Mastering Pressure vs Stress (Five Updates-including ‘Silent Night in Algona’)
Good morning! The hazelnut coffee is flowing and so is the rain. I will say, yesterday we had a 55 degree beautiful day when we went to harvest a Christmas tree. I love pine trees and having one in the house is something we all enjoy. This is our first Christmas with Luna Mae, our newest member of the pack. We adopted her shortly after Daphne, passed away. Finn, has enjoyed having a sister. We had a lost cat hang with us for two days until the owners were found. Thanksgiving, was a nice small gathering having had the moms over. Now that is behind us, I need to get a bit more aggressive with my Christmas shopping. I’ve been busy on several film fronts. If you follow my blog, you know many of the updates but I’ll recap the top five.
- SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA, is closing in on being done. I was treated to see some of the “in progress” CGI FX, wow! Tomorrow, I’m back in the studio to watch/listen to music and sound design. The week will be spent tweaking and adding any nuances. At the end of the week our editor/VFX supervisor will be in to help make sure everything is implemented properly. The German subtitles are almost complete and will be dropped in this week. It has been a beast, but this will be a beautiful film. A handful of the producer/actors and director, will be heading to Iowa, for the Dec 9th premiere screenings. Two showings on Dec 9th, will be filled with many of the folks that participated in the film. Public showings will start that night with at least one public showing. But the film will continue to play for as long as the demand stays strong. Once the film is completed we’ll start looking at the other theatrical showings. We also want to look at showings in Germany, Hollywood, and a few other select runs. I really had a chance to reflect this holiday season at how blessed I am to do what I love with people I love and admire. If you get a chance to watch this in the theatre please do. It will release on DVD, streaming and broadcast in the later part of 2023, for those unable to attend any theatrical showings.
2) The great holiday tradition of watching “The Quest Trilogy” continues! I’m thrilled at how many people continue to journey and experience the three films. I’m humbled by all the great fan mail that we’ve received on these films. Shot in the “heroic” style made popular with the Star Wars films, these films are for anyone to enjoy. Lotta gems to be found in these stories and I was told with every watch you pick up something new. So take your first of tenth watch, but just watch them and introduce them to someone else. Happy Holiday Season!
3) I need to try and schedule some meeting time this week to keep on our writer/director polish of the Harsens Island Revenge, script. This story will take place in the epic 1920’s in Michigan. Once we have SNIA (Silent Night in Algona) completed, we will start focusing more on this projects pre-production. I want a teaser poster completed and we’ll start talking with sponsors in the new year.
4) The script I was working on SPIRIT LAKE MASSACRE, has a first draft and I’m starting to examine for a polish before proposed cast and crew get to take a read. The story is very powerful with many lessons to be learned. I’ll have some meetings over this project when we’re in Iowa. If all goes well, some developmental construction might start in 2023 and filming in 2024. Yes, this is how far out you need to start the development work on a film project. Often the development can take years. I want to have a teaser poster but together in the new year.
5) FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH – Get the DVD! It will make a great stocking stuffer for Christmas. I will take the time here to note something. Our director, Curran Jacobs, a 2X Catch-Can champion is also the young male lead in SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA. I’m so very proud of him and Cassie Dean, who plays his wife, as the young lead. While being known as an elite grappler, it will be nice to see him get recognized as a storyteller actor, also. Both of those actors had smaller parts in other CDI films. This was a great opportunity for these two, well earned.
WRAP UP: Today I will likely finish up some online shopping and maybe do some in-person shopping. It was nice to take some time the other day to watch the World Cup USA vs England. Now, if they beat Iran on Tuesday, they will move forward. The turkeys and scarecrow decorations will soon give way to our snowmen and Christmas decorations. I think we will get snow again mid week, so I’ve been putting even more yard stuff away for winter. I also spent some time cutting and sawing wood for the stove.
I’m trying to remember some of the good talks this week, which might provide good lessons for us all. I know I have more reviews before me with the end credits. Like, I’ve said, we’ve missed names before and misspelled even more. Often it is from the bad handwriting of our extras, not always. I will make several more passes on it before it gets rendered this week along with the German sub-titles and the front credits. Our Algona coordinators, will be reaching out this week to our final people on the Algona, premiere invite list. We are trying our best to put on this showing a state away, while finishing the film. If your name gets missed, misspelled, please know, we have no bad intent, just a massive undertaking. If you don’t make it onto the guest list or if you can’t bring certain family or friends, please go again to a public show with them. We just have very limited seating. Even the night of the premiere, I think they might only have 1 screen open. Tickets should go on sale soon and you’ll even see the trailer start playing in front of other films.
Editing of scripts and studio time – it will be nice getting together with our tribe of artists at CDI. First, to finish some work in studio with my friends and after, enjoy the work, again with friends. Or enjoy the reaction of people who watch the films. Cue, the Christmas music as I’m going to just roll with the holidays. We are artists who take great pride in our work. You want to allow yourself to FEEL the pressure but not allow it to twist into STRESS. I always liked the saying that pressure will make the three pointer at the buzzer and stress will result in the air ball. Embrace pressure, that can make diamonds but resist feeding into stress, it does nothing positive for you. So as you navigate the holidays, pressure is fine just don’t allow it to become stress.
Have a great week! By next week when I type, we might have a finished film.
Coffee Cheers!
DJ
Premieres, Casting, Birthdays and More…
Good afternoon! I’m sitting here about to watch our Lions play football while filling all of you fine people in on the new develops. Last night we watched my alumni school Michigan State University fall short against Washington. Man, they had a hot quarterback who had his career best game. I hope todays outcome with the Lions is better.
FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH is having its premiere at the NCG Theaters in Owosso, MI on October 1st at 6pm ands 8:15pm with an afterglow that will likely be at Romas next door. This awesome project started with discussions around the table about the fighting arts and our director Curran Jacobs competitive runs both in MMA and twice capturing Catch-Can World Championships. What is Catch Can you say? That is why you need to watch and find out the common ancestry of many of the arts. You’ll learn about legends by legends of the grappling arts themselves. I’ll be attending with several of the CDI tribe to support the launch. If you want top see this on the big screen and meet the filmmakers, please do join us. Tickets will go on sale soon at the NCG Owosso. If you are unable to attend, the film will stream on Amazon Prime and likely Google Play, iTunes and more. CHECK IT OUT! Let us know your thoughts on our http://www.imdb.com page – See you there.
SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA – Following the 4th release this year (For the Love of Catch) our WW2 Christmas film will premiere. The film is coming along great. We watched the second half of the film with the cleaned up dialog and the start of sound design. Music is going to start this week and that is one of my favorite parts of the process. The new theatrical trailer will start this week also. The premiere set up in Algona is coming together. They are limited in the area for places to show several hundred people at once. The one place that does seat a sizable number is lacking the right projection and audio equipment. The theatrical run will happen very soon after the Iowa premiere. We’ll be having a Michigan premiere also – we’ll focus on that once we get the Algona one finalized. It is all very exciting!
TOP TEN UPDATES
- A PR release will be going out about the slate of historic films CDI is involved with. Silent Night in Algona isn’t our first period film by any means but it will start a string of productions taking place at different times in our history. HARSENS ISLAND REVENGE is up next for CDI in 2023 taking audiences to the roaring 20’s smack dab in the middle of the prohibition. We’ve already started breaking in down and we’re starting select talks in advance of meeting with our keys. We’ll be posting casting notices later this year. It is a very cool time period to bring to the screen. I enjoyed adapting this script from the book of the same name.
- I’ve started writing on SPIRIT LAKE MASSACRE, which tells of the true events surrounding on-going conflict between the Iowa pioneers and the local Native Americans. I love writing in the 1800’s and I’m approaching this project with great reverence like all my stories. Between now and Christmas I’ll be writing this powerful drama. I LOVE this time period and couldn’t think of a better fall/winter project.
- SMOKE & MIRRORS, is our short concept film derived from the feature script. I think our plan is to put this up on CDI’s Youtube site for free as a thank you to all our fans. We’re looking at the autumn equinox Sept 22nd as a possible release date. It is so much fun and it shows how fun the feature can/will be. SPOOKY FUN
- BESTSELLER and BEST YEARS GONE going to Roku and Tubi has already increased the fan response. DOUBLE FEATURE! Enjoy! And thank you for all the great comments.
- I did a great interview with Bay Ragni last week talking all the films – please do take a watch/listen – https://youtu.be/GS7kg9Nf6fo
- The season of THE QUEST TRILOGY (Forty Nights, Chasing the Star and The Christ Slayer) lie just ahead. We’re soon to be celebrating one of the platforms Encourage TV racking up 2 million views.
- We are starting to put things in order for a special release of Ghost Town next year with Desktop Entertainment. The film is being digitally enhanced and we’ve got some fun things planned for the new release. Filmed at the world famous Ghost Town in the Sky.
- I need to circle back and see how progress is coming on the digital enhancement of KNIGHT CHILLS which will have a special Blu Ray and first streaming release in 2023. The video game is moving slowly but it’s moving. With all the 3D printers I need to see if I can do a 3D print of Sir Kallio from the video game.
- I’m happy to report that on the home front I was able to harvest all the hops. We also just brought in all the squash although a few got taken by the squirrels. I trimmed up the apple trees and have started in on the mulberry trees. I also got after some logs with the axe and my hammer/blade set up. What’s that, you say? It’s a large iron ring that surrounds a wide blade. You but a log down inside the ring on the blade and hammer it down like THOR! Let’s just say, I got one hell of a workout. My hammer and axe skills are better because of it.
- Last week we had a pair of birthdays we celebrated, Dennis Therrian and Melissa Anschutz who share a birthday. Fun note: Shane Hagedorn and Anthony Hornus share a birthday also. I had a few close childhood friends (Q, Big J) get a bit older. We are busy and that’s how we persist to push forward but we do take the time to enjoy the journey. Laughter is healing and health is wealth!
I’m going to work in the yard some more once the Lions finish their game, which so far they’re ahead 15-0. Go LIONS! I’m going to re-organize, re-charge and re-focus so we can have another great week ahead. We have some great meetings this week and I’m looking forward to a few scouting trips. I also know a few folks out there going through some hard times. We all take turns dealing with the hardships of life. So try to have more patience in dealing with people in your day to day. If you’re not dealing with anything heavy at this time be grateful. Pay attention to driving NOT your phone. I’ve seen way too many people way distracted. It totaled a neighbors vehicle but luckily did not badly injure or kill him. Leave earlier or arrive late but no need to push it. It can have bad repercussions. Okay. Enough warnings and sounding old- get off my lawn! Talk with you all next week.
DJ
Home Video Release Dates, Festival Premieres and More…
Hello my friends. I’m writing a bulk of this the night prior due to an out of town family breakfast. The picture up top is from SMOKE & MIRRORS. It is a fun steampunk, Houdini-inspired short film taken from a feature script. It reunited director Nathaniel Nose and Director of Photography Jesse Aragon from ‘The Christ Slayer, ‘ shot in Yuma, AZ. This upcoming weekend Sat 30th, it will play as part of a block of shorts (Will start 5pm or shortly after) at the MotorCity Nightmares convention in Novi. It is a cool film and gives a wonderful preview of what the feature film will be like.
SPEEDING into lap 3 (week 3) and BEST YEARS GONE seems to be picking up speed. Today was yet another great character interview featuring the one and only Melissa Anschutz. She is talking ‘Mandy,’ and her experience in filming. If you liked her sass in “Lost Heart” you will definitely enjoy Mandy’s um… toughness.
Join us on Facebook and watch all the interviews – here’s Melissa
https://www.facebook.com/Bestyearsgonemovie/videos/3373143639674946
Alright – more updates…it has been a busy week.
FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH – we are still hoping for the Toronto Film Festival premiere. But while we wait I can tell you that a hometown showing in Owosso, MI is in discussion after the Toronto dates. But for those who won’t be able to attend our handful of event showings we have good news. Deskpop Entertainment has confirmed that the Transactional VOD (buy/rent digital) date is Oct 4th, 2022 on Amazon Prime and many major platforms that we’ll announce in the coming weeks. Ad-based VOD starts Jan, 02, 2023 which is like Tubi and other watch free with ads. I need to circle back about DVD’s and see what the plan is there. But, very soon the world will see an entertaining and highly informative documentary featuring true pioneers, diverse, but united in their love of the art of PUT UP or SHUT up. The fragmented history of grappling is pieced back together and will be used to preserve the tradition and history for generations to come. I am very proud of this project. Poster art for the release is also starting to be discussed.
BESTSELLER – Join us at the Facebook site – this film holds a special place for anyone who has written and worked the steep slope of mainstream submissions and literary agents. That is the only hint I will give but it blurs the lines between protagonist and antagonist. This is a watch a night film, enjoy. Amazon Prime easiest place to watch but several are out there.
https://www.facebook.com/BESTSELLERTHEMOVIE
If you watched the film leave a review at http://www.imdb.com page or the platform (Example: Amazon)
MAN’S BEST FRIEND and WILD FAITH have been adding new platforms such as PeacockTV. I’ve had questions on sequels to both films. Speaking of MBF I think I will be seeing the one and only Austin Two Feathers. He played my cell mate Buddy. He’s a brilliant actor and a great friend. WILD FAITH will likely experience a sequel as a TV series, WILD FAITH: Hastings. We’ve had some initial interest and are in talks on how all the pieces would work.
SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA – The film is looking so incredible. I’ve been working to digest everything after watching the director/editor cut of the film. After very few notes, we’re soon to head into a final polish before we have a picture lock. What this means is that the timeline of edited scenes is locked so that music and sound design can begin. Color correction can begin but we might wait until the VFX scenes are complete. My exact words were, “I’m impressed, but not surprised” -upon watching the film cut. The dedication that went into every performance and crew best effort could be seen on screen. I felt on the edge of emotion in several places (Bohdi) and laughed often, but beyond that, I saw real history being passed down, recorded within a story.
As the screenwriter it was one experience – the pride of capturing this town’s wonderful event. Also enlightening Americans and Germans alike to the history of the PW’s in the heartlands. As a producer, you work with your team tirelessly. Most times, cast and crew busy capturing the onset magic don’t know of the problems solved, nor should they. Distractions equal time wasted and when fighting for daylight- giddy up. Listen, our CDI crews from what I see, are proud of our stories. They’re proud to have participated in that particular adventure in storytelling. Our artists work hard, mentally too because we’re often creating other time periods. You have to be part historian not just an artist. As an actor, I saw my dad, in my role. My hair is now longer and my face shaggy, so the clean-cut, example-setter for the PW camp, Col Lodell, was quite shocking to me onscreen. But EVERYONE really brought their characters to life on-screen. I love watching actors soar. They need a strong script, good set environment and they need equally dedicated and passionate artists to live the scenes with.
The crafting of the scenes is where Nathaniel Nose and Tony Hornus get all kinds of credit. The story is moving, powerful in its exploring of emotions from the perspective of the town, the guards, the PW’s and the Tietz family. I WISH Rance Howard could have been here to see this film done. Heck. He never saw the final THE CHRIST SLAYER. But what I always felt was a powerful story, a strong script – well executed under harsh conditions by an incredible crew. Daniel Chipman, gave us some amazing images, capturing those powerful performances. I will say that when I watched it, I was again proud that we’re going to release another CDI film with a lot of heart, truth and beautiful style befitting the times presented. We are looking at a December 10th theatrical premiere in Algona, Iowa. We’re working to extend the run at that chain and others across Iowa for the weeks that follow. We’ll likely do a theatrical run in Michigan also and beyond that we’ll have to see. It will play theatrical and festival for a few months into 2023 and we’ll start to prep it for a Christmas 2023 home video run up. Which usually means Nov 1st as soon as those ghosts and goblins kick off. I’m so tempted to share the official theatrical poster now but that will come this week with a press release. I’m going to call it good perhaps having missed an update or two. Today following last nights storm and no morning power put me behind. But have have a great week and we’ll have more to talk about next week.
Coffee Cheers!
DJ
NEW CDI Development Projects, New Platforms and Premieres
I’m bringing the bday week to a close and I have to say I was so appreciative of all the family, friends and fans who reached out to wish me a happy Bday. Thank you to all the new readers from around the globe joining us here. I’ve got my mug full of hazelnut coffee and I’ve just enjoyed a few eggs from our hens. It has been a good week of progress being made on several of the film projects. Let’s take a look at a few exciting updates.
1) WILD FAITH has made its way to NBC’s Peacock streaming – https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/movies/wild-faith/be7fcef2-f423-3114-b26c-c66588e2d7ed – We’re happy to have our story available to the 33 million plus subscribers.
2) MANS BEST FRIEND has followed right behind at NBC’s Peacock streaming – https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/movies/mans-best-friend/a0e02318-16e4-3b33-9550-f2a633ad2333 – Excited to make these two films available to a much larger audience.
3) SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA is closing in on the first edit and in July will be polishing it up towards a picture lock. This week we’ll start some discussions on the theatrical trailer. We’ve been gathering theatrical interest from a few chains. Another round of poster art is being worked on for the theatrical release most likely. A BTS of the model and VFX work is being edited together to share with all of you very soon.
4) BESTSELLER has been released to Amazon Prime and several platforms and on DVD. Thank you to those fans who reached out directly to share your thoughts. I told you it was intense:) A little mood, murder and mystery sound about right – travel to beautiful Northern Michigan with the birch and the pines. Buy/Rent here and let me know your thoughts at our http://www.imdb.com page –
Buy & Rent here BESTSELLER – https://www.amazon.com/Bestseller-Melissa-Anschutz/dp/B09YH7X3RY/ref=sr_1_3?crid=UV4JFVKKJBZQ&keywords=bestseller&qid=1656251166&s=movies-tv&sprefix=bestseller%2Cmovies-tv%2C81&sr=1-3
5) SMOKE & MIRRORS – I just got loose word that we’re in the MOTOR CITY NIGHTMARES festival. I’m hearing Sat July 30th late afternoon (5:00 pm wish) as part of a block. We don’t usually do shorts but a commercial opportunity allowed for us to shoot a proof of concept for the full feature. I’m going to try and attend with a few of the CDI team. It will be fun to return the horror scene. I went to a Frankenfest with the family yesterday and had a great time. All the cool art and merchandise spun off from the films. That is what I want to do with some of the older films that have gained some cult classic status.
6) BEST YEARS GONE is coming JULY 5th and we’ll see how the world reacts to this wild ride. We did get a great response from our theatrical crowds and I think folks will really dig it. We have some fun PR coming up this week. We’ll be starting the engines and waiting for that flag to drop. I’m very excited about how this film turned out and I hope you take something away with you that you enjoy after watching.
TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StL5oUdnOlc
MUSIC VIDEO: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=393380005705951
BTS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgt-xeK1LCw
7) FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH – the documentary went through quality control and our team addressed a few small issues and now they should all be adjusted. We’re awaiting our home video release dates and also our submission to the Toronto Film Festival. Step by step it moves closer. Soon the world will know a lot more about Catch-Can and its importance to the history of grappling.
8) HOT ROD LOVE – is projecting a Sept/Oct shoot and this week we made some good strides in our package. We’ll be announcing more exciting updates as pen finds paper. This 1970’s comedy about drag racing will surely be a fun one. This film is getting traction and I for one could not be happier. Do you have any 1975 or before rides you would love to feature in the film? If so let me know but we are shooting in Michigan.
9) HARSENS ISLAND REVENGE, the first draft is completed. Shooting is planned for fall next year 2023. I will be circulating this draft to a few in the circle as we’ll start having background development talks. I LOVE how the film script came together and it will make a wonderful film.
10) DEVELOPMENT – Hastings TV series as well as several feature films are in active development. It was my desire to double the CDI output of content this year but Covid and various variables have slowed things. We managed to keep creating in the hardest of times. We will keep moving forward thanks to all of you! We appreciate you all.
WRAP UP:
Aside from all this movie work I’ve had the pleasure of conducting business in our zen yard. The mulberries are in ABUNDANCE but I’m leaving them to the chickens, squirrels and birds save the handful a day I eat. We’ve been eating raspberries and soon blueberries from the yard also. The apples and hops will be coming in strong and maybe I’ll make some hard cider this year. The clover has been quite beautiful and also requires less mowing as the height stays low. I’m growing four leaf clovers. A Memory- Our 1st AD Carol on JUDGES could spot a four leaf clover in moments. She pulled like four from a patch in under a minute. She surprised me with a framed and matted group of four leaf clovers which I’ve kept to this day.
I had a few days where I forgot Lulu (Our last cat) had passed on. I was concerned if the upstairs was too hot or not wanting a door to close her in. I took one short nap before an event and she would always crawl up for a nap with me. No Lulu. But the Finn and Luna Mae (Our dogs) have kept us busy and entertained. Attack the water hose stream is one of the favorite games.
I had a week of business meetings that also involved birthday toasts and additionally several family dinners. All this around my birthday of the 23rd but the actual day was quiet by design. I still play soccer in a men’s league with my brother and several old school friends. No gym/dojo workout has every matched the raw competition. No value of name tags or titles just warriors, old warriors giving their all to show themselves they still got it. I’ve learned to love my opponents as they challenge me and my steel is sharpened. Sometimes in victory and sometimes in defeat. We’ve got a good team this year and during the first part of the season we lost once. And on my bday we lost to that team again. We were ahead until the last 15 min of the game where a call evened the game. We had one healthy sub and we had battled the heat. The other team had six subs and a strong will not to lose. I had a fast striker attacking that took everything I had to nullify his attack. We battled to the end and on my birthday I had been gifted health and humility. To play as hard as I do at my age is a blessing. Win or lose I won because I got to play. I felt a lesson in there that came out in another later conversation.
In that conversation we reflected on life as many of my talks do. I was asked, if I ever wished I had more in the film world. I want and work towards more frequent and better compensated films. But, I will tell a story that needs to be told for a modest pay day versus not having the story told. I also would not change being known for our art (stories) versus anyone else’s art. I think the best is yet to come and what I carry is patience and experience. I don’t chase dangling carrots and I’m not seeking short cuts. I’m not making the stories to impress or gain any glory just to offer a perspective that could affect people in a positive way. I don’t worship at the alter of value symbols pressed into metal or parchment. I say no more than yes but when I say yes, things happen. Okay, gonna slow on the coffee and head outside to mow and put up a windmill. Yes, I said a windmill. I just put up a wonderful set of wind chimes that were a gift and those are very peaceful. Tend to your zen and space and watch how things flow.
Have a great day and week ahead. Coffee cheers!
DJ
CDI Updates Galore and Tips on Managing Time and Energy
Good morning my friends. Coffee cheers. I want to welcome all our new readers from Brazil, Norway, Sweden, Russia, China and more. I love that this is a place where artists of the world can come together. I hope my words can inspire, inform and/or assist each of you on your own journey. It was a productive week with my mind grinding a bit on several things. Last weekend brought the news of several people who’s travels here have ceased. The week brought more news of pets, parents and friends who passed. That is the other side of social media and up to the moment news. It use to be a random encounter with an old friend or associate would reveal news from the past few years or months. But now we deal with news daily that can remind us that our time alive and living is finite. Our minds are trying to learn to compensate for this daily bombardment of unsavory news. I feel bad for people who cannot moderate that and self feed themselves more sadness than they can healthily handle.
I have pondered activists of various causes and I think that is a hard road. There is little rest – their minds fixated on the cause without rest. Politics, racial injustice, domestic violence, animal cruelty and poaching…the list could go on and on. If you try to take a rest -others could accuse them of slipping, losing focus leading to overall judgement. Good intentions can quickly turn to near madness. That person(s) can quickly become part of the problem contributing their own hate. This is like a passive mob mentality that while not as intense can be a slow peer pressure burn. “I don’t see you upset, do you still care?” – I’ve dealt with that years ago in some of the film business. My composure was taken for lack of caring and that was not true. I just know when emotions take over (Oh look how passionate someone is) that they don’t always make the best (efficient) choices. I often agree with causes but not the process of pushing an agenda. I’ve recently talked about how I like to speak with my art. I feel I can reach more people with the medium of film and don’t have to live in a manic state. Tell a story with a lesson and drop the mic and go boating or grill out with family and friends. Just because you don’t live in some unbalanced state of mind doesn’t mean you don’t care. It means you have learned to work smarter versus harder. Smarter for the health of the self and smarter for the cause you are trying to enlighten people to. So self evaluate and see if you are working in a way that is best for you and ultimately for your cause. Life is a marathon and so don’t burn yourself out. I’m also going to note my parents both had a birthday one day apart. I’m just blessed to still have them both here on this journey. My furry boy Luke who passed a few years back would have had a bday and several people had some nice things to say. Appreciate each day and try to lay your head on the pillow each night having done good deeds and a sleepless night will be rare. Except where dogs and fireworks exist a few less restful nights might follow.
FILM UPDATES
Let’s stay with MANS BEST FRIEND, which after the wins at the Crown Awards seems to have brought even more viewers. I want to thank all of you who have taken the time to watch the film and either send me your beautiful comments and/or posted reviews on IMDB, Amazon or whatever streaming platform. My cousins in Detroit finally got around to a watch on the film and sent me these pictures. I love them because it shows that our audience is not just you humans.
Thank you. If you want to watch yourself – please do.
WILD FAITH/HASTINGS has some exciting developments underway. In the sake of not getting ahead of myself I’ll leave this project for now. But this film which has endeared so many to the Murphy family just might launch in 2022.
SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA
While ‘Wild Faith’ is storytelling in the 1870’s our upcoming WW2 drama will take us to the 1940’s. Our producers scout trip is booked and our team will go in August to lock in the infrastructure of our next film. Our casting and crewing is about 85% in place with a few departments ands castings still to be set and announced. Our German actors are going to start being announced soon. Here was last weeks cast announcement.
We also hope to start announcing some of the sponsors very soon. I’m just loving this entire era but the hardships endured are pretty amazing. I’m excited that one of my past co-stars will be joining us. Another opportunity to “Watch and learn!” – some of you know exactly who this amazing actor is. You can see all the cast and crew here and follow along as more are announced.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13608086/reference
BEST YEARS GONE released the first trailer and the reaction has been great. You can see it here:
We have two September premieres coming together. Sept 11 will be the race and outside premiere event and we’ll also be announcing an Owosso, MI premiere soon at the NCG. Plans for the music video shoot with Vertical Bridge are underway. The film has had the first pass on sound design and the music is almost there. I will be going in at the end of the month to add voice over. I’m excited for audiences to see this film and I think many will enjoy it. I’ve had several say it had a FARGO vibe to it. I’ll take that as a compliment.
LOST HEART/BIGFOOT, UFOS and JESUS – This film continues to march forward gathering audiences who love this story. It matters not if you watch the family/faith or general market release – just watch it. I love that both the A and B story are getting their own pushes in marketing.
