Toasting Our Victories and Loses – The Weeks TOP TEN CDI Updates!
Good afternoon my friends. This morning we had my niece’s bday party at a nature center so you’re getting a later blog. I want to welcome our international readers from Thailand, Sweden, Ireland, China and more. I love how this circle of readers continues to grow. I want to start this blog with an RIP tribute to one tenacious business woman from NC Alaska Presley. She was the wife and partner with one of the creators of the legendary Ghost Town in the Sky theme park. This is only one of the many businesses she ran. And she had her interest diversified all over the country with different development real estate projects. At almost 100 years old, I always found her to be busy at work. Anyway, she passed two days ago and I just felt the need to recognize her. RIP Alaska. (Below on Ghost Town)
This week was full of several events that I’ll try to bullet point our TOP TEN here.
- Working backwards – we ended the week with several of the CDI Tribe going to the Capital City Film Fest mixer. I was able to see a few friends that I only really see that this event. We had a great time at the Ellison Brewery downing a few Amber Ales and toasting some of the recent CDI victories while meeting a few nice film folks.
- End of the week we were also notified of a major network interested in licensing MBF and WILD FAITH so we’re getting that around. WILD FAITH: Hastings has some great opportunities ahead and we’ll know about one of them this month. Pretty amazing but I’ve been party to “almost great” things on several occasions but fingers crossed.
- Easter is upon us and anyone who reads this who wants to help us – start by making the watching of THE QUEST TRILOGY a yearly thing. FORTY NIGHTS, CHASING THE STAR and THE CHRIST SLAYER will give you an inspirational feeling with perhaps a few new insights.
- BESTSELLER should start appearing for DVD pre-order and also promoting digital purchase for May 31st. I had someone ask me today if it was scary because they don’t do scary well. The answer is YES, very scary. So if that is not your cup of tea go watching one of the others.
- BEST YEARS GONE has marketing meetings this week as we get closer to this film also rolling out in DVD and digital purchase on July 5th! We are still looking at a few festival plays for fun.
- FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH signed its deal with Deskpop Entertainment and this past week our director Curran Jacobs, did some promotion at the NUWAY nationals. Thing doc on the history of grappling is starting to get a lot of attention. We are working on planning the right premiere.
- I spoke to our director on the music video we did for DEEPFALL and I’m hoping they release it soon so we can share it with all of you.
- SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA the teaser trailer is a few days behind schedule with our director being under the weather last week. It is close to being picture locked before off to music and sound design. The full first rough cut might also be making its way over today or tomorrow. I’m excited to see the story all laid out. This project has some very exciting days ahead of it.
- This past week we reviewed the agreement for the special blu-ray release of KNIGHT CHILLS. I’m also working on the streaming deal which will also have it being uprezed to HD. Lastly, the video game is moving forward and I’ve seen some really cool renders so far.
- HOT ROD LOVE – we’ve been in talks with investors and sponsors and working hard to pull this project together. I found a few cool pieces of 70’s wardrobe I might just have to groove on for my role in the film.
I also had a series of calls last week about possible CDI collaboration and associations. I’m in talks with Karl Manke who wrote “Hope From Heaven” that BEST YEARS GONE was adapted from. I found the next book of Karl’s I would like to make. We’ll see if that all comes together. We’re talking new promo for LOST HEART and a few of the films. I want to make sure we update the http://www.cdiproductions.com page. There is a lot of cool stuff on there. We won our soccer match last week and I even found the back of the net again. I’m excited to play this week. I got a bit of work down around the homestead. Sunk a new post for the guide rope across the bridge and chopped some wood. There is a lot more to get done but I’m happy with the progress thus far. I’m going to get out there and do a few things while it is sunny with no rain or snow. I hope you all had a great week and that your week ahead is even more productive.
Be good to one another. Coffee Cheers!
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
HAPPY Mother’s Day! Also CDI’S TOP 10 UPDATES (There are some good ones)
My first sips of hazelnut coffee on this Sunday morning. I’ve been recovering the last two days from my first of the season soccer matches. My legs are in good shape but not ready for the constant run and directional changes. Yesterday my legs were stiff and tad heavy giving me the ‘mummy’ walk – “COIN!” (Old Scooby Doo reference)
I had a very productive week on many fronts and I’m just so pleased with how everything is moving along. But before we get into all the film updates let take this moment to celebrate mommas. EVERYTHING I’ve done in this life I’ve done because I was brought into this world. Every story that started as a spark in my imagination and brought to screen is because of her. (Dad also had something to do with it:) But I’m just so appreciative that I was given this opportunity. We will have the moms over this afternoon for an early dinner. A few love gifts and a good meal. I LOVE you momma:) Happy Mother’s Day to all of you. That counts if you mother child or animal, so again – thank you to all the mothers for what you’ve done, are doing and will do because that is what mother’s do. LOVE.
