Good morning! I’m getting a later start today having stayed up past my bedtime to watch our Detroit Lions play last night at Dallas. Man the calls were really against them and that final “situation” was disappointing. I’ll let those wiser in football knowledge debate and discuss that final call. I think it will all fire the team up for their next encounter. My alumni school Michigan State University also had a hard year in football but their basketball team is looking like their getting back on track. I’m really looking forward to our outdoor soccer season. I’m looking to have an even better season but overall it is just fun and healthy to compete like that each week.
Health is wealth is still the mantra I’m sticking by. I like the idea of never saying you are sick but you’re always healing. My ailments this year have thankfully all been minor and I’m putting more energy and effort towards that in the coming year. I’ve got a few action films or films with action still in me. I’ve been moving from just daily maintain workouts to building. Usually just flexibility and tone are my goals but I’ve moved into more building. Each of you should either start or perhaps try to build upon your own routines. I’m thankful for the martial arts that I’ve practiced since I began in 7th grade. The only film I’ve displayed any of my martial arts was MAN’S BEST FRIEND playing Paul Landings. I’ve used my training to allow and assist me in doing many of my own stunts. I’m really proud of the knock down drag out fight scene in WICKED SPRING with actor buddy Terry Jernigan. We’ll see what the future holds.
REVIEWING 2023 GOALS–
As I look over my goals list that I make each year I’m reasonably happy with the results. It is good to put it down in writing and it is okay if you fall short. You almost always will. I had plans to have a deck built and finish these rafter coverings on the fort/office but that did not get done. But it will go on my 2024 list. Producing a feature film and music video both were achieved. Harsens Island Revenge was filmed and is now being edited together. A great rock music video was shot a follow up to our DEEPFALL “Revolution” video. It will be releasing soon but it came out great. Best part was exchanging stories with the drummer Chris Adler (Megadeath, Lamb of God) about all our mutual associates in Virginia where he lives. That goal was met and I plan to match or exceed that in 2024. I had a goal of acting in an outside CDI film which is always fun because I don’t carry the responsibilities of producing. I graciously did have an offer to star in an outside CDI film but it was too close to our Harsens Island Revenge shoot and I was already in the look and mindset of ‘Axel’ and could not switch gears. But I’ll give myself partial credit for I could have but I like to focus on one at a time and give my full attention and effort. My gardening efforts were successful and I enjoy my ongoing study ofherbs and fungus. Such healing power in nature and it is fun to unlock the secrets. I will continue that into the new year. I set a safe soccer season as a goal and that was met. Again I hope to play with the same strong intensity and stay safe and healthy. Finish two new scripts was a goal and while I did not finish two new ones I made new progress on four or so pet project scripts. Pet project scripts are ones not on a fast track and I’m not being paid to write. While I did not get SPIRIT LAKE MASSACRE financed progress was made and perhaps 2024 will see that follow through. I had a goal of assembling the CDI film back up RAID that will store and allow easy access to the footage. I’m happy to report that all the equipment is in and next week it will be active and ready to start loading up with CDI films. I wanted a CDI highlight reel cut but that was dependent upon the RAID build so while I don’t get to unveil that today it will be coming soon. I asked for a smooth tax season which it was thanks to my great team of people. I ask for that again this year. The development of a theatrical division was a goal and I’m happy to say with had our best run in 2023 with SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA going into 70+ theatres and playing 9 months in the midwest theatres. I have zero doubt that Harsens Island Revenge will build upon that and go even higher. My last set of goals was the development of a full on merchandise and music division. Steps were taken but not fully realized and those goals will carry over to 2024! As you can see I too did not achieve all my goals but some of them and took good steps towards the others. So write down your own goals and that will help you work towards them.
SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA released nationally on December 1st and has been an extreme joy during the season. So many people are now getting to watch this beautiful story at home with family and friends. Such a great story of hope. Hope that even during dark times we can reach down and find the good parts of ourselves. It is available on DVD and streaming so please do enjoy a watch. If you liked it please leave a review on it’s http://www.imdb.com or Amazon page or wherever you can.
