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

Posts tagged “2022”

Getting After That ‘TO DO’ in 2022!

We have all made that move into 2022 and for most of us it means just wanting the new year to be a bit smoother than the previous. This new world of social distancing and masks comes on top a world that was already distancing via technology. I see more young people who’s interactions are on headsets only or choosing to shotgun social media posts versus socializing in person with friends. With only so many hours in the day and days in the week social media has allowed some people to stay in touch that normally would not have that option. Also for the elderly and those lacking mobility it can help make them feel connected to the world. I had a fan club for many years ran by a kind woman “Pepper” in a wheelchair. But she also got out and about as she often appeared at premieres. She became fans of many of the fine actors in our troupe and loved to do interviews and reviews. After a while she was given the VIP treatment at CDI events. To be fair I have to say that she was first the Terence Knox fan club president. I went off topic a tad but I think what I was trying to say was that while technology can make many things easier it can also rob you of some in-person interaction. I’m happy that while we still use technology we also make the time to meet around the table. Many great things have been hatched first as ideas and later as operations around the table. So in the new year don’t let technology steal all your personal interactions. Spend time with and appreciate one another. Even with the amount of face-to-face meetings I have I still miss many people. During the 1st Covid lockdown I got in the habit of picking up the phone everyday and calling someone to catch up. Daily laughter really helped the situation.

2021 set many good things in motion. Seeds were planted and in 2022 we harvest. A lot of casting and development work finally allowed us to film our WW2 home front Christmas drama, SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA in November 2021. It is now in post, our editor just finished marrying the audio and visual together. Model building in Canada is also underway and just as a nice tease here is a text I got from our editor on Friday –

“Been through all the footage now. Really good performances…excited and this weekend we’re going to really get going.” – N. Nose

And we are going – strong. We’ve been rolling still photos out and we’re about to get a Behind the scenes video with Adam Towner. Following that we’ll be cutting our first teaser trailer. We are all very excited about this film and so stay up to date on all the developments.

Just prior to the Algona shoot we finished, premiered and have done a few regional theatrical runs with BEST YEARS GONE. This film was really amazing to watch play in the theaters. So much laughter and you could feel the room when the drama hit. When I was going to do that film and play the Gil role many questioned if you could sell him a protagonist. Like you’ve heard – we are all the protagonist of our own life drama. Even the bad guy or antagonist often looks at themselves as the hero. Either way with the good direction by Shane Hagedorn and the amazing cast, it all works. I’m awaiting the streets days for release from our distributor and want these dates before we do a PR release. But I do have the DVD/streaming poster art to share.

I hope that during this cold months whereas people turn to the storyTV to help pass the time – you will sit a spell and watch a few tribe CDI projects. The Quest Trilogy (Forty Nights, Chasing the Star and The Christ Slayer) have been getting a nice push over the holidays. I did my traditional watch and I really enjoyed it. It is an amazing amount of work in three feature films. The Yuma DESERT stripes. WILD FAITH continues to do very well climbing to almost 5.5 million on Encourage TV and countless millions worldwide.

These numbers are helping our endeavors to launch the TV spin off. WILD FAITH: Hastings will be launching a development FB site for fans to follow the development from an official source. I will say with our new pitch deck things are looking good. I’ve had several good talks with interested parties but it is about creative control. If you want to repeat success you can’t change too much. I will say that fans of the film will be fans of the TV series. The same magic is there. We will know in a few months if that series will go this year or have to be pushed into 2023. If that happens a second feature film will go up in the 2nd half 2022. We plan to shoot a funny, cool “1975 American Graffiti” in the Spring in Michigan. The name of the film is…we have a logo title being worked on so you’ll have to wait. Also we are in active development on the 1st CDI animated feature. This is another extremely exciting project for me and something we’ll talk about more as it comes together.

Goals for 2022 – Stay Healthy. Stay and Promote Happiness. Create meaningful art

This morning started with a wonderful breakfast sandwich thanks to our hens. The hazelnut coffee is still hot and I’m gonna go get a refill. I need to look at fixing a few of the axes. We had a day of wood chopping on a very cold day and we loosened a few axe heads and splintered a hickory handle. So repair and replacements are needed. I’m going to do some screenplay writing while watching the LIONS. It’s their last game of the season and I hope we get a win. I hope everyone has a good week ahead. I’m just trying to leave 2022 closer to the present. It is hard to try and look ahead too far with so many uncertainties looming. But at the same time it’s my job to try and look ahead. I’ve found a good balance of not focusing too much on what I cannot control. Have faith. Having faith in your path can also give you comfort. I feel like I’m doing what I was suppose to do and that is a blessing.

Have a great week!

DJ

January 9, 2022 | Categories: Blogroll | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

DEC 19th HOLIDAY UPDATES!

Good morning from snowy Michigan. We just recently went from unseasonal highs to very cold lows. On the nice days we were able to put up a few Christmas lights and decorations and also I got yard things stored for the winter. The chickens we have (4) seem to be doing better with the cold but that is their breed and the new coop. They are still putting out several eggs a day and so that has continued to be enjoyable. We just passed the full moon and also had our first family get together. An abundance of food, laughter and watching the niece and nephew full of Christmas joy. My brother and I always had a very special Christmas’ time thanks to our parents. But it was also all the fun of snow forts, sledding and such. I loved having my little brother and our neighborhood full of friends for all the wintertime activities. This week I am sad that we have to attend the visitation for one of the neighbors I knew from age 5 on. It was not Covid but the other C and it was unexpected and happened fast. It sat heavy on me for a few days but made me realize again that time is precious. Make sure you are doing what you love or moving in that direction. Let’s talk about some of the things I love – movies.

BESTSELLER, our Christopher Knight thriller was turned into an intense film that will finally in early 2022 get a full home video release. Also BEST YEARS GONE has enjoyed several theatrical runs and is being prepped for our worldwide home video release. We still might do a theatrical run on the east and west side of the state but we will see. I do plan on releasing the distributor’s release poster this week with some info on home video release dates. Just maybe I should advance release here. By the way I want to welcome all the new readers from several countries. Below is just a few examples of where our readers from last week are from. I do love how technology allows the world to be a smaller place.

It’s a small world after all

SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA (SNIA) – This amazing film is now in post-production and the buzz has been worldwide. Here is a piece of PR from just the other day.

https://www.messengernews.net/life/local-lifestyle/2021/12/algona-goes-hollywood/

The clean up after production is almost done. Always one more TO DO that wants to pop up. But with all this work settling it has allowed me to start to handle end-of-the-year business on other fronts. We also will start rolling still photos out as well. They are absolutely beautiful – Daniel G. Chipman did a great job capturing these moments. We will start dripping these out and in the new year I will look into the first teaser videos both “making of” and a teaser trailer. We will start dripping the stills onto the SNIA Facebook page so find us and follow along.

FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH – the documentary film has been in post-production with Dennis Therrian cleaning up the narration, dialog and mixing the film. I know our director Curran Jacobs is very excited to reveal this historic piece that will be referenced to for many years ahead. This weekend a full trailer was being worked on although I really do LOVE the teaser trailer. It will release in 2022 – please stand by.

SMOKE & MIRRORS (Short) – One small spelling correction and this will be DONE. We are going to enter a few festivals with it for the Halloween 2022 season. I’ve done some great writing on the feature script that we’ll put into motion here in the future. Nathaniel Nose was brilliant in his directing and editing once again. David Gries is amazing as the lead and Melissa Anschutz throws down a ‘spooky’ and highly memorable performance. Again I love the artists I get to work with.

LOOKING AHEAD – I enjoyed a conversation I had with another production company owner recently. It is always trying to look and plan ahead with development and production. Many of the younger artists they have lots of enthusiasm for the fun parts of what we do and no patience for the most important parts of what we do. Development from concept can easily take 2+ years. If you have a script maybe 12-18 months but again it is all about financing and funding. So there is creative and business development and they happen often side by side – but a script is needed for funding.

I’m well into the first act of the new screenplay with is “A 1975 American Graffiti” with a few strong comedy influences. I will be done with the screenplay by the end of Jan. 2022 and we’ll start pulling on interested parties. I have not had a lot of time to write with the holidays and the work on the other films, but what has been written is really flowing. This is looking to shoot in the Spring here in Michigan.

Also we’ve been updating and revamping the WILD FAITH: Hastings TV show materials. For the first quarter of 2022 we will see if we can get everything to line up and if so we will shoot season 1 in the back half of 2022. If things don’t line up we will have to push it into 2023 and we’ll do another feature (or two) in the back half of 2022. I love the extended 8 shows that deepen the character development of many of the beloved characters.

I’ve got a few other scripts writing offers I’m still negotiating on and my thoughts often drift to advantages of representation, but I just too busy to fully address. So when I’m this busy it makes me question the need for representation at this point but in the right areas it just might help. Acting-wise I do entertain offers when they come in but the ones that crossed my desk this year I politely had to pass on. Some were because of schedule but others just didn’t excite me to action. I will say that if you want to approach/land true artists who can really bring something special to your world/story you need to weave a good pitch with good materials and the script needs to be really up to snuff.

I want to thank those who have responded to the full Encourage TV ad for THE QUEST TRILOGY. I think people are slowly starting to understand that the story extends over three feature films. People who watched part 2 Chasing the Star without any reference of part 1 Forty Nights – are not getting the full and proper experience. There are things that tie all three films together and so I do hope you all can watch the trilogy this holiday season. Also take some time to enjoy the other CDI films. After you can go to each film’s http://www.imdb.com page VOTE and let us know your thoughts on the films.

From Part 3 ‘The Christ Slayer’

I hear that in early 2022 our distributor will be doing a push on their westerns. I think we’re going to do a promo for WILD FAITH and WICKED SPRING. It will be a great time to push the TV series also. We’re also running some of the other older CDI titles by the distributor. I think we’ll see a new release campaign for some of CDI’s oldies but goodies.

I’m going to wrap this up and try to get a few things done today. I enjoy my time with all of you and these blogs help me prep and prepare for the week ahead. I hope as you all start having your own holiday gatherings that you stay safe in your travels. Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas and onward towards the new year!

DJ

December 19, 2021 | Categories: Blogroll | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tis the Season: surviving, striving, thriving and creating

Welcome new readers from Bulgaria, Netherlands and more. Our viewership has been growing in great numbers. Thank you to all the new people stopping in to visit. I’m sipping the hazelnut coffee and reflecting on a busy week. Maybe 2022 will be the year of the coffee sponsor. Maybe I’ll start a coffee review section? My thoughts are with all those dealing with the terrible tornado damage in the South. We had high winds in Michigan but it seems once again the surrounding Great Lakes helped us to avoid any major storms. I’m under a week before our first Christmas gathering and a week after that is Christmas Eve/day. I’ve loved having the Christmas tree and the festival vibe about as I tried to play catch up from our SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA (SNIA) film shoot. Let’s talk about that-

SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA–

I’ve almost got everything caught up on this project. Final catering, port-a-johns and more – the budget dwindles but as we move towards zero the film will get closer to being complete. The drive has arrived to our editor and the supply check for the model building was also sent off. Our VFX team from THE CHRIST SLAYER (part 3 of The Quest Trilogy) will bring some exciting work to our feature. Once we get past the clean up phase from principal photography we’ll move into promotion. Our DP Dan Chipman is color correcting the first batch of photos. I’ve only released one still previously featuring one of our amazing period vehicles at one of our amazing locations. It was the car driving down the “tunnel of trees” so here is that same picture now color corrected. We also have a logo that will adorn the upcoming stills. Here is an example of a color corrected still from the actual film.

As we move down the road of post production we plan to start releasing stills and also will work on both a BTS (beyond the scenes) video and a teaser trailer. This year we’ll continue to have some great announcements for all of you.

In the meantime enjoy the Christmas season. Recently Melissa Anschutz and I did a promo for our distributor’s EncourageTV that allows people to watch our films for free whereas we get paid by ads. So if you don’t mind the ads take a watch for free. Click below to see the ad and please do help make The Quest Trilogy a holiday tradition. All three tell a greater story and I hope your families enjoy the experience watching FORTY NIGHTS, CHASING THE STAR and THE CHRIST SLAYER. If you watch/subscribe to ENCOURAGETV please do travel over to the film pages on http://www.imdb.com vote and leave us your thoughts on the trilogy.

https://www.facebook.com/BMGEncourageTV/videos/230655172526254

Once you watch the trilogy feel free to watch the other CDI films including our recent LOST HEART or BIGFOOT, UFO’S and JESUS which is really doing well for us.

BEST YEARS GONE and BESTSELLER will both be getting a home video launch in the near year. Shane Hagedorn our BYG director has been selecting a few comedy festivals to submit us. The thriller BESTSELLER had a theatrical premiere run but now will see a new campaign push from our distributors general audience label DESKPOP ENTERTAINMENT. I should have those dates soon plus we’ll be releasing the new DVD/Poster art for BYG. More on these dates very soon and we might have word on a few other CDI films getting a new push. Some have never really enjoyed a streaming release. So in our last meeting with our distributor we discussed several of these titles. What ones would you love to see come back strong to the marketplace?

2022 LOOKING AHEAD

So I’ve spent some good time contemplating, meditating and focusing on the future CDI endeavors. We are planning a Spring feature to shoot in the March/April timeframe. I’m not yet ready to talk about the project but this one would be a Michigan shoot. I’ve also been working on the rewrite of the OF SMOKE & MIRRORS the feature length version of SMOKE & MIRRORS. This cool turn of the century short assembled from a commercial project will get some festival release in 2022. I would like to shoot the feature at the end of 2022 or early 2023 pending our schedule. In that back half of the year we’re working hard to launch the WILD FAITH: Hastings TV series. It would bring 8 more ongoing stories of some of the endearing characters audiences met in the feature. Tens of millions of fans can’t be wrong. I just need to make the best deal for the project. Saying yes to something that ultimately could hurt the story is not what we want to do. How many Michigan, 1800’s expert executives are there in Hollywood? Exactly my point. Script notes should come from a sincere place not just someone trying to contribute. Sometimes the best thing you can do is NOT contribute. Anyway, we have some great meetings ahead on this TV series.

We’ll be watching the surround sound mixed version of FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH very soon. It has been getting the clean up and mix treatment from our post audio master Tricky T also known as Dennis Therrian. We are looking at doing another documentary film in 2022 as well as a CDI animated feature film. Overall 2022 will be a busy year as is every year. This year has been a year of wins and losses. Several of the losses come from friends and loved ones no longer with us, no longer to struggle in the world. Our time here is beautiful, wonderful and it moves at a good clip. It all makes me more determined and appreciative of my path. I love being an artist and storyteller. I feel as I will continue to do so until I become the sad news, no longer surviving, striving, thriving and creating. Keep doing you and never give up your dreams. With hardworking, patience and persistence you will make your mark.

Coffee Cheers!

DJ

December 12, 2021 | Categories: Blogroll | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment