2009 Resolution Wrap-up

So looking back at what I wrote in January, I lost focus in some areas and changed focus in others. Here is a recap of my 2009 New Year’s Resolutions:

1) Fix my financial situation
2) Quit Smoking
3) Be More Productive
4) Get in Shape
5) Clean and Organize my House

Now, how did these hold up? Well, I surrendered my house in 2009 and moved back to the parents’. That saved me a lot of money upfront and helped me get outstanding bills paid off, while not accruing more bills. I actually did quit smoking, that is until I gave up my own house. I was pretty productive during 2009. Now, not always in the ways I planned, but I have never had as productive a year yet. Physically, I didn’t loose too much weight, but I do believe I lost something. My pants are a bit looser on me these days. And finally, I moved my house, but didn’t get it completely organized first. I still have a lot of cleaning, sorting and organizing of my personal belonging to do.

Now, I know I won’t draft up my 2010 New Years Resolutions for at least another 48 hours, but I’m sure they will pretty similar, if not identical. I just think some of the smaller details will change, and supporting resolutions will be reevaluated. So be sure to check back and see how I plan to make some serious strides in 2010 to bring out the best in who I really can be.

2009, Most Productive Year Ever!

What a year 2009 has been Professionally! I have been fortunate to work on 13 productions and 2 different radio shows. Not all of the productions were in St. Louis. I was able to travel and work in Omaha, NE; Baton Rouge, LA; Champaign, IL; and Decatur, IL. I’ve also served in a variety of capacities from Producer to First Assistant Director to Set Production Assistant. It just always depends on the project. I am truly grateful for all the work I’ve gotten, experience I’ve gained and the new friendships I’ve built.

Of course, I continued to work for both the Sundance Film Festival (year 10) and the St. Louis International Film Festivals (year 7). I was also able to attend the Theatrical Premiere of ‘Streetballers’, which I served as a Co-Producer and Additional Photography on, in BOTH St. Louis and Los Angeles. ‘Streetballers’ is also available on DVD now!

This has truly been my most productive year EVER and the future does not seem to be slowing down either. But I’ll get into that later. For now, here is a look at the projects I’ve worked on this year:

Play Dead – (St. Louis, MO) – Inspired Productions – Short Film
– Grip/DIT/Glidecam Operator/B-Camera Operator

Finding Virginia – (Decatur, IL) – Pounded Pavement Productions – Feature Film
– First Assistant Director/Associate Producer

The Great Big Entertainment Show – (St. Louis, MO)– KCFV-FM – Radio Program
– Co-Host

Mothman – (Baton Rouge, LA) – Sci Fi Channel / LAMP – Feature Film
– Second Unit: First Assistant Director /Key Set PA

The Making of a Truly 100% Independent Film – (STL, MO) – MSK Films/ACE Films – Documentary
– Producer

Leading Ladies – (Champaign, IL) – My Pet Piranha Productions – Feature Film
– First Assistant Director

Shakindat by Playboy Ro – (St. Louis, MO) – Ravenworks/ACE Films – Music Video
– Producer/Co-Director/Editor

Paranoia – (St. Louis, MO) – Russell Bellew – Short Film
– Glidecam Operator

Up in the Air – (St. Louis, MO/Omaha, NE) – Paramount Pictures/Montecito Pictures – Feature Film
– Set Production Assistant

Celebration by Verse and Gator Macc featuring Andrea – (St. Louis, MO) – Photo-Kicks – Music Video
– First Assistant Director

Soldier by Jena featuring Andrea – (St. Louis, MO) – Photo-Kicks – Music Video
– First Assistant Director

Belas Artes Mulitcultural Center – (St. Louis, MO) – Commercial
– Videographer

Improving St. Louis/Mayor Slay Campaign – (St. Louis, MO) – ACE Films – Commercial
– Producer/Director/Videographer