Harsens Island Revenge – I just actually received an update from our director Carl Weyant who is editing. We have a solid hour edited and he’s been fine tuning it. The last quarter of the edit starts with the new year. I’m excited to get working on a ‘behind the scenes’ and a teaser trailer not to forget the director’s theatrical poster built from GW Burns powerful elements. I cannot wait to start having Dennis Therrian put a score to this powerful film.
HOT ROD LOVE was on the development track last year when Harsens Island Revenge came in fully funded. The 70’s comedy/drama set against the backdrop of drag racing was put on a shelf but is now moving back into active development. We are proud to say we’ve got our friends at PEPSI onboard and even the first committed funds. We’ll be giving our past backers the first opportunity to get involved and that process will start first of the new year. We’ve made several new friends who’ve given interest in getting involved with these stories and so rest assured opportunities will be presented.
WILD FAITH celebrated passing the 8 million views mark at Encourage TV meaning 20-30 million worldwide not counting broadcast. The Wild Faith: HASTINGS TV series that continues the story from the feature is being looked at by several parties. The key has always been creative control. The series might have been produced already if deep compromises had been made. I was unwilling to do so. If and when it is brought back it will be done properly.
2023 saw the rebirth of KNIGHT CHILLS on Blu-Ray. The film which has built a following over the years was released in Oct. having been digitally remastered. The 1st special cover run sold out in 6 days. A director’s rewrite of a sequel is going to be submitted and 2024 might see the sequel ride into production. Also the original will be heading to streaming we are just looking at the best course for it.
The possibility of several of the CDI Classic Collection being remastered and re-released is moving forward. It takes time but it is worth it to see these films brought back into the marketplace. My coffee is getting low and I’m feeling a need for some eggs. I’m going to try and wrap this up and enjoy my day. I had the last of my Christmas family gatherings yesterday and get to see some family I haven’t seen since pre-Covid. At the gathering we got word of a family members passing. We took a moment of silence right in the middle of a game full of laughter. A reminder that each year is precious and that loved ones will pass on. I know of several friends who lost loved ones. So again bringing it full circle, I ask for health and happiness for you all in the coming year. Work on your goals but be kind to yourself when you fall a little short. Try to be more kind. More understanding. More compassionate. More giving where you can. Sometimes that giving is just time. Time. A way we measure our journey. I wish you all a beautiful 2024 journey. I’ll be here to share mine with you. I’m also really considering the podcast FIRESIDE WITH DJ PERRY, suggested to me so often the last few year. If it happens or not I’ll still look forward to those fireside chats at the fort/office with all my dear friends and associates. To you all I wish you a Happy NEW YEAR!
Good morning to everyone out there! I’m sipping my hazelnut coffee out of a beautiful mug gifted by our upcoming ‘Hospitality & Health’ crew member Mollie Davis. I’m super excited about the #cditribe we’re bringing together for this next storytelling adventure. I want to thank all the artistic folks from around the world who stopped in for a coffee break and read. I’ve had an extremely busy week full of positive developments. Some are pertaining to past projects and others to future endeavors. And of course we have the adventures that are right in front of us now. Staying with crew- I met two of the new crew folks we’ll be working with yesterday and a music video shoot. Having done two small film projects at the Turner Dodge house it inspired me to pitch a ‘Scooby Doo’ type story video to the director and in turn the band. They loved it and so yesterday we once again did some shooting at this beautiful historic house. Everyone did a great job and we made our day. I look forward to working with these humble and hardworking gents on our next feature. It’s a multi-layered rock song with an amazing singer, slashing guitar rifts and driving drums delivered by famed drummer Chris Adler (Lamb of God). He and his wife are in from Richmond, VA where we once produced films like WICKED SPRING. (You can watch on Amazon) We knew lots of the same folks from that community and even shared experiences in travel. In between shots we all shared many great conversations about the difficulty of maintaining creative groups and trying to keep that synergy together. We compared hardships of being away on tour and on a film set. I just really enjoyed the artistic talks shared by all. I will be excited to share the music video in a few weeks.
Harsens Island Revenge – We are growing closer to our on-set pre-production and film shoot on the next CDI film. This past week was proofing all the agreements before dispersement. The schedule is finally all set and we had one of our producers up North securing even more pieces of the shoot. I got my 1920’s haircut and that has helped me seriously get into the mindset. I’ve been pulling together elements of my wardrobe and having fun creating. We are working hard to fill the few cast and crew positions available. The schedule caused a few changes but that is to be expected. We’ve been having different department talks also, weapons, vehicles, catering and more. We’ve added the Michigan Community College Association on board as a sponsor. Several more will be aligning their brands with our film. A Michigan story and it’s getting some great support from Michigan companies.
SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA – We are all very excited to see this movie release to the mass audience around the world. I had a great talk with our distributor. They are working on key art for the DVD and streaming release. We’re being told mid October for a release but that is not official yet. We are still working on our few technical tweaks. The theatrical release is closing with only one unpaid theatre so we’ll likely do our theatrical dispersement this coming week. I talked with some from our collaborating Foundation about the recent special theatrical encore in Algona. Again they expressed how happy they were with the final film and the reaction by the community. That is a big congrats to our entire cast and crew.
DEVELOPMENT – I had a great talk with our distributor over several points including the status of our current projects. We also talked about which projects are still moving with strong momentum and the few that could be made stronger with a bit of re-branding. In our biblical trilogy the 3rd film’s sales are lagging behind the first two. It is not the film itself and you could argue that after the experience of the first two, the 3rd may be the strongest production value. But the name itself which is completely on point (pun intended) is turning some away from a watch. THE CHRIST SLAYER has many themes to it and the title plays into one of the themes brilliantly. The distributor brass loves the title as we do but it could be losing some eyes due to the title. We are considering a title change on some platforms to see if it helps. We have another project that we want to change the key art on. We did that with MAN’S BEST FRIEND which was doing well but did even better after a new poster was created. The first was more artistic and the second more straight forward. Actually on the distributors streaming platform ENCOURAGE TV we are growing close to crossing our 2 million mark. Stop over and watch free with ads and you can be one of those helping to cross this mark.
I also had a great pitch meeting as we talked future collaborations. The WILD FAITH: HASTINGS tv series is still gaining momentum as sales are staying strong and growing. I had some talks also over SPIRIT LAKE MASSACRE looking to be our second film in Iowa. I have some talks over that project this week and we’ll see if we can move that forward on the development board. There was also some good development talks on a few genre projects and even a possible romantic comedy. Development can take anywhere from a year to years plural so you always have to be working it. I think that is one of the mistakes young filmmakers make is far underestimating the time it takes for certain tasks or processes. Patience isn’t a strong suit for many folks and so it makes it even more torturous.
WRAP UP AND RANDOM FINAL THOUGHTS-
This week we played a soccer match in some brutal heat and we lacked subs. The other team had a full squad show with a good supply of subs. At half we had held it all to a tie but second half they started to take advantage of cracks and lack of gas. That game left me so exhausted by soccer gear bag felt like 200 lbs. I was EXHAUSTED at the end of it but there are good things to be said about pushing yourself to those limits. I woke up the next day and felt pretty darn good. Day two a bit sore but by body is really adjusting to the grueling games. I love the competition and it really resets the mind and body.
The yard is in full grow with a daily picking of herbs, tomatoes and more. The chickens are kicking out the fresh eggs. The hops are all turning to cones and will be ready for picking in a few weeks. On that note- people have been really enjoying the Mexican-Style Chili beer. I’ll likely go to bottle with the ‘Rocking Rhubarb Wine’ in a few weeks also. People do really enjoy the handcrafted goods.
I also finished reading the book THE BOYS written by Ron and Clint Howard. It was all about their life growing up and how their parents helped navigate Hollywood after coming from small town farm community. For me it was spending a few moments with my old friend, co-star and mentor Rance Howard before bed each night. I think I’m going to write Ron and Clint a nice letter after finishing it. It was enlightening, inspiring and also made me very appreciative of my own journey. To bring it full circle, that is what my onset conversations did for me. I would not have had many of the adventures I did if not for my career path. Here’s to several more!
I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday morning. I’ll be ready to hit it hard tomorrow which includes an art department meeting. Weds is a directors meeting and Friday the producers meeting. Thursday will see our team back on the soccer pitch. On that note I see that Sweden beat the USA women’s team in a shoot out. That is how it sometimes goes. Congrats to Sweden! Thank you all for stopping by and I’ll look forward to chatting with you next week.
DJ Perry's Official Blog 'Clawing My Way to the Middle' 