How I Lost a Movie and Found a Talent Agreement #GBE2

Last month, I visited a retail space that is often used for pop-up stores and events. I had plans to setup a screening for one of my short films. After discussing how it would fit within the local community with the owner and analyzing all of the variables necessary to pull off a screening and lecture or Q&A type of event, I realized that more planning time than I allocated would be necessary to get it up and running, so I put it on hold and then tried to setup a smaller scale screening event at a different venue to coincide with my completion of the WordCount Blogathon.

I had a flyer designed and tickets almost ready to go. The only thing left to do was promote this screening/party heavily and test the equipment to make sure that the main event would run smoothly, which required me playing my movie at the venue of choice in advance. A few days before it was scheduled to take place, I realized that I lost my own movie.....well, the DVD copy of it. The venue I wanted to use is not equipped to screen films or videos in multiple formats and DVD is the main option. I looked around my apartment for this movie and could only find it on tape. In all of this time, I came across DVDs featuring other people’s films and DVDs of mine, except for the one that I needed.

So, I had to cancel that event and am currently trying to plan another screening. This time, however, I am going to have to get a DVD made specifically for this screening. I contacted one of the production companies that I work with, for help on creating a new DVD. Not only did the producer agree to make the DVD, but he also found the DVD copy of the movie that I was looking for and with it....directed my attention to a small stack of documents that include talent agreements and some other contracts that I didn’t even know I had know idea where they were.

Not only do I need to be more organized but I also need to separate all of the current projects that I’m working on from the previous projects that I did and both of these groups also need to be separated from the work of other filmmakers that I have watched and accumulated over the years.

Man, I wish I could have (read: afford) a personal assistant to keep track of all of my crap.....you know, like what Jennifer Hudson’s Louise character did for Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie character in “Sex and the City: The Movie”!

The lesson here is “Organization” and while that was not exactly part of my 2011 New Year’s Resolution (“productivity” was and is my main focus), I’ll need to add it in somewhere and get productive at becoming more organized!

Stay tuned for a must-read post on writing and documentaries, to be posted tomorrow!

Also, it's not too late to vote for a June King Dong. Will it be Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Reich (still working on verifying him) or somebody else? YOU make the call!

This post is part of my participation in the Group Blogging Experience (GBE 2) and was written for this week’s “Lost and Found” topic.

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Successfully Cinematic and the Bigger Picture

At times, I have wished that success had a clear and concise definition that could be used as the ultimate guide on what goals to have or how to go about achieving them.

Still, I also often appreciate the fact that success is defined in different ways from person to person. To me, success means being able to make films and discuss them without needing to have day jobs, night jobs and side jobs to support my regular living expenses. This is especially important if at the end of the day, I realize that there is not much funds leftover to support any filmmaking efforts while paying bills and such at the same time.

Success would require me to be able to earn income through filmmaking or related activities so that I won't have to constantly be in a state of trying to make time for my own interests....I would be doing it!

These days, I try to keep the fact that life is short and nothing lasts forever in mind. Since I know that I'm going to die (eventually), I try to measure success by other important factors in life such as achieving a constant state of peace, being of some service to others even if it's only one person and trying to always do more good than harm.

I guess right now, success means being able to cover all of one's basic needs while having some room for additional tasks or activities that offer personal growth....whatever it is.....learning how to cook a steak properly, change a car tire, teaching someone else a new skill or solution to a problem or being more pleasant when interacting with other human beings.

There is a "Successful" song that pretty much sums up a lot about how some people who want to achieve success tend to feel a quite often:

"I want things to go my way,
but as of late, a lot of S--- has been going sideways" - Drake featuring Trey Songz

What does Success mean to YOU?

This post was written for the topic of "Success" in the Group Blogging Experience (GBE 2).

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When Suicide Notes and Moviemaking Collide

“Suicide Note” is the 28th creative writing prompt in one of Heck Yeah’s 30-day Tumblr challenges, so I decided to use it since it’s a little late for me to be working on the next and last Johnny Depp King Dong post for this month.....I’ll try to do that tomorrow.

Today’s writing prompt is a little tough for me to use for blogging because I have no interest in writing a fake suicide note just for the sake of writing one. I mean if one is going to be written, shouldn’t a suicide go along with it? I’m just sayin’.....! The topic is such a downer that I was a little hesitant to use this prompt and considered checking out one of the other writing prompts until I realized that there is a way to turn this thing around for something good and useful.

In an attempt to take a more enjoyable route to highlighting the subject, here are a few short movie ideas that I came up with based on the “Suicide Note” topic. They might be made next month, when I try to tackle Slamdance’s $99 special category as a way to experiment with different genres and story lines all on digital video. I welcome you all to pick one that you would be interested in watching if I were to develop the concept/idea into a script and then make the movie.

Suicide Note Movie #1 (drama)
A man contemplating suicide spends hours trying to figure out how to write the perfect suicide note. His concern for adhering to some form of unspoken suicide note etiquette causes him to explore the impact that words have on others by using different mediums including notepads, social networking websites, cell phones and video.

Suicide Note Movie #2 (comedy/satire)
A quack therapist trying to advertise a self-help program produces an infomercial on how to write a suicide note effectively. He gives audiences members, who are his potential customers, tips on the right words to use and what types of suicide notes to write depending on the circumstances surrounding the person’s decision to commit suicide.

Suicide Note Movie #3 (drama or action, maybe?)
During her first day on the job, a suicide hotline (or 911) operator gets introduced to more than she can handle while trying to prevent a caller from killing herself or himself. Attempts to help the caller sends this employee and a detective on one city-wide search that causes them to question their career choices, purpose in life and their own mental and emotional stability.

After having come up with these three movie ideas in like the last 15 minutes, I just reminded myself that coming up with movies are easy......making them and bringing them to the screen (whether that be the big screen, small screen, cell phone screen, etc.) is the hard part.

Which one of these movies would YOU watch?

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