Like a Small Business – 4/17/20

This is a barn

I’m writing this for no one, and to be honest it doesn’t exactly paint me in a great light.  But I believe in consistency, so I’m going to post despite having nothing good to report.

My buddy bailed on me for filming on Tuesday. He’s a personal trainer of sorts, and had 2 time slots get filled last minute. He’s also got a wife and a young son. That’s at least his 4th time cancelling, and 2 of the cancels came the morning of the shoot.

We rescheduled for Friday, but again something came up. He requested we shoot on Saturday, to which I initially agreed. I spent 3 hours editing the footage we had from our first day, doing my best to salvage shitty footage. I sent it to him and asked for his opinion. The real reason I asked is because I wanted him to see how necessary it was to reshoot the entire thing. After 2 hours without I response I cancelled his involvement entirely (in a much kinder way than it sounds).

It was a really difficult decision to make – after-all, the character was written specifically for his build and personality. I’ve invested a lot into the production, including props, rewrites, and even the edits I made. The worst part is – I have nobody to fill his shoes.

If you followed me years ago, you may remember I shot a project with a friend named Scott. I reconnected with Scott and he’s excited to play the re-occuring role of a private detective in the series who should be in episode 3. We’ll see how that works out.

Now, back to the title of the post. My friend has personal obligations – everyone has them. The problem wasn’t him or anything he did. The issue is that he doesn’t want to be an actor. I need to find fucking actors.

I’m taking my small ass youtube channel, with 15 subscribers and 3 mediocre videos, and I’m marketing it everywhere and to everyone. I’m hoping to collaborate with other filmmakers. I’m considering offering $50 for a days work, though I’m hesitant to do so because I will not see any financial return. I’ve contacted a former acting teacher, reached out through the Meetup app, and made a profile on several websites that are specific to film networking. On top of all that, I’m trying to learn how to build a motorized dolly for under $50 so that I can resell it. I figure if I can find a way to make extra cash, those funds can go straight to the film-expense jar.

Anyway, I’m doing fine. I put off making this post because it doesn’t exactly make me look like any sort of legitimate “Producer” – which is my title on so many of these websites. But I don’t really give a shit about any of that. I just want to film quality stories and grow an audience who will enjoy them. That’s it. I’ll try to update with something positive here soon.

• failure
• filmmaking
• mountain cult
• producing
• self-publishing
• short film
• small business
• writing