My Life as a Filmmaker, Now and in the Future

Man it's been a few weeks since I did a new post, and I'm not sure why. Twitter has become my forum for truly getting out what I'm thinking about through the day, so I suppose I save my blog posts for when I actually have a lot to say. Anywho,

So last friday I shot a new video with my Laugh Taxi group. As usual it was filled with ridiculous things that we allow ourselves to do on camera. Lots and lots of takes, and usually a lot of uncontrollable laughter for a few hours. I was a little nervous at first that we were trying to pull this together last minute, but it turned out really really well. I ended up screaming a lot, which for some reason I find myself doing often in our videos. I read a quote by Will Ferrell where he said "There's just something about yelling that I find funny," and that's really the truth.

We only had four guys there filming, and sometimes that is the best route to take. If by some chance I do make it in the movie business, I always want to make sure I find time to make short sketch comedy videos with just my friends. For some reason, there is just something liberating by working with people you know and making up shit on the fly and somehow piecing it all together. It's not conventional and sometimes it can really backfire, but on the most basic level, its satisfying.

In other news, this coming Tuesday I'm working on the most professional shoot I have ever been on and I'm extremely excited. Honestly, I'm not really nervous and I don't know why. I'm directing a script I wrote and I'm just excited for the opportunity. I get to have an entire crew, an assistant director, lighting, professional dollys, producers, real actors, monitors on set, the whole nine yards. Hopefully one of the producers will bring a camera and snap some photos and I might post them up on here. So yeah, we've been in preproduction for like 3 weeks now, and I really have come to appreciate the importance of preproduction. It's just so crucial, I can't imagine trying to be this professional without mapping out every detail beforehand. It really really benefits.

And finally, this weekend I had a weekend seminar with a professional agent from Hollywood who came and talked to us about his career, what he does on a daily basis, the process a project goes through in development, as well as interesting anecdotes he's encountered while working in the industry. It was pretty interesting, and while I don't see myself becoming an agent at all, I learned a lot about how much creativity can actually come from that job. We did a mock project development where we had writers, agents, producers, and studio heads, and we had to pitch ideas, and find out peoples interests, and eventually try to get a project sold to one of the studios. Really cool stuff, I found myself getting much more into it than I thought I would. Taking this class really got me motivated for when I move out to LA. I found out some great places online to learn about assistant jobs and learned about the routes than can be taken to help get to the place you want your career can be. My goal is to be out there in less than 2 years, but I hope it doesn't take quite that long. But the point is, im more excited than ever, and I'm just really happy that I have a lot of projects that I'm working on right now as well. That is all for now, have a great day everyone.

tk

Being Sick and Wasting Money

Hello there,

So last week I was pretty sick. The most sick I say i've been in the last 4 or 5 years, which was a pretty weird feeling. I had my girlfriend to take care of me when it was at it's worst but sadly I think I had the stomach flu. I was dry heaving and I forgot how much that shit sucks. I remember a few years back leaving work early one night because I was feeling like shit and as I was driving home I got that feeling in your stomach where your like "okay, calm down, I feel like I might throw up." I parked my car ran up to my front door but I couldn't make it. I turned and threw up all over the rocks by my front door, then started dry heaving for a few minutes. I have no idea why this memory sticks with me but I always think of it when I think of throwing up lol.

So the flu lasted about 2 days and I was back to my normal self. See, for some reason I always felt like i had a strong immune system because I get sick very rarely and even when I do get it bad, I always recover from it somewhat quickly which isn't something I complain about at all. The only (ONLY) good thing that came out of me being sick was Friday I sat down and was able to watch the whole first season of 30 rock (21 episodes) which is something I've been wanting to do since I never have seen them. So that was that, I got sick, I feel better, the end.

So this past month I will be honest, I have spent wayyy too much money. I have had about 6 of my friends turn 21 so I've been to the bar a lot, and then there was Valentine's Day, which I didn't mind spending money for, but its just another holiday that money gets spent. Combine that with only taking about 24 hours at work a week and I have over and over again found myself struggling to have enough money for things. This has led me into to stressful situations, and anyone who knows me, knows that I put a lot of my time thinking into money. I don't know why, but I'm always thinking about spending, saving, calculating, planning, budgeting, just everything. It is a curse, but it's just something about myself I can't change. But one thing I'm going to actively be trying to change is how much money I waste. So I don't have any big secret, I'm not someone who thinks the best way to do this is have a major budget with every detail covered. I'm someone who is realistic and understands that if I want to save money, in the most basic ways, i need to not spend money.

I spent some time today at my good friend Adam's house writing and recording some music. The kid is a genius when it comes to music and it is fascinating to watch how much he has learned about the process of recording and producing music. He has books, dedicates time to the proper micing of instruments, invests money in equipment and all around knows music. He says he wants to be a music producer which I honestly think seems like his calling. Me and him used to record music together a few years back and he always had an ear for the tiniest of details and thats a quality I'm glad he's learning that he can capitalize on. But I had fun today, we both got to sit there and fuck around with guitars and his new drum set (which he is surprisingly good at). I could honestly spend HOURS just bullshitting around on a guitar and for some reason having one in my lap and playing is the most relaxing thing ever. I can't wait until I save up enough money to buy my own. Btw is any of you reading play guitar I want to get an Epiphone ES333 Dot guitar. I played one at Guitar Center last night for like half an hour and fell in love.

I'm going to Vegas in a couple days with some friends of mine and really looking forward to that, so my post next week I'll probably talk a bit about that. So I will see you all until next time!

tk