OR
Same film that has all this within it. It was smart for the distributor to go at both these angles of marketing. Which marketing do you like better?
Speaking on trailers – how many of you saw the July 4th release of the trailer for our documentary ‘For the Love of Catch’ ? If you missed it here it is along with the PR. 20k+ views is just a few days tells us the audience is there.
https://www.prlog.org/12876107-for-the-love-of-catch-first-official-trailer-drops-to-fireworks.html
The steampunk, turn-of-the-century tale SMOKE & MIRRORS is also closing in on being complete. I’ve also been reworking the feature script for future production. BESTSELLER should be looking at a new fall release with BMG Global. We’re looking at several films to re-release with a new campaign. Which films would you like to see? FIGURE IN THE FOREST? KNIGHT CHILLS? AN ORDINARY KILLER? ASHES OF EDEN? With BMG opening a general market division it opens up possibilities for more films to release.
WRAP UP
OK. I’m going to wrap this up. We’re going to go visit one of the Sunday flea markets where I love to seek out curiosities and WW2 props. I’ve got a busy week ahead of meetings and such so I’m going to relax and get ready to attack the week. I’ve been having fun slowly rehearsing and building more character for the WW2 film. I’m currently reading a book written by the actual PW camp commander that my character is loosely based upon. I seem to be past my slight knee injury from soccer after a fun game Thursday. It feels good to be able to walk stairs without issue. That means might kicking drills on the new outside heavy bag can start in full. I’ve enjoyed doing my heavy bag punching outdoors. The mosquitos are making my punches even faster. I should be trying to catch them with chopsticks. I hope you all have a safe weekend and a productive week ahead.
DJ
Happy 4th! Crazy 8 Updates (NEW Trailer)
(Gil Gilles and Sylvia say have a Happy 4th and don’t drink light beer!)
Good morning and Happy 4th to you all! I’m sipping the hazelnut coffee as the morning started chilly but is suppose to get warm today. This day is about the Independence of the ole USA. A pretty incredible nation has been created but it was messy and not an easy task. The trials and tribulations continue but I will say having traveled many places in the world that we have it good. I didn’t say ‘perfect’ but good is something many of us have been able to build upon. This past week we had some storms bad enough with tornado sightings that many took to their basements. I’ve been studying WW2 for our upcoming Nov film and can’t imagine dealing with air raid warnings and yet many countries still do. The great thing is that anyone can grow up to make a change. That opportunity, not promised but it can be earned, found, imagined. I have to admit to liking the competitive space race amongst the private sectors. Add a dash of national space race and I really think I might get to enjoy space travel in my life time. Instead of just sitting on their earnings they are pioneering and that is exciting. The UFO report was released minus the national security aspects given to congress. That is also promoting much talk and speculation but I think the good thing is that the mystery objects could now provide recognition vs ridicule for scientist.
It has been good to be engaging in family and friend get togethers again. Catching up on missed birthdays and such gatherings. I hope all of you have enjoyed some of these gatherings and better appreciated the company of one another. Our own property has hosted a few gatherings and I enjoy keeping it rustically groomed and harvest the bounty of berries and such found on the property. But the other day after mowing 1/3 the yard the mower and I got caught in one of those downpours of rain. It just did not want to start after that and I tried all kinds of “online” tricks and such. I literally pulled the start cord 300 times trying to get it started. I got a little obsessed followed by #@!#^%$ which had my arm feeling like I had down super sets in the gym with one arm. That morning after a few sips of coffee the challenge set in again. I marched out and with my left arm (fresh and strong) but 50 increasing pulls yanking the rope out of the machine with a roar. Mechanics and technology are not my strong suit. Apparently wrecking shit is. The long short was a decommissioned mower whereas maybe the motor kept for a go-cart but a new mower was ordered. It is sitting here and I’ll be putting that together. It is an electric vs gas after going that direction with my weed whipper. The gas one always had be tinkering vs whipping weeds.
Let’s look at some of the top ten updates from the films here at CDI
- Plans might be soon underway to have ASHES OF EDEN joining BESTSELLER with a new BMG Global campaign. This was the first CDI collaboration with Shane Hagedorn who recently directed the upcoming BEST YEARS GONE. Did you see the trailer? Did it grab you? Make you laugh? Join us and follow us here at the FB site and watch the trailer. https://www.facebook.com/Bestyearsgone/videos/942523879863374
- More WW2 casting sand crewing choices and we will look to start putting agreements under folks end of July/start of Aug because we have an Aug scout trip to Algona coming together. We met over the agreements because film projects are really a web of interconnecting agreements. SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA follow along on Facebook for all the new updates.
- BEST YEARS GONE premiere events are forming up and I have theatrical talks in the next couple weeks. We are going to do a badass spectator drag race and outdoor screening of the film SEPT 11th you are getting advanced notice. A theatrical premiere will also happen in Owosso, MI at the NCG and I will let you know on dates soon but it will also be in Sept maybe the 18th, 25th? Not sure yet. Stay tuned! We plan to film and broadcast this all out at a later date like we did with the LOST HEART premiere at the Double JJ Resort.
- BIGFOOT, UFOS and JESUS – A fun title for a fun film that also includes some serious drama. That said, it will leave you feeling uplifted by the time the credits roll. Take a look for yourself because seeing is believing:)
- MANS BEST FRIEND the surprise awards at the ICVM were talked about last week but yesterday at a family gathering I was sitting with a just retired motorcycle mechanic. Nearly 7 feet tall (really) and use to be with a biker club and is polite as you get. Often quiet and soft spoken he told me he saw my movie MBF. Now his best friend is his dog who hangs in his garage as he creates and fixes. He said it really got to him and that he thought I did a really excellent job as Paul. I told him while the law might often regard dogs as property, dog owners know better. They are family that make each and everyone of us better. To be frank, that one kind comment letting me know our story had touched his heart was better than any award. The awards do tell me that many have enjoyed our story and been touched enough to recognize it. We are thankful and for those unaware, the next WW2 film in Nov will be directed my MBF director Anthony Hornus. I know once again we will create something special with a small army of artists and supporters.
- SMOKE & MIRRORS VFX should be almost complete. I hope to see something final soon. I’ve also been finding some time to work on this feature. After doing the short I broke apart the feature script and I’m reworking it based on some things I saw while filming the short derivative.
- FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH – Some of you know my life long love and practice of the martial arts. Inspired by my education of Catch-Can by Curran Jacobs we set out to trace the origins of the art. And to showcase the branches of the art as it extended into college wrestling and professional wrestling. Also the doc showcases the colorful factions that are reviving the art because of their love of it. Today at 1:00 pm the 1st trailer will be released to the public. It will release on the ‘For the Love of Catch’ Facebook site and Curran Jacobs (our director) social media sites. It will go PUBLIC at 1:00pm is my understanding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkISvIrv4hU&list=FLDu-wRzCwru4EOPLvW0HClg&index=2 I’m very proud of the work that our team has done on this documentary. So enjoy the sneak peek.
- WILD FAITH / HASTINGS – So I watched this film for the first time in a while as I polished up the coverages of the TV series. I was reminded of the beautiful camera work and music and the wonderful world we created with the Murphy family and friends at the heart of it. The TV series brings many of those beloved characters out more while introducing new ones. I’ve set up and had a few great conversations that has brought things closer. I have continued talks this week but I think my goal of having the series green light by the end of the year just might happen.
There you go – your Crazy Eight Updates! I have a new mower to assemble and I’m going to do a few yard things. Okay maybe nap in a hammock. I hope you all continue to have a good time with family and friends. Be thankful for being able to spend time with them again. Relax. Laugh. And after a good rest get back to your tasks with a renewed focus. Just keep walking your path and you just might surprise yourself with how far you travel.
Until next time.
DJ
Upcoming First Looks at ‘Best Years Gone’ and ‘For the Love of Catch’ – BATTLE OF THE BANDS – Music Video New!
( Zen like Kwai Chang Caine-I loved Bruce Lee but David Carradine brought something special to the role)
As I sit here sipping the hazelnut coffee I’m listening to the chicken’s egg song. I can say that the egg dishes around here have improved greatly with the use of the home eggs. This is the start of my birthday month and the heat is finally arriving in Michigan. Yesterday the veggies and herbs got planted in the raised planters so we’ll see how that goes. This week was full of calls and business dealings lets look at some of that after I reflect a bit. Last week we talked a bit about a situation whereas someones actions were counter productive to the whole. While this could have been an isolation and remove, at least temporailiy instead I saw it as a learning situation. I talk about development versus cancel and so a productive, insightful conversation took place that clarified some of the expectations and also became a teaching moment for myself. I could have reacted negatively but with a little perspective, patience and listening – I’m happy to say that things are back to flowing along swimmingly with both parties having grown. Last week contained some gems. My point is that you can apply this to any situation in your own lives. Instead of growing drama the situation was used for growth and insight. I’m not a fan of drama unless on the screen. Many use it to gain attention, sympathy and/or to work LOUDLY to try and secure their worth. As I’ve said before and worth saying again, work quietly and effectively – trust me it is noticed by those who run things.
Who wants to talk movies? We have several really good things to report on. Where to start?
UPDATES
LOST HEART fresh off its showing at ICFF (Christian Oscars) and will compete this June 23rd (My Bday) in the Crown Awards for ‘Best Picture’ against 4 other films one that is MBF! The General Market release BIGFOOT, UFOS AND JESUS has started and it can be watched on Amazon Prime (See link below)
All our stories are meant to promote unity but even as this new release rolled out and you people negative judging off a film title. One person was outraged at the inclusion of Jesus WITH Bigfoot and UFOs and apparently we all will burn in hell for the title yet they have not seen the film. In the same thread someone did not WANT to watch it because Jesus name was listed in the title. PEOPLE ARE JUDGMENTAL! Period. Christians talk persecution and judgement yet they too judge and persecute just as good as anyone. I’m sure from the clothes that people once wore to church to whatever the gossip floating around the congregation was, people judge. I just ask people to watch and not judge a book by the cover. That is an old piece of wisdom. But I did have a lot of people reach out in kindness having watched the film. I’m excited to see how the roll out continues but these little observations are fascinating. So many negative, depressed people with filters that put a unhappy spin on everything. Press play. maybe you can change/clean up those filters and receive laughter, joy and ultimately health.
I noted that MBF or MAN’S BEST FRIEND is up for ‘Best Film’ at the ICVM Crown Awards in Texas this month. Covid kept this film from people submitted and now it is being recognized. Actually tribe CDI has two of the five films – good odds. I also had a few fans of the film pass their love along. One such person made note that Paul was an Oscar worthy performance. Oscars are very political and I’m not saying it would not be great to accept one but the response of the fans is better than peer acceptance. If Paul is respected as a good voice – mission accomplished.
BESTSELLER will be prepped for a new campaign with BMG under their General Market label. I’ve enjoyed dealing with Chris Wright on this new release. We will be looking at other projects that might get a new push.
WILD FAITH/HASTINGS – discussions are gaining strength and my hope is that some of the sponsors we are bringing on board SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA will follow us to the TV series.
Post-Production work on BEST YEARS GONE is racing around the track! A small pit stop has been made to polish up the audio on the first official teaser. Maybe we will look to release it on or just before my birthday on the 23rd of June. Music and sound design is being worked on daily and part of that is the soundtrack. We had a ‘Battle of the Bands‘ and our celebrity judges, producer team, director and composer had their work cut out. With songs from around the country we found the perfect song for our film. The winner’s song will appear on the soundtrack and we’re going to produce a music video with them. Our film’s Director of Photography Travis Hayward will be directing the video. As a child of the MTV generation I’m excited. I have a video of our director announcing the winning video and I think we’ll post that on the FB site tomorrow morning. A great way to kick off the week. Go to the FB site and watch what the judges had to say and you can listen to many of the songs yourself.
(The Christ Slayer – reuniting with this ‘brother from another Perry mother’ in SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA)
SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA is gaining momentum. We’ve been announcing new cast members and I’ve had some great talks with some amazing talent. We’ve also started to fill the crew spots starting with the recent announcement of Nathaniel Nose (Dir/Editor/FX on ‘The Christ Slayer’ and editor on the upcoming ‘Best Years Gone’) will be joining us as the FX supervisor and editor. We’ll be focusing on camera, G&E department in the coming weeks. We’re also making great inroads with the local people proud to have their local story brought to the world. Here is a great story that just ran –
We are starting to approach sponsors and businesses that want to align with our WW2 Christmas story. We will be announcing some of our loyal past sponsors excited to join us once again. Stay tune and if you wanna help with your company please do reach out.
FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH our documentary film on the almost forgotten grappling art being resurrected by a handful of martial art greats. Director Curran Jacobs is a two time world champion in the Catch-Can style and he manages to capture the collective passion for Catch in a arena often riddled with competitiveness and division. The process for this has been educational and will give us a template for future docs at CDI. The first official teaser will release on July 4th.
RIP to Ray Nikolaison
I’m not sure if I tackled every project update but we hit on a few main topic ones. There is a flea market down the road I want to visit. Now that I’m looking for WW2 relics/props it has taken on a new level of enjoyment. Today they cancelled the streaming memorial for Ray Nikolaison but we’ll get a link later. Ray was the man behind The Book of Ruth, Journey of Faith and was a sales rep early on for FIGURE IN THE FOREST. RIP With that check on mortality go do something with loved ones and be kind to all.
DJ
‘Best Years Gone’ Moves Into Music & Sound – CDI Updates and Sunday Rocking Chair Ponderings
Good morning partners. Hazelnut coffee cheers! We had a good rain last night and everything is becoming lush and green. Later today will be our first flea market visit to see if I can find any treasures. I love to look for personal props for certain characters. I was looking pretty close to ole Ben Lily as we moved forward developing the WILD FAITH Tv series spin off. I have a string of biz calls to do about the 8 show spin off. With our WW2 film a full go we’ve decided that the series HASTINGS will go up after SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA. So I’ve had a full shave and a hair cut as I prepare for the next role. We announced two more actors last week with Dean Teaster and Samual Peterson joining the cast.
This week we’ll announce more cast and crew as we move through pre-production. We’ve almost cast our Germans which is so exciting. Just incredible talent and I’m again happy to say that about all our castings. So many exciting announcements that will be forthcoming.
Our holiday window of Thanksgiving to Easter is now complete. It will be fun to see how THE QUEST TRILOGY did with audiences this year. We keep growing our audiences each year and I truly do love getting all the fan mail. CDI will eventually do another trilogy of biblical films. One of the scripts is being studied for future execution and we hope to return to the desert in the near future.
MANS BEST FRIEND is starting its general market roll out. I have to say I loved the previous poster art but this poster captures ‘Paul’ in the eyes. And what a noble pic of Paul’s MBF. I think this film that got caught up in the Covid breakout deserves that renewed push. For a beat everyone was holding on licensing as the whole world adjusted. I’m so happy that it is getting its second wind. I was already getting LOTS of fan mail (NOTE: My silly spell check tried to turn ‘mail’ into ‘tail’ and that reads totally different. I’m happy to say this coming June at NRB the 5 best finalist films under 250k will compete for gold, silver and bronze. Both MBF and LOST HEART are finalists. So having 2 of the 5 nominated films feels good. It makes me proud of our artists and I do take pride in having written those scripts.
‘WRITING’ is a love that I hid for a long time only because I wanted to be seen as an actor first. The actor ME became frustrated at the lack of deep, powerful films. I’m comfortable now being considered a screenwriter along with an actor and ultimately producer. I’ve enjoyed writing short stories as part of my book contributions to this wonderful book series by Callie Smith Grant. (Revell/Baker) Each book focuses on animal relationships and sometimes centers around a holiday. Cats and Christmas is up next and so I’ll polish up my story and see if it makes the grade. The fun fact here is I was approached after WILD FAITH was seen in the theaters. From there I’ve contributed to three books now. The one coming out later this year (09/21) is on dogs. I like dogs:)
This morning as the rain storm passed, our team on the documentary ‘For the Love of Catch‘ hit the road. This is for the last filming segment of the doc. We’re set up to start editing and dialog clean up immediately after. They have been getting some great interviews from the world of grappling to discuss what they love about it. We’ll be doing a PR release and talking more about this in the coming weeks. It is being directed by our own Catch-Can World Champion Curran Jacobs. Big congrats to Dan Chipman and his mobile production home for capturing some amazing interviews. Adam Towner has been signed on to edit and work post. Stay tuned!
LOST HEART has been just playing so well to the family/faith audiences but as pointed out by fans, the film is so much more. Hence the upcoming general market release, but we’ll wait until I have more to report. But let’s address that term? market? We are all storytellers.
At CDI we don’t make “faith” films – but create stories with strong character development. In ANY story character development is king. And knowing the ‘faith’ of the character is the seed. Some seek faith, lack faith or try to hold onto faith. Maybe they lost all faith in mankind, themselves or their path to God. All these characters come from a different place. Those carrying status in religion might struggle with their faith while the downtrodden might live in appreciative faith. I have many ask about religion which has helped to build great civilizations but unfortunately usually is tied to conflict and war. I also think that someone’s seeking to understand divinity is a personal and private relationship, unique to each person. In my opinion it also doesn’t require any fancy study, conversion, certification, validation etc…to me DIVINE is a constant like gravity. Only mankind’s understanding changes but anyone actively seeking DIVINE is getting closer and closer to THEIR truth of understanding the constant. Many of my deep pondering are reflected in ‘The Quest Trilogy,’ historical fiction examining overlooked events or perspectives to try and gain a new insight.
A nice example in Forty Nights is the showing ‘Jesus’ working to put the words of the heart on the tongue. Some watchers following along with their scripture wait to jump on the words and claim their superiority in finding supposed flaws. The purpose was to show human flaw in Jesus. That mighty things like LOVE are hard to put into the perfect words. The purpose was to show the journey to those final words. It still makes me chuckle when I see people upset about John and Jesus seemingly not knowing each other….the post baptism conversation and later flashbacks between John and Jesus obviously showing a pre-existing relationship. The baptism was a ritual passing of the torch but their casual talk away from the masses was meant to show they knew one another well.
Later in the desert, we see Jesus struggling to find the perfect way to teach what he knows. Some of the greatest minds in certain fields cannot teach what they know. Being a teacher is not easy because you have to paint a picture to enlightenment for another persons imagination and intelligence to grasp onto. Those three films are full of contemplative gems and many have discovered some personal truth by watching them. For some they just miss the point – I like the Bruce Lee (Enter the Dragon I think) scene whereas Bruce tells a student not to just focus on the pointing finger alone or you’ll miss all that heavenly glory. I think the old saying of ‘the Devils in the details’ is another funny way to say this. Some people are so worried at hoping to increase their “religious” status by winning some ‘Bible Jeopardy’ that they miss the lesson of the parable all together.
And so scholars continue to debate and the facts alter and change as new “experts” appear. Science and Religion have more in common then they think and to me it’s fascinating that they don’t always co-exist well. Anyway, I think that the trilogy was my “Noah. I want you to build an ark.” moment. You want to know my feelings – watch the films. I tried to connect the dots in a way that made sense to people who cannot truthfully function on blind faith alone. You will find a deep sincere reverence that permeates all three stories. The trilogy conjures all the right emotions and feelings because in the medium of film it’s show me versus tell me where you can. It’s when the story rises beyond just show and tell to actually allow one to FEEL the story. It’s an art. I’ve gone on a while here. I could and have filled books with my thoughts on these matters. But your relationship with divine or choice to not interact or accept is deeply personal. I like to speak with the stories to those still seeking their personal truth and maybe help clarify aspects of things for those who feel to have found divinity yet still seek to fully understand it. I have a suspicion that only on our final walk will we fully understand.
Okay let’s shift gears!
BEST YEARS GONE – based upon the wonderful and quirky writing of Karl Manke in his book ” Hope from Heaven” (You can buy it:) comes the story of unconditional love, dreams gone awry and generational communication issues. We now have the film after a wonderful edit by Nathaniel Nose (Dir./Editor The Christ Slayer) and has now landed at Dennis Therrian’s studio. We’ve had two post sessions so far and what a lift to the spirits. While this film will have all the trademark emotional beats it truly marks what I feel to be a big step comedically. It is for me for certain. Now growing up I thought I was going to be a stand up comedian with strong observational humor like George Carlin. In my personal life I would say I have a healthy sense of humor maybe too much. (I have been known to pull a prank or two) I have to say I had such a wonderful time filming this. It was the adventure that unfolded in the Covid storm and we were appreciative to have all our precautions rewarded with a safe journey. Now we’re into talking music and the dialog is also popping better than ever due to innovative software, gear and the growing experience of our sound team. The deal with BMG is signed. Next week we’ll start feeding them marketing deliverables. Poster art will be underway as we deliver choice screen captures. Additionally the first official trailer is being cut and so maybe end of May we can rock that out.
BATTLE OF THE BANDS!!!! It is still underway and we are getting some KICK ASS music submissions. Keep them coming and you just might end up in this film. We’ve really enjoyed listening to all the great original music. Kudos to all of you. Keep on rocking!
I want to get back on path with my writing. I want to finish my new SMOKE & MIRRORS feature script. You’ll get to enjoy the short film likely this fall. I saw some of the VFX work and I’m smiling. My SciFi script is another goal to at least get my first draft. The 1st season of HASTINGS is being edited for missed commas and such. I think we had a nice chat and I gave you all a good update on the films. In short – it has been busy. But I’ve also been getting some great moments observing the new hens in our “chicken land” enclosure. Some major wood chopping against a few mighty logs that I swear were made of iron. I will soon bottle up some of the berry wine that has been aging. We recently toasted off Best Years Gone will some lilac wine aged several years. It was enjoyed by all. Amazing what the natural world has to offer. Until we speak next week. Be good to one another.
DJ
Early Scoop on Spring CDI Endeavors – 2021
(Last week my CoStar Erika Hoveland had a bday! Such a joy to work with her. I look forward to working with more Michigan talent)
Spring is in the air as the milder winds have found their way to Michigan. But the warm hazelnut coffee still hits the spot. We had a lot of readers stop by from all over the world last week. Mexico, Canada, UK, France…actually about a dozen countries were represented. Last week we talked about actors helping actors but the real take away is to be ready. Is there still things you can do? Better pis, updated resume, cover letter, fix broken links, updated reels and the list goes on. Many people like to look at what is outside their control versus what is inside their control.
Part of my week was getting end of year tax stuff organized so all that can be paid. Many people do their own taxes but I’ve always used a tax expert. With all the 1099’s, K1’s and more it is best to have that expert hand in matters. But that is all almost done and it will be onto the new business of 2021. We are always working to improve the flow and so that process continues. We’ve been updating the http://www.cdiproductions.com website. You can now go to Encourage TV streaming and merchandise is appearing weekly with Graham Turner overseeing that aspect. I know that a new BEST YEARS GONE auto sticker collection is now for sale. What will be next? Check it out.
(COMING SOON!)
BEST YEARS GONE – the next cut of the film is being worked by our director and editor. I know that we’ve started looking at some VFX and stock footage required. The Battle of the Bands endeavor is almost ready to reveal. It will be a worldwide look at original music but artists willing to showcase their music in the film. In return they will also get a music video shot using footage from the movie. I’m excited for an official trailer after the great response from the BTS footage. We might get a few new pics to roll out to audiences also. So many great things happening with this movie. Click below to read the story again about shooting and to see the behind the scenes video.
LOST HEART – the film is closing on 230k views on Encourage TV and I’m told is going strong at TUBI and other platforms. More interviews keep rolling out and I see some festival play ahead for the film. BIGFOOT, UFO’s and JESUS would be a great tagline. I would love to see some art work that plays to these other fun and exciting aspects of this film. If you have not seen this film treat yourself. I would love to hear your thoughts via IMDB.com or our Amazon.com page.
MBF: MAN’S BEST FRIEND – Another fine story that centers on wounded warriors and service dogs. On Encourage TV we are closing in on our 1st million views. Same as above, if you haven’t seen this film do yourself a favor and do so.
WILD FAITH/HASTINGS – Our pilot feature topped 4 million views on Encourage TV and has been pulling the views from platforms all over. The TV series is being looked at by a few networks and we are working to move this forward. We have 8 shows in the first season and I’m excited to see us re-visit Michigan in the 1870’s! What am I going to say? If you haven’t seen Wild Faith, please do, and see what you’ve been missing. A teaser poster for ‘Hastings’ is on my list.
THE QUEST TRILOGY is playing in full force with Easter right around the corner. So make the trilogy part of your tradition. Forty Nights, Chasing the Star and The Christ Slayer – enjoy! If you want an intelligent, insightful look into these stories without it being cliche’ please do take a watch. Pureflix is doing a push with them but I’m sure they can be seen on many platforms.
We do have some development underway with our distributor that could mean some exciting things for a few of the titles. Some of this is SD films converting to HD and some being conformed to letterbox for modern viewing. We might have a few special Blu Ray deals coming together. Our Catch-Can documentary is filming as I type. Our director Curran Jacobs just captured the Mid Weight World Champion title last night also, congrats! I see a teaser being cut for this doc and I can have some distribution talks after that happens. Curran is also one of our newly announced leads on “Silent Night in Algona” shooting later this year.
An old 16mm film we shot back in the day THE FLOCK got a new poster for IMDB thanks to the director John Regan.
This week we’ll be moving forward on many of these endeavors. We’ll be announcing our moving forward with “Silent Night in Algona” with the announcement of a few more cast members. Location breakdowns will allow us to begin grouping scenes before turning to Nate Robertson to schedule. The Battle of the Band contest will roll out around March 1st as will close upon our locked picture. Aside from that I’m preparing for Spring clean up around the yard once this snow fully retreats. I think this year we will be leaning even more into the chicken endeavor. We’ll still grow some veggies but the fenced in garden area will have double purpose. I’m also looking at an outside gazebo so some back yard breezy-time can happen. Fencing, deck update and more are on my list. Let’s see how that all goes. I’m going to get at a few things including watching MSU play this afternoon. I hope you all have a productive week ahead!
Be good to one another.
DJ
Actor Questions, Advice and Top 10 Weekly Updates!
The coffee is a welcome treat on this snowy Sunday. I’m happy to see so many people joining us from around the world. Barbados, Ireland, Vietnam and the lists go on. I’m proud that our circle here is from all corners of the world. Fun stuff this week with the Mars landing and the new pictures. To see such a vast new place and the countless planets of various types that might be open to explore in the years to come. I’ve always been in love with outer space and I’m happy to see so many advances underway. My SciFi script will get finished this year. I’ve already got some plans to test film some of the model shots. We’ll be addressing some of the needed VFX in the next two projects that will help us with that film.
