A step back and a step forward.

After much debate this past month, I have made a decision. I am doing away with my web hosting. I have been with this company for many, many years and they are great. But do to money issues and nothing really taking off the past two years I can’t keep paying the price just to host images and a blog. Now, what does that mean for LightSideStudios? Nothing! I am working on moving the blog part over to blogger.com so news will still be posted. It will just be free!!

The plan is once a movie get into production I will have a pro-website setup. The one thing I have learned is I can’t do it all. So, once that feature film gets rolling I hope to have someone who can keep up the site. Yes, I’m taking a step back. But I am doing so so I can move forward to see my dreams come to life!

Many things are in the works since my last post. I won’t get into them right now, but once the new blog is ready I plan to have some GREAT updates. The dark times I believe have past, and a new spark is lighting. I really believe the best hing for me at the moment is to step back look at what I have and see what can be.

Keep writing, keep creating, and most important…. keep dreaming!!

A Time for Movement…

My life may be changing for six weeks. This “change” isn’t a very good thing to happen. On the surface this nasty, dirty clay could really hurt, but all is not lost! I can take this nasty ball of clay and mold it into something amazing, … if I put my heart into it.

In the next few days a bad thing could happen and I could see myself with six weeks free. I made a choice and in that I now have to make another. Am I a writer? Am I ready to live a writers life for six FULL weeks? Am I ready to bring change to my life and in doing so empower who I am? What have I been waiting for the last year and half? No body is going to open the door for me. If anything they a trying to lock me out, not to let me in. I have to kick the door down and show the world that I am ready to make this happen. I have to do what I have been called to all along. I just have to believe in myself and not care that the door is locked. If I want in I have to fight my way in and not look back.

The coming weeks no matter what happens with my job and other life issues, I must WRITE!!

High Noon is coming and no one is here to help me fight. We all have are own Frank Miller’s in life and we have to stand against them, no matter what we fear.

“The righteous will live by faith.” Romans 1:17

(NOTE: This was a rant to myself. I have to get off my lazy can and get to work. I have to stop being fearful and just move! Let the dice fall where they may. At least then I can say I tried and move on from there! Okay, rant over. haha … Now, let’s get back to movie making!)

2010: A New Hope…..

No, I’m not talking about Star Wars. This new year brings in a new hope for me as a writer, director, and producer. After much soul searching I still come back to this is what I am meant to do! The problems that I have discovered a simple but still hard to fix.

1. I AM LAZY!!!!! There I said it. But this past year I have gotten so lazy it really makes me sad. I will be turning this around this year and will get back on the right path.

2. I MUST WRITE EVERY DAY!!!!!! I can not stress this enough. How can I be a writer if I’m never writing? Just like I have to exercise to stay fit, I have to write to keep my creative mind in tune. The less I right, the harder it is for me to create new worlds, characters, and feelings. The best thing I can do is to write on this blog everyday.  Take a moment to update where I am in life and the movie process.

3. SHOOT MOVIES!!! Let’s face it the one thing I want so badly is a feature, but I am NOT ready to shoot the feature….yet. Just like writing I need to brush up on my directing and camera eye. I need to do a few shorts this year  and I do mean short! (More on this in a bit!)

4. Finish NYIP classes!! Yes, I have fallen off this horse as well. This past summer I got my cup to full with projects and events. I pushed this to the side and just didn’t pick up a book (or camera). My big push for this year is to FINISH my courses and have a better understanding of photography. THIS WILL BE DONE!!

Now, back to the short films. After viewing old student films by Lucas and Zemeckis, I have decided it  would be best for me to jump back to this. I need practice and understanding before I build a crew. I need to tell a better story through the camera lens and not through dialogue. I have to understand all of this before anyone will give me money for a feature. I need a reel to have to show people that I can do this. I need to show myself that I CAN do this. The short films will be the best way to do this with little to no money spent. So, what will this look like?

I plan to create three to four short five to ten minitue films, each with its own guidelines.  I want to treat this just like a filmschool would. I have to be creative and deveople an intersting, cost saving screenplay, then turn it to a film. This will be FUN!!

More on this and the issues that I must over come to see my feature made on tomorrow nights blog!

Look back and the future…..

2009 was the worst year in my writing life. This year I went backwards instead of moving forward and I am not proud of this. I’ve had some issue with my personal life which have moved into my writing. The issues were not bad but I let them get to me most of the year and pull me down even more. I hate to say this but I almost gave up. I have been very close to call the movie dream over and just moving on to something else. But every time I think this is over I find myself right back trying to get the spark back, trying to get the fire started again.  So, what does 2010 look like? Is there still hope for something?

Plan for 2010….. writing and learning. I have a new story that I am in the works with. I have found something called “steampunk” in the costuming world and I like it, a lot! As I started creating my costume I came up with a story which turned into a 10 page treatment. That treatment was sent to the copyright office in D.C. and is the FIRST story I have a copyright on. So, the outlook might have been dark but a bright light is starting to shine through the fog. I still plan to work on some of my other screenplays and I want to try harder to get on a movie set next year. I would LOVE to help with a local production. I REALLY need to get my feet wet again. See if this will help get the blood pumping for my own stuff.

In the end it’s all about doing what I feel is right. Taking the right path that has been laid out in front of me. Every time this year I wanted to give up and move on something keep putting me back on this path, even when I didn’t want to go. I have to decide that this just might be what I’m meant to do in my life. I just have to decide to do the work to make if happen!!