Maybe let’s try a TOP TEN Updates
- FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH documentary is now in editing. We had a post meeting last week and we’ll even having a teaser trailer coming soon. This is about the history of the grappling arts and the evolution of “Catch” as told by those who love it the most. Hosted and directed by two time world champion Curran Jacobs. We have some great interviews. Big Kudos to Dan Chipman our mobile production and Adam Towner, B camera and post. This just might be the first of many documentary collaborations between #Tribecdi with The Red, White and Blue Project Inc. You can follow us on IMDB and Facebook as we have pages for both now.
- BESTSELLER – This “Hitchcock” like thriller adapted from the book by Christopher Knight has been signed for a new release campaign. This film stars Melissa Anschutz, DJ Perry, Ralph Lister, Taylor Nichols and Lana Wood. It has really only had a limited DVD release and so this new push will be much greater. It is R-rated (language and implied violence) but is done without being overly graphic. This film captures Michigan in the fall in all it’s haunting glory. I will have more info as we go but I believe the idea is a late summer/fall release!
- BEST YEARS GONE – the first pass on dialog clean up is complete. Last week our director and composer discussed music cues and even sound design ideas. Color Correction is happening as we speak along with the edit of our first official trailer. As if that wasn’t enough- we’re planning the premiere, manufacturing merchandise and more official stills are being prepped for delivery to our distributor (BMG) so they can begin poster art. Lotta fun ahead with this movie and I think audiences will really enjoy it. I need to add that the Battle of the Bands judging is underway by our team and celeb judges. We will be announcing a winner this month!
- LOST HEART is really a film that has a lot going for it. But to try and convey that via shelf art alone is hard. The film is a story is about music star Hannah Sweet going back to her home town for a funeral but the B story is the town of ‘Lost Heart’ itself. It started with fan mail before Christmas from men who had lost the remote and via wife/girlfriend and was made to watch ‘Lost Heart’ and really loved it. I recall one gent saying that he would have never watched that film except by his wife’s choosing. But he loved the Bigfoot, UFO (UFA?:) and humorous mystery in our story. In a meeting with our distributor I recall telling these stories after discussing the demographic audience that is being drawn to our story. A joke was mention that if the title was “Bigfoot, UFO’s and Jesus” the film would find its partially missing male demographic. Guys hanging out amongst themselves are unfortunately not going to randomly watch a film named ‘Lost Heart,’ which is a name I truly love. It was pointed out to me that a title like “Bigfoot, UFO’s and Jesus” would also attract more women who were equally into the mystery aspects, like my own cousin Angie. So I stand corrected. This GM release should add to our overall audience by revealing the wonderful B story of our film. It was a nice hidden gem inside our story but I think we need to be more direct. So a ‘General Market/GM’ campaign release is underway with a new title, poster art and trailer. I will share this new artwork at the end of this update. But I’m very excited because this film/story deserves to be seen by many, many, many more people from around the world. And so it will.
- WILD FAITH/HASTINGS – I want to do a polish up on the “Hastings” scripts for simple grammar mistakes but I had a few more connections start to open up on the WILD FAITH TV spin off. I’m excited to put that into play to shoot next year. I know the feature is growing an audience around the world and so the series would have a nice welcome audience.
- MBF/MAN’S BEST FRIEND – This film has been working its way into the marketplace. I was told a new deal was just executed taking the film into Latin America. I know it is making its way into territories around the world. The top two questions I get with this film 1) Will you do more martial arts filming? I do have a great concept that will eventually make it to script. 2) What was Paul’s sentence, will there be a sequel? Right now I like keeping Paul’s fate in limbo with audiences. Will there be a Part 2? Never say never. If you have not watched this film – watch it. If you have and enjoyed it, pass it along. Thank you to the many fans of this film out there.
- The Quest Trilogy (Forty Nights, Chasing the Star, The Christ Slayer) – A special message is spread across these three stories. Actually several lessons are presented and the way the story is told – everybody can take something positive away. The film series just ran through the holidays at Sony/Pureflix and again I so appreciate all the fan mail letting me know how much you enjoyed our stories. It is humbling and powerful what can be done with a story.
- SMOKE & MIRRORS – This early 1900 short tale is getting the final touches. Maybe we’ll cut some teaser in the coming weeks. It’s spooky. It’s kookie. Wait a minute! It’s a really fun little film that was derived from one of my feature script. This will make a great feature film. All in good time.
- SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA – We’re making great strides on all fronts. Last week we announced Garry Nation and David Reardon coming on board. Our German casting is almost complete. Discussions with the art departments has started in earnest as we prepare to create the world of 1944 Algona. This week we should start in on our sponsorship endeavors. We have a lot of excitement in these circles and we’re excited to align with these brands. To do what we do at these modest levels requires the assistance of the community and our sponsors. Thank you to all of those supporters past and present. And here is an additional cheers to our future ones! This week we should roll out two more of the great talent associated with this film. I’m beyond excited to tell this story. If your company or business wants to support this based on true events WW2 home front drama please reach out.