Win-Win St. Louis Mayoral Project – (St. Louis, MO) – Thing 1, Thing 2 Productions – Commercial
– Assistant Director

The Morning Jolt – (St. Louis, MO) – KCFV-FM – Radio
– Co-Host

THR’s Filmmaker Roundtable: Cameron, Jackson, Reitman, Tarantino, Bigelow and Daniels

The Hollywood Reporter recently conducted a round table interview with some of the biggest directors of the year, including Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), James Cameron (Avatar), Lee Daniels (Precious), Peter Jackson (The Lovely Bones), Jason Reitman (Up in the Air) and Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds). THR released a few segment where the filmmakers discuss a couple different topics, including whether they consider themselves insiders or outsiders, their most diffcult scenes to shoot, and what they would do instead of directing. I would love to see the complete round table. Take a look and tell me what you think

Are you an insider or outsider:



Difficult Scenes to Shoot:



What Would You Do instead of Directing:

Seriously? December, already?

I was staring up at the full moon tonight and realizing that it is really December. Seriously? December, already? Yep! With it being December I felt I should get back on track, all be it a little behind schedule, but better late than never, right?

Over the course of December, I plan to look back over 2009 and give a wrap up for various parts of the year, a look into the projects I have worked on, and how this year stacks up to those in the past. Also, I will give an honest assessment of my New Years Resolutions for this year, how I did, where I need improvement and begin to look at what I plan for 2010.

I also know that I have not been as vigilant about uploading photos, as I have in the past. Photos really are one of the best ways to show everyone what is going on in my little world. So I will also transfer photos between social networking sites and upload remaining photos I still have on my camera, computer and phone.

Overall, 2009 has been a challenging and exciting year. I look forward to sharing these recaps with you all over the course of December. By the time the next full moon arrives, on the last day of the year, I will have recounted my blessing and events of 2009 and be ready to tackle the challenges of 2010. I look forward to sharing those with you as well.

Thank you to each and every one of you who has supported me, not only through 2009, but throughout my life. You all mean so very much to me and I hope that I can begin to show you all my appreciation over the days, weeks, months and years to come.

Farewell to Famous

Yep, that’s right. I’m saying Farewell to Famous… Avenue that is. As of Monday, February 23 I NO longer live on Famous Avenue in St. Louis. I, like so many others have given in to the economy and moved back to my parents’. OK… I know there was several of you out there who thought I should have moved A LONG time ago, but now is not the time for any ‘I told you so’s. With work slowing to damn near a stand still and not having a roommate, I just could not afford my two-story house. It is sad and I feel like I have lost a huge part of my life. I lived there for over three years and that house has A LOT of very wonderful memories.

Now, however, I will focus on getting myself financially stable, getting out of debt, and consolidating myself. DAMN, so I have a lot of stuff. I was making huge strides in cleaning un-necessary paperwork and other stuff out of my life prior to moving, but I just ran out of time. So I have to take time and continue the purge, one plastic tub at a time.

Also, I know it isn’t cool to be my age and living in my parents’ basement, but rest assured this is only a temporary situation. I plan to work as much as I can, pay off all my bills and save as much money as I can. Plus, while living here I can jump on projects anywhere in the country with little worry about my stuff or any bills. Once I am financially stable, I’ll either jump into my own place back down in St. Louis City or make that huge leap out to one of the coasts. Yeah, it sucks, but I need to work and make more money; and if I have to do it, I have to do it.

Also, I know this Blog is coming about a week and half later than I expected. This move and everything leading up to it has had me very frazzled. As I get situated, I am trying to get myself back on track. All these living situation problems fell in my lap only a few days after I returned from Sundance. I still do plan to post a wrap up blog for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. I’m sure there are a lot of you that wonder why I didn’t post daily like I did the past two years. It was a crazy year and I should have that post up in about a week.

