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

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LOSS, WINS and UPDATES – End of Summer!

A beautiful Sunday morning to sip coffee and reflect back on the past week. I want to start with a tribute to a wonderful woman who was like a second mom to me when I was a wee lad. Marie DeFord was my daycare while my mom worked and my dad was in the National Guard. She was my Monday-Friday from when I was a little baby until about five. She had two older boys Jon and Dane, whom I interacted and learned from. From them my interest in model cars, Universal Monsters, music and cartoons grew. Marie gave me my love of books and animals. While many young children fight nap time, it was always exciting for me. I would sleep surrounded by cats and dogs. At 88 years of age Marie passed peacefully. I’m beyond happy that I have reconnected with both Jon and Dane, and the latter has joined us on a few filmmaking adventures now. I attended a wonderful service and lunch where many shared the same kind of special stories of Marie’s love of people. One person said it best, she spoke to children as if they had something to say. She had that special ‘something’ that Mister Fred Rogers had. She loved everyone and was always there to listen, help and nurture the people in her life. So many special memories that I will cherish and again so happy to have had her be part of my early upbringing. I also discovered only at the memorial that she too was a Sexton Big Red graduate! RIP Marie.

Since maybe about the age of 5 or 6, I’ve been playing the game of futbol/soccer. The ‘teamwork’ aspects is one of the things that this great sport has taught. I’ve played overseas and club soccer most of my life. My detour to the community college before attending Michigan State University hindered my soccer journey. I likely did not possess the skills to make it to the highest level of the game but I’ve always loved it. It is one of the special things I get to share with my brother. He convinced me to play this year in the Over 40 league versus the Over 30 which I’ve played since I was 29. This was my second year in this age bracket and had us joining the ‘Williams’ brothers over to their team. We ended up placing 2nd in the season and we WON the championship beating the one team that had defeated us twice. Old man soccer is no joke. There is nothing more aggressive than a bunch of older gents trying to prove they still got it. On the rainy Thursday we came together and became the new reigning champs. I wanna thank all the warriors in that league who help one another stay active, in-shape and competitive.

FILM UPDATES–

  1. The final FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH artwork is being approved for the 10/4/22 DVD and streaming release. We’re all really excited to have this roll out to all of you. I think we’re doing a 10/1/22 premiere in Owosso, MI just waiting on final approval.
  2. SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA is moving down the post-production line. Music and sound design are being done while color grading and VFX work also gets worked upon. A NEW theatrical trailer is being worked on and we’re starting to line up participating theaters. We plan to premiere in December in Algona, Iowa followed by a theatrical roll out. We’ll also be setting up a premiere in Michigan, likely in Owosso. We’ve already got the interest for the film to come to Lansing and Grand Rapids. We will work on getting it to Detroit as well.
  3. BESTSELLER and BEST YEARS GONE will be going to Broadcast and ad-based video on demand 9/1/2022 but both can be seen now on Amazon Prime, Google Play, iTunes and more! We would love to hear your thoughts so please do post to imdb.com and/or any review platforms. We have a few upcoming reviews coming on both films.
  4. SMOKE & MIRRORS might get a FREE release to our CDI Youtube that has many great videos. Trailers, behind the scenes, promos and more…I think this just might be the spooky treat for October from your friends at Collective Development Inc.
  5. Following the Halloween season we’ll be heading for the holidays. The Quest Trilogy always enjoys a nice increase in family watching over the holidays. Have you seen FORTY NIGHTS, CHASING THE STAR and THE CHRIST SLAYER? The films take a great look at some of the stories from the Bible from a unique perspective. It is not heavy handed and many non-religious folks have really expressed how much they enjoyed the thought provoking stories.
  6. HARSENS ISLAND REVENGE – This story will film in 2023 and we’re already starting advance development work. Location scouting has started and will get more serious in the coming weeks. We’re looking to put in place a few major creative pieces before we start casting and crewing. It is another awesome period piece and CDI will again rise to the challenge. A teaser poster will be worked upon in the coming weeks also.
  7. I’ve got ‘Screenwriter’ paperwork in process on another ‘period piece’ that will just be epic to film in 2024. I’ve been researching the history for weeks now and I’m excited to write this story in the weeks to come. I want to do a teaser poster for this film also and we’ll do some PR once the ink is dry.
  8. 2023 is also going to see some of the past CDI library coming once again to market. Right now we’re doing some prep on GHOST TOWN, our smoky mountain western that will be coming next year. We’re about to have the film uprezed to 4k and a new trailer cut. That will go out this week and we’ll start to get our delivery elements together.
  9. I need to circle back and see how the Uprez of KNIGHT CHILLS, is coming. We have an arrangement for a BluRay release likely in 2023. We will also be releasing to streaming with DeskPop Entertainment. Audio book, video game, sequel? Lotta cool things in development with CDI’s first feature film.
  10. Rounding out the 2023 Uprez and releases will be FIGURE IN THE FOREST and AN ORDINARY KILLER. Each one takes a lot of work to prep for re-release so we’re tackling a little bit at a time but we’ll get there.
Ghost Town- Tony Becker, DJ Perry & Rance Howard

I’m going to get after a few things in the yard. I’ve been harvesting the hops which have grown in great abundance. Our squash, pumpkins and such are growing nicely as well. I’ve been splitting wood in anticipating of winter. I want to have a professional tree trimmer come in and trim the trees around the fort/office. I need to put a trim on the mulberry tree that has taken off like gangbusters. The squirrels have started their gathering for the coming months. I love to watch them work especially a few of the young ones new to the area. I’m going to refill my coffee cup and get after some of these outdoor tasks. Until we meet again next week I wish you all the best. Remember to keep working hard and following your dreams!

DJ

Posted by  |  August 28, 2022 | Categories: Blogroll | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

CDI Charting the Course for 2023/2024: Period Films On Deck

Thank you for joining us!

Happy Sunday morning to you all. I was surprised to see upon opening my blog site that we’ve been flooded by new readers from around the globe. Readers were up 300% and I’m not sure if that is from releasing on a Monday because of the Cleveland, Ohio 27th Indie Gathering International Film Festival or some other reason. But to put a cap on last weekend, it was so nice to slow down and enjoy the success of one of the projects. In this case it was BEST YEARS GONE, but 2022 has been one of the busiest release years I’ve had since maybe 2005. I want to thank the hardworking staff at the gathering and again express my surprise and appreciation at winning the fest ‘Best Actor’ award.

It was also special to have another Michigan film ASH & BONE playing on the same day with some of the same talented folks involved. So Congrats to Harley Wallen and his hardworking team also. If you have not watched these two films BEST YEARS GONE is streaming and on DVD now and ASH & BONE releases in December I believe.

THE PATH FORWARD –

Navigating the world in our business and trying to make all the right moves in challenging. That is some of the things we talked about last week. Many do not know all that goes into the business of the movie business. Learning to create the art is only part of the battle. Often the art has to flow with the business or no art can be made.

HOT ROD LOVE – This is a perfect example. This project has been in on-going negotiations with primary locations which include a drag racing track. Fighting the economy issues we’ve secured only a partial budget. We at CDI only move ahead when we have 100% of the funds. It only takes a burn or two to learn this lesson. We were in active development and we’re moving it to passive development over the winter. Aside from the two ongoing issues of location and not full funds, we still have two major releases ahead this year with FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH, our history of grappling documentary, currently working to lock in a theatrical premiere date. But the streaming date is 10/4/22 with DVD to follow soon after. And we have our WW2 Christmas film SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA, premiering in December, both in Iowa and Michigan. Furthermore, we already have theatrical chains coming on board. We have business with various national sponsors and product partners, so the end of the year will be full.

The other developments factoring into the move of HOT ROD LOVE to passive development is the advancement of our next period-epic HARSENS ISLAND REVENGE, being green lit. It will shoot late Summer/Fall of 2023 but will require the full CDI development. This year and over the winter we’ll be locking in the key cast, crew and location scouting.

