Notes from a Filmmaker: Wed, Oct 28th, 2009

President's a calling.

Current mood: kinda shocked

So, on Friday my phone rings and it's a D.C. number. I joke to my girl that Obama's calling but low and behold...it was his staff! I had produced a video for the Democratic National Committee's Health Care Video Challenge with my friend Angela. We are finalists!!!!

Here is the video and the link where to vote. Please do and please call your local reps to have them pass the public option. We need to take care of each other.

You must rate all 20 videos. Our video is called "Angela's Story". Five stars please :)

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hrvcratings?v=tWKici6hOhw

Notes from a Filmmaker: Monday, August 31st, 2009

4 years walking...found a flower to stop and smell.

Current mood: greatful and relaxed

Yup, I've been greatful before in this blog but relaxed comes far and few between. After four years fighting, fussing, crying, laughing, and begging people to know about this film, last night in New York City...

WE SOLD OUT!

I was going write about the night but I think the pictures speak for themselves. Can't wait to do it again :)

Notes from a Filmmaker: Monday, July 27th, 2009

I've become a Digital Ghost

Current mood: anxious and curious

There has been many technical achievements throughout my lifetime that have changed the way I live. Cell phones, internet, personal computers all changed the world but the result of those is what actually compelled me to write. Social networking started off for me as fun, then social then networking. As of Sunday I had over 1300 friends on my facebook page. Mostly people interested in my films or radio work. Far from our goal audience but much more organized and benifical than the leagal pad and clip board that used to hold contact information. I posted upcoming events as well as pictures of past events. It actually found it's way into a more dominant promotion tool than my website (www.cypherproductions.com). Unfortunately...

As of last Tuesday I was a digital ghost. I woke up and everything was gone. No friends, pics, promotion dates, or a profile. I was lost. It struck me how strange it was that my profile actually felt like a piece of me. For three days I wondered how healthy was this? Binary code, not connected to my nervous system seemed to be an extention from me to the world. It didn't seem to be...it was. With that thought I realized I had to reconnect. Heathy or not I was not going to loose my part of the emerging collective unconsciousness. And that is what is was. The internet has become a visual representation of our human collective huncosciousness. You can find the thoughts and ideas of a large crosssection of the world, with minimal effort at a momments notice. I had to get back.

After three days with very little progress with facebook (one email return a day) I decided to start a new account and cut my losses. Well it's almost been four days and I have a third of my contacts back. I'm pretty happy about that. Unhealthy or not I'm gonna run on into the digital future with as many people wanna come.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1004556785&ref=profile

The screening on August 29th is almost sold out but...

Tickets for this screening are still available through Paypal. Click the Paypal button for fast, secure purchase! Guest names will be held at the door. I'm looking forward to paying off this film's cost and making money with it. People seem to really enjoy the movie. I can't wait to make another one :)

Notes from a Filmmaker: Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

Take the next step..."but there's at least three different landings?"

Current mood: open

Things are going incredibly well.

The film is selling well online and we're selling tickets for the NYC theatrical debut!

The people who see the film love it. The screenings have been so amazing. People have come up to me afterwards

just to let me know how touched and moved they were. I am so amazingly touched by them.

A woman from Scotland and her friend not only discussed the movie in detail...

they touched my face and began telling me how pleasant it was.

That my success was going to be linked to my smile and kind persona.

I can't say I have had many experiences like that.

Most people touching my face are either violent, sexual or a loved one.

I was so touched that these women were moved by me and my film I could only repeat,

"You have no idea what that means to me".

Honestly I didn't either. There was no comparison.

A pure, almost primal reaction from all of us, with no motivation. They didn't want

anything from me. They had already seen and bought copies of the movie.

They didn't even want to touch me, lol. It just happened.

Rare interactions with strangers are amazing.

Last month or so I made a random phone call to a number I had believed to

be Melvin Van Peebles, with the intention of getting him on

Ron Bennington Interviews. Long shot but hey...I was having a great month.

A man answers the phone and after I give my spiel...

he questions me ferociously.

But with a hysterical tone that broke my professional phone voice.

After a long belly laugh I gather myself and ask, "I this Mr. Van Peebles?"

"Shit, who'd you call?", he says. It's true. Who else should it have been.

Over the next few weeks we've become friends. Melvin gives me advice

when I ask and when I don't :)

he's such an amazing force in my life these days. Last week I went to see his

show and was amazed!!! This man ran shit on this stage for the entire duration. He sang, he danced

and man did he make me blush a couple times. This cat's gonna be one hell of a trip.

I am so grateful to know one of my idols. I used to watch movies on Melvin. Not movies by Melvin...

but movies made about his life! This man gave me that imaginary advice you get from TV heroes.

Now...he's on the phone :)

I'm doing what I love and am once again getting joy from it.

I seem to be able to manifest the reality I desire. I guess the main thought I have is, What to do?

I need to push this film but I need to get another budget. Life can't just be the promotion of a project.

It has to include the creation of the next.

There's no waiting for a budget to show up or an investor to call.

I have to storyboard, budget and plan as if it will happen.

