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

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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

CDI’s New Marketing Division & 2012 Scheduling!

I’m sipping the coffee on this quiet 2012 morning and feeling good about the new year. I did start back in on Tuesday and was just slammed with things to do as I think many people are eager to start the new year right. I think I was a little over-excited with how fast I hit the work. Many folks will still be out until end of next week but I’m getting done what I can. The holidays were wonderful and it was topped off by the great Michigan State Football Bowl win. Now if the Lions can push on things could be just peachy.

I’ve got so many things in motion right now. I’m really trying to get my first of the year schedule in place. Now when I say that it takes many forms – acting, producing and writing. I’ve taken the time to set my goals and now the steady walk towards them begins.

First thing solid on the schedule seems to be the World Premiere of “7 Stones” at the end of the month. I think this is just VIP cast/crew and their family members. I have not been actively involved in the post on this project but I’ve heard the footage looks amazing. So I guess we will all be excited to see just how the story unfolds.

I also talked with “Locked in a Room” director Larry Simmons and they are looking at a possible March showing. He also discussed what is in store next with his company and once again it sounds exciting. I also talked with “Benjamin” director Jon Osman and things are looking very good over there in NYC. We might have a festival showing or two and we’ve started some talks with distributors. On that note – we also start the first round of negotiation talks with a distributor on “Outside the Wire” this week. We have several theatrical showings already planned and so it will be a good year for this project. Last week the post team on “Darkest Night” started to work on the theatrical edit. Lots of good footage that has to be cut down for runtime so I don’t envy that job.

Development continues on our slate of films and I think 2012 will see a couple of films go into production. I also read in Variety about my good friends at SplitVision Entertainment moving ahead with a slate of projects. It is so cool to see friends all moving along the path in our career field. I think it will be a good year for many of us. You have to learn to look at what did go good in a year and not just the setbacks. Also the key is to not drag any negativity from past setbacks into the new garden of opportunity. I see that quite often from others and it’s exactly what will poison a new venture. My advice – Don’t carry that kind of negative energy forward. Sometimes the success we seek is right around the corner.

I’ve got a script or two to still read and one I want to re-read to get a better take on it all. Like I said, scheduling becomes one of the big factors now. I’ve also been doing a little script writing and that is always fun.

Lastly, our production company CDI has opened a new division that centers on marketing. We work via The PRNewswire services and can show you how your film, product or service can reach 100+million exposure points. Your news can be seen on the Vegas strip, New York Time Square and thousands of news portals. Feel free to contact us if you would like additional information.

https://sites.google.com/site/collectivedevelopmentmarketing/

I’m going to top off my coffee and get to a little bit of work today.

Have a safe and wonderful weekend.

DJ

Posted by  |  January 7, 2012 | Categories: Blogroll | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment