“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ― Sun Tzu

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Movie Updates from the ‘CDI Tribe’ – ROLLING!

Hazelnut coffee cheers! I’m a touch slow moving today as we had a physical yet fun soccer match on Thursday losing 4-2. But even in a loss it is a win by way of workout. Also we have been putting in the time every day sealing and staining the deck and will likely finish up today save a few touches here and there. I was on the ladder doing karate kid paint the fence last night after we worked in one of our upcoming film locations. More on that in a bit. So I’m a touch sore and we have a make up game on Monday from a rainout and again a game on our regular Thursday. Also I have to tell the story of the ‘Black Mamba’ for those who don’t follow my two social media sites. I am not a big car person and it is a way to get from point A to B. In 2010 I bought a Saturn Vue in slick black hence ‘Black Mamba’ as the name. I paid it off in 2012 and drove it until last week. The muffler dropped from MI winter salt that finally caught up to it. I had it in the shop for a fix up when I got the call. The frame and such had some intensive rusting and the car was unfit to drive. It would be too costly to fix versus the price of the car. So looking at the two closest car lots three vehicles that interested me were found. In 24 hours I traded in the Saturn Vue and was in a beautiful 2017 Trail hawk Jeep. The name is still yet to be revealed but many people gave some great suggestions. I really do LOVE this new ride. Enough you say of these car ramblings. We have many movie updates underway. Let’s look at a few-

MOVIE UPDATES-

  1. Working backwards, Monday we open the official account for the new movie, The Secret of the Kingdom Chip. We’ve been gathering up our paperwork and funds for deposit. We have been adding sponsors and yesterday we had a team working in one of our prime locations preparing it for filming. It went great and with the help we made great progress on the location. This week I started having talks about the remaining crew and those will continue this week. A few last castings and we will be good to go. We should be locking our actors schedule this week and getting that distributed. But the ball is rolling and we have some other great developments that I cannot yet talk about but will once I am able. Again if you want to align your company with our project and other great brands please reach out. You can follow along on our Facebook site just search the movie title.
  2. ROM COMS MUST DIE our dark comedy thriller has all the VFX inside of it and the sound design and dialog was checked at our studio by Dennis Therrian who will be doing the music, mix and help deliver. It will be awesome to see the music bring more life into this film! The trailer is forthcoming and I’m trying to get a status report of where we are at with that.
  3. Speaking of Dennis Therrian we are doing a listen through and watch of the final Wild Faith Christmas movie this Friday at the studio! After we will do a watch on the big screen and start our theatrical meetings. We are in talks with a few possible collaborators to help this heart touching film get seen in more theaters. The original film WILD FAITH is still going strong on all the platforms with tens of millions of fans. We hope they enjoy this new installment and that it opens the opportunity for the TV series to launch.
  4. Harsens Island Revenge will be playing the Riverside Cinemas and Emagine Macomb from Aug 22-28th! The real island is buzzing with excitement and we are happy they will get to see a movie on their history taken from the book of the same name by Karl Manke. I know we are about to release some Iowa dates so we will be promoting those soon. I know Forest City but I don’t know if it is one night only or a run of days. Algona Iowa should do a run we will see. Meanwhile we are preparing for the home video release on 10/6/2025!
  5. If you want to watch the last Karl Manke book to film we did and the last film Shane Hagedorn directed, take a watch here and let me know your thoughts in the comments. Best Years Gone WATCH HERE: https://youtu.be/U4lxhZ2CQkc?si=pWzggmWvb4oEyQ78
  6. Many people are asking about the CDI films here are several of them that can be watched free with ads. WATCH HERE: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2Tn2MhKrkFOCsmKZaxoZCT1R5GEOEL3E

WRAP UP: These movies take a lot of hard work and they are hard work by a lot of artists. We have a good tribe of artists at CDI. I’m excited for this next role (The Secret of the Kingdom Chip) because it will be a lot of motion capture type work. I play an Avatar of sorts and I’m looking forward to that process. We will see if we can get the deck completed today. What is done looks so nice. We have been harvesting tomatoes and herbs from the garden for fresh eating. The mulberries are still kicking and are at their peak sweetness.

I hope you all have a great week as you move ahead on your own ventures be they personal or business. I’m ready to tackle the week ahead and keep the creative ball rolling. It was such good energy yesterday to be with good folks all working towards the common goal of telling a beautiful story. I might have to put a few eggs down before jumping into some work. The chickens have been doing great with everyone getting along and producing eggs. Until we speak again next week where I’ll be able to comment on the Wild Faith Christmas watch, be productive.

Coffee Cheers!

DJ

Posted by  |  August 10, 2025 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

CDI Updates- Pre-Production, Post-Production and NEW Theatrical Releases!

(Great ‘Harsens Island Revenge’ cast and crew gifts thanks to sponsor Reinert Pottery)

Hazelnut coffee cheers! I’m up early and sipping coffee and doing a few things about the yard letting the chickens out and watching Finn (my doggie son) race with his buddy Jake. Yesterday we had a nice Perry family reunion and saw some family. I really enjoy seeing our family and catching up on people’s lives. The weather has been cooler which is a nice change from humid but we had some iffy air quality due to wildfires in other parts of the country. Our soccer match at the end of the week was near perfect weather and we walked out with a win which is nice but the workout itself is always a win. I’m really in good shape from the intense play and love the mental cleanse that an intense work out gives. The plants are starting to turn a corner as the smallest hints of fall can be found.

I’m happy to have turned the corner on our next film project THE SECRET OF THE KINGDOM CHIP. I’m still assigning the last few units but between the claimed units and our sponsors we have everything covered. The new company is formed and the paperwork is being drawn up. Our schedule is about ready to be distributed we are still looking at the shooting order of a few scenes. We have just a bit more casting and some crewing to do but wanted to wait for the company formation. Our director ‘Tony’ returns from Europe this week so it will be nice to have he and John McGraw our DP start working shot lists. If you want to follow along with this project you can search our Facebook page. Also if you have a company that wants to align with this next movie reach out. Let’s now look at some other updates.

  1. Harsens Island Revenge is coming to the Detroit area playing both the Riverside Theater and the Emagine Macomb August 22-28th! I know the museum on Harsens Island has been gathering folks to attend the close showing at the Riverside. An event page will be formed soon for the Emagine showing which is near our director Carl’s home. Our hope is that Emagine will move the film into some of their other theaters after the showing. We have the entire month of September to play the film after that and I know that it is coming to Forest City, Iowa and we should also get Fridley’s in Algona. Call the theater our Algona friends and push that along some. I’ve been making new friends in the Spirit Lake area too while working development on another film so maybe we can get it into a theater there.
  2. The 1st week of Oct. is when the Harsens Island Revenge film comes to home video on DVD and rent/buy streaming. I’ve gotten a peek at the home video artwork and it is really cool. We have a marketing meeting coming up soon with the team at Twin Engines Global.
  3. We are closing in on a final watch/listen of Wild Faith Christmas. We’ll be in the studio to listen to all the sound design and music. We’ll follow this with a watch on the big screen to give it a final once over. Shane Hagedorn our director is over the moon with the final film. I’m optimistic that this new installment in the Wild Faith franchise will open the door for season 1 of Wild faith Hastings TV show. The original film continues to build an even great audience being seen by tens of millions of viewers. We are closing in on 9 million viewers just on Encourage TV!
  4. The last of the ROM COMS MUST DIE audio adjustments are about done. I think all the VFX are dropped in and sound design done. It will go into the music studio just as Wild Faith Christmas is leaving. The trailer should be released this month! This film was so much fun to make and it translates to the screen. I want to meet with director Travis Hayward and discuss a few festival entries this week. The major theatrical run and home video will be in 2026 but a premiere and a few festival showcases could happen this year.
  5. SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA is now being streamed on various sites for free with ads. BEST YEARS GONE, LOST HEART, MBF, KNIGHT CHILLS and more are building stream with new marketing. The last film KNIGHT CHILLS was CDI’s 1st and I would love to see a sequel eventually happen. I also let folks know that while we don’t have plans to film it yet I’ve been working on a sequel script to the film I get asked about the most when it comes to sequel. Any guesses?
  6. I had another good development talk on SPIRIT LAKE MASSACRE one of the two Iowa films we are developing. We don’t have anything solid and set for 2026 but we are looking ahead. You always have to be working in the past, present and future with films. The other film taking small steps forward is the Frank Gotch biopic and maybe 2026 will be the year for that project.

WRAP UP: I’m due for another coffee and maybe an egg or two. I’m going to go pick up a cool prop for our next film this morning. Our art team has been having a great time assembling everything we need. We are having a clean up of one of the major locations next weekend. I’m excited to be working with all these good CDI folks once again. Twice in one year has been special. I would love to do at least two feature films next year producing.

I’m going to end it here. I can say that whomever you are keep working hard at your goals and dreams. If you put the work in you will make progress. It doesn’t always happen at the speed you might want but every journey starts with a step. I’m just blessed to be a storyteller and to get to work with so many great people. I hope you have some time to watch some of our CDI films. We make them for all of you out there. For all those who have watched our films and sent along such great messages we love that. Thank you so very much. Until next week, keep pushing forward and never give up.

Coffee Cheers!

DJ

Posted by  |  August 3, 2025 | Categories: Blogroll | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment