3 posts tagged “filmmaker”

I made a trip home to Reno for the last two weeks. It was a longer than the average visit home I guess, but I don't really have any pressing matters in New York City. It was nice to see all my friends and family. The long stay made it possible to get a chance to see everyone, I actually even had dinner with my Dad. We aren't close at all, I probably see him four times a year and actually talk to him twice a year.

    I was hoping to have some nicer weather in Reno but only like three days were nice it rained, snowed and hailed so I don't know if a rain cloud is following me or what the deal is. I kept busy while I was there I shot a ton of footage for several projects. It is funny how projects just found me in Reno and I'm searching so hard in NYC. I guess that just shows how different the market is and how much more competition there is here for the same jobs. It shows me why I can't expect much better career in Reno than I already had. I not saying I was at the top of the ladder there or anything but it is a small ladder, which also has its advantages but when I'm 23 it is easy to take bigger risks, so that is what I'm here to do.

    Now I'm back in New York and I have a couple of things lined up, nothing big just a few short gigs and I have a few of my own projects in mind. close to the top of the list is I'm going to need a day job. Hopefully something that is fairly close to my subway line but whatever happens will be fine.
    I was a little nervous to come back actually because I don't have an 'good' reason to be here this time. Last time I left Reno is was for school and now this time it is to look for work. Now that I'm here I feel good about it and am motivated, before the trip home I was feeling a little frustrated and/or discouraged about the whole situation in NYC. I guess the trip home was a nice way to recharge the batteries.
 
  There was also some unexpected things that came up in Reno:

I met my mom's new boyfriend and it seems like those two are getting serious really quick but as far as I can tell he is a good guy. He treats her right and he isn't a weirdo to the rest of the family so those are two HUGE advantages he has over the last couple of duds my mom had around. He as a daughter who gets along with everyone, she has her 17 year old girl moments and gets on everyone's nerves and is around a lot so that is expected. Overall Jay and Anderea are ok in my book.

I might have actually been talked in to joining Brandon when he moves to LA this summer. It sounds like an adventure and if I can pull it off then why not go for it. He is one of my good friends so that is a good roommate situation and he is looking to break in the music industry as a producer so that would be a nice complement to my trying to break into film/video industry. So there are a few good reasons to move to LA this summer.

Another reason to stay in NYC past summertime is that I got to know this girl, Talia, a little more while I was in Reno. Looks like she is moving to New York for school in the fall. We just hit it off pretty well and it has been awhile since I actually had a girl that I was 'interested' in and not just 'attracted' to . I mean how many pretty girls to you know that are working on a zombie screenplay or want to write comics for a living? I'm not sure anything will come from it but I suppose it is worth mentioning.

Also while in Reno I became a "best man" at my little brother's, CJ, wedding. Of course I gladly accepted but i could tell he was nervous to ask me, which sucks. It was the first time I saw his bride to be, Nicole in a while because there is a HUGE amount of retarded unnecessary drama surrounding her and our family, then the marriage just seemed to come about at a bad time. This situation is better now, but there is still king kong gorilla in the room(elephant seems less dangerous). For me some days were better than others when I saw her, some times I was glad to see her and other days it was a different emotion when I saw her, but the big thing with me is that if everyone is ok then I'm ok. I'm happy for my brother because I know he is excited about it, but I still think maybe the timing is less than stellar, not because they are young just they both have a lot of new opportunities to face, I think a year ago would have been better for a wedding but it isn't my marriage so I can't be too concerned. I'm just here to support them.
BTW Orange and purple match sure, but wedding colors? LOL. Hopefully my bride someday wants to start a family not a basketball team. Again I'm there to support, and maybe to joke around a little bit.

I'm pretty sure I gained some weight back while I was in Reno. I don't know if it was the; all you can eat sushi, the all you can eat pizza buffet(pizza plus), qdoba burritos, mom's carrot cake, a fridge that is actually stocked with food, not having to personally cook every meal or if it was just the fact that I would  have a lunch date and 2 dinner dates everyother day. I would guess it was a combination of all that. It is always a better meal on someone elses dime.

