Best Efforts and New Beginnings

I’ve enjoyed the chill of the last week or so – a preview of the coming fall. The garden is starting to slowly give its first harvests of beans and peppers. The tomatoes and such will soon follow. I’ve done a good job this week of downshifting and being patient on things already in motion. I’ve focused on what I can affect and removed draining attentions from what I cannot. This past week I’ve pulled in some of my energy and nurture it like an inner fire. The waxing to full moon last week gave a good time to quiet the mind – to think and form feelings on certain matters in my orbit.  I will try to put a few of those thoughts here for you all to compare to your own experiences.

I’ve got a few projects in my orbit that are not my own but projects I was sought out on. These individuals either enjoyed the previous art I’ve created (with all the artists collaboration) or they have been referred by my ability to lead people and stay on a schedule, on a budget and create order within chaos. I’ll start by saying I’ve turned down a few projects this year just because of the foresight of danger and hardship due to people who can’t communicate properly. Without that the path can be a thorny one.

In a world where the artists are often staving artists and you don’t know exactly where the next check will come from it is very tempting for some to take any and all work.  Accepting a challenge is one thing but would a group of soldiers armed with sticks march against a well-armed brigade? If you don’t have what it takes or you are ill prepared and weakly armed don’t march off to battle. It is that simple but many still take a loose attitude towards this. In the end it will hurt you. There is a legal term in our business called “Best Efforts” and it is something I live by. I always give my best effort in my efforts.  I always try to state things how they are even if it’s often not what someone wanted to hear. Now I don’t go throwing my opinions around where they are not asked for or really are not needed.  IF you do take on a challenge I implore you to give your best effort. Anything less is not only a knock on your character it can be legal liable. One such project has suffered from being ill prepared and bluntly mismanaged. I’ve been approached to see if I would be interested in fixing this project and finishing it properly. I think in the interest of saving face of our good state I just might. It wasn’t anything I had planned upon as I’m likely about to manage another project about to film. It would line these things up for me back-to-back and basically be my year. I will think on these things more.

The other project is a drama and should be shooting in the Detroit area if everything rolls right next week. The paperwork is being prepped and if all goes proper we will bring this story to the screen. I’ve enjoyed the prep work with the director thus far and I think we would have a good group of artists. It also will provide many acting opportunities for Michigan folks but please do not hammer me with reels at this time. We do have a casting director and that process will roll out once we are a full go. So again I’m just exercising patience and lining things up for a smooth ride. It all lies in the prep.

In other news – “Darkest Night” our newest GPI/CDI release has been moving DVD’s like crazy at Amazon and I hope you all are curling up and enjoying this frightening little film. As we move into the fall if you need a scary film for those nighttime thrills you have three from me so enjoy.

The “Supermodel Showdown” TV series is moving ahead nicely and we are about to open up some sponsorship opportunities for some national companies.

“Ashes of Eden” is pulling steady down the tracks now and I’m very exciting to show our premiere audience and the distributors we have following us.

We saw the start of “Figure in the Forest” playing on Parables TV and that is always a nice thing to introduce one of our stories to a new audience.

We are continuing our talks on licensing our films to other countries.  I’m looking forward to entertaining more world audiences with our films.

“Benjamin” that I shot in NYC is undergoing a name change to “The Terrorist” and some re-ordering of the actual film is underway working with our distributors. I’m excited to see the new cut.

Additionally, I’m just working some paperwork this weekend while getting some domestic stuff done. I could be hotel bound for a while but shooting in Michigan would allow me some home stops which is always nice.  So it might be a busy end to the year but that is about normal. I hope you all have a peaceful weekend and enjoy your family and friends.

DJ