Good-bye to crappy 2009 and WELCOME 2010!! May this next decade be AWESOME and may what I do impact the people around me!! Happy New Year everyone!!!

A step back…and a coming Overhaul.

So far this year has not been the great year I was hoping for. BUT it has been a year for understanding and discovery. As I have been working on the Freedom short I discovered that I need to be working on a Feature. So, I stepped back and re- thought what I was doing. During this time life and work caught up with me. My spark died. I tried to write but nothing would come. Next this I’m spending my nights on the internet and wasting my time.

After about a month of this and a set back at work something kept hitting me. The Lord gave me many wonderful talents and He wants me to use them. So, after praying and doing some much soul shearching I made a decission…..

I AM A SCREENWRITER, PRODUCER, AND DIRECTOR!!!!!!

I have to put EVERYTHING into this fro here on. I can’t do this half way. This is going to be HARD, STRESSFUL work but it is something I want to do. It’s something I HAVE to do. So, what do this mean? Where do I go from here?

First, I am in the early stages of a MASSIVE overhaul on..well… everything. I will be loong over what part LSS plays in the beginning stages to what the NEW movie production company plays. I will be writing and reading like never bfore. The other parts of the overhaul will be heavly begnning to network and to build up a base of people with the same goals and passion as I do. (This will help on those times the spark starts to go out.)

In this overhaul, a totally new website and blog system will be worked on. Once I understand what I want from my future companies I will be able to better the sites. I am thinking of a few things….

Video Blog – Once a week post a video of my progress of what is taking place with a production. Might even take questions and try my best to answer them.

Audio Blog – Looking into a Podcast type blog to hype up the future production. Still studying these two types to see which would be the best and fastest to post to a site.

Web Master – During the first movie, a web master might be the best way to go. I know I won’t have the time to update a site but I want people to see what is going on. Once again all of this is early stage “thinking”.

Forums – The return of a message board is a must! This would be the best tool for me to posts and talk at night. Might get a smart phone down the road to help stay connected.

Contest- Yes, I want to hold some kind of contest to give out swag. This will help build the brand name of the future company.

This is another BIG area that will be worked out, turning the company into a BRAND. This is something I learned during my trip in 2006 to L.A. Selling swag with a awesome logo will help promote future productions and gain money for the productions. As of right now I just plan to use the new production company logo as the launching pad for this. As a project goes into produce THEN we will look at items to sell. Once again all of this is still in the very early stages.

So, as you can see I have a MUCH better plan for the rest of the year. The time to work is now. The time to get out my first of many movies is NOW! Here is how this will take place….

Freedom – rough draft by end of 2009 ( Hoping for end of October)

“Project X” – 2nd draft under way. Hope to complete by end of 2009.

Begin Overhaul of companies and website. (2009 and part of 2010)

 – Build Business Plans

 – NETWORK!!!

 – Redesign website

So, the work is massive but I know I am ready to take this on. My spark is back and is getting brighter everyday. I just have to understand this will take time and a lot of HARD WORK!

So Many Issues Lately…

This last month has been killer!

First my computer crashes. Not just one but two (almost).  My editing computer of five years, I think, has bit the dust. I have tried everything to get back up but nothing. I plan to have someone check it out just to make sure there is something that can be done. My laptop keeps freezing when I get online so I have been off and on for the last week. Just crazy!

I threw my hand ups and decided to buy a cheap new computer. Mostly for internet and writing. I’m hoping that my laptop will allow me to do most of my writing and office work for now.

I do have really AWESOME news but I think I will wait and update  that tomorrow night… maybe. Now, back to figuring out Vista. I will say this, I am looking much harder at Apple again for editing. PC (Windows) is WAY to much work.

A Plan of Attack!

The last month has been well, bad in the movie part of my life. I have begin to loose focus again and that isn’t good. I sat down this weekend and looked over my plans and ideas. I tried to get a better plan together, which looks really good.

The plan at this time looks like this.

APRIL-MAY

Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite!!!

“Freedom” MUST be a shooting script by the end of May!  The biggest thing here is to set down and just start writing. Nothing new here but a deadline and just doing it!!!

JUNE-JULY

These two months well be set aside to work on a rough version of the budget. This will also be the time I will work on my business plans. Right I will have one plan ready (LRF) for one of the companies. I hope to have an outline done for LightSideStudios also. During June and July this will be my MAIN focus.

The ball really starts rolling once these two items are knock off the list. Once the shooting script is COMPLETE I will fill out the rest of the dates and see just when shooting might take place. At the moment I am thinking this time next year, middle of April maybe. I’ll have to wait and see how everything comes together. Never know, could even happen late fall. This is why it is soooo important to get the shooting script finished. This way hard dates and be placed to see just where this road is headed.

Hopefully more updates are coming. Work, life, and laziness have gotten the better of me this last month. I am sorry. It will take sometime but I will find my way back to path I have been led to.

What a BUSY Month!!!!

January had been a crazy BUSY month! And February hasm’t been much better. lol

In the real world work has to come first (for now) and I need a pay check. So, I am very glad to be busy! But I have  been hard at work on the short. I have a rough 1st draft done but much work is still needed. I am behind on my plans but I hope to make up some time in a few weeks. I have the week off in March and I  plan to use some of that time to work on this project.  I hope later in the week I can update on other small things I have been working on for Freedom. It’s just how my time works out!