Thanks to all of you who helped my physically move. I do GREATLY appreciate it. Also, thanks to those of you who have given me all the verbal support you have. Your inspiring words are helping me not feel like a failure, which is a little hard to do right now. I’ll make sure I get more frequent updates written, including my Sundance wrap up. Thanks again and I’ll talk to you all soon.

Kicking Off Sundance 2009

So, I will be once again giving you all my daily updates of how the 2009 Sundance Film Festival goes for me.

I arrived on Monday, which was an adventure in itself. I got to the East Terminal in St. Louis, which is normally easy to get through security at. There is primarily only one airline that uses that terminal, Southwest, so lines are always shorter. Not when I got there. I actually got through security a few minutes past the flights departure time. But for some unknown reason the plane was still at the gate. To make a long crazy story short, they put the jetway back out and opened the door back up, just for me. Whew! Barely made that one.

Since arriving in Utah, I’ve pretty much been training and getting my theater, the Egyptian on Main Street, ready for the festival. Once again, I am the Midnight Manager with my AWESOME team returning to back me up as usual. We actually were the team that worked (assisted the Press Department) on Thursday with the Opening Day Press Conference. It was nice to see Mr. Redford and hear what he had to say about the Film Festival’s 25th Anniversary.

Thursday Night I spent finishing up final touches on the Theater. It’s amazing how little things can take so long to get worked out. I did make it over to the Library Theater to see one of the Volunteer screenings. I was able to see ‘Lymelife’ by director Derick Martini. The film starred Alec Baldwin, Rory Culkin, Kieran Culkin, Jill Hennessy, Timothy Hutton, Cynthia Nixon and Emma Roberts. No the stars were not at the volunteer screening, but the film was great. I will write a review later and post it for you all to read.

The bad thing about Park City this year is that for some reason is that AT&T has TERRIBLE connections this year. I’ve heard from a few locals that problems on their network started in Park City around Christmas. It’s bad. I’ll have full bars and cannot make or receive calls or texts until minutes or hours later. It is REALLY killing me. Hopefully it will not cause me too many problems or cost me any important and timely information.

Well, I am part of the way through Day 1 (Friday, January 16, 2009), so I’ll post what happens today, later tonight or, most likely, tomorrow. Have a great night and I’ll talk to you all later. And if you are in Park City, please stop by the Egyptian Theater on Main Street any night after 10 PM and say “Hello”.

2009 Supporting Resolutions

To help me meet and achieve my New Year’s Resolutions I have come up with some supporting resolutions. By trying to meet these resolutions I should be able to accomplish my 5 primary resolutions.

1) Fix my financial situation
A) Work each month to get the collections off my credit score.
B) Rebuild my credit by securing viable credit building sources and accounts.
C) Build a savings account.
D) Sell anything with a value that I don’t use anymore, but could make money on.

2) Quit Smoking
A) Take each hour of each day one at a time.

3) Be More Productive
A) Practice at least once per week for at least one hour on my Glidecam.
B) Watch at least one segment of a training video once per day, preferably more than one
segment or a full training video.
C) Update my website at least once per month, after fully updating it to be current and
complete.
D) Build and upload new websites on domains that I own and update them at least once per
month.
E) Write one Blog per week.
F) Write something every 48 hours. Whether it is a Blog, narrative, draft of a script or
outline for a project, just write something every 48 hours.
G) Read at least 25 pages or 1 chapter of one of the production books in my library every 48
hours.
H) Build a least one project per week, preferably using tips and tricks from the training
videos I watch.
I) Shot something, no matter how small, per week.

4) Get in Shape
A) I plan to exercise at least 5 days per week. Primarily I’ll start with my simple jumping
jacks, sit-ups and push-ups. Maybe I’ll upgrade to a gym later this year.
B) Walk my neighborhood at least 5 days per week.
C) Eat more regularly, and slowly eat better. Also, cut seriously back, if not cut out, fast
food all together.
D) Stretch each morning to increase my flexibility.

