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
ICFF Win, HD and General Market Releases, Post Updates and ALGONA Pre-Production!
The birds were chirping a full chorus this morning and now I’ve got my hazelnut coffee with me and I’m looking forward to our weekly chat. My “soccer legs” are getting stronger now that we are three games in. Day one after our Thursday game my legs felt seized up but day two which is usually worse, brought recovery. The movement in all directions and running for so long really shocks the legs until they strengthen the tendons again in back, hips, knees and ankles. I also got a new free-standing heavy bag for in the yard. Our training days will be better now that we can unloose some kicks. My hanging heavy bag inside wasn’t positioned proper to practice kicks. I’m just upping my kicking game to get it back to where I once was. We joked that every decade the kicks got lower. But working on kicking and soccer go hand in hand. Either way I’m really enjoying it so far. I hope our Memorial weekend off from soccer helps the healing but doesn’t set back my progress I’ve made so far. I’m coming out of this Covid crisis in tuned up shape. Let me think – any big events sitting on my mind this week?
I was approached by a former co-star (Tommy Lynch) who is now coaching and counseling. He had a student (Matthew) that is an aspiring screenwriter. He was doing a video presentation final exam like many students. He was using MAN’S BEST FRIEND as the tone of his TV series. My friend told him that he knew DJ Perry and that he could get me to do an interview clip for his project. I did so. I hope that it turned out great. My thoughts are with all the students who had to face such a crazy time with Covid.
(Some of the CDI team at ICFF with ‘Lost Heart’)
FILM UPDATES
Let’s start with LOST HEART. The film was being recognized at the ICFF (International Christian Film Festival) this past week. We had multiple nominations and were given the bronze for Best Film category and Don Most won as Best Supporting Actor. I know that a handful of our talent led by Melissa Anschutz attended. While award shows are fine I’m sure the laughter around the dinner and pool are the most memorable.
LOST HEART is up next month (June) at the Crown Awards in Texas as one of five films nominated for ‘Best Picture’ along with MAN’S BEST FRIEND. CDI is also going to announce that this week the General Market (GM) release of the film is about to start rolling onto streaming platforms. Under the title BIGFOOT, UFO’S AND JESUS the mainstream will be treated with this wonderful story. We will also be releasing the new trailer with the GM poster art.
BEST YEARS GONE – Lots going on here with this film. The film even had a ‘biker bar’ pick up this past week to complete all the added footage. The color correction is progressing. Our first official trailer is getting close to an edit lock with director notes going over. The music and sound design is also moving right along. Our ‘Battle of the Bands’ is closed and the songs are being judged by our team. We’ve started to release some videos of judge John Two Hawks talking about his favorite three songs. Watch it here: https://www.facebook.com/Bestyearsgone
Next week we’ll have notes from judge Joe Pullin and after that from our team. We’ve also added a drop song coordinator in Taylor Dupuis (Pic Below) who just might be gifting us with another great ‘Roanoke’ song. We’ll be announcing the winner end of the month and prepping to shoot a music video. We also have a meeting this week about an event premiere at a race track and we are also looking to do an Owosso NCG premiere which is the home town of the book writer Karl Manke. More to come on this fine upcoming movie.
WILD FAITH/HASTINGS – The building of the TV series is underway. I had more send outs this past week and I think we’ll find even more sponsors as we move forward. I still have the goal of getting this TV series fully funded by Dec 31st. We will see:)
THE QUEST TRILOGY (Forty Nights, Chasing the Star & The Christ Slayer) – On Encourage TV part 1, Forty Nights is about a thousand views short of its first million watches. I’m sure this week we’ll break that barrier so be part of that. I love this series and think that it has still not found its full General Market audience yet. I’m happy that the circle of fans keeps getting wider. Here is a good review on FORTY NIGHTS that was brought to my attention.
https://medium.com/cbcpcinema/forty-nights-62ef6734c3b6
Please do enjoy all three films in this miniseries.
BESTSELLER is being delivered this month for its new campaign. The uprez of WICKED SPRING is done from what I’m told and I’m excited to see it. It will be nice to stream the story as an HD film. We’ll be discussing which other films to render into HD format. The trailer teaser for FOR THE LOVE OF CATCH is getting there. We examined a version 2.0 and discussed revisions. I cannot wait to see trailer 3.0 this week.
SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA is moving full speed ahead. Last week myself and Michael Walton were announced as part of the cast. We’re almost done with our German casting and starting June we’ll be returning to our weekly pre-prod meeting. Art department has been prepping its breakdowns and we’ll be addressing that starting in June. We’ll be announcing more cast this week. We had a few great adds to our cast/crew this past week. We had an article come out in Iowa and the community has been reaching out in force. We are also starting our talks with sponsors and brand alignment. I’m beyond excitement for this WW2 drama to get to the big screen. Join us and follow along at
https://www.facebook.com/Silent-Night-In-Algona-111598487216909
(Gil says, what what?)
WRAP UP!
I want to thank everyone again at ICFF. I’m so happy that some of our cast/crew were able to get together and represent the LOST HEART film. I think today will be a tinker in the yard and grill. Use today to chilllax before another busy week ahead. I hope you all have a great week and keep making those steps towards making your vision and dreams a reality. Be good to one another and we’ll chat next week.
DJ
‘BATTLE OF THE BANDS’ LAUNCHED AND WW2 1944 IS THE NEXT STOP FOR CDI
Good morning my good artist friends from around the globe. I saw many new readers from Peru, Ireland and Cuba just to name a few. I don’t know how it is in your part of the world but here in Michigan (Southern Canada) just kidding – the ice and snow started to melt showing us patches of earth. Spring is in the air and the wood bins are full for the final blasts of cold. Plans are being made for the Spring already with an expansion to the chicken-land enclosure and maybe an outdoor gazebo. Within the office I’ve been doing some tinkering here and there all while jamming to some good tunes. I think that is what led to the idea of the Battle of the Bands. BEST YEARS GONE which is closing in on a final cut will soon move into music and sound design with Dennis Therrian. But we’ve used many featured artists on past films. WILD FAITH used Trace Adkins narrating vs singing but we’ve had several artists join us. On LOST HEART we got to hear John Carter Cash and his wife Ana with The Cash Collective and Roanoke featuring our young lead Taylor. Anyway, this was an idea to take a few of my music artists friends higher on the ladder and give them a chance to experience some of the other great artists out there looking to have their voice and stories told. So if you have original songs that you own all the lyric and music rights, submit the song(s) to the wall at – Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/Bestyearsgone
In April our Judges will listen to the finalists and give their comments. From there our director will review and a winner will revealed. So submit your songs – rock, rap, country! Good luck!
LOST HEART has still been getting lots of national PR and on streaming sites like TUBI it has been climbing joining WILD FAITH. Critics are what they are but here is another review-
https://boxofficerevolution.wordpress.com/2021/02/02/lost-heart-movie-review/
We have some exciting ideas bouncing with our distributor. The film seems to be hitting well with the female audience but isn’t drawing in men as much. BUT when men watch they are actually enjoying be causing of the fun UFO and Bigfoot elements in the story. So we might be designing some artwork that reflects some of that because it is a really fun movie. Like I’ve said, I challenge you to watch it and not laugh somewhere. Cry is a good possibility too. I had some fan mail that thought they were in for something lighter in tone like a Hallmark film but were surprised by the power of the drama.
MBF: MAN’S BEST FRIEND is also on the rise and the distributor thinks it can go even further with a new campaign so I’m looking forward to see new art, trailer and PR push. This film is really making the circle through the military friends and families marching towards 1 million viewers on Encourage TV and playing many more channels.
These three fine stories that I promise you are unique in their genre, are being featured on many sites as a series. Sony/Pureflix is doing a special Easter season push as is many of the outlets and platforms. FORTY NIGHTS, CHASING THE STAR and THE CHRIST SLAYER. What I love about the first one is that it depicts a time before Jesus started any ministry. When he was still crystallizing his teaching and how to “put the words of the heart on the tongue”. But many people were not happy or content to see a pre-Jesus. The man BEFORE he fully became what others now expect. It’s a unique perspective that some missed. But those who missed are people just looking to ‘devil the details’ and they often miss the lesson altogether. Enjoy the films and let me know what you think and if you see the unique perspective of a man who is a work-in-progress.
DEVELOPMENT & PRE
Several projects are in motion with our doc ‘For the Love of Catch‘ filming the next several weeks. Some VFX post work is being completed on SMOKE & MIRRORS a spooky short that we filmed with the CDI Tribe. HASTINGS continues to advance down the development road. The good news that will be announced this week is that SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA is officially moving out of development into pre-production. We have been casting and will have more exciting announcements including the casting of our young female lead. It’s…
We’ll also start discussing crew and put several tasks in motion creatively. I’m beyond excited to have the CDI Tribe do a WW2 drama. I’m thrilled that this was the script Rance Howard and I spoke so many hours on. Being that this is all ‘based on a true event’ makes it even better that this moving story will be told to the entire world.
WRAP UP – If you are a musician with original music drop it on the wall for BEST YEARS GONE or just go listen to some of the great music being added. I want to thank Mr. John Two Hawks joining Dennis Therrian as our second celebrity judge with more to follow. I spoke with John yesterday which was a great catch up. I blame/thank John for my love of NIGHTWISH. John has played with them on a few occasions and I really enjoy their sound. His full bio can be seen on the FB site where the ‘Battle of the Bands’ is being hosted. IF you have a company that wants to align with either our next release BEST YEARS GONE or our new SILENT NIGHT IN ALGONA WW2 film. If your product was around in 1944 we plan throw back packaging. And if your company was not well, we can make it look in the style of 1944. We will have many exciting supporters and sponsors to announce now that this is moving forward. I hope you all have a great week. Stay safe and be good to one another.
DJ
DJ Perry's Official Blog 'Clawing My Way to the Middle' 