Let’s Talk Films, AI and Everything Else CDI
Good morning! It is a hot, humid morning here in the Michigan with little rain spurts adding to the warmth. I hope it doesn’t ruin the flea market down the road. I’ve been collecting props for the upcoming film. Outside the film world I’ve been adjusting to our soccer season being over. The growth on the property is getting wild again so I’ll have more tree trimming as a few wild branches are touching the siding. I’ve been harvesting some sage and mint and my hops just appeared overnight. From little hairs to little cones. I’ve used hops in my beer but also as a tea, tincture or tonic with apple cider vinegar. I love the chicory flowers and was pleased to read all the parts of the plant are edible. The roots roasted have been used as a coffee replacement or to extend the life of the coffee. I’ve also made a few Pioneer Pine sodas which is basically pine needles and sugar and the yeast creates a bubbling Sprite-like treat high in Vitamin C. Old timers use to drink it to fight off scurvy. One of my favorite home improvements is a new lamp that hangs over my cozy chair where much reading is done. Super stylish in a 60’s vibe and I got it at a sale for $5.00. It looks and works great. SCORE!
CDI FILM UPDATES:
DEVIL’S PASS – We have all our main crew and all but one cast member and we’re in talks over that role. I’ve been collecting props and getting ready for our art team meeting this week. Last week I had almost two full days drafting agreements for cast and crew. All departments have been working steadily along. I’m happy to say that I am minus one huge beard and I’ve had my facial hair trimmed into my character’s look. Now to learn to maintain it and soon a few dress rehearsal. This week we have the pre-mentioned art meeting. We have insurance meetings, final lodging and we’ll start looking at catering. Dane DeFord and Tony Hornus have been lining up some great production value for the film. Wardrobe has been reaching out and getting in step with our talent. It is going to be a fun film adventure. I love when we bring all these artists together for a short run and capture what we need to edit our story together. I am appreciative to each and every artist involved.
WILD FAITH CHRISTMAS – This beautiful film is going to be up for multiple awards at the RED LETTER AWARDS at the end of the month. In October a small group of us will be representing the film at the WILL ROGERS AWARDS. The marketing on this film will start in earnest as we get a touch closer to the home video release date which is 11/3/2026. I encourage everyone to watch or rewatch the original WILD FAITH. I have also been working on the WILD FAITH 3 script and can focus more attention on it come October once we have filmed DEVIL’S PASS. That said I still love writing here and there when I get tired of working numbers.
ROM COMS MUST DIE – This film has the DVD’s on pre-order for the 10/2/2026 home video release date including streaming. We are having a fun brew and view showing in Lansing, MI on Friday August 28th at the place formerly THE LOFT now THE STUDIO AT 313. $10 at the door which opens at 6:30 and the film starts at 7:30. This dark comedy is about the frustrations of being an artist. I think MANY people will relate to this film if you are an artist. The main characters might have went a little far but that is the comedy of it all. Adam Towner and I will be there and so will other cast and crew members to enjoy the film. There is a chance that Shane Hagedorn might book a few theatrical venues but much of that depends on the theaters schedule.
AI JESUS: The Secret of the Kingdom Chip – This movie has been delivered to both theatrical and home video. I will be getting some updates soon on both. This film is a lighthearted look at the possible good, bad and ugly of AI and the impact it could have. I have a story and a few thoughts on AI which I will share in the wrap up. I think this film will make you laugh and think. I’ve said before as a writer I like to tackle serious subjects even if it walks up to the line of uncomfortable and let the audience off with humor. Some amazing performances in this film for sure. More soon… There is a mild tie in to THE QUEST TRILOGY films so I invite you to watch FORTY NIGHTS, CHASING THE STAR and THE CHRIST SLAYER in that order.
DEVELOPMENT:
The lead film on the development track is RETURN TO ALGONA the follow up to SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA. I’m happy to say we took a few more steps on the funding of this film this past week. We also have a few major sponsors and product partners we are once again looking into. The first film had HERSHEY, HORMEL, SMITHFIELD FOODS, IOWA BANK just to name a few. The film takes place in 1968 and will be a blast to film preserving this important part of history.
WRAP UP:
So a great friend of mine who is an actor and hall of fame magician recently published a book that he had previously written. I’m guessing it is about getting ahead in the magic game. He created a book cover using AI to save scarce funds and keep the cost of the book down I’m guessing. But there is an entire group of people who are in denial of the AI integration. By that I mean if you use any software, apps, searching you are likely using AI. When a writing program anticipates your sentence and gives you a short cut like my WordPress is now. People will LOSE jobs in certain fields as technology advances. But I find it ironic that if a small film company whips out a flier for casting and use AI some people will boycott it. The actors that don’t boycott it LOVE it, the competition just got less. But my friend got messages to go kill himself because of using AI to make a book cover, what? We use AI to do concept art to look at an actor imaging certain hair cut or wardrobe. I know people have used it to just see what they would look like with this style or another. Yes. Some concept artists (only hired at the highest level) have lost work. Voice over, actors and the list goes on. But drones removed the risk and cost of hanging a DP outside a helicopter. The change to digital away from film put labs out of work. Film stock, records LP’s, VHS, DVD, BluRay, HD, streaming – PROS and CONS. Concept artists might learn to prompt AI increasing the turn around time for their art. Digital backs up footage immediately versus the risk of mailing footage, processing, storage. I have boxes of raw 35 mm footage taking space. You cannot stop the future. You can roll with it. I miss many of the old school ways of doing things. My first scripts were on typewriters. I bet typewriter sales are way down now. You have to take the good with the bad. Our cars. Our houses. Music I hear is like 65% AI driven now. Autotune was a CON to singers who could really sing. VIDEO PLAYBACK is taking power from referees in sports games. I could go on and on but you can choose to use it or not. If someone made a Garage Sale sign with AI and printed you boycott. The scoutmaster who makes a flier for a Pinewood Derby you tell him to kill himself? You don’t have to like it but keep yourself in check. Chances are if you are against it you are a hypocrite because you likely used AI to type your mean spirted message. I like the technology when it makes something safer.
I’m off my soapbox now. I’m going to see if the rain lets up allowing a flea market visit. I hope you all have a wonderful week and get many productive things done. I was missing a few of my friends recently passed away. I was looking for some prop badges and found a bottle of whiskey that Dr. Greg Zivic and I injured last time he was at the fort. We ended with a musical jam with him on the bongo drum and me on guitar. I miss him. I miss many of my dear family and friends now at rest. And I think it is a great honor to keep living and trying to spread happiness with our stories. So try to live with less anger and more joy. You absorb what you manifest so be kind to yourself too. Give yourself grace. A happy Sunday to you all. Coffee Cheers! DJ
Casting and Crewing Updates -Plus Talks on Seeking Balance in an Unbalanced World
(In 2023 Tribe CDI will be storytelling in the 1920’s)
I’m happy to report some sunshine this morning in the mid-Michigan after several days of clouds and rain. It is still chilly but the warmth is coming and I see birds making nests and buds starting to sprout. The cloudy cold and on-going rain was conducive for my desk work I needed to get done. We concluded a few weeks of polishing on our Harsens Island Revenge script. It was adapted from a book of the same name and the difference is a more condensed version where you try to show more versus tell more. Dialog was strengthened, removing lazy or lingo that wasn’t befitting the time period. The opening of the film that starts in WW1 was adjusted to match talks with the art department and our director.
I also was able to finish some developmental work on an epic 1800’s tale that tells of the conflict between the Iowa settlers and the resisting Lakota Sioux. We are now starting finance talks and we’ll see if we can get this story off the ground. I just finished watching a mini series on Amazon Prime called THE ENGLISH that had some of the same tone in beauty and brutality. The last Iowa-based project took North of a decade to bring to the screen. Our hope is that this one might be a little sooner.
(SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA – COMING to home video later this year!)
Speaking of that last Iowa-based film, SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA– it has played theatrically non-stop since it premiered Dec. 9th and this past week we had even more theaters reach out to book the story. But even more exciting news is that our home video deal is signed with Bridgestone Multimedia Group, who has done a wonderful job getting our other films out to the world. We’ll do some PR on this in the coming week. We’ll have until the beginning of May to get all our materials delivered and once approved they will assign hard release dates for the fall release to DVD, TV and streaming. Foreign sales talks will start even sooner and we are excited to share this story will millions around the world. In the meantime, if you get a chance to see it on the big screen do treat yourselves. I’m thrilled to hear that classrooms of children are watching the film. There are many lessons that history can teach us.
(The power of casting – much care was taken in the casting of our Germans)
Back to our Harsens Island Revenge film – we’ve added several great actors to the cast. Randy Spence takes on a dynamic role. Ian Griffin will once again loan his talents to our story and this week we’ll be adding Josh “the Ponceman” Perry who is always a joy. We also started reaching out to a few MI agencies looking for a few roles. A wheelchair bound stroke victim, a young lady 7-10 who plays young and a few others. We’ve also received some great reach out reels from some actors and we’ll be discussing them more. While the actual island will be featured, we will be shooting most of the scenes at another small coastal town that fits our needs on set and off set. We’ll be going on our second location scout end of this month to lock in locations we found and seek that final locations required.
(Scouting in Iowa for SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA)
Last film had us aligned with several great sponsor and partnerships, some worldwide like Hershey, Smithfield Foods and Hormel. We have started talks with some new potential local sponsors. I love to see local, regional, National and worldwide companies all come together. If you want to have your company or business included please do reach out.
Our crew is getting close to a full boat only missing a few folks which we’ll find in good time here. I’m beyond excited to tell this story and the enthusiasm of our team makes it all the better.
