Life of Kyle Prohaska

Vance & Brittany

I got a good nights sleep last night until about 6am or so.  I don’t know why but I keep waking up at 6am.  I think my internal body clock is thrown off by that 3 hour time difference.  I always used to wake up involuntarily at 9am instead of 6 so that has to be the problem.  The annoying thing was I didn’t have to get up for 3 more hours but this vacuum outside started soon after and it was so loud.  I eventually shut my window but could still hear it pretty good.  I slept through it but it did wake me up a time or two more…grr.  I got up and got ready quickly, checked my email, drank a Slimfast for breakfast (haven’t had one of those in YEARS), and headed to work.  Nobody was there when I arrived because I was about 10 minutes early so I had to wait for Vance to show up.  I’ve yet to get a key and all that jazz.  I finished putting in the music for The Book of Ruth and did a few other odds things before I had to render out internet files of the film to send to the “bosses.”  Since the render had the computer occupied, I had nothing to do.  I helped Brittany alphabetize some envelopes (o joy) and played some music in the office.  I honestly found something like that to be mentally stimulating, and it got my mind doing something else.  It also gave me the opportunity to play tunes as I already said so it wasn’t all that horrible. 

Vance and Brittany asked where I wanted to eat today for my birthday.  This has to be the millionth time I’ve “celebrated” my birthday.  I didn’t expect them to ask at all.  I chose the Olive Garden because I hadn’t been there in ages.  There was one 2 minutes from the office so it was easy to get there.  We had some really funny conversation and talked it up the entire time.  I like my co-workers  I look forward to meeting the main boss tomorrow at the office.  His name is Mike Scott and he has been out of the country for meetings lately.  His office has a slew of awards in there and pictures with Arnold Schwarzenegger among other things.  He has won 3 Telly awards in the past I believe and a few others.  I look forward to meeting him.

Dell 2408wfp (24in) woo!

Today I checked my bank accounts and made a pretty big purchase that I’ve been waiting to make for a few years.  I finally have a dual monitor setup on the way.  I bought two Dell 2408 monitors.  They are brand new and I got them both for $750 total.  That is a STEAL considering just one Apple 23in Cinema Display is 900 new.  I researched this monitor in the past and it’s amazing for the price, and has hookups on the back the Apple can’t shake a stick at.  It has HDMI on it which is what my PS3 uses so while I’ll be hooking both up to my computer, I can change the input in the menu when I want and have a Blu-ray playing on it while I work on the other monitor.  I look forward to giving them a shot.  Technically I bought two computer monitors but two TV’s at the same time.  I’m still hoping to sell my Plasma at home, I don’t know how I’m going to get rid of that.  That’s a lot of dough sitting at home in a box… :/  The next step on the purchasing list is speakers, something I don’t have here.  I’ve been playing audio through my Mac’s internal speaker which is basically just enough to hear things.  Sooner or later I’ll get this room to where I want it.  It’ll be my own mini-studio, something I had semi-done previously at home but also never got it where I wanted.  We’ll see how I do here.  I might have to buy a desk I’m not sure.  We’ll see how this desk handles the two monitors and how much room there is for speakers.  As far as I can tell there isn’t any room on both sides to put them, so we’ll see what happens.

I also got an email from Greg who is on Christian Radio out here.  They have been gracious enough to mention Standing Firm in a segment or two and I plan to meet with their team on Saturday to eat then go back to watch them do their program and chat afterwards.  They are on 99.5 KKLA out here and a lot of their talk centers around evangelism.  I’m pretty excited to meet Greg finally and the rest of the folks over there at the station.

It also rained here today and we had some thunder throughout the day.  Everyone was a little freaked out by it but I was right at home.  Perhaps NY loved me so much it decided to follow?  Anyways things are getting more and more settled here as time goes on.  Eventually I’ll work up a routine for myself like I do wherever I live of whenever something new comes my way.  Where will I eat on a regular basis?  What gas station will I normally go to?  When do I know I have time for things?  When are the local stores open?  There are many things I’ll get more and more used to as time goes.  I look forward to finally getting a handle on it all.  The past 2 days I’ve gotten home without any GPS to help me so that’s good.  It’s not complicated around here.  Once you get used to how many streets to go and what’s at the intersections it’s pretty easy.  I can’t really see street signs before I get to them so I like to memorize places around the streets.  If your in the wrong lane and need to get over to turn or something just before a street, good luck.  Being in the right lane is important and actually harder it seems on normal roads than on the freeway.

I haven’t touched Standing Firm at all since I got here.  I’ll get on the ball eventually, don’t worry.  I can’t afford to lose pace but moving did put some sort of halt on things temporarily.  It wont be for weeks that’s for sure.  I want to have a cut of the film by the end of June.  Nothing missing, and basic sound editing in.  Something someone can sit down and actually watch.  We’ll see what kind of film we have here, and what is needed in the edit to make it work better.  It’s all part of the process.  It’s tough working on something like this alone, that’s for sure…but I’ll get there.  I look forward to finding a composer that I can collaborate with.  A friend of mine, Jeremiah Daws suggested this guy out in LA he met that has done music for some features before and lots of commercials and stuff.  I’ll be getting his name to check him out soon.  Music is VERY important in this film.  The film is meant to be an emotional ride and I specifically shot it and made each scene to be something emotional and dramatic.  If the music can’t compliment the camera work and context of the scenes, then it’ll ruin things.

Tomorrow is another day.  There are some small groups that meet from the church I go to (realityla.com) that I might check out.  There are quite a few of them around but they are hard to choose between.  I don’t know much about them.  I’ll have to just pick and try some out I suppose.  I want to find some friends I can really grow with, not just buddies I see once a week or two.  I wont find them unless I go look right?

What Did I Eat Today?:

Breakfast - Slimfast (chocolate…mmm)
Lunch - Salad, Manicotti (Olive Garden)
Dinner - Dried Fruit, Bottle of Water
Odds-N-Ends - Gummy Bears

There are lots of great films coming out this year.  I’m more excited about the new film MOON than anything else.  Sam Rockwell is awesome.  The music in the trailer is great and gets my blood pumping.  I know some will write it off as another human vs. HAL movie but it looks like something else.  Very “Cast Away” in its approach.  Almost like Cast Away with the main character losing his mind.  Give it a look.  Notice the volume change in the music…really ads to the effect of things.  I love the art of trailer editing, haha.  The others I have listed also look fantastic

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/moon/

http://www.apple.com/trailers/summit/thehurtlocker/

http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/paperheart/

http://www.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/facingali/

http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/theboatthatrocked/

http://www.apple.com/trailers/magnolia/foodinc/

The weather today was amazing.  It hit 84 at one point during the day.  Absolutely beautiful weather, the kind that makes you smile.  I also saw leaves starting on the trees, woo!  I’ve been looking forward to seeing that.  I had a friend come over and help me get setup with the ADR equipment, we’re ready to get started.  Afterwards I went to a friends Bachlor party at our church.  It was food, fellowship, and not much else.  Food and fellowship isn’t bad though!  Afterwards I went home for a little bit before heading out to a birthday party for Erin Kelley and Katie Brooks, friends from Vintage.  It was fun.  I sat and played Rock Band 2 for almost 2 hours before I was finished.  I was all sweaty and warm after playing that.  It’s a work out playing those games.  I tend to make it a bit more intense than it needs to be but I can’t help it, I have too much fun.  We then played “I’ve Have Never.”  Basically everyone is in chairs in a circle and someone is in the center.  They call out something they’ve never done and whoever has done it has to get up and find a new chair.  It’s hilarious because you start thinking of things for friends and stuff of that sort.  Of course someone had to say “I’ve never dated a girl” (which was said by a girl of course) and every guy got up but me.  Thanks Danielle…  Either way the night was great but I realized that I had failed to do something I really needed to for tomorrows shoot.  It might pose a problem.  Luckily I only needed a shot or two but it still sucks.  One more thing to do, ugh.  Hopefully I’m wrong and tomorrow happens anyways, if not…whatever.  No since in kicking myself for it any longer.  I’ve been busy and forgot, sue me.

I also got my first official movie screener today.  It’s from Sony and it’s for a film called Dog Days of summer.  I got a message from a lady doing some of the marketing and she wants me to review the film.  She gave me a copy of the film (real copy in case) and a screener copy.  It’s sorta neat to know more people keep coming to me for things.  I’m not sure what I did, it’s still pretty neat.

Tomorrow’s another day…

Today was a great day.  

I woke up because my dog needed to go out, so I stumbled downstairs to put him out and run back up before I got too awake.  I laid in bed for a long time, I was sleeping on my parents bed because our dog gets really depressed when nobody is home, and he can’t jump onto my bed (it’s too small).  They have that space foam mattress that literally feels like a drug to lay on.  I didn’t get out of bed till way late.  Turned my alarm off and didn’t end up getting up.  Whoops.

I checked my weight this morning, it’s starting to go down.  I’ve been eating a lot less calories for breakfast and cut out certain subs at Subway.  That combined with just the small amount of biking and walking seems to be doing some good.  Hopefully the weight continues to go down.

It was about 60 most of the day, I had a smile on as I drove to go get lunch.  My hair moved in the wind and I had my sunroof open and side window down.  I was blasting oldies and enjoying the weather.  I also noticed that I’m overdue for an oil change.  Oops again.

I designed a new logo for Get a Life Ministries today which is the DVD Ministry at our church.  I think it came out well, not bad for 30 minutes eh?  Photoshop is my friend.  I got out of there a little early to 

come home and get some stuff done.  I found myself bored, waiting for Kevin to show up and talk.  We needed to meet and discuss the film and go through the edit.  We needed to find problems, shots missing, story issues, etc.  Anything that needs to be done in the next 5 weeks.  The middle of the film is where the most tweaking needed to be done because that is where the most story changes happened over the past year.  I’m pleased to report we have a very strong film on our hands…I hope.  There is always something in the back of my head telling me “don’t trip moron!”  I’m very pleased with the ending of the film, I know regardless it will leave people either crying, cheering, or both.  The last 15 minutes just gets better, then better, then better!  It’s going to be fantastic.  We have a lot to do though, it’s not difficult to pull off, it’s just complicated.  We need your prayers now more than ever (and I mean it) to pull this off.

Overall a pretty productive day.  My anxiety is gone and I feel much better after this meeting and all the notes we made.  We don’t have time to screw around.  I also put a call into a man with the apartment I’ve been hoping for.  Hopefully it hasn’t been taken yet (my room at least).  My bank account is low right now and after I pay the rent to secure the room for May I’ll be living off my American Express card for the next week and a half waiting for my next paycheck.  Not saying I’m thrilled about that but what other choice do I have?  It’s going to cost me quite a bit to move out there.  Probably somewhere around 2000 dollars.

ChristianFilmTrailers.com saw it’s highest visit count yet for a single day.  Over 3000 visits just today, and that puts us over 11,000 in the past 2 weeks.  This is due to The Widow’s Might and it’s recent theatrical release around the US.  Congrats to John Moore and Heumoore!

I’ll be sending in my contract to PureFlix tomorrow, then the fun really starts.  So much to do, so little time.

*tick….tock….tick….tock*

Today was a fantastic day. A day of celebration, goodbyes, and fun with friends. I went to church this morning in jeans with a belt, black buttoned shirt tucked in with a suit coat. I looked pretty snazzy if I do say so myself. The service was longer than usual as we had a man from Jews for Jesus come and speak. He went over in detail the Jewish ceremony performed during Easter. It was very interesting to watch.

I rushed home since our dinner was very early and we had little time to eat before both my parents had to leave. We had turkey, potatoes, corn and beans, and gravy. I love that kind of meal, just cover my plate in all of it and I’ll eat it mashed together! I loaded up and was stuffed. Afterwards my parents quickly cleared the table, washed some of the dishes, and go out the door. My dad was going back to Georgia for work and my mom headed to Indiana to visit my aunt for the week. That leaves me and the dog at home for a few days, a bachelor pad. Don’t worry I won’t destroy the place, it’ll just be really boring at the house without anyone around.

