What Wes Craven Taught Me about Blogging

“There’s always the fond hope that someday I’ll get to do something else, but I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m very good at making genre pictures, and I can express basically anything in them anyway.” – Wes Craven

Blogging landed me a contributing writer gig at an award-winning Hip-Hop magazine. It also broadened my horizons through French and Italian cuisine. It also helped me make a movie. It also put me in a position to collaborate with famous magicians. Yet, screenwriter and director Wes Craven’s perspective on being pigeonholed into horror films led me to understand that many of these gains pale in comparison to how writing a blog helped me push forward to create a little more life inside myself where there was none.

I learned how to focus on what I’m good at.

As you can tell from the Blockbuster video envelope, this photo is quite old but the machine is pretty much what I had to work with.

Committing to a long-term activity is a challenge for me sometimes.

The 30-day YouTube video series I worked on two years ago turned into a 30-video series as those initial 30 days turned into weeks and soon, two months flew by without one new upload.

I was editing the videos on an old, slow running computer that, after going through multiple repairs for other problems, started crashing while performing simple tasks.

I lost my enthusiasm and patience for the series after only eight videos into the project. It has yet to be completed. In the spring, I started a new YouTube series that was originally planned to be published in conjunction with my Mixed Bag of Tricks theme for the 2015 Blogging from A-Z Challenge. You'd think I'd know better after the "Making of" film series became more of a burden than a fun activity. Writing blog posts was the only thing that remained consistent throughout those (and other) attempts at growing my YouTube channel.

I completed the Blogging from A-Z Challenge five years in a row -- a prime example of being dedicated to finishing what I start when it involves writing. I have a few YouTube subscribers and know some people have watched videos I made but there isn't much activity on either side of the channel -- mine or the viewers. There is rarely ever a question of whether I should work on blog posts or not. It's a non-issue, as it must get done.

I feel like something is missing when it's been days since The Madlab Post was updated. Blogging has its moments of setbacks and annoyances but at the end of the day, I know I can do it. And I like it. It's fun. It gives me a chance to express viewpoints on subjects that matter to me while introducing people to films no one else would have likely told them about.

Made in Baltimore, the short film "Charlotte" directed by Angel Kristi Williams is playing Nov. 8th at the Driftless Film Festival in Wisconsin! Audiences at a film screening event I hosted in Philly were treated to the trailer during the movie previews.Blogging also helps me help filmmakers who put their blood, sweat and tears into making their dreams a reality. It's nice to be a part of that. Especially when people respond to it. People visit, read and comment on the blog posts I write here. Sometimes you agree. Sometimes the topic at hand doesn't float your boat. Either way, it helps to know that people relate to my blog posts, respond to them and spark conversations around them.

Blogging has allowed me to combine my experiences and fascination with the moviemaking process with the knack for creating things, even if the pieces being created are in written form.

I learned how to code somewhat.

Web development is not my forte but blogging expanded my knowledge in website building. I used to leave matters that had to do with the backend of a site up to other people who were well versed in that area. Then came the time when I wanted to change my header image, add sharing buttons and adjust various aspects of The Madlab Post, back when I had it hosted on Blogger. In those early days, I just used whatever options were available.

Since Blogger had templates, it was the answer to my preference for that set-it-and-forget-it type of backend management. I later became interested in third-party widgets, cool looking graphics and making adjustments to the design and layout of my blog. This led me to Blogger Buster, a website run by a woman named Amanda who writes tutorials on how to make all sorts of tweaks to your blog. I also read other tech websites and online forums where website owners in different industries discussed the ways in which they were able to get a certain result regarding the appearance or functionality of their site.

Amanda's Blogger Buster has gone through changes but this is what it looked like when I used to visit her website.From adding navigation menus and hyperlinks in blog comment signatures to resizing images and formatting posts without using a web-editor, blogging had me doing more coding than I ever thought I would. It's a benefit that has enabled me to utilize the HTML and CSS skills I’ve gained even when I’m not blogging, which helped me customize the website for my short film Abyss: The Greatest Proposal Ever and tweak other websites of mine.

