I seem to find these large gaps in my writing. As the days grow closer to Tokyo I am finding less and less time to spend pounding away here. It’s not that I have been super busy. I’ve been doing stuff off and on with the movie. I did a major rewrite not too long ago that reshaped the entire movie and truly took it to the next level. I feel that for the first time I am a real screenwriter. I’ve written my movies in the past, but nothing with the emotional and physical implications that I have captured with this project.
There is a great deal of nervousness and skepticism heading to Japan. I am torn between busting my ass to make these meetings happen and really just wanting to go on a crazy shopping spree to bring home all the cool stuff I can find in Tokyo. …and I have a feeling I can find a lot of cool stuff. There’s so much I want to see. I suppose the optimist in me will tell me, take care of business this time, and then you can see all the tourism stuff. I suppose I’m going to have to wing it. As of right now I have two meetings set in stone with people that can have a tremendous impact on helping this project get off the ground. I have about 6 others scheduled with people I may or may not be able to get my foot in the door with. Many of them are sales reps for companies, there to sell products, not necessarily there to pick up new production projects.
We’ll see when we get there.
Life has been cruising along. I received my first true quarterly statement from my film distribution company for The Coldest Winter and was surprised to see that I had made fifty bucks from the film… minus the $13 in processing the original transactions, minus the company’s 50% take… I brought home $17. But hey, I don’t care. I have a film with distribution. That is a major step. It took a VERY long time for this to happen, but the company also had the foresight to buy these indie films up three years ago, seeing where digitial distribution was going to end up. As of now, I am not slated for an itunes release, but that’s not saying it won’t happen. It’s still very possible. They are rolling it out to vendors all around the world.
It’s a great feeling. It’s FINALLY some recognition for the work I did. FIVE years ago.
And it’s sad. The film is so juvenile now compared to what I am writing and working on. I’ve grown so much in that five years. Cold Winter was such an learning experience and i grew so much as a writer… (you should see the script for that. It’s a minimalist work at best) and as a director. I really developed working relationships with the actors. I wish I heard from them more often now. It’s been five years and we were tight. We went through hell together making that movie. Six days in unbearable cold. Ok. Well, it wasn’t that bad. I didn’t get too cold.
The making of Cold Winter was somewhat of an incredible experience for all of us. We know that we made something special… at least to us it was special. It looked great and we all worked so very hard at putting together the best possible product for the least possible money.
It’s funny looking at it now though. I cringe watching that almost as much as I cringe watching Two Days with Juliet or The Revenant (the latter, of which I will not watch AT ALL) I see through the cracks and see the amateurish nature of it all. the shoddy camera work. The special effects that weren’t all that special. The life of a filmmaker can never be complete. I fully understand why George Lucas went back to Star Wars and had to remaster and add footage mess things up. I have those urges with Cold Winter form time to time to fix the footage that I messed up. Scenes that were shot in the pouring rain and snow so we subsequently lost focus on the characters and gained focus on raindrops. Reshoots to fix the ending that I was never completely satisfied with. I don’t agree with the changes that George Lucas made. I think he is a little loopy in his old age, but, I can see why he would WANT to make changes.
Regardless of how I feel, the end result has been achieved with Cold Winter. It is now out there in the world for the world to see in the world out in the world. And yes, I mean worldwide. Not only is it available on Amazon. It’s available overseas on a few various sites.
Yeah. That’s the link.
It’s something to be proud of. Even though they have messed up my aspect ratio. I will still have to work on that.
So there it is. One of my children has been let out into the great wide world of Internet. Or, Web. Whatever you want to call it.
And now, in 21 days, I take the step from conception to birthing of another child…
I just have to travel to the complete other side of the world to do it.
Michael Mustizer 