August, Studios, A Studio

August 2015,
yeah it's here already and I am already way older than I wanted to be when I got serious about writing. Well not everyone is Stephen King.

It has been a crazy few years, last time I was blogging I was in a way different place in life. Broke, Single, and living as an unwanted guest in someone's basement.

Now I am not single for the longest period in my life, 2 years this month. I live in a huge house in the burbs with some amazing people, I have a Jr. Partnership in a company I started where I am the youngest partner. Still not making the money I want to but there is a ton of great momentum towards that end.

Last year around this time I was living with my good friend Rob on the north side of Chicago a block from the beach. Yes, the beach, nobody told me about the beaches in Illinois, they are a lot like the beaches in Northern California.

Two years ago I was working on Jupiter Ascending and loosing my mind a little. 12 - 16 hours a day with all the drama that goes with a $100 million dollar feature film. I was just a Logistics Assistant (Tents Team). Still today the most political film I have every worked on.

So that's August, always something major...big life events seem to always happen around my birthday and they are always good in a big way. Yeah I said big twice, I blocked it Brian.

Studios,
for the last year I have been a Supervising Producer, now an Executive Producer of a feature film with a large multi-million dollar budget. 5 years ago I was an extra...just sayin. This film went from a $70k budget with indie aspirations about distribution then the director decided to bring me on and I changed all that.

What can I say, I saw bigger potential in the film then some DVD that sits in the directors house that is a movie less than 1000 people have seen. I think the director and the film had this amazing potential and I bet the farm on it. That's just how I produce, I really love my projects and I love giving someone with a vision, a dream an honest to God chance to get that accomplished.

All of this said, we now are dealing with studios...facepalm.

It's so much more complicated than anyone can imagine. Basically if you really want to get into the film business and your an aspiring producer...switch majors from film to business, then get your MBA, then go to Law School, then take your Series 7. Now your ready to intern at a studio...then you can begin to think about calling yourself a producer and not feel like the guy driving a leopard print upholstered Cadillac.

Basically we have to run money through at least two different "investment vehicles" and two different banks unless some investor wants to write a giant check, (hing:they never do). SO, we take the smaller check the write (it's still millions of dollars btw) and make it bigger. Then take that and put it into something else which makes it bigger still then we get to make the movie...it took us literally 13 months to figure all of this out, the whole time dragging the poor director along and saying "yeah just be patient it's a process"...

So, until this investment drops an the stars align with a blue moon (which we just had) I must do as many things at once as possible,[keeping the director sane, my partners happy, making the minimum to live, and trying to push this project forward]...my girlfriend and my mom are kinda all that's keeping ME sane right now. That and a lot of praying, yeah take your pick of deities, if your an atheist, don't be a producer. A Chaotition (Jeff Goldblum from Jurassic Park) might work...

A Studio,
this is kind of  my version of "a new hope". My girlfriend has a studio space that is extremely amazing and I am writing in her office right now, been here since 5 am this morning. Planing on launching a couple of podcasts and some other cool things from here to pay the bills and feed the dream.