- TRIBE CDI – The biz of the biz, I had a VERY productive week working with Bank of America to streamline our fleet of films. All this is to help streamline our inner workings. This all can make a days work only a few hours. Also had a good meeting with another one of the team (Tiger) who oversees dispersement amongst a other things. We will be prepping some of those to go out in the coming weeks. Thank you. As you all support the films, we get to keep making the films. I’m excited to see in the next decade what stories are brought to life on screen! Thank you also to Dean Teaster (COO) and Gary Davison and his team. David Gries & Carl Weyant who maintain the website. #Tribecdi is not a catching hashtag it really does represent a tribe of artists and the business that supports it.
I just enjoyed a wonderful breakfast bagel with our own eggs and 4H bacon – so good. The yard is really looking good and the warmth is creeping into Michigan. I look forward to having many enjoyable meetings both business and social in the coming weeks. I’m going to end this here with some great new poster art for Lost Heart’s new general release. Be good to one another. Be safe and keep following your dreams.
Coffee Cheers!
DJ
PS: The new trailer is almost done and I really do love it. I could not stop smiling.
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
‘Lost Heart’ National PR, Location Scouting ‘Best Years Gone’ and More…
I’m sipping coffee from one of my artists amigos Jason Varhaus – cheers! This has been just a wonderful week of getting things done personally and with business. Where to start? First as always thank you to all of you from around the world who tune in weekly. If you know someone else who could benefit from following this blog do give them an invite.
LOST HEART is our next CDI film. The film has a national campaign underway with our distributor BMG. The film is going to have a unique virtual premiere on Nov 7th and they’ve added Nov 21st as an encore. This is perfect as on the 7th of November many of our crew and cast will be shooting our next film BEST YEARS GONE. The national PR has been lining up including the one of the top TV personalities Mike Huckabee will have Melissa Anschutz, Don Most and Victoria Jackson on his show. It will air Nov 14th and 15th. I know Victoria Jackson has been doing the Eric Metaxes show promoting the film and the list keeps growing. I did an interview this week with Isaac Hernadez for his show and will share that once it airs.
This past week we’ve had several meetings over our upcoming shoot for BEST YEARS GONE. One of the cool highlights was taking a walk out into the woods where an overgrown 1970’s racetrack still stood. We walked the entire track and imagined what it was like back in the day. Location scouting has been full ahead to help get our shooting schedule in place. I’ve been rehearsing and putting wardrobe together. Originally we were gonna shoot in April vs Nov so my wardrobe has to change slightly. This is exciting to be on the run up to filming.
THE QUEST TRILOGY (Forty Nights, Chasing the Star, The Christ Slayer) – the season is upon us as I was contacted by a German company wanting to license for Polish TV. This year our goal is to help people/companies realize that it is a TRILOGY of films. You can watch individually but there is a greater story at hand when you watch them all together. BMG is suppose to be cutting a new trilogy trailer so I will be excited to see that!
WILD FAITH – The movie keeps climbing with audiences and if everything goes right we should be filming the 8 show season one early next year. Audiences love the characters and the depth of the stories told so I think we can bring something really special. It was also shoot in Michigan and I can’t recall too many TV series filmed in our great state.
MBF: Man’s Best Friend – This fine story wins the most fan mail this week. I think MBF is a great word of mouth story. As people watch and enjoy it – it is recommended. Our theatrical and PR on this film was hampered by the shut down this year but audiences are still finding it. If you like the CDI storytelling this is one not to miss.
SMOKE & MIRRORS
This really cool poster was created by David Gries who also stars in the upcoming CDI short. It was created as a commercial product my taking a portion of my feature script and making a short. It is a great time period and is full of spooky and fun. It is in final post and we look forward to letting folks see it. It is also part of our package to get this movie launched as a feature with Nathaniel Nose (The Christ Slayer) directing.
FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH – Cameras have started rolling on this non-profit documentary film on the art of grappling. We’re in the planning stages for the next phase of shooting. If you want to give to a non-profit this year and be part of something great please do reach out. We have some great people and sponsors getting involved.
Of course we have more development going on but I think we’ve covered enough. Today we are putting ‘brick paint’ down on the porch. We have more garden veggies to harvest. I still need to rack the wine to my secondary. The chickens are getting bigger and loving their new home. I need to get to some wood cutting in this week which is always fun. I hope you all have a productive and fun-filled week. Until we meet again next week be good to one another.
DJ
DJ Perry's Official Blog 'Clawing My Way to the Middle' 