I went to VOC tonight (Vintage on campus) which is Christian Fellowship, Worship, and speaking at the University of Buffalo North Campus. It was the first time I went and it was excellent. The message was really solid and I got to meet some great new people and engage in some awesome conversation. Many more people know about Standing Firm then I think I realize. Not sure if a single person I met didn’t ask somewhere in there “how’s the movie coming along?” I was happy to answer

Afterwards we went to Applebee’s but it was closed so we all went to Denny’s. It was GOOD, and we all (at my end of the table at least) were sharing our testimonies and stuff. I think some of the people there didn’t like us very much because we had some stuff thrown at us while sitting there. I guess our praying and Christianese cheesed them off a tad? Ah well, it happens I guess.

I was one of the car pooling people and I was blasting lots of good oldies in the car that everyone knew. Really old school stuff like Bob Dylan, Buffalo Springfield, etc. I was in a car with a bunch of girls so that was fun LOL. Guys don’t like to have fun and dance and sing in the car, I do it all the time just alone. Yea you heard me, I sing and dance in the car. We all moved to the groove the whole way to VOC, on the way to eat, and especially on the way home! lol. Fun stuff.

Overall a fantastic day. I think today was a day where I really got what I wanted. I’ve been hoping for a great night with friends where I really had some real fun. Fun that wasn’t wrapped around a sport or something, just good ‘ol hanging with friends. The singing and laughing in the car was definitely the highlight of my day. I’ve honestly never had that kind of fun before, might sound sad but it’s the truth. Thank you Lord for Blessing me with that tonight!

When I got home I went riding around the block two times and walked around once. I think doing that every night could prove handy to my body in the future, even if it’s only 2.4miles or so. Gotta start somewhere. My knees are in really bad shape and I really need to do it.

I hope you all had a fantastic Easter! He has RISEN!

So you know that kind of morning where you wake up, look at your clock and say “eh, another 15 minutes won’t hurt.”  Well, this was one of those.  However, I got up and clicked my alarm forward 15 clicks, or so I thought.  I don’t know what I did but my alarm never went off and I woke up at 11 am.  Yippee!  Nothing like starting a day way late in the beginning of the week on Garfield’s (and mine) least favorite day!

Either way I got my butt out of bed right away knowing my day was about to be pushed forward by 4 hours.  Ate some breakfast, got to work a little bit after and got started on my week.  For those of you who don’t know what “I do,” I work as Director of Media Production at Niagara Frontier Bible Church in Lewiston, NY.  I started working there in April 2006 and have been there full-time ever since.  It takes up a lot of my week, and was my first real 40 hr job.  We’ve been able to do a lot in 3 years, quite remarkable considering I started the ministry in my bedroom with a 1 to 1 DVD Burner and a crappy little PC with no memory.  What you can do with time and the right knowledge is very cool.  The job has gotten more and more complicated as time has gone on and the technical annoyances seem to increase with time.  If I was able to do my work at home I would get so much more done.  The Windows machine at work along with the Adobe Programs have just grown temperamental and gotten worse as time has passed.  I have three versions of Adobe Encore installed and use them interchangeably because sometimes they work…other times they don’t.  Ah well, hopefully it’ll all be over soon or I can get the problems fixed.  I have more time on my hands right now while I’m there so I’ve tried to dedicate the time to odd jobs and things I need to get done but never can because I’m too busy trying to meet my deadlines for the week.

It was COLD today…at the time I’m writing this it’s snowing.  I hate seeing that crappy white stuff again.  One thing I won’t miss if I move is snow, not even a little bit.  Shoveling it, waiting for my car to warm up while wasting my gas, idiots on the road who don’t know how to drive in it, etc.  It’ll be great.  A friend in LA I talked to today described the weather as “75 and sunny.”  I told him to shut up and I quote “rub it in my face why don’t you.”  Ha ha.