I often ask for questions – this was asked on FB by an aspiring actor from our state. I don’t know the individual but he was asking a group “Do actors truly go out of their way to help other actors?” First you’ll find that I don’t engage in wall conversations often if ever. I come here to discuss things and to pose questions and give information. I guess you first have to define HELP. I saw people debating, lamenting and offering insights. Is help giving advice on resume, pics, cover letters? Is it offering encouragement after rejection? I think people are hesitant to recommend people because in a way they too become accountable. Actor X who has been a positive contribution in past projects recommends actor Y who is late, unprepared, bad attitude or any other negative and both X and Y can have their relationship affected. So I think people are hesitant to risk their few good contacts.
I can put this situation in a producer realm. We at CDI use a location and we take it very serious and take precautions. If another haphazard production comes in with the owners thinking oh, they are like CDI. And they discover the new filmmakers are not careful like CDI, it can poison a well. These lessons can be applied anywhere. I’m careful about my recommendations. So back on topic – do actors help other actors? I think actors who have a role want the best around them so they might recommend. Actors still trying to land a role usually don’t push anyone because they don’t want to be seen as having demands. But as an actor, I feel I’m selling a unique interpretation so I’m not worried of others. You should have faith in what you bring to the table. I’m a person who never feels like I need to worry about the other talent and I’ll tell the stories I’m meant to tell.
To finish this topic. What does the actor do to help themselves? Are they prepared for an opportunity? Are their materials strong and prepared? Are their websites and actor links updated? Do they reach out with cover letters to create new opportunities or just wait for an agent with 8,000 actors to get you that job? Do you work to network and to better your own presentation? You can only help someone so much and they need to HELP themselves by doing what they can do. I can promise you that I’ve gotten to where I am by lots of sacrifice and work when others played. KINKOS was my office back in the day. So after reading all the other opinions on the subject I decided to give this individual my attention. What I want to see is GAME FOOTAGE. I saw a link for a video reel, clicked it and…VIDEO NOT FOUND! This was me in my own state with a few other film folk but many casting folks have only seconds. OK. Good face. Reel? Deactivated. Move on. So someone is asking why doesn’t anyone help me with his subtext but they are not helping themselves by fixing broken links, updating materials and so on. So how many actors are helping themselves to the fullest? I could again add up the wasted time people spend lamenting and in that time a few business proposals could be sent out. Just stuff to ponder.
This week has been full of updates so maybe I’ll do a Top 10 today-
- https://www.prlog.org/12858547-curran-jacobs-versatile-talent-man-with-many-missions-career-goals.html is the link announcing our first actor to SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA. He also had a World Champion Catch-Can match at the end of the week. Read all about it here.
- Here is Don Most talking LOST HEART and MBF – https://www.facebook.com/TotallyDrivenTV/videos/487883575704988
- Here is a great ‘Faith on Film’ interview with Shane Hagedorn on our CDI films – https://www.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR0em9rnQtrgfSwhpTIB_Pa79fgpTHK6CyvGirYPS9Npv1Lhsa7bZGpapHA&v=pHFKX60JQ4U&feature=youtu.be
- Here is a great story about our BEST YEARS GONE film that is in editing with our director and editor. You can also see a Behind the Scenes video embedded in the story. – https://www.prlog.org/12857968-passing-through-the-storms-of-covid-unified-in-telling-story.html
- Again with our last film BEST YEARS GONE here is a fun video on ‘Masks’ by our fellow associate producer and AD Nate Robertson. – https://www.facebook.com/nathan.k.robertson.7/videos/10226043446822881
- We have had a lot of development work on the Battle of the Bands which I hope to launch March 1st, 2021 – original songs will have a chance to have a music video shot and be included in the film.
- The parent site http://www.cdiproductions.com has been undergoing updates with a new LOST HEART page and a new BEST YEARS GONE page will be going up. Be sure to stream any of your favorite films and be sure to check out the ever-growing merchandise pages.
- I’m excited about the new MBF campaign. On Encourage TV we are closing in on our first million views. WILD FAITH is likely going to cross over to 4 mil + views this week. LOST HEART is continuing to grow also and I had some wonderful fan mail so once again – thank you.
- I missed an opportunity to join some fellow cast/crew mates from ‘Book of Ruth‘ which was a nice remembrance to singer/actor Carman who passed away. https://youtu.be/7ogLfumsPNY It was great to see everyone and listen to the stories.
- This week the filming continues on the next phase of our documentary ‘For the Love of Catch‘ which is exciting. I hope to cut a teaser trailer for this soon.
I’m looking to wrap this up. This week was severely cold and at least on one day the cold gave the office wood stove a run. But yesterday we had the fire roaring and the last of the logs split into kindling. I’m not sure if the amount of wood will get us through. We have some additional logs that can be cut to size and split, so we’ll see if that is needed. I have to say that ‘axe days’ help keep you in great shape. Speaking of…I’m trying to get some info on our soccer season that was cancelled last year. I sure do hope it starts up this year as I need to run. And I hate to just run run so I need a reason to run. Soccer provides that great reason to run. I hope you all have a productive week. I plan to end the month strong and just maybe we’ll announce another SNIA casting.
Have a great week. Be good to one another.
DJ
Welcome 2021! Hazelnut Coffee Cheers
Happy 2021! Hazelnut coffee cheers.
Outside this morning is a winter wonderland. We had a cold front move through Michigan that first put ice on everything -followed with a heavy dash of snow. Now it looks like a beautiful Norman Rockwell picture outside. This has been perfect weather for all the indoor activities I’ve had to undertake. I’ve always worked to enter the new year more prepared than the previous. Just by the addition of the previous year’s experience I’m better prepared. But I also find Santa Claus most always want me to stay in step with the changes in technology. I’m still a PAPER person. The trees! I LOVE trees and would be fine with paper made from hemp. I hear a leather is being made from cactus. Even with my love of paper I still need to evolve. I just start to get the hang of something and they change it. But it really is quite amazing – we are living closer and closer to a Star Trek world.
I should be doing product reviews-
I was due since last year for a cell phone update and finally I did. My phone went from a model iPhone 7 to 12 PRO and so I had to migrate all my data over. I also had to learn the new this and that – the camera got more complicated but takes great pictures. Also I got two new audio devices. One is a JBL Echo 3 I believe which is a wireless speaker but this one has a microphone and can be used in group conference calls. You can set it in a room and talk from around the room and it sounds great. It also jams out in a most excellent way in between those biz calls, Lastly was pair of Apple ear buds and I pray I don’t lose them. Like sunglasses – if you buy expensive ones even if a fix it plan – you will lose them. But a cheap gas station pair and 30 years they will still be around. So my business tools are being updated and I’m thankful.
Our industry use to shut down for several weeks during the holidays and still does. But with social media mixing with our business does it ever really shut down. During these times are when I enjoy doing my writing. I have writing goals lined up for the year. I’m doing my official page by page this week on SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA with our director Anthony Hornus. Our last writer/director collaboration resulted in MBF: MAN’S BEST FRIEND which is a powerful story. If you have not watched it hop over to Amazon, Tubi or any numerous platforms and take a watch. This next story is just wonderful. I wrote it a handful of years ago about actual events at a WW2 German PW camp in Iowa. Rance Howard was my consultant on matters of the WW2 era and farming doing that time. The scout trip had me speaking with all manner of people in the area who all had stories to tell. We are very close to a full GREEN LIGHT. That means funded and moving forward to those unaware. We are starting to look at locations, casting and more but again that moves to high gear once fully funded. But the timing between getting the script locked and getting green lit should be perfect. I’m very much looking forward to telling this story. I will be getting a traditional WW2 haircut on the run up to filming this one.
The other project playing front and center is the spin off TV series from WILD FAITH. As our audience grows by the millions, we’re looking to do something we have not yet done. We have interest from several sources and its just looking at all the possible combinations and options. I’ll have a few conversations about the TV show later today and into next week. Like above, if you haven’t seen WILD FAITH due yourself and favor and return to a simple time. It is quality watching for the whole family. John Hughes asked to read the script several years ago and left a message that the film has all the charming qualities of the old Disney films and TV. I think he was right on the money and that Wild Faith will turn into a memorable series. And yes that will have ole Ben Lily returning.
FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH will resume filming this year. That is the doc film we started end of last year. It is about the history of catch-Can wrestling and the passion of a handful of martial artists bringing it back.
SMOKE & MIRRORS will be completed this year. VFX and credits are all that need to be completed. The feature film script is something I’ve been working on. I had a nearly finished script before we did the short. Now I am doing a page 1 rewrite having gotten to know the characters even better. This is a great ‘Steam Punk’ early 1900’s world and the characters are amazing especially those played by David Gries and Melissa Anschutz but no surprise there.
(Finn visualizing – more walks, more treats, more…)
I hope that everyone is ready to visualize their goals and get after them. I’m going to enjoy doing some writing on this beautiful day. I plan to go stoke the wood stove in the office and make a few calls. After I want to sink into some script writing. I hope you all have a safe start to your new year – work hard and be kind to one another.
DJ
WILD FAITH TV Series Updates, Lost Heart Release Info and More…
Good morning. I’m sipping the hazelnut coffee and enjoying sitting here with Finn and Daphne on this Sunday. I finally have just about everything from the BEST YEARS GONE shoot unpacked. I’m trying to use the older ‘classic mode’ on this WordPress.
The first in the CDI CLASSIC SERIES the Double Feature ‘Heaven’s Neighbors’ starring Aaron Jackson & DJ Perry and ‘Figure in the Forest‘ starring Dean Teaster and MaryJo Cuppone both directed by Jeff Kennedy! A GREAT CHRISTMAS GIFT! Click below to BUY:
as “John Choler” in HEAVEN’S NEIGHBORS
We’ve just went through Thanksgiving which consisted of pie-drop off’s and goodie bags. We had our own little Thanksgiving and will be eating turkey leftovers for quite a while. We’ve also got the tree cut and put up in the house. We will likely do some decorating today. We also started on the outside which we do a little bit of decorating but we don’t go Chevy Chase with them. I’ve used this time to catch up on end-of-the year work.
LOST HEART – This movie is now popping up on DVD and streaming all over the marketplace. The EVENT showings on ENCOURAGE TV did great. We had tens of thousands of views and gained some attention for how we pulled it off in these trying times. We have new stories coming out in FORBES and THE LA TIMES. I will tune you all in to those when they hit. The other National PR on Huckabee and such was fun for our talent. I’m told Mike was a kind and generous man who really enjoyed our film. If you have not seen it yet I urge you to watch it with your family.
TUBI (Free with ads)
AMAZON PRIME
ENCOURAGE TV (Youtube)
Here are a few PR pieces
Watch with your family and leave us your thoughts on http://www.imdb.com (Lost Heart page) and amazon.com
I think the film is a wonder blend of heartfelt and humor with inspiring themes but not being overly heavy handed with the faith aspect.
BEST YEARS GONE – The ‘Gil Gilles’ mustache is gone but we have a hard drive full of scenes for the next CDI feature. We made an announcement last week that Nathaniel Nose has been brought on board as the film’s editor and VFX supervisor. I’m excited to have this film racing towards the finished edit. I had so much fun shooting this movie even with all the safety restrictions. We’re soon to start logo stamping a few stills and get that flowing. We will also be announcing more sponsors including UAS that we will feature this week.
THE QUEST TRILOGY (FORTY NIGHTS, CHASING THE STAR, THE CHRIST SLAYER) – For the holidays a new campaign is underway for our trilogy of films. Make it a family tradition to watch these three epic stories that shed some light into the dark corners. Watch the new promotional trailer and watch all three!
MBF: MAN’S BEST FRIEND
With nearly 700k views on ENCOURAGE TV alone the powerful ballad of Paul Landings is making its way into the marketplace. You can watch it free with ads here –
WILD FAITH is one of those special films that brought forth lovable characters and showed audiences a world that is a throwback. A throwback to a simple time in the late 1800’s. This film has been seen by millions worldwide and the idea that this could becoming a TV series is exciting. If the series is going to move forward we’ll know soon.
The most exciting part of all this development on ‘Hastings‘ is that I’ve finished writing season 1. Eight 44 min shows that once again follow the Murphy family as they continue life after the events of WILD FAITH. I’m so happy because all the captured magic of the film is there. The characters were established and so it was a joy to write them. Also because of breakdowns that need to happen and the fact that if I wrote the first season it would lay a nice foundation. Who knows? I might take a backseat to other writers in our circle for a second season but to have a chance of cameras rolling by March we needed “blueprints” which equals scripts. I’ve enjoyed the day of feeling accomplished and I’m ready to start allowing our CDI development team to look at the shows. My thought was do I put them all out there at once or one at a time? The goal would be to have the first season DONE by November for a Holiday 2021 roll out.
SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA (Development)
The back half of 2021 will be shooting this WW2 Christmas story that Mr. Rance Howard was my script consultant with. We had great conversations on WW2 and farming. He was suppose to play the grandfather but I’m sure he’ll be smiling from above.
We will start casting for our German leads so if you are German or can speak German please do reach out. We’ll also be looking for our young male lead. It is exciting to think of this beautiful “True story” to be filmed next year. We have a few units to still assign funding wise but already have commits. We’ll start the company early in 2021 and get that film prepped for an end of 2021 shoot!
FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH
We’re in talks to get our camera team back shooting more interviews on the west coast. Also editing of the doc itself will begin in earnest. This is a great CDI side project that puts a spot light on a great art/sport.
SMOKE & MIRRORS – Digital VFX work is underway and we’ll be also getting the credits done. From there we look forward to a 2021 roll out on this cool short film that we will look to expand into a feature. The short was taken from one of my feature scripts which I need to finish up.
I’m going to wrap this blog up so I can return to winterizing the yard and do some tree decoration. My goals for the next few weeks include DEVELOPMENT work, dispersement of moneys earned to investors and prepping end of year biz taxes. I’m so excited for 2021 and overall I feel as odd as 2020 has been – we pulled out a pair of big wins with LOST HEART release and BEST YEARS GONE into post. So enjoy this time with family and friends and get ready for the new year!
Giddy Up!
DJ
Delayed Update – Cast & Crew ‘Lost Heart’ Premiere and more…
As I sit down by the fire with hazelnut coffee in hand I want to thank our new readers from Iceland, Austria and all around the world. This is one of those few times that I had to push a blog release to Monday. I do have a series of Sunday shoot days so I might have to post a few Monday’s but I will try to keep it as consistent as possible. I was just so tired after our weekend up in New Era with our cast and crew premiere for ‘Lost Heart’ the movie.
First I’m excited about the edited event show that will play around the Nov 7th and 21st Encourage TV showings. I will get a time for the event this week but I’m guessing a 7 pm start with event and film coming in at 3 hours. The film is roughly 2 hours and we had a great time with Nathaniel Nose (The Christ Slayer) directing and shooting the event. Many of the CDI tribe had extensive interviews. This week we’ll have our few call in interviews sent in for editing. It was all very exciting.
We producers were on the ground trying to gauge the weather. we went with a smaller screen than the outside drive-in inflatable giant because we would have had a Macy Day balloon which could have been cool but-no. We had music performed from Roanoke and Greg Hillebrand on sax, interviews, food and drink. The dance hall had giant barn doors and allowed us to keep air moving through there without being in the wind gusts.
The actual showing was great. Even speaking with director Jesse Low after the film we were surprised at the amount of crying, laughing and clapping during the climax of the film. Now we’re all extremely excited to bring this film into your homes for you to share. We have many more interviews and national media for this story. I think the film is really connecting with people with themes on family, love, small-town with big dreams and more. It was great to see so many of the other artists and I was even gifted an owl coffee mug from Josh Perry. Thank you my friend. And thank you to the CDI team that worked hard to put this event in play.
On a quick note before I move on to other updates but the 1st AD Sebastian Nanya on a project I did in NYC called THE ACTOR (Amazon Prime) unexpectedly died over the weekend from a heart attack I heard. He spent many years trying to get a film called BUDZ made and wanted me to play this character named ‘Cowboy’ 🙂 My point is that you need to keep at your dreams. He was in his 40’s and much too young to leave. It is all a lesson not to put off your passions until tomorrow. Engage your passion now.
Back to the films. I had a chance to meet with some fans of MBF: Man’s Best Friend and Wild Faith. One former vet was so appreciative of the film for bringing light to the plight of the wounded soldiers. THAT is why I love doing these films. Not the awards and accolades which are nice but the way these stories touch and help people. That is such an award in itself. Many audience members love the impact of MBF but several wish for a different outcome at the end. To know what I’m talking about tune in and see what I’m talking about. Encourage TV, Tubi, Amazon, Google, Pluto TV and more…
WILD FAITH TV spin-off HASTINGS talks are in high gear. I have a call tomorrow and I have info to send off to interested parties this week – what this all means I hope is that ‘Hastings’ could go early next year into production. It would mean putting the buckskins back on and giddy up.
SMOKE & MIRRORS is the short that we did with Nathaniel Nose and WOW! What a cool world and this short version is a great proof of concept. We watched with all the color correction, music and sound design and it is quirky and wonderful. Some CGI work is being done. I will finish the feature script this winter as we develop the full feature. This will be another great story for CDI to tell.
FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH – This doc needs a string of interviews still but it is moving along. We have a new poster design and we’ll continue our hunt to find enthusiast of the grappling arts.
THE QUEST TRILOGY (Forty Nights, Chasing the Star, The Christ Slayer) – This powerful three part story is getting a big marketing push this holiday season including a quest trilogy trailer. As a life-long fan of the original Star Wars films we used them as a template for look – so if something seems akin in the look of the films, now you know where that comes from.
I’m sure I might have missed a few things. I need to get back on prep work for our next film BEST YEARS GONE filming soon. We gotta prep the future stories to share with the world. I hope you all tune in on Nov 7 and/or 21st for LOST HEART. I think you will truly enjoy it. Have a great week and be good to one another!
DJ
September Updates: Premiere, Shoots, Chickens…
I’m dealing with new format changes with my WordPress but with my hazelnut coffee beside me I’ll get through it. Those who read my last post have an idea of the swirling issues we’ve been facing. One of our fellow actor/producers had their significant other pass. This event fell right as we were gearing up for the national PR on LOST HEART. After a beautiful life tribute and send off on a high school football field our attention is falling back on LOST HEART. Essentially we pushed everything by two weeks after discussing with the distributor and parties involved.
If you did not read the previous announcement I will lay out the rough details. First we’ll be doing a private ‘welcome party/media night’ on Friday 16th of October and the private cast/crew screening on Sat 17th of October. This event will be shot by director Nathaniel Nose to be ended and delivered to our distributor by Oct 30th. We have a call Weds with our distributor to discuss the ONE NIGHT ONLY EVENT DATE in November. You can subscribe in advance to ENCOURAGE TV, it is free and easy.
Encourage TV
Following that the distributor will choose our exclusive partner for a TV release and home video will follow. A new and exciting roll out in this new and exciting age. I will have more info next week and we’ll be throwing out the PR this week!
SMOKE & MIRRORS
Speaking of director Nathaniel Nose (The Christ Slayer) – we’ve been putting the music and sound design to our short concept film SMOKE & MIRRORS starring David Gries & Melissa Anschutz. The poster art is almost complete and you can follow along at our developing FB page –
https://www.facebook.com/Smoke-Mirrors-105528581284615/
We discussed ENCOURAGE TV previously but it truly has become a great place to watch films. Our other films are skyrocketing on the site. WILD FAITH has been gaining 300k+ views per week and MBF has been growing at about 100k/week. THE QUEST TRILOGY is on there and we’re preparing for the big HOLIDAY push for FORTY NIGHTS, CHASING THE STAR and THE CHRIST SLAYER. I spoke with someone yesterday who saw the middle film not knowing it was a trilogy. That is my goal for this holiday season is to get the awareness that there are three films. The few notes of confusion by some viewers on CHASING THE STAR stem from the fact they did NOT know it was a series of films. It greatly helps the overall story if you watch all three together. So that is my goal – and to have it seen by millions more than last year!
‘FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH‘ – Our documentary film on the sport/art history of Catch-Can Wrestling is underway. We’re taking donations and planning the next phase of this shoot that shows the passionate individuals bringing back this art. We will be starting a FB page to follow in the near future.
BEST YEARS GONE – This fine story has been putting pieces in play as we adjust to everything going on. We will be staging parts of the film more mid-Michigan to control certain aspects of filming. Also we are exploring breaking the shoot up into a few smaller shooting chunks. We’ve been doing some character work between us and I’m happy to say the characters are coming right along. Almost screen ready! Are you ready? Good!
I almost lost my blog update once because of this new format but I recovered it. I’m gonna call it good enough and wrap this up. I will say that I got the AUTUMN ALE bottled and the ROTHGA (Return of the Hoppy Grape Ape) will be next. We took down the old garden fence and replaced it with a brand new one surrounding the chicken coop. The three ‘golden girls’ are adjusting nicely and even Finn (our young dog) is getting use to these strange birds in our yard. We now have a large quantity of wood to cut up for the wood stove so a few viking days of chopping lie ahead. I hope you all have a great holiday weekend. Be safe and be kind to one another.
DJ
Reflections on Time & Film Updates
Photo by Graham Turner
I’m sitting here sipping my hazelnut coffee. I have lots on my mind. Artist or those who follow the dream of being an artist as a career start young. Many fail because the endeavor is hard. Not that many other things aren’t difficult but many just don’t fully “get” the artist mindset. As a young person it can be you against the world with little to lose and everything to gain. That is why many make their run at it by often moving away or by making personal sacrifice in hopes of gaining a foothold.
As you get older that dream may still persist but also life may lead you in other directions. People fall in love, become parents and sometimes they cannot keep up the battle financially. The significant others brought into this circle often battle to understand and be supportive. I’ve said before, when I get an opportunity to do what I love it creates a hardship of sorts for my significant other. Domestic tasks usually handled by two now fall upon the shoulders of one. But living with a frustrated artist can also be a detrimental state.
That is why you always see so many ‘special thanks’ in the end credits of a film. The “others” help a film get made usually by holding down the fort. Everyone has an artistic side to their nature but it’s those of us who are truly driven by it like a compulsion, an addiction to create who take a special someone. Many artists live in isolation of being truly understood. But there exists those who recognize and respect and love these traits in an artist and support them despite the hardships. These people are special and deserve to be recognized.
One of our close producer/actors at CDI just lost their special other. An intelligent and practical man whose art manifested through his cooking. Some cook and some make it an art and this gentlemen made it art. He actually did some craft service duties for us last fall on an upcoming short film. The director loved how positive and helpful he was and I think he finally was really getting it. It can be hard for the significant others to not be in that bubble. To see but not share in that enthusiasm that radiates from artists doing what their heart calls them to do. But on this occasion he was part of it. He felt it. The TRIBE. He enjoyed the experience so much that further talks followed whereas this might become more of a norm but alas it was not meant to be.
Saturday night just before the big lightning and thunder storm he went home, a tragic victim of an aggressive cancer. His last words were “you always think you have more time.” How profound and true these words are and they should be a wake up call to some and a reinforcement to others. These words inspired and haunted me but ultimately encouraged me to cherish the time we have here. To appreciate the people we share our time and lives with. So quit that miserable job and run that charter fishing business if that is what you always wanted to do. Don’t put off writing that book that has been in your head since college. Embrace the now and know time is fleeting. I think I have always tried to follow my passions and use my time wisely. Because one day our own sands of time will trickle down the hourglass and the journey will be done.
FILMS
Let’s talk my favorite passion – storytelling and my favorite medium film.
BEST YEARS GONE – This story has been in heavy development with casting, costuming and consulting. We are looking at going old school by breaking the shoot up into a few shorter blocks grouping together scenes that require less and more. This is more like filming in the earliest days but will allow us to better control the size of the crew on certain days and damage control should we have any virus issues. I’ve just about got a handle on my character and others have been doing the same. It is now almost time to start getting those puzzle pieces/scenes. I think audiences will love this film again a powerful mixture of serious issues wrapped in humor. Life can be tragic but it can also be funny and sometimes both. This film captures that and we will once again be proud to bring that to audiences worldwide.
WILD FAITH – Worldwide this film has been expanding and is being viewed by millions of people. I think this is a great film again serious and humorous and is proving to be enlightening. I’ve read just some amazing fan mail about this movie. I’m so proud to say that all this attention and appreciation is building our audience to the TV series. We will be working hard over the winter to put the pieces in play. A spring 2021 shoot schedule would be ideal and I think it might all fall together. While it might not be everyones cup of tea (as if anything is) it is loved by many. Thank you to all the fans worldwide.
MBF: MAN’S BEST FRIEND – I had several people reach out having finally got around to seeing this film. I’m guessing maybe it had something to do with National Dog day. This film is a bit more intense than some of the other CDI fare that has a good dose of humor but the subject matter required it. If you love animals and want to see a powerful drama please do take a watch.
THE QUEST TRILOGY – We’re prepping this trilogy for the holiday window fast approaching but you can watch at anytime. Part 1 FORTY NIGHTS, Part 2 CHASING THE STAR and Part 3 THE CHRIST SLAYER – enjoy!
LOST HEART – Our distributor has approved the EPK kit and so PR will start rolling soon. We have several of our stars doing national spots and the planning for our cast and crew screening is full on. Our goal is to have millions tune in for a one-night only event via ENCOURAGE TV. This will be an event with pre-show interviews and well wishes. Following that event the film will move to an exclusive window with one of the many interested networks and finally home video streaming and DVD. I was speaking with Josh “The Ponceman” Perry who is one of our stars yesterday. He absolutely owns the screen but I could say that about so many of the cast. I’m excited to show our artists and after that – the world!
FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH – Our in association documentary film about the origins of wrestling is underway. If you have an interest in wrestling and want to see how you could get involved feel free to reach out. We are gathering interviews and will make a great entertaining and informative film.
WRAP UP – The film work keeps moving forward. This weekend has been busy as we know have a coop with our “golden girls” getting adjusted. We fired up the new stand up freezer and stocked it with the pig and transferred over the venison. I also bottled the dark “Autumn Ale” and will likely rack the wine in the next week or so. The garden is growing with the fall veggies and even the hops are getting close. So I’ve felt a bit like a farmer as of late but I find it all very relaxing. I will leave us again with that powerful truth that we always think we have more time. So if you have things you want/need to do don’t keep pushing it off. DO IT.
