Today was interesting.  I got to work on things as soon as I got up this morning.  I think I would consider today my first official day of work and not yesterday since it was the first “wake up and begin” type of work day.  There’s a lot of work to do all around the internet, on facebook, a bunch of websites, etc.  Not impossible, it’ll just take a bit.  I’m being paid to hang around on Facebook, post on forums, and do other tasks like that.  It’s a little weird to be honest, although I’ve been doing it for well over two years on my own film.  Speaking of which I released a new video today.  I’ve been waiting for months to release some of this stuff.  I have all sorts of little videos and promotional things to gather interest for the film.  These aren’t some normal behind the scenes videos.  I look at these exactly how I would look at my film.  They need to be good, emotionally charged, and gripping to whoever is watching them.  A friend of mine was online late tonight and I gave it to her to watch first.  A few minutes later she said she was crying.  Bingo…my job is done here!

That’s exactly what I need to happen because it’s the only way these videos will make a difference in the grassroots.  I’m excited because I can finally release another after waiting 2 months since Pastor’s video.  I’ll probably do one a month sometime if I can.  Two months is too long as I’ve noticed last months traffic was insanely high but this month is dragging.  I’ll release a new video every time things start to slow to pump it back up again.  It’s about consistency with this stuff, and keeping the interest growing little by little each month.  Dangit I wish we had the money to finish this film right now.  I’m going to send off the new screeners to a few people maybe tomorrow or the next day.  Tomorrow I’m going to make a bunch of phone calls to get the day of shooting nailed down.  It’ll probably be on a Friday if I can do it there.  That’s prime time to use Pastor’s office since he’s gone on Fridays so his office should be free.  Yes, I said shooting.  We have one loose end to tie up that seems to be pretty universal amongst viewers.  It’s all flashback material, no scenes to speak of here…but it’s important information.  It’s funny when you write the script, you direct, you cut scenes out, you come up with new ideas that you don’t use, how easy it is to forget that whoever is watching the film doesn’t have all that information.  They only have what you present them with from fade in to fade out.  So in this case I took a misstep in thinking something would be picked up on.  Perhaps some will, but too many would have questions for me to leave it alone.

I’m off to bed…Lord willing that video will create some buzz…speaking of which view it here and enjoy!

So I’m “off the soup-line” as my dad would say because I finally found a steady job.  I started working for Cloud Ten Pictures yesterday (I’m writing this on tues morning).  I’ll be helping them with building grassroots awareness via the internet.  It feels good to have some sort of steady paycheck coming, I gotta say.  I just sorta sat around brainstorming and interacting with Paul L all day (boss) to get things situated, send my initial suggestions on where to start, etc.  I think I’ll enjoy helping get things up and moving for them in regards to internet buzz.  I seem to have a knack for it, so it’s just how to go about it since they have a company that’s way more popular to start, and a lot of products to promote now and in the future.

I finished new screeners for Standing Firm as well.  Version 5.1 is now ready to go to any interested parties.  It includes that cut of the film plus 4 Behind the Scenes sample interviews and the trailer.  I finally have chapters in this version too so it’s not so annoying for whoever has the disc to skip around.

So yea life is getting better.  I need to find out in the next day or so when we’re going to shoot because it’s getting to the point where finding a sitter on Rob’s end could be a challenge.  I can’t have that screwing with their lives any longer.  They’ve worked long enough on this thing.  Love you Rob! lol.

Off to work…and by off I mean off of this browser window and onto another.  Craziness…

Well lots has been happening lately.  I met with Paul Lalonde and Andre Van Heerden from Cloud Ten Pictures this past tuesday which was a great time.  We had a lot of laughs and were there for about 3 hours or so.  In the end there was some talk about them possibly needing some internet marketing and PR help so I’m really interested in that as I need some sort of steady work at the moment to help me out.  They got huge plates of food by the way.  I laughed at one point where Paul thought he was done and stabbed into his plate lifting 3 pieces of hidden brisket out from the pile of gravy almost like it had been hiding there waiting to surprise him, ha ha.  Those guys and their company are by far the most successful Christian movie company in history aside from maybe The Passion.  They’ve just sold so many more copies than most people can shake a stick at.  It’s nice to talk the business side sometimes I must say.  It’s interesting because I need to get into and become very concise on how to handle that side of things for myself if I’m ever going to hand my livelihood on this industry.  It’s a tough world…as I’m finding out.  Nearly broke, barely getting work, asking for my parents to pay for a few things early as replacement Christmas gifts, lol…etc.  I’ll be ok though, I know many in worse positions that’s for sure.  Broke to me is having less than 1,000 in the bank because then I’m in danger of living check to check.  I’m at the edge of that right now and just starting to get there.  I want to get out of there NOW!

Some other things have been happening that I can’t discuss but please pray that the Lord would be found in it and that Peace would come down to all those involved.  This is going to be something really tough so please pray for me and the others involved.

I finally got a call from a distributor today.  Just discussed a few things, said things would move onto see where they would want to go with the product and I would hear something back again.  I’m going to put together a special page where anyone interested in the film can see some of the unreleased promotional content.  Any company that uses churches to advertise their new films and such will especially like these kinds of videos.  If you can have people crying in 3 minutes with just the cast and crew talking about your film (which is exactly the kind of videos we have lol….and lots of them), then you know your on the right track to move some DVD’s out the door.  So we’ll see.  Reel 4 is going to lock sometime soon and I’ll love to have that sorta off my chest in regards to the edit.  It takes a long time to edit a film.

I’m meeting with a tax guy tomorrow to discuss a bunch of things, one of them how to handle my own taxes this year since it’s from like 4 different places.  Taxes is another thing I’m nervous about because I’ll probably owe quite a bit this year and with 1000 or less in the bank, you got some problems with that come billing time…so…pray for me, lol.

That’s about it for now…just living the dream.

You’ll notice towards the bottom right I’ve re-instated the wonderful survival fund. It’s actually saved me financially when someone has donated at the perfect time. I’m not going to go out and blow this somewhere, it’s something I might need. So if you feel led to help me out in anyway…please go for it lol.