I looked at the edit for Standing Firm a little bit today, tightened up a scene or two.  I think we are a lot closer to locking certain scenes than I thought.  I’m hoping to just knock them off one by one, especially the ones that need Dialog Looped for them.  Those have to be locked before I record anything.  I also grabbed my mom to help me write down names of our extras for the credits.  There are a lot of them (thanks everyone!), and I couldn’t remember everyone’s names.  It’ll be a chore to get all the names in there but they deserve it!  I’m waiting for our new Firewire/Mixing device I’ll be using to setup the ADR.  I’ll also post some pictures when we actually start tearing apart my closet for the recording area.  I’ll be padding it the best I can and testing things so we can get to work on recording ASAP.  Should be fun, and new territory for everyone including me.  I’m really interested to get this thing moving along.  We have lots of work ahead of us (er…I do) and we still have some things left to shoot.  I’m waiting to find out when people will be away for Easter then I’ll get things moving again.  There isn’t really a day this week I can shoot and I’m wondering if the end of the week on Friday will work out for ADR.  It’ll depend on how fast I get things setup and actually working!  I hate always having factors keeping me from giving people the “ok,” it just always ends up that way.  I don’t like it.

I also watched Quantum of Solace today.  It’s one of the best Bond films out there.  Something else I noted greatly about it is how little sex is in it, something that is plentiful in the Bond films.  There isn’t any actual intercourse shown in progress, just the two laying there talking which is like G rated compared to the others.  Maybe I’ll write a review of the film sometime, I’ve seen it enough times.

My new iPhone isn’t fully working yet.  The number I have I kept and ported to the new phone so everything is in limbo.  Both phones are active and I can make calls from both but any calls to my number make my old phone ring for now.  I called AT&T today to find out how long it would take, I was told 72 hrs so we’ll see how it goes.  It’ll be nice to use this thing fully soon.  I’ve been enjoying it just in the past day putting songs and videos on it, free apps, sending a few emails, chatting with folks on Facebook, etc.  It’s a great tool and will greatly benefit me in the future, especially if I move with all the GPS and traveling apps and functions available at the touch of a finger.

I felt it worthy to note I’m currently listening to Gavin Rossdale’s “Love remains The Same” & Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova’s “Falling Slowly.”  Be sure to pick up those songs or give them a listen.  They are fantastic.  I’ll try to highlight new songs to check out in each blog post or perhaps even post them in the entry!

Nevermind, here they are! (right-click to save)

Gavin Rossdale - Love Remains The Same

Once Soundtrack - Falling Slowly

I love entertainment of all kinds.  I think God has given me gifts that apply to the entertainment industry (besides some other artistic gifts and such) so it’s only natural that I enjoy that the most.  Most of my interests flow into that catagory.

Movies: Anyone who knows me well, knows movies are a huge part of my life.  They have definited entire regions of my childhood.  I can pick a time in my life and tell you what movies I watched a million times a week (usually burning out the VHS tape eventually).  They have shaped some of my personality, way of doing things, phobias, etc.  For the good and the bad obviously because not all entertainment your exposed to is good for you.  I’ve debated whether or not my kids will be allowed to watch much TV.  If they do, I’m glad there is technology now to protect them from what they could watch.  Although if they are as savy as I was as a kid they could easily bypass it (kids are smarter and smarter all the time now….sheesh).  I have a deep passion for movies, especially my favorites because of the impact they have on me as a person.  I’ll fight tooth and nail to defend a few of them, lol.  Some people would freak if you told them Nascar was the most boring sport in the world, or hunting was just flat out boring.  If you say “The Shawshank Redemption is the lamest piece of entertainment the world has ever known…”, you better watch out! :)  I can see how God ordained all the interests of my childhood to lead me to creating films, even into the traditional art background I have.  It always pointed towards filmmaking.  I’m glad to see it come full circle, I couldn’t be more excited.  I love almost every genre there is, except for Horror.  I’m not too big on horror movies, I find them replusive a lot of the time.  Most of them that come out now (especially horror flicks) are about red corn syrup and girls wearing close to nothing that always seem “pirky” if you know what I mean.  It’s rediculous, no value in it at all.  Most of my favorite films involve some sort of story that really touched me personally and most of the time they are dramas of somekind.