Not wanting to sacrifice "LNIB's" promotion I have spent a lot of time on it

but at the same time preparing "Haven".

Countless storyboards and paperwork. It's gonna be a wonderful feature film.

Now that it is all done though...I want to produce "Awaken".

Now that my life has turned so much, I am drawn to a more positive script.

So now I'm budgeting and storyboarding and yada yada all over again.

At worse I have options to show someone looking to invest.

Hope to have great stories to tell after the August screening!

Notes from a Filmmaker: Friday, June 5, 2009

Creation can seep into reality.

Current mood: amazement

What a spring and summer this has turned out to be. So I got talked into getting health insurance and going to the dentist. Actually, I had to go to the dentist

(scroll down to Friday, Jan 30th 2009) but went because I had insurance. Guess what...my insurance didn't cover my mystery illness. $600 later I am stuck. I have no money to spend on my mouth...I'm a filmmaker.

So around the same time I was sitting on the train coming from a radio interview with Howie Mandell. We burst through the tunnel and into the sunlight on the Brooklyn bridge. Watching the sun I thought to myself...I can not worry anymore. I can not let the darkness of others seep into my reality and stir up my own dark. Before we went back underground I felt lighter. By the time I was walking home I wanted to sing along with my mp3 player. It was if I was outside a party, afraid to knock...and the door just opens. I was sucked in.

Over the last few months I had let my beard grow and when my reflection in the mirror didn't match my feeling...it had to go. Within thirty minutes of being home my beard was gone. I began looking like the person inside again. At the depths of the film's problem's, the radio show's problems, you name it...my weight topped off at 335 lbs.

I'm 6' but that doesn't make much difference, lol. As my mind shifted away from the darker parts of my life...the weight started shifting also. Once my mind got clear, I started loosing weight faster. I have lost 117 lbs.

That's more than my girlfriend weighs. I'm 218 lbs now. Still 6' :)

Along with the physical changes I started creating scenarios in my mind that started happening. Some trivial some not so. I still had a $600 bill to deal with and no money. I started thinking that it will be taken care of and poof...the dentist asks me to paint a mural on the wall...subtracts the $600 and then pays me to paint the wall. A shift in thought created a signal that I was ready to see good in the world again.

The next day my girl, Lilly mentions, on her radio show, a topic from Oprah. I search out the clip and find a video that affirms everything that I have been feeling recently. Oprah was discussing the secret. I had never heard of such a thing and when I watched it I was amazed. Things I've always known to be true in my life were completely validated. The reality to live is the reality you create. I was living through bad moments in time (as I reread in this blog) and let those moments get worse. I in essence shifted into darkness.

Now the same is true shifting into the light. I have met so many people since that day on the train. People who are all vibrating at the same frequency I am. I have been part of amazing community oriented activities that are filling me with satisfaction. And "Last Night in Brooklyn" keeps taking each step we envisioned it to.

Now when the phone rings I'm excited to see who it will be. Every email is a wonderful opportunity or person spreading love in some way. I have even become friends with Melvin Van Peeples (who I think is having fun mentoring me). I just can't believe that one.

Nothing drastic happened to start this. I haven't struck it rich. But with the decision to create my reality...my reality decided to play along.

Notes from a Filmmaker: April 27th, 2009

DIY or follow the path?
Current mood: torn

So when you make a film now, you have more options than ever before, to get it to an audience. 10 years ago I would have killed for these options but today I am stuck and frustrated. We have entered a bunch of festivals the way all young filmmakers are supposed to but I have always gone indie (not by choice, by finance). We booked screenings, sold tickets and sent the movies into the human collective unconsciousness. The problem is that a bunch of festivals want to have a premiere. This leaves us in a holding pattern. We've been offered spaces to screen at but have to shuffle our feet for awhile. How odd. Eh, maybe we'll get into a festival and it will start a series of screenings and this thought will be irrelevant. "Hurry up and wait" is not much of cliche.

As a side note...all I can do is what I know and I know how to start another movie. So this time we're trying to set two films up. Let's see where this leads. I may have to amend the title of this blog when we start a new one. :)

Notes from a Filmmaker: Feb. 8th, 2009

Let the story play out
Current mood: surprised

When we first started this film we thought our target audience would be "fan boys". Young 18 to 35 year old men who like comic books and movies based on them. Fan boys and our friends.


Now, some people reading this may know I appear on a XM/Sirius show from time to time. If you don't know, I do and end up fighting with a producer on the show almost all the time. It's replaced speaking for us.

Anyway, I find out that he had viewed a copy of my film meant to be in a "prize closet". Initially I was upset, thinking he was just planning on attacking the film to continue our storyline but low and behold...in a sincere and serious tone...he admitted he loved it. That may have been the most surprising response to this film I have ever had.

Later that night I had received a call from a middle aged woman who really loved the film. She had said that it reminded her of her childhood. This is the second time a woman in this age group has said this to me.

I'm looking forward to hear more reactions pro and against. It's interesting figuring out who will be our "real" target audience. We may be pleasantly surprised.