Oh and I got to see Pete, yeah he still hates me so that is nice. there is a decision that cost more than it was worth

Ok maybe SOUL SUCKING is a bit dramatic but It has been a few weeks since school got out and I"m bored out of my mind. I need more reasons to wake up before noon, I need more reasons to get dressed. I need more friends that I don't live with. Most of all I need a way to pay rent.

I can't say I have tried very hard to find a job but I have tried a little bit. I must have sent out nearly 30+ applications and resumes, but really that is only a few afternoons on the computer.

I also need to upload my final film for the world to see, I mean I have international fans [I'm so important in my own world], so coming soon to a website near you.

here is my demo reel, it kind of looks like a promo for Reno but that is what I did for 3 years, promote the City of Reno so it makes sense

http://www.vimeo.com/3719256

I have a visit home scheduled for March 31st.

Basically I need to light a fire under my own ass, find a job, at this point I realize that even a lame day job at a restaurant or blockbuster would be good because I operate better when i have things to do. When I have a full day of nothing planned I realize i accomplish very little, especially when I have some stuff to get done. I could be reading a book, watching and doing lessons to better my editing/vfx skills. I could be writing a script that I can shoot, I already have a crew and live with 6 actors. HELLO there are plenty of things for me to do but I have not pretty much NONE of them, because i have nothing to do. I just found something else I need to work on time management haha

MY FLAWS I DISCOVERED THIS WEEK
-time management
-I suck at chess
-I suck at checkers
-I'm pretty good at connect four

that is right my final film is shot and the 6 hours of shooting spread over two days went smooth. I looked at the footage for the first time the other day and I feel pretty good about it. There are a few shoots that are messed up and they are some pretty important shoots. One of the problems is that we can see a big reflection of the lights in a picture frame, I think I'm either going to zoom in and crop out most of the reflection or blur the edges enough where you can't make out the perfect reflection or maybe get crazy and try to mask it to make it match the rest of the wall...but likely it will be some sort of combination of all three.
The bigger problem is that when our hero stops time.  It is done in several shots and one of them is when the street light turned on and everything is looking very RED. I don't know how much color correcting can be done to it or it the entire 'time frozen' sequence will have to have some kind of special color effect on it so it matches, that is going to be the key is making it all look like one shot, normally it would have been pretty simple minus this one that is really really RED.
The story if I haven't shared it yet; A simple man has a cubical job by day and is pretending to be a superhero by night. He is picking up litter and recycling, etc. He is serious about superheroing and once he has a chance to fight some real crime he doesn't disappoint.  Inspired somewhat by
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_life_superheros
http://www.worldsuperheroregistry.com/

I also am moving this week, from Harlem to Washington Heights. Harlem, what can I say about you? I have had a good time and I'll miss Pee Dee's STEAK and had good times at the duck. I haven't seen the new place yet at all but I'm a simple guy and easy to please and I hear the place is really nice. I have had a good time sluming it in Harlem for a while but I guess I'm going to step my game up. I think I have met most of the roommates back during New Years Eve and Kevin played my superhero in my short film. I haven't been on that side of this island yet but I'm guessing it can't be much different.

School is almost out and I don't have much a plan to keep me here in NYC so I'll figure it out soon enough. I'm sticking to the plan of not having much of a plan I suppose. I'm just going to be a take the road and see where it takes me. I'm cool with that. I'm going to make an updated reel with all the work that I have done so far in my carrer and hopefully that can get me a job or at least some freelance stuff. I don't mind getting some lame job, selling hamburgers or something like that as long as I'm still working at making the dream happen, even if it is just making videos for the web with roommates or something. I just want to make sure I'm not a becoming a waiter/coffee boy/blockbuster rep/streetvendor/nurse/etc and not a filmmaker. I can be not a filmmaker in Reno or anywhere but I'm in NYC to make films or something similar something creative.