Top 10 Films:
1) The Shawshank Redemption
2) The Green Mile
3) Forrest Gump
4) The Truman Show
5) Road to Perdition
6) Crash
7) Signs
8 ) October Sky
9) Rudy
10) Pleasantville

I know I’m forgetting a bunch but that top 5 especially is rock solid, they never move.

Music: Other than visuals, I think my brain is wired really well for music.  I can’t play a single instrument, but my memory when it comes to sounds, musical cues and notes, etc. is very attentive.  I think it has a lot to do with my hearing as well, not just the music side of things.  I do find it odd that I never learned music but I think I would pick up on it pretty quickly if I had the time.  That is one thing I’ve found is that you can only learn so much and tune skills.  I’m glad I have such a broad skillset in things but it’s still limited.  I tried a little bit of everything so far in my life but I settled on a certain arena of art, and it’s still a broad scope of possibility.  Music is very important to me.  Just like movies, I have songs that can remind me of points in my life because I remember playing them back over and over again.  I remember combinations of sound, music, and visuals so well that I’ll remember all the lines to a song, or the next line in a film, or when the car horn is about to sound in that action sequence…many years after I’ve seen it.  It’s very helpful to me I think :)  Music is just awesome, and I have LOADS of it.  Oddly enough, I never really owned too many CD’s.  My taste in music is extremely versitle.  I love a little bit of everything, even the really weird stuff.  I’ve never found a single CD that I liked in its entirety.  It’s always a song or two, so I could never justify the cost of buying an entire album.  Thank goodness for the internet and iTunes music store.

Televison: I’m not too big on TV.  I don’t watch a lot of it, but I used to.  When I was a kid, it was like my playtime.  Lots of old shows really impacted me as a kid.  I was a Nickelodeon child, not a Cartoon Network child.  Shows like Rocko’s Modern Life, Doug, Are You Afraid Of The Dark?, Hey Arnold!, The Secret World of Alex Mack, etc. were the kind of shows I watched.  I can see how far downhill kids shows have gone since I was little.  They are all idiotic and moronic, turning kids into idiots.  Oddly enough, I’ve grown fond of reality TV.  Not the annoying kind ;)  I love TLC and shows like Jon & Kate Plus 8, Dirty Jobs, Mythbusters, How It’s Made, Dangerous Catch, etc.  History Channel specials, True Hollywood Stories, Law & Order, Seinfeld, etc.  Not many actual TV shows catch my attention, more the learning ones.  If I’m going to watch TV, I try and make it as useful as possible.

Internet: Oh boy, like I even have to answer this one.  I spend way too much time on the computer.  My whole world revolves around it sometimes.  Unfortunately so does my work so I’m on it quite a bit.  There is no way for me to just give up the internet for a month like some people do.  I wouldn’t get a paycheck…so yea.  I like blogging and writing, talking to friends I can’t see face to face, looking up places I want to visit someday, spreading the word about films, reviewing films, marketing my own film, making entertainment contacts and other things, etc.  It’s a great resource, but a double edged sword for sure.  It sucks up your time.

Top 5 Websites:
1) Facebook - I’m on here a million times a day.
2) DVXuser.com - Great resource.
3) IMDB.com - Gotta have it.
4) ChristianFilmmakers.org
5) Facebook - added a 2nd time for good measure.

Concerts & Live Shows: I’m not a big fan of these but it’s not really because I hate them, I just think I never spent enough time at any of them.  It’s been a long time, and concerts can be expensive.  If I wont spend $15 for an entire album to listen to, why would I pay a hundred or more to listen to it live?!  Live shows can be fun, but it really depends on what it is.  This is a hit and miss topic with me.  Some things will get me really excited, others…not so much.