Legal What?

       "It's been a while since I've posted." I feel like this is how I should begin all of my entries. The past month has been taken up by the end of my academic career, some finals, lots of goodbyes, and a whole lot of wonder about the future. While this post doesn't have a whole lot to do with filmmaking, it does have to do with trying to be independent as a young person.
        People keep asking me how filming is going, and the times I manage not to say "NO. I don't want to talk about that right now." I attempt a flippant "Progress is slow, but I'm on schedule to finish in the Fall". Just thinking about my project fills me with anxiety, I can't help but second guess my decisions, and since I have nobody to work with, all the back-and-forth goes on inside my head. How is my audio, is there really anything here, why am I not enjoying the progress of this city, isn't that the point? Where will I take this, what if I get the interviews and they DON'T make everything better? I didn't know anything about color grading before and barely do now, is that going to make my documentary look too amateur?
        In an attempt to ease my worries I have begun hunting for an assistant editor, someone who doesn't have the contextual memory to go along with the image, because what I have discovered this past month, is that I have trouble seeing with my eyes. I see with my mind.. I know it sounds lame, but how I experience my surroundings largely takes place only in my head.
         I keep thinking I just need to get my act together and bang this out but for some reason I can never find the path or maybe something about me doesn't want to find the path.
         I did a bunch of research on what it means to be an LLC (Limited Liability Company) and what E&O insurance is. My conclusion is this: I don't know anything about business or law, I have never wanted to be a businessman, but if I decide to go down the road of independent filmmaking, I will have to be a businessman, not just a filmmaker. So I've started rethinking my decision to not look for jobs with a preexisting company.
          Oh well, lots to think about, just know that I WILL NOT quit.


-Kevin

... To The Wall?

I've been putting off all of the interviews until the summer, so all I really have to film right now is VINES getting ready for this growing season. Am I missing stuff? Am I just waiting? Sometimes I feel as though the exact mindset I am advocating against with this documentary has been creeping into my own lifestyle, especially lately, with so many things wrapped up, so little happening, I need to be giving myself work, but I seem to just be waiting for work to come to me.
Is this similar to writer's block? when it feels like another creative idea will never come out of your head and that your creative drive has been lost somewhere far away.
Strangely enough, it's times like these when the most people prod me about progress, asking how my film is doing.. why is that?
There is this idea shaking around in my skull that once I have interviews I can make a skeleton and install the footage around that. Is this me being practical or lazy?

Sometimes I fear a loss of drive, taking it as a sign of a lost future, but somehow that isn't enough motivation to get my ass in gear.

-Kevin

Rocketing Through Time

    
         I know it's a cliché, but time really does fly. If you took this day one year ago, I was riding a bus back and forth from the West Side to Johnson City to SUNY BU, all of my free daylight hours being spend in a dilapidated studio space, working on my first ever art installation, and the first project I really put 100% into. I would have worked at night too, but my studio space had no lights, but hey, I was allowed to work there for free.
       The point I'm trying to make with this story, though, is that I hadn't even begun drafting up the fundraising campaign that took every bit of motivation and drive I had for most of the summer. At this time last year I had absolutely no concept of how hard I would be working on this project, and I thought my installation project was the most intensely creative event I would be involved in for a whole.
                               MIND BLOWN.

        So yeah, a lot has been happening since I last posted. Restaurant Week was extremely busy for me, I didn't get all the footage I wanted to get, because I was too busy filming restaurants themselves, and delegating didn't work out too well, so that was frustration, and on top of all that I was very sick.
        Since then I have finished a rough edit of the major Restaurant Week scene, and sent it to Christine for musical brainstorming. She has been sending me a lot of samples and they're honestly impressive, can't wait to hear the finished soundtrack.
        I'm about half way done with some rough edits of minor scenes revolving around the renovation of Zona, so that's good.

        Now that Spring has sprung I will be busy documenting the VINES planting and growing season, their youth employment program, and all of the awesome warm-weather events hosted in this city. I'll be busy busy busy, but I'm still on tract to be done shooting and editing in the Fall.

        I hadn't quite realized how the winter was weighing on me until spring showed up, but my hope and creativity has been revitalized.


"Hobey Ho, Let's Go!"
                    -Kevin

Forced Delegation

As you probably have realized, I'm bad at delegation when it comes to creative stuff. However, this week is Restaurant week, probably the busiest week of filming I have or will have during this project.
It is also the week my body decided to have cold sweats, wracking coughs, and acompletely congested face. I Should Not Be Near Food.
 So... I'm being forced to delegate. I don't care if it's iPhone footage or dslr stuff, I don't care if it's shot by film people or just somebody, but I've put out some requests for people to go to Restaurants and film stuff for me. (I think multiple styles and qualities, and first-person experiences would actually end up being pretty cool).
Anyway, that's what I'm doing this week. Later today, like not during lunch or dinner time, I need to call a bunch of the restaurant owners and get permission to film in their establishments.

That's all for now.

-Kevin