Stones « Clawing My Way to the Middle

Hard blowing, sideways snowing, coffee flowing – Saturday chill!

Hard blowing, sideways snowing, coffee flowing – Saturday chill! So it was a long week but so very productive. Let’s start with premiere showings. Thursday night at the GRAM (Grand Rapids Art Museum) fans got a 1st look at “7 Stones”. This action/drama is a very strong character study with lessons to be learned. They are going to spend the final 3 weeks polishing the sound mix and CGI. It was a fine night and I was proud to be there with all the other artists. Other festival and public theatricals will be coming. We have a meeting next week to discuss the course of all this.

Last night in San Diego at the San Diego Black Film Festival “Locked in a Room” had a 1st showing. I was not able to attend as I had the premiere the night before as the male star and tomorrow I have a NYC trip to pick up film stock. So I’m very interested to see what the audience reaction was to the film as I have yet to see the full finished film.

Several of my films are prepped to go out to the marketplace with NEW VIDEO distribution. They are best known for cable network releases and we were awaiting them to finalize their Wal-Mart deal. They also announced they now have a theatrical division from a merger. We also have a deal in the works to work with Missionary International to focus on the faith retailers. I’m hearing late 2nd quarter for the titles which will include Blu-Ray releases of “An Ordinary Killer,” “Judges” and “Blood Ties” and DVD/VOD releases of “Figure in the Forest” and “Heaven’s Neighbors”.

It has been decided that a high-end action packed investor trailer for “Sherwood Horror” will be shot to show the studios. So I’ll be prepping to play Rob Locksley which will be shot in VA with some of my close actor friends that have been cast by director John Regan. I’ve been training daily as I always do but I’m going to step that up some so I can really bring the action. Needless to say – I’m excited.

Also I’m limited to what I can say on this project but I had the pleasure of reading the final shoot script on a project I’ll be shooting in Dearborn, MI, New Orleans and Toronto. This project is with the same team doing the “In Our Time” (Jesus) project but is first on the slate. I can announce that it is called “Henry Ford: An American Legend” and I know that it is already in process with the Michigan Film Office. This is slated for a May/June start and will release with a major studio. I’ll release more info as I’m allowed.

I’ve got several projects in the Feb-April time frame and we will see where the pieces fall. We also have several projects of our own in development and they are looking strong. I also heard the rough draft of “Darkest Night” at the theatrical run time is done and they will be polishing that up with March being the finish date.

I’ll wrap this up for now. There is a lot of 2012 business at hand. Work hard and create your own opportunities. They don’t all come and drop in your lap so be smart.

I hope you all have a productive week!

January 28, 2012 | Categories: Blogroll, Uncategorized | Tags: DJ, film, Henry Ford, NYC, Stones | 1 Comment »

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!

http://sdbff.com/film-schedule-descriptions.html#friday

Check it out on IMDB

I will have to promote this more to my California friends. I have to speak with our director Larry as I got this news yesterday . That said, I likely will not attend that showing because I have a big red carpet premiere for “7 Stones” in Grand Rapids, MI on the 26th of Jan. at the art museum there. I’m sure our film will be well represented and FINALLY we get to see what audiences say about “Locked in A Room”!

This week has brought many good meetings and some with results. A development slate with a studio may get approved soon. I cannot ever be 100% positive on many of these deals because of this being my first time working many of these kind of deals. I’ve aligned myself with some good seasoned producers to learn from. I’m also continuing to help those less experienced than myself. A circle of helping. Now that said, I cannot possibly help everyone hence why I really love this blog. I’ve had to struggle very hard to get to certain places on my path. It’s scary when I look back on what I did not know when I started. I still have days of mild fear of what I don’t know still ahead of me. I always respond by just center myself and bringing it back to my personal mythology. Don’t be afraid to live.

Please read the tao of DJ at the top of this page if you have not. I find the courage to keep on because that saying that the only thing to fear is fear itself really has some true meaning. Don’t be afraid to fail! Most of us, most of the time will to some extent. This is especially true when you first set out on a new journey. If you devote the time to educating yourself on your passion and taking thought out actions, you will break down walls and move forward.

I want to mention someone in here. Jon Moody is a young man who was really just a young kid when we first started communicating. He knows some of my Virginia film friends and has always had a passion for the craft. He had/has a radio show that he uses to pick the brains of doers in this biz that have found success. He later started writing and making low quality horror shorts. I know low quality as I also started with home video skits and such. I’ve watched him refine getting tighter writing. I’ve seen the growing production values and just learning from actual experience that you can never get in a book. He would probably tell you that 97% of what he has tried to do has fallen apart, didn’t gel or is just out of reach at this time. It is that amazing 3% that takes you to that next level. Another friend said, you work twice as hard for half as much and he might have generous in his words. You must go after what you want. The world really does not owe anyone anything. It’s all action and reactions and so be a person of action. The world will react to your actions. Keep up the fight Mr. Moody and all of you out there striving to live your dream.

In Other Film News

This week I got a funny clip from Nathan Quinn from “Unconventional” for my reel. I was lacking footage from my comedy films. I’ve got two acting deal memos being worked on. I’ve done a little script writing here and there this week for fun. I can talk about one film which is called “Donors”. I’m playing well…an antagonist. Okay THE antagonist. Bad guy DJ:) More info on this film soon. I’ll leave you with that info as a teaser. That deal paperwork is coming over today so I’ll let that be the teaser until that is in place.

I’m looking forward to the next week – be active!

January 14, 2012 | Categories: Blogroll | Tags: DJ, donors, San Diego, Stones | Leave A Comment »

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