Roadtrips & Rolling Cameras
What a week!
So tomorrow principal shooting on the thriller “Donors” begins in Yuma, AZ. The beautiful and talented Nicole (Niki) Saletta is playing our lead female. She has a youthful innocent nature that pulls from a deep well of drama. I’ve been prepping for my “Donors” role which is extremely dark and twisted. It is nice to bounce between kind and wholesome and dark and devious. Light and dark, good vs evil – the themes that have always been part of human history.
The New Video deal that has five of my titles announced a new theatrical division and I’m now hearing late 2nd quarter for a release. Some are Blu-Ray releases and others like “Figure in the Forest” and “Heaven’s Neighbors” will enjoy their 1st major national release. We were waiting for the company to complete their merger and complete their new deal with major retailer Wal-Mart. I’m also hearing that distributor friend Missionary Pictures International may handle all the faith retailers on the titles that fit.
In that faith/family vein we are on the move to get “Long Road Home” on the pre-production track. We’ve got a great script, cast and commits from distributors are underway. Dean Teaster will be the director on this film and it will be exciting to see him back in action. Dean had a chance to meet Melissa Anschutz, who is slated to be our female lead, at the sold out premiere for “7 Stones”.
Speaking of “7 Stones” – I want to thank everyone who attended and apologize to those who I did not get a chance to meet. We had a big snow storm move through and after the showing which ran late, our party heading back to Lansing from Grand Rapids. They have a month of polishing on the film with audio and CGI before paid showings and festival runs. The story is powerful and I think will really connect with people.
Curtis Hall and I made a run into NYC and retrieved some film stock from a film lab there. It was six boxes of film at 65 lbs each – ah yes, the days of 35mm. We also had time to catch up with our director of photography buddy Dave Isern. We had a lot of time to talk business and the drive through the mountains was incredibly beautiful!
As we enter Feb. I’m looking ahead to March film projects. I’m trying to schedule and finalize certain business deals. I read a powerful script that had a high dose of violence in it. I’m expecting an offer on that film this forthcoming week. I also have a few other films that I need to set in stone and start my character work.
Today, I’m off to visit an art museum in Detroit and tomorrow is an MSU basketball game and watching the Superbowl with my amigos. That will be a good time with food, drink and good commercials and film teasers. Michigan’s own Madonna will be doing the half time show. I saw her on the news and thought she looked good. I’m glad she has not gone overboard with plastic surgery like so many others.
Enjoy the weekend!
DJ
Be a Person of Action! & “Locked in a Room” to Screen!
What a beautiful, beautiful snowy day! I must admit that I do love snow. I like when the world slows to a crawl and we all are granted a gentle peace. I’ve enjoyed easing back into the artistic world of filmmaking in 2012. This year has the potential to just really blossom. We have a half-dozen films that will premiere or hit the marketplace this year. Yesterday I was proud to see many films I’ve worked on playing on the new streaming Netflix platform. Ghost Town, Miracle at Sage Creek, Blood Ties, Book of Ruth with even more on the mail version. One issue is that the data entry isn’t all updated so several other films of ours are on Netflix but you just have to search by film title. Each of those films had friends of mine that have passed – Bill McKinney, David Carradine and Russ Stine. I watched a few minutes and recalled our friendship brought together over storytelling.
Onto the present and future…
“Locked in a Room” has been accepted and invited to show prime time at the 10th San Diego Black Film Festival 2012. Friday Jan. 27th at 7:30 pm!
