LOST HEART trailer updates, tv series and more…
I bet Yuma, AZ is a tad warmer…
Good morning to you all from the frigid Michigan. We were teased by a few really nice days and I have to say I’m ready for spring. I love snow and find it beautiful. I love the state of cozy and community it creates. A fire. A warm beverage. Reading, writing, socializing – all good things to do when it is frozen outside. Oh, maybe watch a movie or two:)
So I was looking up the PR release from last week on our new CDI film “BEST YEARS GONE” which I want to apologize and I’ve made a correction to the PR. The book that will be released will be called HOPE FROM HEAVEN. I had HOPE FOR HEAVEN listed because that was a title consideration at one time. They had to go to print before we had talked with our distributor and settled upon a name. So my apology there and we’ll do a great spotlight on the author and publisher when we get close to the book release. Here is the link to the release.
FIRST ‘BEST YEARS GONE’ PR
We’ve also been talking to some of the keys and working on casting with the few talent holes we have. It’s always fascinating how a film changes and shifts and falls into place. We’re close to starting a roll out on our cast PR. But our next PR likely coming this week is the announcement of our director. I’m excited because the 1st choice for director on this one was immediately interested. We’ll have many of the CDI acting troupe and some new faces as well. Look for an IMDB page and our social media FB page but in the meantime http://www.cdiproductions.com will also be a place that will start hosting updates. This will be a Michigan film and roll cameras in May, finishing before Memorial Day.
MBF: MAN’S BEST FRIEND – I received more fan mail from this film. It just always puts a smile on my face to hear from veterans, families of veterans and lovers of dogs. The film digs in deep to the heart and really makes to feel and think. We had a local case of dog abuse in our area and some were outraged at the light sentence. A frustrated 20 year old with anger issues. It really makes the ‘Paul Landings’ blood in me to bubble. There is just no excuse and I hope things will get better in light of harsher sentencing. And I sincerely hope my path doesn’t cross with such a person in the act or…well… PLEASE do check the film out. It will also start playing some festivals and events in the coming months. If you don’t want to wait get your DVD or stream it on Amazon or any number of retail and streaming platforms.
LOST HEART – I’m just so excited for everyone to get a first look at the movie. DVD artwork is underway and by the end of next week we should have a first trailer. I might tease it here next Sunday for an official launch the following week. We’re in discussions on some possible theatrical, which is not always the way to go. We do have interest in some exclusive licensing also which is always good. I think all the artists will be excited to be associated with this funny and moving story.
THE QUEST TRILOGY – For those looking for a nice thought provoking series of stories, our trilogy might be just for you. FORTY NIGHTS, CHASING THE STAR and THE Christ Slayer. Take a watch this holiday season on the run up to Easter.
WILD FAITH – A deal to develop the spin off TV series ‘Hastings‘ has been agreed to and we’ll be getting some paperwork around. If all goes according to plan we would be shooting season 1 first part of 2021. I hope this does all gel as it would be good for the state on a whole and give many opportunities. I’ll refrain from getting my cart before the horse and stay quiet on this until we put ink to paper. I know that many have been enjoying the film on TUBI free with ads. Wal-Mart and several retailers and still carrying DVDs. Watch it. Own it – today!
CDI CLASSICS/MERCHANDISE – We’re working to package up some of the earlier CDI films and make those available. We’re also working on CDI merchandise. The GHOST TOWN tee-shirts have been popular with people. Let me hear what you all are thinking. If you have a company that retails feel free to reach on on licensing also.
This week I have personal taxes on my list. I’ll also keep all the TO DO’s moving right along. Paperwork needs to be put under certain deals. I also met with some of my advisors over a management deal. I think I have to roll into that slow so it doesn’t effect everything else in motion. So I’ll be putting a counter proposal together and see if we can do some business. Enjoy the last of your weekend and have a great week ahead. I’m going to leave you with this cool pic. Artist/filmmaker Nathan Quinn has been hanging at the fort and having music time. He enjoys snapping randoms and what he does with them is quite amazing. Again I’m amazed by the artists in our state. While at an estate sale this weekend I picked up some great books and one DVD film, Fairview Street by fellow Lansing artists Michael McCallum. Keep creating and I’ll talk at you all next week.
Some graphic design by artist Nathan Quinn
Hazelnut coffee cheers!
DJ
The Christ Slayer Cometh and More…
The great melt is underway here in Michigan. After record setting cold we are now getting an influx of warm air and the white world is giving way to browns and greens. The squirrels are out and about and I’m looking to see if one of the injured in the neighborhood survived the arctic blast. Something had attached it and it was visible injured but he was getting by. He was in a nearby tree as the worst of the snow blast hit us. We even but a box out with cloth and some food but he seems to have made it back to his hidden hole. I’m cheering for him to survive. I want to thank our new readers from Ireland. Let’s take a sip of coffee and see what happened this past week.
