Posts Tagged trailers
Whoops…
So yea it’s been a bit since I posted. I don’t know, lots of late nights and no energy to write. There isn’t much to say right now to tell you the truth. Life has been uneventful and pretty boring all things considered. Cut #4 of Standing Firm is looking decent. I’ve been hanging out with friends, trying to find ways to make money, waiting on prospects still, etc.
The job in ministry looks to be a bust, which is unfortunate. I felt like that was my answer but I guess not. It looks like I’m stuck in Ransomville. I’m not happy about it but if this is where God wants me then I just have to shut up and deal with it. No answer from Affirm Films yet, still waiting on a phone call. I think that’s normal anyways, so whatever. The weather is getting really chilly around here, down to the mid-40′s at night or lower. I’m not looking forward to the snow, not at all. I absolutely hate the winter. Everything is dead, bare, depressing, and all around just sucky. I think I’m naturally depressed in the winter months just by the environment, not fun times. Cutting the grass is no longer needed so that’s nice but something worse then comes up…shoveling.
I have another website job I’m hoping to get, tomorrow I’ll have a conference call with them to see if it’ll happen. It’s the first big paying job I’ve ever been offered and it’s also the first time I have to subcontract with someone to do a portion of it. I can’t do the backend PHP and admin databases and all that integration so I have a guy I’m hiring to do that. Either way the job lets me continue to exist for a few months so that’s good news. I also was contacted by the Owner of Cloud Ten Pictures yesterday asking if I had a job or if I was interested in something they might have for me. I’m not sure what it is but I’ll find out when I can get him on the phone. I can’t go over to St. Catherine’s to meet face to face because A) I don’t have a passport and B) I don’t have an enhanced license. I think regardless I’ll be ok in regards to jobs, God is providing opportunity.
There is also another thing that will be possible next year in March/April. Another film by my friend John Moore who won not just the Audience Choice last year at the SAICFF, but also the Grand Prize of $101,000. He’s asked me to possibly be on their camera/editing team to work with their RED footage as shooting progresses, do first draft edits, basis color-correction, to provide them with a physical and viewable reference of how the film is turning out. It’s a pretty decent paying job too (the same as that new website job pretty much), and will have me traveling for 5-6 weeks straight. A few different cities around the US with a crew of people doing what I love to do and friends as well…that’s not so bad. I’ve really wanted to work with John since I met him this past Jan and this looks like my chance. Still a little ways off, but I hope it happens 
The only thing I could see getting in the way is if Standing Firm finds a distributor and they want a release around that time or shortly after, it could pose a problem with me being practically tied up for a straight month.
I have a Letus Extreme I think I’m going to sell too to recoup some dough. This whole post seems related to my finances but honestly, that’s the only real thing I have going on right now is figuring out how to handle it. I even put up a new ChristianFilmTrailers.com design in hopes of snagging a customer. The adapter should sell for at least 800-900 bucks since it’s freshly checked out from the manufacturer and hasn’t been used in over a year. It’s been in a padded box, so hopefully I can get some dough from it.
I’ve spent a lot of my days doing more grassroots marketing for our film. In just the past week we’ve gotten 500 more fans to our Facebook Fan Page, went from like 3 followers on our new Twitter page to almost 800, and gathered some decent site traffic. I have also given our Praise Pictures Youtube Channel a boost with a new design, and I’ve been finding subscribers. Yes, you have to do it manually and it takes time, but the one good thing about being in the Christian market, is you know exactly where to go to find the right people…or at least I do 
It takes time but it’s worth it. I seem to have a knack for this kind of thing. I haven’t figured out a way to make money from that talent yet, but I will if things go downhill for me in other areas.
I’ll post more often, sorry for the large gap
Stranger Than Non-Fiction
I was very productive today. I’m not sure many days out of my year don’t involve me accomplishing something, it’s not in my nature. Very few days involve me actually doing nothing, and most of the time I feel really crappy afterwards. I was up late the night before working on a new article for the Praise Pictures site, and updating the ChristianFilmTrailers.com website. I ended up sleeping in again, got to work late but since it’s a Thursday and youth group happens later I stay later in the day. Things even out
I worked on the new Get a Life Ministries website and start setting up the new store. Unfortunately I don’t have time to make it what I really would want and the skill set needed to really make it so alludes me. Either way it is looking nice, pleasing to the eye, functional, simple, very few colors and not very busy which is all important. I’ll show everyone when it’s done.
I ate my lunch later than usual since I ate breakfast later than usual from sleeping in later than usual. I checked my weight this morning and I’m at about 215, 225 was a regular weight for me as of a week ago. I eat very little compared to what I did a few years ago. I used to pound down two footlong subs in a sitting. I was very fat then and lately I’ve been trying to keep my diet under 2000 calories a day. It’s been really easy. Typically my breakfast has been a glass of skim milk with 3 granola bars which I love anyways so it’s not difficult task. At Subway (where I eat every work day), I’ve been getting chicken strips on wheat (I’ve been eating wheat for months now) with little cheese, toasted, with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and Italian dressing. I’ve also cut out the chips lately so between my lunch and breakfast I barely hit 700 calories during my day. That leaves room to either have something fatty for dinner, or just eat something good again and keep it low. I normally don’t eat dinner and normally resort to a snack or something. Frozen fruit blended with juice, a simple sandwich, etc. For someone my size I’m sure I look like I eat far more than I do. Honestly, I eat when I’m hungry and refrain from eating when my body doesn’t need it. No need to stuff yourself.
After eating I received a call from Sandra, wife of Joe Videl, the man who owns the townhouse in CA that I was hoping to get a room in. I left him a message telling him I wanted the room and the job was secure so I got the bank info and had to quickly rush to the bank which closed in just 40 minutes. When I got there I was glad I started talking with the lady at the desk because it brought up a few things I needed to get done but would’ve walked out forgetting about. I need a new debit card because the one I have is totally shot (from Subway purchases…haha). It also let me ask any questions about moving and keeping my checking account, etc. I closed the savings account I had as well since the amount in it was so low and I found out having less than $200 in it charges me $2 each month. That has been happening for a year, I thought that it was just a charge for using my Debit card at a non First-Niagara Bank place or something (as is usual). Moving to LA is going to be an expensive thing for me. Because I can’t move right away, I’m forced to pay for a first rent on an apartment I wont even step foot in. Then when I get there I need to pay a damage deposit which is the same amount as my rent. On top of that, I’ll be arriving the last week of May so on June 1st that starts a totally new month and a third rent amount will be due. A triple rent amount before I even make use of my room in the place. I’m broke right now. My checking account hasn’t been this low since I was 12. If I’m not mistaking I’m at 100 bucks or so, if that. I’ll be living on my American Express for the next week and half as I eagerly wait for 24th and my next paycheck. I went and got the mail after which was stuffed after only a few days. My mom gets a lot of mail and my dad gets even more. I opened an envelope from the DMV about my license expiring on my birthday June 2. I’ll be 21 and I need to get a new license. One more annoying thing to do before I leave. I need an eye exam before I can get my new one so I’ll have to figure out when to go do that.
Towards the tail end of my work day I decided to go home. I had an urge to get home and storyboard and go over some of the ideas me and Kevin came up with and wrote down the previous night. Some of them are things I’ve needed to lay out for a long time so I wanted to wrap my head around it all. I got quite a bit done thankfully but needed to take a break. Sooner or later my mind just gets warped creating scenes, shot lists, blocking layouts, etc. I need a perfect shot list to finish this film properly in the next 5 weeks, no fudging and “I’ll figure it out later” can go on any longer. I decided to drive back to the church to see folks at youth group which turned out to be a fun time. I showed up just in time when everyone was sharing things to give praise for and I mentioned me moving. I guess it seems exciting to me but others find it much more interesting. It baffles me when people light up and I tell them I’m moving to Hollywood. I guess the excitement hasn’t really hit me yet, probably because I know just how much it’s costing me and what I have to do to get there.
On a more positive note, thanks to all who sent me emails, Facebook messages, and comments on Facebook about me moving, it was very encouraging. Nice to know so many keep an eye on me and this blog. I’m glad to know someone finds what I write interesting. Who knew someone’s life could be fun to read about? I’m a kid from a 1 stop-light town, go figure.
After seeing some people at youth group me and some friends (who are leaders) decided to go to Applebee’s. It was nice to eat something fried and bad for me. I had boneless buffalo wings as I normally do every tuesday, they never get old to me. Something I’ve noticed is I can eat the exact same thing thousands of times and if I liked it the first time I’ll probably like it forever. Case and point the Subway trips and the granola bars and the chicken wings. All are eaten consistently without complaining.
(Side Note: Something else I realized today was how much I’m going to miss things here. It hit me for the very first time when I was sitting in that room with the youth and listening to people I know talk. I looked around at all their faces, studying each one. I couldn’t help but think about how much I’ll miss everyone. I’m someone who treasures my time with people, even people I don’t even know well. Most don’t really understand how much I care about people, because I’m not the best at showing it. It’s normally inside and doesn’t come outside. Only rarely do you see it, and when you do I’m normally very vocal and active with things. I’ll miss this place, I’ll miss my friends, I’ll miss my church family. I’m going to visit many seemingly ordinary places in the next month just to be there again and stand there like I did many years ago. I’m going to pull into my High School parking lot and park in a space, walk up to the door and go in. Just to feel that again, at that door, at that building. When I leave at the end of May I suspect I’ll end up turning around and going around my town one more time just to see things again. I’ll also be looking in my rearview mirror as I pass things and they fade into the distance, knowing that they’ll be there when I come to visit, but also knowing it’ll be a while before I see them again…no matter how trivial the location may be. It’ll be hard, but I’ll pull through.)
After that (yes quite a day) I drove to Tops to get some IBC Cream Soda and chips to bring back to the house where I was meeting the same people plus some to watch a movie. I haven’t had any friends in my house for literal months, probably a year. Sound sad? Tell me about it. Either way I was really happy to have them and we sat in my room and watched Stranger Than Fiction on Blu-ray. An excellent movie by the way, if you haven’t see it please do. It’s a brilliant film.
Well…that’s my day. Tomorrow I’ll get lots more done on the Get a Life site at work, design a DVD Cover for last weeks sermon, and continue to prep heavily as best I can so I can schedule our shooting days. Lots of things to do.
EDIT: (3:24am) Right after typing this and going to bed someone tried to break into either my house or my car. I think it was the house because I heard the doors and stuff (our house is very old so I know what it sounds like). I caught the guy running back to his car and yelled at him. I ran outside with my signed Sammy Sosa bat but they were gone. I’m a nice guy and all but if I EVER find someone trying to steal from me I’ll have no problem breaking many pieces of their worthless body and calling the cops while they lay there. I don’t mean that to sound evil but man o man does that make my blood boil just thinking about someone trying break into my home. Now I’m wide awake and it’s 3:26am. I doubt I’ll fall asleep soon now, too much adrenaline was pumped. Crap!
