Wednesday, June 29, 2016

A Raft of Updates - These Are "The Good Days."


Hello there...

June has passed by and I haven't been in here once... of course, that's mainly because I'm super busy! I shall avoid lamenting my absence, and instead update you on all the crazy things I've been doing...

First off, I have my cast set for FINAL HOUR, which is the play that the Great Andrew Ian and I are producing here in San Diego, for Lamplighter's Community Theater in La Mesa..

Here, check out a version of the poster art I've been tinkering with...


I'm trying different variations and different artwork... You're the first people to see it so far! You can't get tickets yet, which is why I haven't blasted this across Facebook yet... I don't want people to go to the Lamplighter's website until we're at least showing up on their calendar, and you can buy a ticket!

I love my cast. I'm super pleased with the rest of the people involved... I can't wait for rehearsals to start in earnest, right after 4th of July. We had our initial cast meeting and table read last weekend. I was all giddy!

Next update: Momentum

The full script is almost finished (the first draft, anyway), and there are things afoot that I probably shouldn't mention at this point (at least until I confer with the illustrious Rob Dey to see what I should and shouldn't talk about online), but I can say that I *may* have some exciting news to share about this project soon...

Next update: BTI

Filming continues on Beyond the Impact, and every new batch of footage gets better than the last... Jeff's plans are evolving and expanding in ways that will surprise many people, I guarantee it... I'm still going to the combat training classes each week - I'm probably in better shape now than I have been in my entire life. Just had Boxing and Conditioning classes today after work... I will sleep well tonight, I know... Anyways, I know BTI will be worth the wait. Trust me, it would be unwise to rush this... we need to get it right.

Next update: the 48 Hour Film Festival

So my good friend Ryan E. and I are assembling a film team, with an eye toward making short films and feature films locally. Part of that process is to set our sights on participating in the 48 Hour Film Festival in August. This past Sunday (after the table read for Final Hour) a couple of the actors stayed with us for an extra couple of hours, while we shot a short script that Ryan had written, which he is editing this week, as a test to see what we can accomplish with the tools and people we have at hand... the idea being that we can then find out where our weaknesses are and shore them up (if needed) over the next few weeks.

Megan, Jon, Katie and Ryan, on set last weekend...

My Eldest and Middle Daughters are part of the film team, as well as Katie's significant other Jon A. Katie is our Director of Photography, Chris is our Assistant Director and Jon is our sound guy. I can't tell you how happy I am that my sweeties want to participate. We'll make it a family business! Plus, we've secured a fabulous location to shoot the 48 at, and I've got WAAAY too many actors and actresses that want to work with us on it... Ryan wants to keep it smallish this time around, so it will be hard to decide who to use and who to save for other film projects we want to do next...

Next Update: Head Hunter

Actually, the hope is to use the team we're creating to film my first short film Head Hunter in the Fall sometime. I already have my cast set, and the script is ready to rock. When we get closer, I'll give y'all more info.

There are other things coming, including our next play (called Best Dressed Guest, in October), the Christmas play at Mt. Zion, and a potentially huge and exciting screenwriting project that I can't talk about yet. So wow... everything is firing on all cylinders for me, as far as entertainment stuff. It's very humbling. I feel ridiculously blessed. I want to hold it all in an open hand before God... hey, He gives, He takes away, right? I want to enjoy it all while it's here, but be ready for whatever He wants to do...

All that to say, these are The Good Days...

Here, watch this video of Bo Burnham, from his latest show Make Happy (on Netflix at the moment)... it has a little bit of language in it here and there, but try to ignore it if that bothers you... I don't want to spoil it for you, just watch it. Trust me, it goes from irreverent to powerful in a beautiful way...



Man, I must have watched that a hundred times... the full show has some cool stuff, but that ending - as well as the song he plays backstage after this segment here - is almost staggering to me. The honesty. I love it. I want to emulate that, with the stuff I do...

One thing I've been doing very little of lately is novel reading... my fiction intake has tapered off dramatically. I hope I'm not losing the reading bug! I still have like 400 more unread books in my digital library, and about 50 others I want to read again!

OK, I guess that's all for now. I hope you're all doing great. I'm riding high, it's a great feeling. I'd love to know y'all are riding high as well...

Adios for now,

Dave, from the Clouds