5) Clean and Organize my House
A) Pick up, through away and take out the trash more often. Now, I’m not a TOTAL slob,
I’m referring to draft print outs of paperwork or old paperwork, boxes and packaging
from equipment that just haven’t been thrown away yet.
B) Go one section of one room at a time. And work to get a complete room cleaned before I
move on.
C) Set and keep one cleaning day per week. This is the day when I can make big strides in
one day.
D) Clean out one box/tub of paperwork or whatever is in it per week.
E) Sort all my paperwork and file everything away. Sorting bills and paperwork by
year and job will make a HUGE difference and make things easier to find later, if I need
them.
F) Do my Laundry and dishes at least once per week. Easiest would be on my cleaning
house day each week.
G) OK, don’t laugh at this one… But, once a room is cleaned, I plan to dust it once per
month, if not once per week.

Now, I honestly plan to start all of these this weekend. It is only January 3rd, so I’m not too far behind, if at all. Also, some of these will get put on hold when I’m out of town or working on a film. The reason some will get put on hold while on a film set is just because there will so little time once I return home. But, I don’t plan to create excuses for why things are not getting done. If I screw up and slack off, I’ll admit it. I think that by taking things one day at time, I WILL be able to accomplish all my goals.

Tomorrow I will post a few projects I have on the table, as well as what leaps of faith I am planning to take this year. So be sure to come back and check those out.

New Year’s Resolutions for 2009

So, I’m going to try and put together my list of New Year’s Resolutions. I’m going to try and keep them realistic. I am going to try and achieve them slowly over the entire year. I’m also going to list how I plan to accomplish each goal.

1) Fix my financial situation

To regain my financial independence and get out of the all the holes I’ve fallen in, I’m going to work as much as possible. I have an interview on January 6th with the City of St. Louis and STL TV for a Video Production Specialist job. Also, based on the STL TV job and what hours I would be working, I’m going to pursue a job on the Jason Reitman/George Clooney movie coming to St. Louis, as well as all the film projects I can throughout 2009. I will also continue to work several nights a week at a couple nightclubs/bars. That will continue until I have too much other work scheduled. I believe by the end of 2009, I could really have my financial situation, credit score and cash-on-hand status in a MUCH better place.

2) Quit Smoking

As of the stroke of Midnight I stopped smoking. I admit that I had one smoke after I was home for a short while, but none since then. So I’m trying. I’m going to take it one day at a time. I believe that by focusing on going one day at a time and really wanting to quit, I should be able to quit this year. I’ll be honest, I might cave and have one here and there. I am only human, but I’m going to try.

3) Be More Productive

I am going to make a conscious effort to make at least one positive step forward each and every day professionally. Whether it is getting something shot, edited or taking the time to watch a training course, I want to do something, no matter how large or small, each and every day. I will have a few supporting resolutions that can serve to fill this goal.

4) Get in Shape

OK, so I slacked on this one today, but I plan to exercise at least 5 times a week, if not every day. I’m not planning on jumping up and running to the gym, that might come later. I’m planning on simple sit-ups/crunches, jumping jacks and push ups. Also, walking my neighborhood will be a normal part of my exercises. I’m going to build up to running, but that will take a little while. If I take each day, one day at a time, I’ll be able keep my eye on this goal and achieve it.

5) Clean and Organize my House

It is no secret that I am a bit of a pack rat. I need to go through what I own and purge what I don’t need or use anymore. I feel if I go one room at a time, one section at a time, I can make big strides as the year moves on. Then, if I decide to move, either across St. Louis or across the country, I’ll be better prepared, condensed and drag less garbage with me. Plus, I’ll have a better looking house.

OK, for now those are the big resolutions for 2009. Tomorrow I’ll be listing my supporting resolutions and the Leaps of Faith I plan to take this New Year. Please assist me in accomplishing my goals and I’ll do what I can to help you accomplish yours.