MISC.
- We will be doing a PR announcement about the Knight Chills 25th Anniversary Blu Ray release. We are going to have some new interviews from some of the main cast about this experience long ago. A few have been hard to track down. And some might have gotten a red rose and won’t be participating. Damn Sir Kallio!
- IN THE WOODS, is also going to get the anniversary Blu Ray release. This was my first starring role in a feature film and this new release might contain some new scenes. The film was re-transferred from the film stock (Yes, we use to shoot film:) and will be remastered. I think I mentioned that in addition to new swag like the cool Making of ‘In the Woods’ book on Amazon- other cool things are in the works like action figures.
- I have another Ron Knauss audio book from his FOR GENERATIONS TO COME series to record narration for and this week I’ll look to get that done. If you love history, this is a great series of books and audio books.
- We do have a few other films from the CDI library being prepared for new releases. It all just takes time.
- FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH 2 foundation paperwork is almost complete. Director Curran Jacobs is working on the outline. Also a new teaser poster should be coming soon. Exciting stuff!
WRAP UP:
I feel so bad for the people this past weekend affected by the tornado and storms. Some lost their lives and others all their belongings and homes. Mother Nature can be brutal. I’m looking forward to gathering with some of the #tribeCDI at the Capital City Film Festival mixer later this week. It is a great time to stop and just be in the presence of artists and filmmakers working towards their dreams. It is such a great event to have for those struggling to have their work seen. It has really grown over the years and some congrats to all their staff.
I’m going to finish this up here and get to a few other Sunday activities. With the sun shining outside and it getting warmer, I look forward to some yard work this week. As the cold gives way the need for firewood is lessening. But that means more splitting and letting it season for next winter’s chill. I want to replace the compost bin which is in bad shape after several years duty. I’ll be looking at quotes for a few projects around the premises. I saw a small greenhouse yesterday that I just loved.
In our meeting last week I think will drank the last of the Frankenberry Wine. I have the needed materials to do a run of beer and I might even have enough random rhubarb and berries for another wine run. Our chickens have been back to egg producing which is what I just ate in my small break in my writing. I love doing all these side things in nature as they help give balance.
(Rance Howard – he saw much change in his lifetime – I miss our talks)
BALANCE:
Balance – That was a main discussion in one of our meetings this past week. That should be the goal everyday for everyone. Extreme ideology has people thinking that you need to dominate others to win. To me that is a miss. We all have things important to us, our priorities. Just like others have their priorities, important to them. For one group to have everything, means another will be at a loss. But good citizenship is giving up some priorities for the good of others. Your fellow Americans. To strike a balance, whereas you may have a different ordering of your priorities compared to your neighbor, friend or family. In love you can support things outside your priority list.
I think more of us are moderate and hold middle ground with our beliefs. I don’t think you can put people in a box and call them just one thing. We all have those things/priorities that mean something to us but that doesn’t solely define us. I go into every conversation knowing I could be wrong. Knowing if I listen, I might learn something new. The emptying of the cup allows this. There’s a great strength in that ability. The loudest voices in the room seldom reflect the wisest voices. Sometimes the quiet one, who will not shout or yell over someone, has the truest point of view. They listen. They discuss in a friendly, open manner not an aggressive condescending tone. Respectful communication breeds new understanding and ultimately balance. Seek balance and you will find happiness.
Be good to one another. Disagree. But be good to one another. I have things I agree and/or disagree with but none are worth losing the laughter and cherished friendships I have. The world is changing and we cannot stop that. But we can control how we live and act during a time of change. Women now can vote and show off more than their ankles in public. Segregation had its day and is now gone. Military animals such as horses and dogs were once deemed only Govt. property and destroyed once service ended. Change is inevitable and can be good. Change is hard, but many things worthwhile are. I can barely keep up with technology on a good day. I miss things from the good ole’ days but I’m proud that some good ole’ ways we’ve moved past.
I have no real point to all this reflective pondering only to ask you to ponder these things on your own. Not what anyone tells you to believe but your own sincere thoughts. I’m aware of all the wild speculations out there and some contain a grain of truth inflated to unbelievable levels. Conspiracy was a fun thing we pondered as kids but to see it everywhere in everything becomes a sickness. It takes away your balance. If you have balance you can respond to actual events and regain your balance when something effects it. But to live in fear is an imbalance. What is the old saying that anticipation of death is worse than death itself. The human race has been brutal and beautiful to one another. That is likely why people are afraid of AI – if our actions and deeds are evaluated and judged that could be scary because we fail as often as we succeed. I will seek to live in balance. I will seek to know thyself and understand others. We’re not a perfect nation because the human race is not perfect but we are a good example of a society striving for balance. We have a long way to go but it starts with individuals.
Happy Sunday to you all!
DJ
DJ Perry's Official Blog 'Clawing My Way to the Middle' 