Be good to one another and I’ll see you all in September:)
DJ
Farming Plus Some Advanced Premiere Information
Hazelnut coffee cheers. I actually slept in a few this morning and so I’m starting a tad later. So many things are unfolding and I’m excited for it all. It was a long week and I needed the mental rest. I think because of the virus environment it has been a rethinking of everything. My thoughts are with my brother and all the people in the education system. For some their computer skills might enhance and some families seem to be getting updated tech in their home whereas previously they did not have such things. I know kids off to college unable to play sports and basically the campus being ran like min security prison. That might be a bit harsh but I bet it will feel like that to some. I’m seeing most people out and about, some begrudgingly, wearing masks. Some youth are seen doing what the youth do – “Party on Wayne” -but that could come with consequences. Still a lot of anger in many folks but what I see is the cost of life is being valued. Have some areas overreacted? Maybe but the old axiom of “better safe than sorry” is a good path to follow but also I see so many businesses are hurting. I hear and understand the arguments from all sides. Bottom line is until your circle is affected you don’t have the same emotional investment. If your business is hurt, you are affected and have an emotional investment. Just know that all this will eventually be a footnote in history.
BEST YEARS GONE
Our business has had the same challenges. I see some smaller productions have pushed forward and how many precautions are they taking? Unknown. I know we have a good plan to move forward. We are looking to make the main shoot “lighter” by scene count by shooting some smaller scenes mid-Sept. The main shoot is still planned for November and at that time past tourist season it will be mainly our cast and crew.
LOST HEART
As per usual if you tune in here you get the advance notice. Working with our distributor we are doing something new and unique with our premiere. We are going to do a one night only event via our distributor’s ENCOURAGE TV on Oct 24th. We will start promoting it like gangbusters in the coming weeks. BMG is doing an entire media campaign and we already have some national interviews coming up. ENCOURAGE TV is a free app and allows you watch FREE (one night) from a selection of sources.
At the same time our distributor is in talks with various TV networks for licensing and also home video release leading up to Christmas. We are also planning an earlier cast and crew showing where interviews and audience reactions will be part of the “program” that will include the free one night premiere showing again on Oct. 24th. So get that Encourage TV app loaded which is no money just an email and stating you are not a robot I believe.
There will be much more to come on this film and I’m excited for audiences to watch it. A BTS video will be releasing soon and watch our FB page for new updates. I had some PR photos taken (Thank you G$) which came out pretty good other than I am looking like my next character Gil Gilles in BEST YEARS GONE.
LOST HEART coming soon!
I will not wax on about the other films right now. Obviously I would love for you to check them all out. They are all gathering a worldwide audience and I am grateful and appreciative. Thank you for all your kind words.
SMOKE & MIRRORS might get some PR this week. It is the David Gries starring short that we plan to turn into a full feature. Nathaniel Nose (The Christ Slayer) is the director/editor and Dennis Therrian will be doing the music. So we’ll likely be releasing the poster art and a story about the project.
FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH – This doc film tells the history of catch-can wrestling. Our friend Curran Jacobs is the current unified world champion and he defends his title next Sat I believe. We have been pulling all this together but this title defense has sped up a few things. This is a pet project that CDI and the non-profit The Red, White and Blue Project (Outside the Wire) are putting together. We have camera operators planning to go interview the opponent and the match itself in FL on Sat I believe. It is a free streaming so check it out and if you want to get involved in the doc film reach out to me.
I would go on about these films but I have a few things to do today. First I did start my 5 gal of wine and beer. The beer will go to bottle next week. Also we are setting up a coop. Yes, coop as in chicken. We are getting Dorthy, Rose and Blanche and will be having a go at raising chickens. Also we have to pick up a new freezer today because we have a full pig coming in. We usually do the 4H but this year they did the auction on-line and they sold out. Also we get a deer every fall. So pigs and chickens, garden, wine making – we might be becoming farmers:) PS: The hops are almost ready! No grapes this year.
I hope the week is kind to everyone and do your part by being kind to others. Until next week.
DJ
The Weekly Round Up – Who is Ready to See ‘Lost Heart’ ?????
Flea Market Finds!!!
I’m fresh back from one of the local flea markets. I love to find past treasures that often end up as props either for a film set or a character. Not just for me but for others also. I’ve been just on cloud nine with the soon-to-release LOST HEART. I was really happy with the writing blend and even more on how Jesse Low and the cast and crew all performed and captured the story. I was heavily influenced by Spielberg when I was growing up. I think LOST HEART has a good mixture of humor and adventure and leaves you with a ‘feel good’ vibe. A film like MBF: MAN’S BEST FRIEND could not do that and keep the message strong. WILD FAITH had that uplifting ending as did FORTY NIGHTS and even THE CHRIST SLAYER. But CHASING THE STAR was written as the ‘Empire Strikes Back‘ of the biblical adventure trilogy. I’m excited that for this holiday window (Thanksgiving to Easter) they will be pushing the trilogy as a whole. They are best when seen all together. A new TRILOGY trailer will be edited by our distributor.
Back to LOST HEART you say! As I told our team – the film is done. The film is delivered to the distributor. It will be seen by millions around the world. So good job to our team. But we are now fighting for the icing on the cake. The theatrical events and premiere be in drive-in, theatrical or yes, even online. We are exploring a one night online premiere that would allow EVERYONE to participate in the event. The idea we have is a good one and would be DIFFERENT, but could be powerful. Its would include filming the pre and post party and broadcasting that with the premiere showing. The film will also be going to various networks to evaluate for ‘exclusive release’ or a period of time where the film can only be seen at this channel for a month or two. I would enjoy seeing it play on TV a while before the whole home-video release. We will see as talks continue this week. I don’t care how you all see the film we’re just looking forward to it being seen.
This month will be some investor dispersement as several of the films are earning steadily along. There is a fair amount of bookkeeping work that happens so that end-of-the year accounting goes smoothly. Watching the films and leaving reviews is a couple ways you can help small business. Many of you have been supporting us as shown by the numbers and the fan mail and we cannot thank you enough. You are why we tell these stories and we will continue to entertain you for many years to come.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE TRIBE at http://www.cdiproductions.com
OTHER TIDBITS
- More talks on the WILD FAITH TV series ‘Hastings’ including with possible partners in a western studio. I’m excited to see the on-going adventures.
- Putting presentation materials together on the new WW2 film slated for 2021.
- NEW poster art and setting up first interviews with our Catch-Can documentary.
- NEW poster art underway and audio evaluation with SMOKE & MIRRORS dir and post-audio.
- Announced make-up department for upcoming BEST YEARS GONE the ladies from Gals and Ghouls.
- Soon to announce some of the first sponsors working with us on the BEST YEARS GONE movie.
- Worked final edits on my new book contribution with editor on ‘Second-Chance Cats’ book and signing deal on the next book contribution which is a book featuring dogs. My story is about my Luke Brown who was my inspiration in the MBF film.
- This and a few other opportunities has me thinking about literary representation again.
- LOST HEART BTS is forthcoming – just wrapping up some paperwork.
Is it MSU football time yet?
I’m going to sign off and do a few things around the homestead and the office. This past week I got to peel off a day and go to a couple of lakes with family. I’ve been getting things around for the beer and wine making and I’m going to get one or both of those going. We have new fall crop in the garden and we’ve started taking tomatoes. We had a few days that reminded us of fall coming. I know that wood stove and chill will soon be in the air. I hope everyone keeps the course and try to have patience with one another. Coffee toast – we’ll talk again next week.
DJ
An Amazing Week ‘Stay on Target’ – Focus and Place Your Energy Correctly
I’m sitting and sipping hazelnut coffee as a gentle rain falls outside. The morning started with bacon and eggs and that can’t be bad. I’ve had a very rewarding week and have been basking in a glow for much of it. Lots of good business unfolded this week but the highlight was a producers watch on the film at the media center on the big screen. It was epic and Michigan looked just incredible. It was the first time all us producers had been together in a good long while. And it was a watch full of laughter, tears and joy.
We’ve had a few ‘outsiders’ to the production circle watch the film and I really believe this film has something for everyone. We will use the next few weeks to set up as many theatrical, drive-in and other such event screenings as possible. I feel as we’re evaluated by several TV networks that someone will take an exclusive window before the streaming and DVD home video rolls out. UpTV, Lifetime, Hallmark, ABC – battle of the network stars. Just joking although we use to love watching that TV special.
If you want it to play in your area you need to reach out to the venue and get the name/contact info for mgt. We will be doing a few premieres and I really want it to play LA deeper into the year. Not sure with the state of things it will happen but we will see. I know we will be playing in the area we filmed in White Hall/New Era and would love to play Muskegeon too. So LOST HEART is about to be on the move and whether you see it on the big screen or your personal big screen we hope to bring you a few smiles.
Onto other film news…
THE QUEST TRILOGY (Forty Nights, Chasing the Star, The Christ Slayer) will be getting a powerful new trailer showcasing all three of the films. The idea is to really start to promote the three together. When seen out of order or not seeing all three does effect the overall understanding of the story. As the window for these films (Thanksgiving to Easter) starts I’m excited. I love all the fan mail from around the world these movies have brought. These biblical adventures are a good watch at any time.
WILD FAITH – So exciting developments continue – apparently the film was nominated in 2019 for several categories at some Red Letter Awards. Nominated for BEST ACTOR (Shane Hagedorn), BEST ACTRESS (Lauren LaStrada), BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (Darby Hinton), BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS (Christine Marie), BEST SCREENPLAY – (That DJ Perry guy), BEST DIRECTOR and EDITOR (Jesse Low) and BEST PICTURE. Their announcement went unseen and so…just more people feeling the power of this story.
HASTINGS the TV series is under active development and I have a series of talks and proposals that need to go out. As I told our team with the TV series it is WHEN not IF. Stay tuned and some of your favorite characters may be coming back to tell their on-going story.
MBF: MAN’S BEST FRIEND – So for the first time since all this virus lock down I went for my dental clean. The receptionist is married to the dentist and they have seen all the films for several years now including his daughter. I got my temp taken and they gushed on how much they LOVED MBF and that it was their new favorite. She admitted that tears were shed watching the movie. I have to say this little exchange made my day because it reminded me that daily our stories are having an impact on people. The receptionist was former military and said usually she is yelling at the screen because of the things they do wrong in military films. She exclaimed that we really did our research because it was spot on. Again I’m so happy the military community respects the performance and the film.
SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA – MBF director Anthony Hornus will be directing this WW2 era drama. We’re still in the development phase but things are coming together nicely. We are still looking for German and/or German speaking actors. Also we will be doing a national casting for the young boy lead in the film this fall.
SMOKE & MIRRORS – This is shaping up to be a great little show piece for the forthcoming development of the feature. Directed and edited by Nathaniel Nose (The Christ Slayer) this 12-15 min piece is another great CDI period piece. Early 1900’s – great location, car, clothes and a cast of quirky characters. I have some post discussions this week. David Gries is the lead in this short and again shows the amazing and talented folks we have the honor of working with. The poster art is also being worked on and we’ll release that once completed. A new CDI page will be coming to http://www.cdiproductions.com (Subscribe to the Tribe)
Victoria Jackson returning to the Tribe in ‘Best Years Gone’
BEST YEARS GONE – Were going to be meeting to identify the VFX shots and such that can be filmed before the main circus. We are still targeting end of Oct pre-prod and Nov shoot. Lots of talks with sponsors and such about this film that will be a great addition to the TribeCDI films. We have more cast and crew to announce and we’ll be doing that starting this week where we’ll meet the ladies from Gal’s & Ghouls:)
FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH – CDI is helping produce a documentary film about the history of catch-can wrestling. We’ve got a lot of great people appearing in the doc to discuss their passion for this old fighting art finding a new golden age. More meetings before cameras start rolling. With my love of martial arts this is a pure joy project for me.
WRAP UP
I could go on about other projects either getting new releases or new development but I think you have a good picture of the situation. CDI is on the move and will just keep doing what we do. Music, Animation and many other exciting things will be happening at CDI in the near future. We keep adding to the tribe and the projects keep growing in number and scope. I saw a few posts this week about and from a MI company having all kinds of issues with one of their “producers” whose job should be to eliminate issues not create them. But once I saw who they were talking about it all made sense. Again just be careful who you create with. It should be a wonderful experience and not marked by drama and nonsense. As I watched all the LOST HEART cast and crew names scroll down the big screen I was deeply moved. From organizing after-school video camera shoots to where I am now is just…amazing. I am so thankful to be on this journey and with such amazing artists. If you like the style of storytelling CDI has gotten known for you will not be disappointed in CDI’s new offering LOST HEART. We’ll see you soon:)
Stay safe and be good to one another! Have an amazing week. Stay on target. Focus. Direct your energy to what you can control, enhance, organize and don’t forget to laugh daily.
DJ
TOP TEN UPDATES AS WE FINISH THE MONTH STRONG!
Me, T Hornus, John Saxon, T Turner and David Borowicz in Lone Pine.
Good morning and welcome to all our new readers from Denmark, Spain, China and more…coffee salute. I’m a bit later this morning getting to my blog because I was enjoying a larger breakfast. I also was putting some paperwork together for delivery this week to our distributor. First before jumping into film let me ponder to see if any events this week trigger any discussions. I want to offer up a RIP to John Saxon who was a great actor in movies like ENTER THE DRAGON. I was lucky enough to meet John in a honey stand in Lone Pine, CA at a festival market. He was a nice man and we chatted for a few and took a few pictures. I wish I had gotten to act with him but meeting him was a joy. So RIP to this fine actor for a lifetime of storytelling. Also Regis from the morning TV scene passed on. The circle of life keeps turning and it makes me feel blessed to be doing what I love. I had many conversations this week both business, personal and in-between. Maybe we’ll do a TOP TEN updates.