I learned about leverage.

There was a time when I wanted to schedule an interview with a director whose feature film I heard about through the grapevine. His debut drama, about Marines getting ready for their first deployment, was gaining some buzz and I wanted to help spread the word. Except he was in California. I’ve never been to California and didn’t have the resources to just fly out there for the sole purpose of speaking with a man I never met, about a movie I had yet to watch.

Then, he said he’d be in New York soon for the screening of his film. That was a better bet. So, I went to New York, where I got to hang out with film and television executives, watch a handful of movies that I never knew existed, and chat with several promising directors about Tyler Perry, war in the Middle East and stereotypes of minorities portrayed in the media. While there, I also met his producer and ate calamari for the first time in my life. It wasn’t as gross as I imagined it would be. Later, I came home with new headshots, new friends and a better understanding of how the entertainment industry operates.

I learned how to enjoy the climb and not worry about results.

When developing film productions, I tend to focus on the end result. Will anything come of this? What will I gain from doing this? It’s a means to an end. There was a season years ago when I treated blogging that way too (see the lesson on sensationalism below) and I think the content suffered because of my choice to use it as a tool to get something else. Thankfully, I grew out of that phase and realized that the process of blogging is enough on its own. The opportunities, traffic, goods – monetary or otherwise, that result from blogging are icing on the cake. I already have the prize that is running a space where I get to express myself in this medium, inspire and enlighten people and hone my own voice.

The victory comes when I hit the publish button on each blog post I write. I’m not aiming to pimp out this blog for money, cars, clothes (shout out to Drake and Trey Songz!), accolades, being on the cover of magazines or landing a guest spot on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. If any of these things can be had from blogging, perhaps I’d be crazy not to welcome them but I won’t hold my breath waiting for such breakthroughs to arrive. That’s not the motivation behind why I blog. I create the kind content that I want to put out into the universe and for one reason or another, men and women in different parts of the world feel compelled to visit and read these writings. THAT is what I would call a win.

I learned about relationships.

(l-r): Le Anne from Tinsel & Tine and I at the 2014 Couch Fest Film ScreeningAround 2008, I started blogging about a scrappy shorts festival called Couch Fest, founded in Seattle by a cool man named Craig Downing. A few years later, I became one of the festival’s hundreds of hosts around the world who showed award-winning films to strangers on a single day. Another screening followed in 2014 and being involved with Couch Fest got me an interview with Tinsel & Tine, a website dedicated to food and film reviews.

The woman who runs Tinsel & Tine also attended my screening of the short films and later helped get the word out about an event I did this year for shnit CINEMAS Worldwide, an international film festival based in Switzerland with jury presidents including screenwriters Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious) and Paul Haggis (Casino Royale, Million Dollar Baby).

As a member of The Large Association of Movie Blogs (aka The LAMB), I’ve appeared as a guest on the LAMBcast, an iTunes podcast featuring select groups of men and women from all over the world who share a love of film. Before that, The LAMB published a guest post I wrote about the nominees for “Best Original Song” for The Lamb Devours the Oscars, a 32-part series dissecting the 85th Academy Awards. Later that year, I was one of the presenters during The Lammys, an annual online awards event where members nominate and vote on the best movie blogs in various categories.

Once a year, a few dozen members gather for a meetup -- the most recent one took place in London. I wish I could’ve attended that one, or the previous gathering in Chicago or the one that happened in Las Vegas a few years ago during Academy Awards season. I hope to one day be able to attend and hang out with my fellow LAMBs in the flesh.

I learned about sensationalism.

Law & Order: SVU actress Mariska Hargitay had a baby and and Grey's Anatomy actress Ellen Pompeo got married. Good for them. But I don’t know how my blogging about it makes the world a better place. It doesn’t. Nobody cares and those that do need to get a life. There was a time when I thought writing about celebrities in the entertainment industry would help boost my blog traffic numbers (regardless of how relevant the topic was as it relates to my filmmaking goals). Then I would start earning tons of revenue from Adsense.

Aside from being in heavy rotation on my iTunes & Pandora playlists, this unapologetic "Nobody's Business" singer is also the leading actress in the animated movie "Home."Then a big media entity such as AOL would buy me out for six figures. Ok, now I’m kidding with that last part but wait, at what point did I go from wanting to be an Oscar winning movie director to being delusional enough to think that the celebrity “news” (à la Perez Hilton) type of path is the right one for me to follow? What the hell was I thinking?! Those blog posts didn’t gain much traction, and for good reason.

Although many other blog posts that I would consider to be more meaningful and contain more substance brought similar results, I am more proud of those pieces.

Even if there’s a chance that nobody will care anyway, I might as well write something worthwhile to share in the chance that someone stumbles upon it while perusing the interweb during their lunch hour.

I learned about what makes life worth living.

One day, I read something an author named James Altucher wrote about “push” being more important than “focus” in terms of life and success. He explained that the “the push is the ability to get up, open the curtains and push through all of the things that make you want to go back to sleep.” Altucher further simplified this by describing it as “just pushing forward to create a little more life inside yourself.” There isn’t a time that I recall when I dreaded working on a blog post. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about my feelings toward filmmaking.

Blogging makes me want to get up and open those curtains, to meet what comes of whatever journey I find myself on from day to day. In that respect, I think I went from being an aspiring movie director who also blogs to becoming a blogger who works on films in various capacities. Conventional wisdom (or was it Mark Cuban?) states that if you want to know what someone cares about, pay attention to how they spend their time. If there is truth to this, then I suppose I must care more about blogging on the subject of movies and how they’re made, and writing screenplays, than I do about making films of my own.

Wes Craven on the set of slasher film "Scream."Wes Craven never set out to be known as the king of a genre that thrives on gore and terror. Using these movies, however, he played the cards Hollywood dealt him in a way that still managed to explore aspects of humanity that were are often ignored; subject matter he believed people were unwilling to confront.

Just as Craven found an upside to the limitations he encountered in his career, I’d like to use blogging as a vehicle to connect people with the kind of stories, artists, movers and shakers in film that fall under the radar, yet, have the power to impact lives in a positive manner if given the chance to do so.

When I studied filmmaking in school, most of the feedback I received from peers was that the stories in my projects were solid but there is room for improvement on the technical side. Outside of working on other people’s films over the years, I’ve written, shot, directed, produced and occasionally edited a few projects including one documentary, a one-minute comedy and a short buddy drama. During this time, I noticed a common, yet familiar, thread out in the real world -- people were drawn to the story structure more than the visuals. Add to that the numerous film festival rejections that came my way, financial burdens of making movies and no prospects on the horizon; I started to wonder if I was climbing up the wrong ladder.

During long breaks between film productions, I’ve also taken on opportunities to publish content for several websites and media companies. The difference between these two paths is going after a film career put me in debt whereas choosing to write articles put food on the table. Although that ship sailed some time ago and I have yet to pick up new freelance gigs, I’ve learned that my filmmaking approach just isn’t working. I’m just not the best at making films. I’ve also started to come to terms with the fact that I may be good enough to be better at writing screenplays, and blogging, than many others trying to build something helpful in the jungle of niche topics. I’m ok with that.

Wes Craven died of brain cancer just weeks after his 76th birthday in August 2015. RIPToday, I think there is no better way to acknowledge Día de los Muertos aka Day of the Dead – a Latin American holiday of mourning and remembrance; people celebrate the circle of life by honoring the deceased -- than by paying tribute to Wes Craven, a man with an English literature and psychology background who upgraded the horror film genre by way of social commentary throughout his body of work.

*This post was inspired by the evolution of James Altucher through games of chess. 

How do YOU celebrate the life of deceased loved ones?

What is YOUR favorite Wes Craven film?

The Oscars of Street Food: Vendy Award Nominees Share their Top Craft Service Picks

Special effects artists prep actress Zoe Saldana for her performance in "Avatar."A smart line producer or unit production manager knows that well-fed laborers are worth their weight in gold. Luckily for film crews and actors alike, the craft services department has evolved from the early days of coffee and donut carts rolling around on Universal Studios' soundstage to a bottomless 21st century spread that could feed an entire army.

Burgers, sushi rolls and gelato are among the treats that hungry grips, members of the production design team, prop masters and other craftsmen are known to snack on in between meals. When you're hauling heavy (and expensive) equipment around for 10-14 hours per day, six days a week, in the middle of nowhere for months on end, what's on the menu at the craft service truck suddenly becomes more important than anything else. So where does one begin when choosing from the vast options that the mobile food industry has to offer? Fortunately for anyone with a healthy appetite, the 5th Annual Vendy Awards, happening this Saturday (June 13th) on the JFK Bridge in Philadelphia, has already narrowed down the go-to spots for crowd-pleasing cuisine.

Satisfy your tastebuds with Potato Salad at The Flying DeutschmanDubbed "the Oscars of street food," the Vendy Awards is a cook-off between area sidewalk chefs who battle for the glory of being voted as the Best in Street Food. You know when you see people lining up for seconds, these food trucks must be serving up something special.

I recently caught up with a few Vendys nominated cooks to get an idea of the type of movie sets on which they would love to provide sustenance for cast and crew. One look at the The Flying Deutschman, a truck where Stirling Sowerby serves German food, will have you reminiscing about the Pirates of the Caribbean fantasy film franchise.

Although Sowerby's slogan is "I am the Deutschman, I'm the one chasing the Dutchman across the oceans," this self-professed tech geek would travel back in time to carve out a place for himself on the set of James Cameron's fantasy adventure Avatar. "That movie finally opened the door to great 3D filming and I would have loved to see that in real life," says Sowerby, who would stick to a platter of his personal favorite -- Curry-wurst and potato salad -- when feeding those working on the Pandora universe. While Stirling knows his Sous Chef will get a fit, "there is something about having just the slightest bit of the Curry sauce on your fork when eating the Potato salad that really tickles my taste buds."

Let's hear it for Jamie Landers' Sage & Swiss biscuits for dinner and her Maker's Mark caramel sundae called the "Kentucky Gentleman," for dessert! Photo courtesy of Luscious Bakery.Luscious Bakery owner Jamie Landers' passion for artisanal, locally sourced treats oozes from a colorful, cafe inspired truck named "Marcia." As a former aerospace engineer who switched careers after 12 years, this award-winning baker would use her time traveling abilities to run craft services on the set of Ron Howard's adventure drama Apollo 13. "I admire the actors portraying the historic mission [and] it would be so interesting to be around the NASA historians and consultants on site," says Landers, whose sweet and savory Sage & Swiss cheese biscuits make the menu.

"I hand knead them so they are light and flaky, serve them warm directly from the oven with a drizzle of wildflower honey. They are a wonderful breakfast, lunch or snack; great for people working long hours on a movie set and want something warm and filling at any hour," continues Jamie. Possessing a deep love for rocket science clearly allows her to have the best of both worlds. "Most likely, I would try to sneak away from the food truck to play in the replica Apollo capsule," she adds.

Chicken and Waffles by Co-chefs Flo and Robin at Foolish Waffles.Dedicated to pushing the boundaries of traditional Liege and Brussels waffles, the ladies at Foolish Waffles aim to connect with people who crave super yummy treats. If chefs Flo Gardner and Robin Admana could go back in time, they would want to provide food service on the set of Richard Linklater's comedy Dazed and Confused.

"It looks like it was a blast to film and embodies who we are - free spirits that don't take life too seriously and try to have fun no matter what we do," says Gardner. As far as the menu goes, this Vendy Cup contender added "if anyone is going to enjoy our Fried Chicken and Waffles, it's Mathew McConaughey's David Wooderson. 'Alright, alright, alright!'"

Take a moment to consider how physically demanding (and in some cases, dangerous) the job of making movies is for people behind-the-camera who are expected to bring their A-game -- while operating under pressure in a chaotic workplace environment -- and you can understand why chips and dip just won't cut it. That's why the time has come to celebrate all that food trucks bring to our dining tables; on any given day, they keep your stomach from grumbling when you must be alert and operating at your very best.

*Get $10 off your ticket to the Vendy Awards using the code “STREETFOOD” on the Vendy website! Ticket purchases are also tax-deductible and proceeds from the event benefit The Food Trust, a non-profit organization that makes healthy, nutritious food accessible to underprivileged communities.

Photo by Mikey Ilagan

Come taste dishes from more than a dozen top chefs on the street food scene while enjoying craft beer, wine and voting for your favorite truck to help crown the best culinary wizards in town!

What's YOUR favorite meal of the day...breakfast, lunch or dinner?

The Xanax of My TBR Pile: Companion Books to Spike Lee Joints!

Jeff Balsmeyer's storyboard from Do the Right Thing: A Spike Lee Joint; companion book to the Universal Pictures film.Popping a Xanax -- the miracle chill pill for symptoms of stress and anxiety -- will dissolve all your worries, according to NYMAG. Although I’m no medical expert, I would argue that listening to music is also an effective alternative solution for those of us trying to get out of the funky mood we find ourselves dealing with from time to time. Speaking of alternative remedies, reading books can be just as beneficial to combatting periods of stress and anxiety, as music.

Besides being cheaper than Xanax, books last longer and have more user-friendly side effects. This is one of the reasons why I look forward to each title in my (growing) TBR pile, such as books written by famous director Spike Lee; chronicling what it took to get a number of his films including She’s Gotta Have It, School Daze and Malcolm X off the ground. I’m currently working my way through one of them and enjoy Lee’s journal entries about how the movie characters were developed, viewing pages from the storyboards for a major scene and learning about the impact that making his film(s) had on actors.

• Spike Lee’s Gotta Have It: Inside Guerilla Filmmaking (1987)

• Uplift the Race: The Construction of School Dace (1988)

• Do the Right Thing: A Spike Lee Joint (1989)

• Mo’ Better Blues (1990)

• By Any Means Necessary: The Trials and Tribulations of Making Malcolm X (1993)

At times on this blog, I’ve been clear about my frustrations with the experiences I’ve had so far pursuing a career in the film industry. Sometimes just the mere thought of going through the stages of production budgets, casting, location scouting, post-production, etc. again makes me want to hurl. That’s not to even mention the uncertainty that comes when a movie is in the can and there’s another uphill battle of distribution, promotion and all that comes with getting people to watch it. So, I have a good feeling that reading the companion books to Spike Lee joints will help me take a step back to understand that every single film production comes with its own sets of challenges.

Something borrowed...For some reason when I read about other people’s movie making journey, especially someone as accomplished as Spike Lee, there’s a new sense of excitement for how they put a film together out of ideas in their heads and legal pad scribblings.

Suddenly, movies don’t seem too far out of reach and are fascinating again like they once were before I was logging hours of video footage into a cohesive document for the editing stage, and sitting in empty movie theaters.

Thanks to people like Spike Lee who pull back the curtains on show business from time to time, I have a good reminder that movies -- although a grueling undertaking from start to finish – are a powerful medium when treated as such. So the next time I’m feeling bad about filmmaking and the many challenges that come with this path, it’s nice to know there’s relief at the library or bookstores like Barnes and Noble rather than the nearest pharmacy.

X is for Xanax

How many books are in YOUR TBR pile?

Regardless of genre, what movie would YOU recommend to cure stress and anxiety?