This is followed by a soon-to-be announced writing and producing endeavor for 2024. I’m working out the paperwork now and I’ll be excited to share this news. But what it means is that following the release of our WW2 period film, we’ll have two more historic-based dramas to follow. I’m extremely excited to be starting another script in the beautiful fall. We have some specialty casting on this film so we’ll be looking into that very early on.

I had to see the busy 2023 and 2024 that was ahead of us and realize that we need to devote this final part of the year to not only finishing SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA, but giving it the push it deserves. A new theatrical trailer starts being worked on this week which we hope to run in certain theatrical chains in advance of our run. We still might have a couple of event showings for BEST YEARS GONE.

We’re debating about releasing SMOKE & MIRRORS, our fun and spooky short concept film, in October. This might be on the CDI Youtube to get more folks to ‘Subscribe to the Tribe‘ and embed it in the CDI website. We need to get BEST YEARS GONE updated and the SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA page up. Updates for the new year and beyond.

HOT ROD LOVE, WILD FAITH: Hastings – and all the ‘in development properties’ will keep advancing on the chess board. I had many great meetings this week and we’ll be using the time to re-organize and streamline many things. You have to always try to improve your work flow. It was nice to connect with several old industry amigos and find out what they’re working on. It is a great cycle of artistic creation. There is no one way to do anything but a multitude of paths that can achieve a wonderful spectrum of results. I had some great compliments last week from one of our longtime celebrity friends. What I received was a compliment to all our stories, unique and hand crafted by artists who truly care.

Shifting gears away from the grind of funding to focus on distribution, promotion and advanced pre-production on the two active projects, was hard. Your actor’s soul starts to explore a character’s depth. Your business ego wants to be able to control the outcome, but alas, often you cannot. Every project has it’s own time to be made- I’ve spent time in years past trying to push something uphill that wasn’t ready to go. I’m glad that I’ve gotten better at reading the signs. Just like reading red flags in people’s pitch. That is all experience as a filter. I read unreasonable claims all the time but also it’s not my job to go kicking sandcastles. Experience will teach them OR they might succeed via a path you did not see.

One project is in our State and one will be filmed out of the State. But this is still a good time to get your reels together. We’re not to that stage as of yet but in good time. We’ll always be looking at crew we’ve had positive experiences with. That is a major factor with cast also. Attitude means so much over here at CDI. We can give and develop experience but we can’t fix hard-wired negativity. The experience of making the film is also important to us, not just the final product. We circle up as producers and discuss this sort of thing. For the short period of time we share to shoot a script, we should all have fun. And the final product will be something everyone is proud to put their name on.

WRAP UP

I’m grateful to everyone of our supporters. We’ll work hard to keep bringing you the quality stories you’ve grown to expect from the #TribeCDI. The next two projects should be pretty damn cool. Thank you for all the kind communications on the films. I try to keep up and respond, but sometimes fall behind.

We won our first round of playoffs in ‘Old Man’ soccer. It was a great match ending 1-1 and went to penalty kicks. We WON. Now we as the #2 team will play the #1 team. They’ve beat us twice in good matches and we’ll see if we can pull the upset.

I’ve been into starting to get wood around. I was working out with the Viking log splitter. It’s like a giant fixed axe blade that is fitted inside an iron circle. You put the log down upon the blade and hammer the log down. I put the smackdown on several logs. Using an axe and hammer will help keep you fit like a Viking.

The Lions pulled out a preseason win yesterday. We did a nice walk around the flea market but no big finds. I think because I was hungry I was not as attentive. I had eggs on the brain. The chickens are doing fine. The garden has squash and pumpkins popping all over. My hops are growing out of control and the berries have finally gone. I’m going to go do a few things about the property likely ending in some grilling of venison unless we get the rain.

Location Scouting is underway

Have a great week and we’ll chat again.

Coffee Cheers!

DJ

Posted by  |  August 21, 2022 | Categories: Blogroll | Leave a comment