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

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First Showings and “Donors” on Deck!

Fresh coffee and the smell of bacon is a wonderful way to start your snowy morning. After a watch on a doc film called FOOD INC. I’m very happy that most all our meat comes from 4H beef & pork and deer venison. I think all people should take a hard look at what they fuel their machines with. Today is also going to have us bottling some wine made from Peaches and also rack some Green Tomato wine for clarity and get it ready to bottle soon. Those who visit the house have had an opportunity to taste some of the various wines. My mind is also been thinking about this coming years garden. What to plant? I for one love having the fresh veggies on hand.

This week will be exciting as we are having a major hoopla bash in Grand Rapids to showcase the World Premiere of “7 Stones”. It is at the GRAM, a beautiful art museum venue. I think director Tom Norton will be touring this film around so many of you might get to see a theatrical run of it. I’ve stayed an arm’s length from post so that I too can be surprised. This is director Tom’s calling card and I know the crew was A+ and the performances  felt powerful. So this Thursday we will see how it all came together!

Following that on the 27th at the San Diego Black Film Festival our thriller “Locked in a Room” will play at 7:30 pm so anyone in that area who can watch it and report back to me – that would be great! I’m really looking forward to this film that is extremely unusual in the approach. Again – exciting!

This week will be more development talks on a handful of feature films. I’ve got projects in the works with many filmmaking friends around the world. We will see which projects come together and take off! One project that is together and starts rolling camera officially in Feb. is “Donors” a thriller being directed by Charles Pisaeno. He was also the writer/producer on “Deadly Renovations”. I also see that “Deadly Renovations” director Robert Gwinn is pushing on “Virtue” a tight little horror film that is a classic throwback. Paperwork was signed on “Donors” associating it once again with Collective Development Inc. and making me the antagonist of the film. More as this unfolds.

“Outside the Wire” will start having additional theatrical showings and once I have dates I’ll share those on here.  I think our next stop may be Texas. I’ll get that info from director Tony Hornus.

Lots of promotion going on with finished films. I’m also looking to announce a few other films that I’ll be acting in. 2012 is going to be a great year and I’m excited by all the new opportunities presenting themselves. I’m also working hard to continue to push our library out to the world market. “Deadly Renovations” http://www.deadlyrenovations.com was delivered to sell at Berlin Film Market and I hope to have theatrical and street dates very soon!

Have a great Saturday!

DJ

Posted by  |  January 21, 2012 | Categories: Blogroll | Leave a 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!

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!
DJ

Posted by  |  January 14, 2012 | Categories: Blogroll | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments