American Icon: Stetson

via Stetson

Just Because ...

... someone tells you a story doesn't mean it's true.

Made In China - How America Celebrates Freedom

Dangerous Writing

The film is done! Such a relief. It's been such a long journey filled with expectation and distraction and four long years of life in general that it's difficult to feel a sense of accomplishment just yet. It's creeping in here and there. Per usual I have a lot of other stuff going on as well right now, so that's part of not feeling finished. And, quite honestly, it isn't finished. Just like finishing a script and wrapping principal photography are but stepping stones, getting to this stage just begins the process of helping the film find an audience. And frankly the idea of making people care is more daunting than the previous steps. Especially since along the way I often said we were making a film that no one cares about.
Until now, if I can manage a successful promotion campaign. I've actually been in the process of redirecting my career toward marketing communications. While that may seem like a slam dunk, it actually seems very daunting to me. Writing nice things about a brand or a non-profit is one thing - selling my won artistic vision from four years ago is quite another. Deep breaths. Making the film was a process. Promoting it will be as well.
We're doing the footwork to build a website. We submitted it to the Bend Film Fest where we're hoping it will premiere. I've made a list of other potential festivals, including the NW Film and Video Festival. I've sent queries to a few people about sending them screeners. Mixed results so far.
One idea I've been thinking about is creating 100 Fans of Dangerous Writing and then trying for a 1,000 and so on. If I can get 100 people to like the film and help spread the word, that will help keep the promotion focused. It's so much easier to think about 100 people than the world at large. Just writing these finite numbers gives me ideas!

What's the Matter With Kansas?

I'm reading this book by Thomas Frank about how conservatives successfully convinced the Middle-American working class to support the interests of big business. By conflating the outcomes of the culture wars and business regulation, Middle-Americans are now under the impression that they're voting Republican to get even with Wall Street. As a result many have lost their jobs and have raised picket signs not in response to the rich getting richer, but to denounce abortion and same-sex marriage. It's a sickening story that we have seen play out with increasing momentum over the past twenty-five years.
Frank does a great job of keeping things moving while articulating the depressing facts of the devolution of our culture. He's even pretty funny at times, "... leadership had taken long pulls from the bubbling bong of New Economy theory."

Turnaround

I've been so busy lately. More so than in a very long time. It's been kind of draining and also very invigorating. I suspect that the growth I'm experiencing isn't even apparent to me just yet. One thing that I've noticed is my ability to get things done like never before - and not just the things I'm passionate about. Or perhaps I've become more passionate overall. Not sure about that. Anyway, I've been one to generate a lot of activity but I haven't always been one for finishing things. Old story - great starter ... not so great finisher. That's been especially true over the past few years regarding film projects. It just eluded me and then I would keep making films and the editing backlog grew and grew. We've been chipping away at that and the experience has been good in many ways. It may even be one of the reasons why I'm finding the finish line more often lately.
Recently I've been working on a campaign for a non-profit. Doing a very comprehensive strategic plan. It's been a tough assignment for many reasons and I've wanted to quit many times since the second week. I've been able to stick with it. There was even a moment when the only reason I had for sticking with it was the feeling that I needed to practice hanging in there. Eventually there came a point where I had the opportunity to make a video for the campaign. It came about because I was writing a proposal for a training program and I realized that a training video would be a much more efficient means of conducting the training. But the Board thought a video appealing directly to the audience would be even better.  I was excited to bring my work as a filmmaker to my work as communications strategist together. There was also a feeling that I was getting in over my head, taking on too much. An incident just after I committed to the larger scale video seemed to confirm my folly, but once again I persevered.
We shot the video last Sunday.  By Tuesday night I had a rough cut.  By Wednesday noon I had an alternate version. And by Thursday night, early Friday morning I had a finished video.
It feels really good to have the unfinished project monkey off my back. Now can I get some love in the health and fitness arena, please?

Blow in her face and she'll follow you anywhere.

Hard to believe this was ever a successful campaign.

Dangerous Writing - Steady Progress

Work was scheduled for this weekend for DW. I received a progress report tonight. Good news - almost all of the music has been mixed and synced. My immediate reaction: good thing we waited almost a year to do two days worth of work! Oh well. It's moving forward; that's the important thing. We'll do another review this weekend and then after a few tweaks it will be ready to be color corrected. That should take another week or two. The deadline for the Bend Film Fest is May 15th. We're aiming for that. Seems more than likely. Which is very exciting.