End of the Year 2015

Almost a year ago I was wrapping up a very important production, I have never really talked about it and hate even thinking about it. So why was it important? It was a thirty day production turned almost two years long, I struggled to keep up with other film and production work while dealing with daily issues, constantly renegotiating contracts, time, and filming in some of the most ridiculous situations, it was completely out of control, and my only fault was not walking away at the first sign of issues. You see often times as a freelance director working on someone else's idea you are only granted so much control over the speed and quality of the production. I found myself at the mercy of those who hired me and promised pay. I like many others didn't get into making films or becoming a gear and editing nerd to become rich, it starts with love, passion, and a creative itch, eventually it requires more and more money to scratch those itches, and if you are luckily like I had been you start getting recognized for your work and people offer you money to use your passion born skills. It is really an amazing feeling to have people hire you to do something you just love, and something you have always been doing anyways. This is where I lost myself. Years passed and in between the first run of Needle Boys and seeing my good friend off to Spike t.v. after Needle Boys gained a lot of attention I stopped working on my own material. It wasn't all bad, in fact most of it was enjoyable, every job brought about new friends, new experiences, and I was excited most days to discover what would happen next. They say only a small portion of creating something is actual talent and the rest is learning how to overcome objectives to get it actually created, and I began to look forward to these daily challenges. I worked more every day than I ever had at any other job, seventeen plus hours filming and/or editing, traveling, creating. And one job killed it all for me. After the production last year I came to the realization that one it had killed off several other better opportunities, and two I was no longer working on anything I wanted to, I was only trying to get the job done, so that I could get paid and pay some bills. I still haven't been by the way. I don't openly talk about money much to anyone, but I spent more on the production than I ever received and I was only paid a small portion of the contract. This isn't due to the quality of my production being poor, in fact it is pretty impressive, but after thirty days turned into more than a year and a half the people producing the show lost interest and walked away, I was kept in the dark about that too. 

As 2015 was beginning I had just purposed to my now wife, and I knew it was time to get things right again, with my passion and the bank account. I had spent years neglecting film reels, caring about rights I had of footage I shot, and bounced from one production to the next, I had also made zero progress on my own writings. The goal was to start over in a way, hit the reset button, take a step back, and rebuild the reputation I was building but also to focus on my own ideas more in the process. 

So its been a long journey this year, I have had a lot of ups and downs, and finally started making progress on my own ideas. In June I started my first documentary which I can't go into to much detail about at this time, but its coming along. In October I got married to the most awesome lady I've known. I know a lot of people say that same line, but when I think about the roller coaster I have been through I try to imagine it through her eyes as she watched me and rode along. Heres a vlog I made right before the wedding. 

Its short I didn't promote it, and I uploaded it to my least viewed account. But thats been the point of 2015, creating, filming, writing, thinking. I had more fun making my first ever and possibly only vlog than I had in year behind the camera. 

Shortly after the wedding (yes I did film my wedding), my friend Talmage and I wanted to follow up last years October video we created with another Halloween type video just for fun. We made the entire thing in less than eight hours with nothing written or pre-produced before hand. 

Its ugly, its weird, it has bad acting, it was super random honestly, and we enjoyed it entirely too much. In fact it has inspired us to create something along the same lines but produced a bit more professional (I'll post it here), we have been writing and actually doing preproduction work for the next one. Talmage and I are working towards creating our core team as we gear up for bigger projects in 2016, and these little videos have really helped shape and mold our little crew.

So here we are,  its almost 2016 and I have left the bad shit behind, I have reset and now we are moving forward. 

We will talk soon.