Contest being held

Now I have been a long time supporter of organizations out there that try to help people fight against big business and lobbyests who have many resources to use for their agenda. One of these is linked below, being the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). A great group that I have been supporting for atleast 4 years and maybe even longer. It is always good to see someone out there fighting for the little guy.

What brought this out of me today is the fact that Daily Productions is currently running a design contest for our mascot "Richard" and while checking for some submissions I got an email that was actually sent to Chris and I personal email accounts, not the one for submissions. The email was short and sent anonymously, however after some digging I atleast know the idividual around the NC area and really thats all that matters to me, and spoke of a website that shows the "hammer" view of such design contests. Funny thing, I had visited this website a while back ago and found it interesting but rather silly for it's views of how contests demean the artist and make it a hardship for other artists struggling to get work.

The reason I cared about where the person is located is just for the shear fact that I want them to know Daily Productions is not a cooperate conglomerate monster looking at getting things for free and tossing people aside. Yes, people can design a mascot for us using our description and send it in. They can then get feedback and maybe do some redesigns. The winner of the contest will get a listing in the credits of "Something to Sleep On" as well as mention on the website and possible future jobs with us, as well as a gift certificate and a shirt. The contest is fun and to tap into independent artists around the area that actually like to draw.

Daily Productions is totally independent right now and is funded entirely through Chris and myself.... no one or nothing else. Unfortunately we do not have the funds available to us to be able to hire a design team for our mascot. We decided to go with a fun contest to help unknown artists out there. People who are not picked in this contest may be picked for help in other things. Chris and I want Daily Productions to have people that are really interested and excited about what they do and want to share it with others working around it.

I think I will get off my little soap box now. Hope everyone has a great day and feel free to check out the EFF.

Weather

Today was just an absolutly beautiful day out. I have a birthday party from 10-12 to goto for one of my neices' birthday party and it rained a little then but cleared up nicely. The weather reminded me of a season just around the corner.... football season. Just with the way the air felt without all that humidity and with a nice cool breaze I would just imagine myself at the back of a truck eating some chicken and drinking some adult beverages right before a big football game.

Chris and I filmed some office scenes today and will be again tomorrow morning early. We are making real nice progress on the movie and it's looking better and better. I am really excited and also dreading post-production work. That's going to be a lot of work but it will be a tangible view of progress I think.

The two pictures on the bottom here are ones I took with my phone, not something I do often unless I see a really important thing to snap a shot of. The first is of a sunset at Jordan Lake. I took it just as we pulled in last Friday to start setting up the set. The second picture is one I took of the sky today as I pulled into the townhouse. Just looked pretty so I figured I would take a picture and share.

Surprise, surprise, surprise

This past week was just a ball of stress, hard work, stress, sweat, stress, and I think more stress and hard work. Starting Monday it became clear to Chris, Jess(our PA), and myself that our location scouting and aquiring for a restruant scene had hit a major wall that was not easy to look around. There were so many questions up in the air. Where would we film at? Could we build a set? What would the set look like? Could we get all the required actors? What times would we be shooting at? Could we get all the actors for those times? Where would we build a set and where would we erect it to film at? Could we get the entire last scene of the film filmed in one weekend and without any mojor problems? What would the weather be and would it hold up to allow for shooting?

So many things there to wonder about. Chris and I started building a set over at my parents' house after we got off work on Tuesday. The basically set up for a week full of he and I working over there until about midnight or 1am and getting to bed at about 2 or 230 in the morning, just to wake up and goto our regular jobs at around 545am. We worked our butts off and came home with clothes we had completely sweated through. Not a lovely picture to paint there for yall huh?

Friday rolled around and somehow it was starting to look rather promising, the set was ready to be moved to a place our by Jordan lake that was allowing up use of their field to shoot in and actors were mostly lined up to start filming at 8am saturday through 8pm, and then 1pm on sunday through 8pm. The weather was a major worry since a 60% chance of storms was being forcasted for saturday. Plus, we still has to assemble the set that night.

Chris and I finally got the set up and standing at around 9, leaving about 45 minutes to do some touches with trim and cloth around the set. We left some for early saturday. When we got out there saturday there were some things that needed to be fixed but the set looked awesome. I have included some pics here. The set really did look like a real building out there from the shooting angles.

So many things came together for the shoots it was just amazingly awesome. All of our actors and actresses were so great and a pleasure to have on set. I was impressed with them doing their lines and being so receptive to suggestions as well as putting up with the usual on-set stresses. We did of course have a few hiccups with someone missing or not being able to show up but everyone showed their true colors and we called upon some friends to get everything great. Thank you all for your hard work and so much sweat and sunburn that went into the filming. Chris and I both sat back sunday night and were just in awe of everything and everyone that came together to make this one fantastic weekend and is going to make this a very impressive film.

Orison Swett Marden once said, "Achievement is not always success while reputed failure often is. It is honest endeavor, persistent effort to do the best possible under any and all circumstances."

I, for one, am very proud of everyone and just all of their's and our achievements!