Deceleration Into Home Life- Basking in the Afterglow of Filming
Greetings to everyone out there. I’m really feeling good. I’ve come home to a true fall festival. The final harvests are underway. Rainy and cold I’ve already had several fires in the wood stove. I’ve had several wonderful conversations with cast, crew, sponsors, location owners and random folks associated with our last film Harsens Island Revenge around that fire. I feel like a bunch of returning vikings that sailed off across the sea on a wonderful adventure. Some are in the desert, some the jungle, the mountain and the rugged shores of Thunder Bay. I do miss the sound of the crashing waves and seabirds. The community was amazing like many have had the pleasure to call home for a while when filming. Yuma, Algona, White Hall, Hastings…we energize and bring communities to life via storytelling. I’ve seen the artistic fires ignite and burn bright with people we’ve met. The #CDItribe keeps growing!
Tony Hornus with our new sound team Travis and Cody!
Our set problems encountered were few due to great prep work by the team leaders and the reward was great with each day’s footage being the gold. I saw so many crew members inspired by the performances and the actors were inspired by the world created by the hard working crew. Debriefing is and has always been fun. We as producers debrief daily on set, sharing issues or victories of the day, prepping for upcoming needs and wants. Daily issues are discussed and via order of business tasks are handled. Port-a-johns, pontoon boat, military base clearance and the ‘to do’ list goes on. Hundreds of things happening behind the scenes and the goal always is to TCB (Like Elvis) in a non-distracting way. Aside from trouble shooting there is just the flow -Prepping payroll, paying payroll and accounting payroll: show+biz = motion picture production
Don Most takes his third journey with CDI. Quality talent continues to be drawn to our stories and I love the range and diversity that talent can showcase. I can promise you that this man in the middle brings a powerful performance to the film. It reminds me of when Rance Howard was excited about playing the Devil in the three biblical films. He was often cast as the good this or the good that so to play ‘the bad guy’ was a great thrill. Also it was great fun for the Howard clan who had not seen Rance with a beard in many years. I’m proud of all the performances and I think every actor will be proud to have participated in this movie. Follow our movie Facebook page as we are rolling cool pics out daily. Kind of inspired by trading cards of old we’ll be rolling them out. BTS, Officials, black and whites, intro to the militia and Purple Gang. Fun stuff! Check us out. Also we’ll be end of year updating the http://www.cdiproductions.com website. There is lots of cool stuff on our site about our creative group and our endeavors.
I have worked to settle back in until we take the next CDI adventure. That means props and craft service stuff goes back into storage. I think we are close to being at a stage or acquiring an enclosed trailer to store all the CDI stuff like tables, chairs, coffee makers, tents. Now with a growing transportation department I think we might be able to grow that. I’m very excited about this last production because we ran about 95% efficiency. It is hard to control that final 5% variable you can just react to it. But even next to Algona it was an easier shoot. But Algona was much winder and colder. That alone drains a cast and crew and putting up lights and flags in heavy winds becomes problematic. But the weather really was perfect with the cold front hitting on the last night showing us what we had missed. We’re just so excited about what we captured in Alpena. We will continue that tradition of great stories.
Today Marv Chickering who runs the Nativity Scene Museum in Algona, was gifted the beautiful RED LETTER AWARDS that the film received for best screenplay and best film. They will hang the pair of awards in the museum. SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA was made to showcase that towns beautiful story from 1944. That story can be seen by everyone on Dec 1st 2023 on Amazon Prime, Encourage TV and many other streaming platforms. Once I get a list I’ll announce that. Again follow our Facebook site for a lot of great updates on this beautiful film. I look forward to hearing the feedback which if matches the theatrical it will be well received.
I see that several thousand of you have watched THE PATCHWORK GIRL OF OZ – thank you!
KNIGHT CHILLS– While organizing in the office I got to truly enjoy the HD version of the film. I could see the cracks of a 10k production budget and 10k post production budget in the 90’s. I enjoyed the documentary about the films place in the history of horror films. I love the editing they did around the interviews. Overall just a real joy. I’ll be reaching out to the distributor next week. We’re talking some expansion merchandise. I want to again say how much I love the Tom Miller fan art.
Knight Chills Blu Ray can be bought on many major outlets starting Oct 30th, 2023. If role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons is your jam, check it out. CDI first feature released 22 years ago and filmed 25 years ago. Lots going on with this franchise.
DEVELOPMENT – Lots of development thoughts and talks underway. We discussed this last week and I’m not going to go deep on this topic yet. We have several projects in development and we’ll see what synergy is created. I love the fall/winter as a time to birth ideas and new stories from my imagination.
(Axel, wardrobe test)
END OF WEEK THOUGHTS– My mind has already plotted out all the additional steps we need to take in post and once our clean up is completed we’ll be single focused on the post process. Many are feeling that deceleration sickness of riding on that artistic high for weeks traveling with so many and suddenly being solo and returning back to the quiet. I’m looking forward to my many meetings next week. Past, present and future all mixed into the journey. Proud of where I’ve been and what I’ve done and of now I’m doing. And always looking forward to what we will do in the years ahead. Plans have to be made ahead of time as these movies don’t always move fast. But we have many awaiting to see what the new stories and adventures will be. So am I. So I’ll keep on moving forward and we’ll see what happens. It has been nice to put Harsens Island Revenge’s Axel out to the island. I lived with him for quite some time and I love how he came out. I’m a happier person than Axel and so I’m happy to be back to 100% me. It is funny that I really don’t feel the urge to dress up and become on Halloween anymore. I get my fill of that with my acting roles. I don’t know what is next and that too is kind of exciting. Until next week!
Coffee Cheers!
DJ
Jesse Low, Nathaniel Nose, producer Anthony “Tony” Hornus, Bret Miller 
It has officially moved into editing with our director Nathaniel Nose and we should have theatrical poster and teaser trailer coming soon.
‘Wild Faith’ Feedback & More…
I’m sitting in my big leather chair by my electric fire – The Candleberry Candle and sipping the hazelnut coffee. I’ve got sleeping dogs around me happy to have me back into the fold of the pack.
Shane Hagedorn rolling with the Collective Development OG’s:)
I’ve just returned from running with another pack of artists filmmakers creating an 1800’s action drama. I can honestly say it was some of the best fun I’ve had in many years. It reunited me with many friends and artists some that worked together last in this genre a decade ago.
Production Designer Jen Raine & Art Director Austin Two Feathers
It introduced me to a slew of new artists who I think appreciate the Collective Development Inc. approach and take to filmmaking. We use to do this as children for free – the make-believe. And now to pay people to create that same fun but with bigger toys and doing it day after day until we get our puzzle pieces. I got to observe seasoned film warriors work side by side with what will be the next generation of film warriors. I saw people realize that within a powerful problem solving group strong art can be born. I saw people forget past dealings with others and give us a chance to be a positive experience. I’m developing key crews and key to me starts with a 100% positive attitude. You can make several mistakes giving your best effort and from me you will get mentoring and compassion. That positive attitude is hard for many to keep in this industry – you don’t have to dig far to hear the horror stories. I’m a person who dislikes having my time wasted, who does? I’ve got several ways I can waste my own time and still enjoy it – I don’t need waste imposed upon me. I do shun people who purposely waste my time with unreasonable. Do I have any examples to help illustrate? Perhaps…
A mix of acting talent on set #wildfaith
THE BAD
One acting role in our recent film underwent several discussions before falling to a very talented, 200% positive (through the roof) ready for success gent. The first major look came by association – one of our producers had worked with this person. A read that was strong and a direction was set – but full disclosure of a change in residence lost this person the role.
Another option – a young hopeful gives a good read but ultimately has no vehicle. I’m not judging, but as an actor I can say that a phone and car are the two things you need to thrive in our smaller regional market.
Opportunity knocks again – As a talent when you get a call from a company that based on your previous work wants to hire you again – slam dunk? Not quite – instead of an easy transaction of business someone suggests a string of silly actions – not anything a production in pre-production can or will handle. It also speaks poorly of this persons maturity, character and true dedication to do what you need to do until your craft is accepted.
THE GOOD
This casting string really created a well needed lightness to the pre-production talks. CDI is ran primarily by actor/producers and individually we’ve all had and some continue to have the struggles that come with acting. To see three actors shoot themselves in the foot was offset by the enthusiasm of the one who got to call BINGO!
Be prepared actors. (Take 2) Be prepared actors. Not just in your craft but in your professionalism. Not fixing that car because it is a pain in the butt. Not getting a job with flexibility of schedule. Don’t help yourself fail in an industry that is already difficult. By taking care of your business you can be ready for when opportunity knocks. Organized. Prepared. Ready to succeed.
MORE GOOD:)
We had a key position whereas because of a change in our shoot locations we had to make a change. One person visiting Michigan on another endeavor got a call and within two hours was onboard. They started the next day. Opportunity knocked and it will likely result in another hiring in the spring.
I’ve seen people I’ve hired before return with new battle hardness that made me smile. I saw the few situations we had handled with calm professionalism. Now some may have experienced their first feature run and decide short format is more their pace. Feature shooting is harder, longer and requires a different mental and physical endurance. With our larger budgets we often had additional on location pre production and additional shoot weeks. So to all my crew that traveled with us – I’m tipping my hat. To the ones there all the way through – be proud that is a true benchmark.
One additional planned day of battle footage and a few powerful moments with our films lead Shane Hagedorn. It was a really cool experience to see Shane ride this story out. He made it his and brought such a cool edge to the role. Our Lisa Smith who plays opposite him was such a find. Many of the actresses had a great take on the lead role. This actresses brought it out in Shane, it showed. The children, the outlaws, townsfolk, circus folks all cast with care and it shows.
My humblest respect to my fellow producing team – 1st AD Nate Robertson who TCB (Takes care of Business) on set and the staff who handles everything behind the scenes from accounting to PR and everything in between, we are ONE TRIBE. Jesse squared (Jesse Low & Jesse “Smooth” Aragon) what an honor to story tell with you both again.
Jesse squared (Jesse Low & Jesse “Smooth” Aragon)
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“Wild Faith” coming 2017
I had a chance to see the first rough trailer for “Chasing the Star” and it exceeded my expectations greatly. I think because we’re dealing with a topic that people have such a limited insight to – how do we present that? And I think it was done in a beautiful fashion. Music is complete and dialog clean up is underway with sound design. VFX work is also underway. Bret Miller and CDI have a great follow-up with part 2 of THE QUEST TRILOGY.
Which brings me to part 3 – This week I will be starting to put the business together on “The Christ Slayer” to shoot in the spring. More intense talks on this film in the coming weeks.
“40 Nights” is flowing in the positive direction and this week we’ll be discussing marketing efforts with Lightworx about “40 Nights” and the trilogy moving forward.
I’m going to go finish unpacking my vehicle that was packed up “Beverly Hillbilly’s” style – just needed a rocking chair on top:) Have a great fall morning and keep moving forward. Dare to dream. Create don’t hate.
DJ
DJ Perry's Official Blog 'Clawing My Way to the Middle' 