- LOST HEART will arrive Monday at the distributor and as previously mentioned we’ll be delivering some paperwork behind it. It is very exciting and we’re having a producers watch and theatrical/premiere planning meeting this week. We are looking for venues so if there is one near you that wants to play the film let us know. Home Video release is looking like Oct but I will know more end of the week.
- The short SMOKE & MIRRORS is in editing and we’ll have that rolling out this fall just in time for Halloween I do think. It was a short film taken from my feature script. The footage was used in a demo for a well known sound design company izotope. We’ll be finishing it up and use the short to launch a feature in the near future. Nathaniel Nose director/editor on THE CHRIST SLAYER was the director and is also editing. It was a fun period piece and I think it will lead to the full feature.
- We’ll also be announcing that CDI has entered into an association with The Red, White & Blue Project Inc. to produce a feature length doc entitled ‘For the Love of Catch‘ with our own Catch-Can World Champion Curran Jacob. We have some exciting people getting involved in the film.
- With LOST HEART done we will also be looking more at the 2021 line up. In active development is the WILD FAITH TV series ‘Hastings‘. I had numerous productive conversations on this project and I think it is WHEN not IF. If you have not watched WILD FAITH please do so. It will film in Michigan and could include the creation of a mini-studio.
- We are about to make some presentations on the WW2 Christmas project CDI will produce next year entitled SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA. We have over half the budget being covered by a foundation and we’ll be bringing on investors for the balance. Some great talks with the distributor also over this powerful story. It will be directed by Anthony Hornus as his follow up to MAN’S BEST BEST. If you have not seen this film please do.
- Three CDI Associated films will be getting a new release with ITN Distribution. Deadly Renovations, Darkest Night and Donors. These are films that CDI helped with and I co-star in all three. They are for those who like things that go bump in the night.
- BEST YEARS GONE is the next film up for CDI with a planned shoot window in November finishing before Thanksgiving. We had another great meeting and the film will have lots of exciting firsts for CDI. Shane Hagedorn is directing and those who enjoyed ASHES OF EDEN will be excited to see him directing again. We are planning to start shooting beauty shots and B roll soon as well as a few VFX sequences. Stay tuned! We’ll also be announcing a few more cast and crew soon!
- I need to turn some attention back at CDI Merchandise, CDI Animated and CDI Music Division developing. Having Lost Heart finished will give me some added time to work on these emerging divisions of CDI.
- I’ve got a batch of beer and wine ready to go. I just need to kick the process off.
- I’ll keep pushing ahead with my writing. In a few short weeks the new book that I was a contributing author on will by Callie Smith Grant. It be releasing nationwide with Revell Publishing. You can pre-order here – https://www.amazon.com/Second-Chance-Cats-True-Stories-Rescue-ebook/dp/B087RTPCT4/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&keywords=Second-Chance+Cats&qid=1595775817&sr=8-9 – I’ve also got a story in the book after that about DOGS and features a story with my ‘Luke Mr. Brown’ in it. I so appreciate being involved in these books and I’m actively seeking more book writing work.
PRE-ORDER NOW!!! My story involved ‘Lulu’ our little princess:)
As you can see it has been busy, busy with another dose of busy. If anything we are going to come out of this virus crisis with projects lined up to be filmed. I can work with that. Thank you as always for all your notes and fan mail I do read it and appreciate it. Control what you can control and keep moving forward!
Be good to one another!
DJ
‘Lost Heart’ – Are you Ready? Also the Forgotten Art of Respect, Communication and Listening
Hello my friends and good morning to you all. I’m sitting here sipping coffee on a Sunday and reflecting with all of you on the past week. In Michigan we unfortunately saw some violence over mask wearing. Lives changed and ended over a simple mask. My buddy who works in China on occasion was in Singapore when the outbreak first hit. He was the first to predict that Americans are not going to do well because of too many defiant folks. I know that practically everything is being weaponized during this election time but again the virus should be a ‘net health’ concern for all not political. I witness people not taking it serious until it effects their circle. I think the issue not being addressed is the term “recovered” which implies has left the hospital but doesn’t truly mean recovered. Life can be cruel and as with many illnesses, death is a release but illness can include long-term suffering. As you get older you realize how important it is to keep a balanced system. Small issues can result in life hindering conditions as we age. Bad back, knees, digestion…and so having something that can linger on for a lifetime is not truly recovered. I don’t want any virus and I don’t want to put that upon anyone else. So I do my part and pretend I’m a member of GI-Joe (Snake Eyes or Storm Shadow) anytime I go out to a public business gathering/business. The hospital can be a miserable stay for anything and incubated coma sounds anything but fun. I like mom’s saying of better safe than sorry.
Life as a storyteller is fulfilling because I think it allows for the best communication possible. I recently had someone while angry try to tell me that I was an ass-kiss because I won’t jump on the crazy, angry way of communicating with passive aggressive or equally nasty mudslinging comments that can lead to stabbings and shootings but little change. I believe that the way we communicate via movies and storytelling to have a stronger reach. What do I have to say on Veteran and dog rights – watch MBF: MAN’S BEST FRIEND. Race Relationships watch WILD FAITH. The Quest Trilogy (FORTY NIGHTS, CHASING THE STAR, THE CHRIST SLAYER) is full of good life lessons. Those lessons can be applied and it doesn’t matter what, if any, religion you follow – you can still take something good away from it. I like to speak with my stories and that allows me to not live in a stressful and angry place like so many do. I live in a place of love and listening. My simple response was that if ass-kissing is caring and listening, I guess I am. I’ll sit down and have a drink to share words with anyone no matter what box they decide to check in November. (Or no box)
I do know that to get respect you have to give respect and that often means listening despite you agreeing with them or not. But many cannot keep their mouth shut long enough to listen. They are waiting for someone to stop talking so they can spew their regurgitated response. When you respect enough to listen they often return the favor.
After some sit-downs, I still believe we went to the moon and I don’t believe the Earth is flat and 5G doesn’t have anything to do with the virus…but I’ll listen to someone speak their opinions. If I don’t agree, I often state that but not by being louder, interrupting and surely not by belittling and name calling on someone who’s opinions differ. People met with that poor communication get angry and return to their protective echo chamber where everyone sounds off the same. Nothing is solved. But watch a movie with a deeply written messages and sometimes views can be altered or changed sometimes profound and sometimes only slightly. I don’t claim to know all the answers and I go into every conversation knowing I could be wrong because I’m a student of life everyday. But I see frustrated and stressed people with a need to be 100% right and know that their way of communicating is not my way.
Onto movies-
I want to thank everyone out there for the beautiful film reviews and fan mail that I continue to receive. I often share those notes with my fellow producers to illustrate that the hard work we endure to finish these projects will help many people upon their completion. Thank you.
LOST HEART is complete. The visual master came in last week after some amazing color correction from Jesse Aragon our DP. Our director Jesse Low and composer/sound designer Dennis Therrian have finished the final audio. The mixing for stereo and 5.1 is completed and will be married together with the visual for delivery this coming week! We are starting to explore premiere and theatrical possibilities before our home video release. (I hope to have dates soon) We will be doing a PR release next week that highlights not only the amazing musical work of Dennis Therrian that can write music in all genres but a few featured artists on the soundtrack. The band Roanoke and The Cash Collective will be highlighted in our film having made a few great contributions. More on that soon. I’m looking forward to a producers watch and toast before audiences get to travel to our LOST HEART. Congrats to our entire team! TribeCDI on the move!
Good development work on several fronts which will have their own PR releases in good time. I’m excited about the new history of Catch-Can documentary we’re putting together. Also BEST YEARS GONE has some exciting developments as we’re talking with upcoming sponsors. CDI is ready to keep moving forward. I do hope we can get some distance from this virus but only time will tell. But know we are continuing to work on putting together 2021 feature films and maybe a TV series:) I hope everyone has a good week and we’ll chat again soon.
Stay safe.
DJ
The Virus of Hate and CDI Updates
Welcome to July! I’m sitting here sipping my hazelnut coffee and just finished watering the garden and yard. I’ve harvested some additional rhubarb and the berries are starting to pop. I’m going to make some ‘ROTHGA WINE’ short for “Return of the Hoppy Grape Ape” which was very popular. I’m also going to do a run of dark beer which I’ve never done. We’ve had several days of grilling and today we’re having a bday gathering at my father’s for several missed and upcoming bdays including his own. This week we’ll also celebrate my momma’s bday with a cook out. The outdoor goal for the week will be to put down some cedar mulch.
I’m a true optimist so I’m sincerely wishing we start a truck back to being a healthy state? nation? world? I’m a tad concerned because so many want to just ignore the situation and I get that. But for every person I talk with who thinks things are overblown I hear about another death due to the virus effecting some family. No they are not all elderly but even so how does that make it any better? But what makes it worse is the virus of hate. I’ve seen so much nasty attitude being thrown about which seems to be a combination of highly stressed people needing to vent off and tribal anger. The political system has weaponized nearly every platform of life. People plugged into 24/7 news are living in a “Breaking News” state of panic. People in SOP (State of Panic) are offended easily and over-reaction has become the norm. With the virus where people could be accountable for lives over-cautious can be a good thing. But over-reaction to partial, incomplete or the pushed message has created something greater than the virus it has created hate. When you start hearing people wishing people of another stance of thought dead, something is wrong. As I said before and I’ll say it again – in the process of condemning hate don’t join the ranks as one who also hates.
Again after getting a dose of the news (this includes social media) I would recommend putting some music on or escape into a nice movie. Put on the Steve Miller Band and write that book or script. Speaking of…
BEST YEARS GONE – Recently we announced more cast for our next CDI film. We have moved primary filming into that last window before Thanksgiving. We will be doing some VFX, B-Roll and beauty exteriors prior. We met recently with our DP Travis Hayward and I’m excited about some of the ideas we have. We have engaged in talks with various companies about sponsorship and have some great partners lining up. We’ll be making a few more cast/crew announcements as we get closer to rolling cameras.
LOST HEART – This film is just about complete. A few of the color corrected shots need a quick tweak and we’re wrapping up the last few things biz-wise. The credits have been gone over and gone over and it’s agonizing because with all the effort still some mistakes are made. When I see a studio film and all those names I cringe as that is a huge task. This will be a big week and as badly as I want to share some exciting news I’m going to wait until the ink is dry. Please do follow us on Facebook and of course the CDI website at http://www.cdiproductions.com
THE QUEST TRILOGY: FORTY NIGHTS, CHASING THE STAR, THE CHRIST SLAYER – In the often confusing world of biblical storytelling apparent by the multitude of denominations that all claim some sort of pedigree over the others – we distilled the parables to the heart of a teaching. We tried to fill in the gaps to have it make sense to those who require logical connection. A good story can enlighten us to new lessons, ideas and actions within our lives. These films don’t participate in the “our denomination is better than yours” mentality. These are stories that anyone can take something away from if they have never stepped foot in a church or cracked a bible. I listed to a bit of a mainstream podcast that for the most part made fun of the films. But he kept encouraging the other reviewer to watch it so they could make fun of it together. They watched them out of order and went into the watch with their cup full. That is a term we used in martial arts and refers to the zen idea of emptying your cup so you are open to learn and listen. Not to what the other person tells you is true but what you “discover” and “feel” to be true for you. Anyway I get the “rip it apart” mentality trying to be funny (I was 20 before) but these films have a good dose of “CIRCLE OF IRON” to them. That was a film of a spiritual journey written by the late, great Bruce Lee. If you are picking apart small things you are missing the story. Bruce said something about focusing on the finger instead of where it’s pointing to the moon. What is missed is all that heavenly glory. Something to that effect. If you like films that make you think you might enjoy these historic fiction films.
WILD FAITH – This week brings me back to the develop of the ‘Hastings’ TV series. Of our distributor’s films WILD FAITH was again the top viewed on several platforms. I’m speaking with possible TV networks to commit and have several more to explore. If you have not seen this film please do and see what everyone is talking about. The TV series will have many of your favorite TV stars from past years. This type of family programming is in demand and we hope to help fill that void.
MBF: MAN’S BEST FRIEND – This film continues to engage and create discussion with audiences. I’m so proud of this film and I hope we get to showcase it in LA this fall. I want to thank all our men and woman who proudly serve.
SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA – A handful of years ago I worked with Rance Howard (Ron’s father) as my consultant on a powerful story about WW2 German POW’s in one of the many small mid-west prison camps. The project had many up’s and down’s that can happen when too many cooks are in the kitchen. I left the project and it stalled out but now several years later with our script, plans are being made to shoot this in 2021. MBF’s Anthony Hornus will direct. We have over half the budget officially committed as of last week and we’re putting together our presentational packages. I’m excited to see CDI tackle the WW2 era. We’ll be doing some upcoming PR on this but like always you get it first here.
THE HISTORY OF CATCH-CAN WRESTLING – As a lifelong student of the martial artists I’m fascinated by all the warrior arts. From ancient times to present day the art of wrestling has continued. Now CDI in association with The Red, White & Blue Project is helping to produce and distribute a documentary film with current world champion Curran Jacobs as the host. Some will remember him from MBF as the young defense attorney for Paul Landings. If you have any interest and want you or your company to support this doc-film please do reach out. I’m excited for this collaboration!
I’ve gotta refill the ole coffee cup and get something to eat. Keep working on your art, your dreams and be kind to your fellow humans. I hope July is a kind month to us all and I’ll look forward to speaking with you all next week.
DJ
DJ Perry's Official Blog 'Clawing My Way to the Middle' 