THE CHRIST SLAYER – we’ve entered into the season of The Christ Slayer and I could not be happier. We had a delay by a day with our digital purchase site on Amazon. The upload failed during the storms but is now up minus the artwork.
Amazon rent/buy digital:
For those who love to collect like myself – the DVD pre-order link:
https://www.amazon.com/Christ-Slayer-Josh-Perry/dp/B07MG14J9H
On Christian Cinema:
s://www.christiancinema.com/digital/movie/the-christ-slayer
DOVE REVIEW
https://dove.org/review/15069-the-christ-slayer/
One of my favorite reviewers is Matt Page out of the UK
BIBLE BLOG REVIEW
https://biblefilms.blogspot.com/search/label/Quest%20Trilogy
If you want the film to play theatrically in your area please contact
https://mycinema.live/contact?subject=I%20would%20like%20to%20book%20%27THE%20CHRIST%20SLAYER%27
Stay tune for more info as this movie keeps rolling out.
WILD FAITH
We’ll be moving into more promotion on this wonderful film starting with the movie going back into theaters. Shane Hagedorn just did a great podcast that we’ll be sharing along with new reviews.
The theatrical set up is underway and soon I hope to have what cities it will play in soon. Same thing on The Christ Slayer for the Easter event screenings.
MBF: Man’s Best Friend – It sounds as if we are about done with a first cut. They are adding some transitional drone shots and tweaking it. I hope to see the cut by the 15th of Feb so we can lock up the picture and move into music and sound design.
DEVELOPMENT:
We’ve had several talks/meetings with possible directors on our next film LOST HEART. We’ve also been casting for several months and we’ll start to announce some of those talents. We’re targeting to shoot in April in Northern Michigan. It all depends on how fast the business can all be pulled together. That said, the LOI to distribute is in place and we already have some financial commits.
It is serious work to try and match the right project up with the right director. It is also a creative marriage between individuals for several years. So it is not something we take lightly. And sometimes we discover people that might not direct our next film but could be in line for something else in the future.
In a meeting Saturday if was said that the Michigan film community is small and everyone knows one another. I disagreed as when I first started the film community in Michigan was SMALL, SMALL, SMALL and you did know almost everyone. The Michigan community now is actually MUCH larger and I can say that I don’t know that many people in our community. I know some but not all and I don’t have time to meet everyone. I’m friends with film makers worldwide and I guess I know who I know. I don’t have the time to knock around the state at every mixer or function. I have an endless TO DO list but I guess being busy is a good thing. But I believe we meet the people we are meant to meet. I’ve noted before I’m open to select collaboration and work on projects as talent if the project is solid and has funding.
Aside from all this I have been doing the business taxes for the end of the year. What fun all that is:) It is part of the whole so I’ve been smiling and making my way through it. It keeps making the ship more organized and we’ll take that forward into the future.
Have a wonderful day and keep working hard to achieve your goals and dreams.
DJ
NEW Releases and 2018 Updates
2018 is underway and I’ve been spending my energy on several projects. The end-of-the-year taxes for our business ventures is a yearly endeavor. We’ve got a good start and will look to have everything submitted to our firm next week.
Also working to launch the new Collective Development Inc. website. Merchandise and streaming services will be some of the new phase 2 and phase 3 additions.
Wild Faith’s Ben Lily says, Soon we gonna tickle the snake and rattle the wagon
Wild Faith
This week we have a final watch through in studio with our color correction and audio mix. I’m excited to have a few more conversations on the TV series. But we’ll be meeting this week about the premiere and theatrical roll out. Here is the new theatrical trailer for the film. I’m really excited about the film and think audiences will enjoy it.
NEW “2018 Wild Faith Trailer”
Staying in the period – the re-release of WICKED SPRING is underway. I have been working with the distributors team. They have chosen one of my favorite pics for the cover. The new transfer looks strong and they’ve been mixing and cleaning using some of the newest tools. I’m excited to get this film back to market and available to the streaming digital crowd. I’m in hopes that they will be cutting a new trailer. We will see in the coming weeks.
Another film just released is a CDI associated animated project “The Patchwork Girl of OZ” which is a children’s tale based on the original book and illustrations. It is now on Vimeo On Demand and will be coming to Amazon and other platforms.
RENT/BUY HERE: Vimeo
MBF (Man’s Best Friend)
We’re still fighting to get all our investor paperwork signed and funds in the bank. We’ve still got a few units to have spoken for so ongoing discussions with investors will continue this month.
Meanwhile we have announced more of our cast. These are first-time film talents that will be working with us. Read about it below…
READ THE NEW PR HERE:
The Quest Trilogy
As Easter approaches our distributor will start to push “Forty Nights” part 1 of the trilogy. The three films together tell their own story. Part 2 “Chasing the Star” had a great holiday run and it is still a wonderful adventure tale to watch at any time of the year.
