believe my great fortune.

The Rebirth of "Dead Thursday"

To say that this is the project that just won't die! Well, that's just a massive understatement. It seems like things as they stand now are in a really good but strange spot. After months of very little communication Josh and myself have established a kind of calm necessary communication. Neither of us seems as emotionally invested as we where. Yet, it seems more now than ever that it actually stands a chance of getting made.

The things I needed are now at my disposal. Rob is going to be invaluable as an additional producer on the project. I actually have people that I can show this script to that will help me do the things I need to do to get it ready to get made. Through the experiences of the last few months I have learned what I need to be able to pitch this film and not feel nervous. Really when you think of it, I just pitched a MAJOR studio multiple times in the last month. Now, talking to a bunch of businessmen who just want to be a part of Hollywood and make money will be done right.

It's like a strange calm has settled over the project, where everyone is just going slow and thinking clearly.

I finally feel, amazing but not too much. I dunno, it's just perfect.

The little things.....

"A mind is a terrible thing to waste." So what do you do when your mind is wasting, your spirits are low and none of the 10 million "little" projects you have going(if even still in your mind) are amounting to nothing?

The universal answer to everything...work.

I often respond to this with well what if that does not work, the answer is still "go work".

Here is why:
Sometimes I will go to a set as an extra and I will have almost no excitement about being on a set. Even when I leave extras holding and am actually on the set still barely a glimmer of the awe and joy I had just a couple of months ago.

Then, it hits me. Where I am, what I am doing, and where I am trying to go. I then begin again to look with wonder through the lens of my imagination.

The set becomes once again a place of endless opportunity and experience. In the last few months I have done things that literally millions of people who "wish I could have" will never do. I am excited again because once again I am reminded that it's not about me, and yet I am the only one who can do what I do.


As I sit here typing this in a coffee shop in a perfect little Chicagoland sub-urb. I am very aware of the the solder in fatigues sitting with his classmates studying for some thing or another. Seeing the solder sitting here is a stark reminder to me that my little world is very very very fragile.

I can sit here and listen to "Coldplay" and whine about how I feel about my current film career. Or maybe I can appreciate every minute that I am not in a ditch thousands of miles from anyone that I have ever known waiting for the next 10 year old with a backpack full of explosives to kill me.

Courage, no matter why it is needed seems to be hard fought. At the end of the day the fight to earn your strength is always worth it. What ever it takes, what every you need to do, as a person to get yourself inspired. To find and re-find your reason-to-create.

Mine, it's all the stories that the people who lived them, can't tell.

It's not just documentaries, sometimes the raw facts just take too long to get out. With the right narrative you can tell 100 stories with just one. Saving Private Ryan did just that when the beaches of Normandy France where once again alive again for the thousands and thousand that where there. For all of the people who's lives where saved because of the Allied advance after that day. For all of the people on both sides who gave everything, and the people they left behind.

That single scene in one movie told the story of so many who, after having been there just had no words.

In the end, I have to keep working because it's the only why I can create(if even by accident) a situation in which I can be reminded of why I am doing what I am. For each of us it is different, if we lose ourselves in the process the only way I have found to cope is to "press on". Just keep on trucking and what you need will find you.

Making plans that make sense....Part II

Now that I have all of that out of my system here is what I "PLAN" to do about it.

Follow up with the the pitch every two weeks on Thursday or Friday until I get some kind of answer. If I get a "yes" then we move forward, and checks are signed yada yada. If a "No" then I ask if we can do it anyway with our own funds. Which I have a plan for...

Then everything else goes by the wayside in leu of me getting 40+ hours a week somewhere doing the tv show on my days off and making enough money that I can fund 2 days of filming "no picket fence" with my own cash then go work some more, then do 2 more days until the short is done.

During that time I will also move, and go back to school taking as many classes as possible.

The big picture, "I will be ready when Batman Begins shooting in Louisiana....." By the time production comes to town I plan to have enough money to have been on in Louisiana and to follow the show where ever and to make THE MOST out of that experience. Also I want to be ready with any pitches and any short films, or pilots that I feel I need to have done......

That's it for now, until it gets' "Adjusted"