DOVE Review of “Forty Nights”
http://www.dove.org/review/11756-40-nights/
DOVE Review of “Chasing the Star”
http://www.dove.org/review/12404-chasing-the-star/
At the end of the month we will be releasing the poster and theatrical trailer for the third film in the trilogy “The Christ Slayer” so that is being worked on. Music and sound design plotting has begun and it will be awesome to see the audio come to life behind the visuals.
I’m not going to ramble on too much here. Lot’s of development and post work ahead. I hope you’ve all had a wonderful start to your 2018.
Making Beer & Wine/Films Releasing in the Springtime
What a great week it was both personal and professional. I have to say that seeing plants start to grow and the warmth slowly creep over the land has been a positive and uplifting thing. I do love winter but this one was pretty intense. I had a chance to do some yard clean up. We’ve got plans to get the patio rocking this year also getting the pond going. Taxes both company and personal are submitted so that is off the plate. This week should have me becoming an Uncle which is an exciting thing. I have 6 gal. of beer brewing which I’ve called STAN REED’S SUMMER BREW. It is named after my character in the spring break movie TANGY GUACAMOLE. I’ve also got everything for my Banana/Coconut wine and that will be put into play very soon. So I’ve about drained the hazelnut coffee and I’m ready to throw you all a few new updates.
ASHES OF EDEN – This week has been watch-overs on the final version looking for tweaks here and there to be made before it all gets mastered out. We have one final watch/listen again on Tuesday of the stereo mix version. We spotted 5 or 6 improvements and those are being made as I type. The excitement by the masses is growing with record-setting ticket sales topping 500+ in only a few days. We could have close to a 1,000 people ready to watch the local showing. I hear that we will have several of our out-of-state stars coming in as well. If you are in the Michigan area and you want to be part of this showing go to the Capital City Film Festival site. Tickets are only $5 through the festival. I’m looking forward to telling this story to the masses. From there we will start talks with the interested distributors.
BESTSELLER should be close to a locked edit by month’s end. We should also be releasing the 1st trailer about that time. I’m excited by the preview because it really did capture the essence of the original story.
DONORS, the thriller we helped produced out of Yuma, AZ will have its first local showing on May 24th. There is a good chance that we may be in the area shooting on another feature. That is a HINT and if things go as planned I would look for an announcement around Easter.
REALIZISM a great short film that I acted in for Mitch Nyberg will play also on April 13th at the Grand Rapids Film Festival. Check out their site for times.
Several of the CDI films are in talks for additional Network and foreign licensing and I’m confident that we will have several releases to inform you of very soon. I’m going to keep it short but let me see if I can give any insights pulled from this week of business.
My advice would be to invest of yourself and your time wisely. If a project is going to be sub-quality or never be seen by any audiences beyond a few fest crowds why do it. If you need to build a resume and hone your skills – sure. But if you are established, which can be hard to do, do not kill your worth by taking on projects that are not worthy. Value yourself.
Have a great weekend.
DJ
CDI Film News from Cold Michigan
Beautiful snow ?- Yes it is. But the cold is biting like a winter wolf and I think even the Yeti’s are huddling up for warmth. I had a strong week of business whereas I still have to continue to have patience. I did a lot of gathering of information for 2013 taxes for CDI. I still have to dive into my own but that has become more of a system. I had many great meetings last week with different key people in our organization. Development is happening all over the board and I’m curious to see what project will come out on top. Some are small films and some are studio/network projects – and all are important.
CDI Distribution has some new talks underway with networks, studios and foreign companies and I’m confident that we will be making some new deals here shortly. I had good meetings with old partners and potential new partners.
I’m very pleased to announce that “Bestseller” has moved firmly into editing and we are well into the rough edit with Chad Ice, our editor. PR on that went out this week.
There will be new updates coming on “Ashes of Eden” that is in final scoring as we speak. After that it will be a watch through and mix on the entire film.
We have had more interest from distributors in both of these films. We will see who presents the best offer but I’m excited to bring these to audiences.
On the acting front I just took a read on a project in Miami that would have me playing a cop. I will have to wait and see how negotiations roll on this film but I liked what I read of the book. It’s a very gritty story in a TRAINING DAY sort of vibe.
I think we are getting closer to SOUL EATER and perhaps another biblical story where I’m slated to play a Roman military man. Also development continues on the western which may or may not transition to a TV series for a network. I also had a comment on “Race to Judgment” the follow-up to “An Ordinary Killer” – I can say that work is being done on it. I will hold any other comments until something becomes more solid.
I’ve got a full week ahead as we conclude Jan. and so I wish each and every one of you a productive week. Stay safe if you are on the snowy roads and keep warm.
Keep Clawing Your Way To The Middle!
DJ
