So after we went the craigslist route, we posted our project on a couple of other sites, www.nowcasting.com and www.actorsaccess.com. Both sites have given us an unbeleivable number of headshots, primarily from the LA area. We have taken a first look through all of these and identified our top candidates. We will be holding auditions in Colorado this weekend. For obvious reasons, we have a preference toward home-grown talent. However, if we don't find what we need locally, we will be determining if we need to come to LA for auditions or figure out an alternate way to audition long-distance - probably have folks videotape auditions for us.

On the location front, we spent Monday and Tueday in Breckenridge and Fairplay scouting. We saw some amazing homes. Without giving away our top choices, we found a number of amazing places from some cool websites: www.paragonlodging.com, www.southparklodging.com, www.vrbo.com, and www.breckvillas.com. If you're looking to rent a home in the mountains, visit one of these guys... As soon as we get the owners' permission, we'll announce the location here.

Yo yo yo. I gotta be throwin' out some props to my homeys as craigslist.com.

We were sittin' around tryin' to figure out how to reach the LA talent market for our casting and a lightbulb went on. loasangeles.craigslist.com. Since we posted, we've been getting about six headshots per hour, yes, one every ten minutes or so. Now if only Campbell Scott or Kevin Bacon read craigslist we're in! Hmmmmm... maybe we should try the NY craigslist too...

Note to our LA friends: Our challenge, as a Denver-based production, is that auditioning you may be difficult. If you have an online reel or an online trailer or a recognizable credit (recognizable to us in flyover country), please tell us about that. We may be asking some of you to send a reel in lieu of being able to meet you in person inexpensively, but please continue sending the headshots first.

Note to my boyz (and ho's) in the Colorado hood: Don't worry about this whole LA thing. We jus chillin' in the hizzy. We know there's talented people here and we're going to use as many of you as we can. Colorado auditions will be scheduled soon, we now have a location.

Peace out.

There I go again. Waiting a whole month before blogging. Damn. Consistency. Momentum. Blah blah blah.

It's snowing here. I'm hoping for a blizzard.

If you signed up to receive Security Threat Film email updates, we've lost your address. Or rather, Edmund lost your address. All of them. Gone without a trace. Damn Edmund. So much for guerilla marketing. Sign up again. We won't let Edmund close to them this time.

The casting ball is rolling. We've sent out feelers to the local agents. If your agent hasn't felt you, you may want a new agent. All I need is a place for auditions and we'll be set on our local folks... Now if we can only get someone who can help us sell this damn project... Or at least someone who can attract some more dollars for our project...

New nin on ktcl tomorrow. I can't wait. We got tickets for the Fillmore. We rock. Out.

All-Star weekend is all around us. The All-Stars are all staying at the Westin downtown, across from my day job. That was cool. I saw Melo, Shaq, LeBron... A whole bunch of the Sophomore team that I didn't recognize. We have an inappropriately acquired room key from the Westin and aren't afraid to use it. At least to get in the lobby of the hotel and have a Starbucks. The same Starbucks that Shaq went to. Maybe I'll also use the same bathroom that some NBA groupie chick will throw up in tonight.

From this whole Westin experience, I now have a new favorite Great White Hope. Of all the players I saw, Chris Anderson, currently of the New Orleans Hornets. I wasn't really paying attention when he played for the Nuggets, but this guy was cool. He actually acted like he liked the crowd in front of the Westin. He actually smiled. Very few of the other players even looked up, heaven forbid acknowledge the crowd. No wonder I didn't recognize them. Always remember the audience.

We also went to the Jam Session thing here today at the Convention Center.

Note to the NBA: lose Build-a-Bear as a freakin' sponsor. There is no connection. None. Not even a tenuous one.

Second note to the NBA: If you're going to have a Celebrity shoot out, have a celebrity or two that people actually know. Now that one guy you had or that other one. And the token local celebrity. Reminds me of a local celebrity golf tournament where they had Jake Jabs as their celebrity. Weak. Very weak.

Third note to the NBA: If you want people to recognize the people that were getting on the bus, have them show up at the Jam Session. Do you understand the brand loyalty you would have created with me and my son if you actually had more than one NBA player signing autographs? Nothing against the WNBA, but who wants a WNBA autograph? Not my son. My daughter would I suppose, but she didn't come today.

Tomorrow, thanks to my good friend Doug, I will be attending the NBA All-Star Game. Watch for me in Row 6. Of section 324.

Wow! What a response. Thanks to everybody who has sent us resumes and reels and stuff. You're all awesome! Some of you may be wondering, what the hell are they doing? I sent my stuff into those bastards days ago and I haven't heard anything. Well, fuck you. Be patient. Everyone will get a response. Please keep in mind that Edmund isn't paid very well and gets a little moody.

Specifically as to where we are, we sat down Sunday and reviewed the various DP reels and websites we've received. We're still getting a trickle of these and are evaluating them as they come in. We've narrowed the original list of 40-50 DPs down to less than 10. We also have some referrals from friends and trusted associates that we may try and contact. We are evaluating the DPs based on feature experience, logisitical ease to work with, artistic compatibility, available equipment, and cost.

On the script side, I've completed a new draft and have that out with some trusted associates to get feedback for one final polish.

We're still looking for that perfect location.

More to come on this, but there is currently a bill in the Colorado House of Representatives that would give film investors a 50% tax credit of their film investment. As a film investor, I can't tell you how excited that makes me. As someone who relies on other film investors, I really can't tell you how happy that makes me. If you know any Colorado legislators, please contact them and have them call me so I can tell them how happy they can make me.

Our notice went out to the CFVA and we have received many many resumes from many many people. For those of you who have wandered far enough into our site to find this blog, thank you for your submission. For those of you who did not make it to this page, screw off.

One important lesson we've learned thus far: the power of saying "I want this job." With so many people to look at and sift through, finding the ones who are applying because they really want to workwith us - and I mean work - is a joy. Thank you for your blind faith.

If you're curious about our process, for the short term we're focusing on requests from DPs, production companies, and people whose resumes blow us away. Everyone else, we will talk to later.

(Crap, that blog wasn't philosophic or clever or anything. Fuck. Today we had our highest number of pageviews ever and all I can come up with is some cheesy "thank you for your submission" bullshit. Sorry.)

There is that point they say where opportunity and preparedness meet. I feel like I'm there today. There are challenges ahead, but I have every confidence they will be overcome. No shread of uncertainty.

Sometimes, you push one button, expecting one door to open, and another one does. Feed the lion, make the tiger happy. It doesn't all make sense, but it does work that way. Pure confidence is the fuel of alchemy.

It's like there's a club. Of smart people. Of achievers. It's like a secret club, but it's not all that secret. It's just that the people who aren't apart of it aren't aware of it. They throw rocks at it, but they don't know what it is. The trick is to find other people in the club, who are aware they're in the club. Who recognize the inanity of it all. Find those people who know that mountains can be moved.

[For an audio copy of this motivational blog, contact Edmund Vest]

What a brilliant day! Thanks to everyone who made this day so brilliant. You know who you are. We may great progress today, receiving resumes, nailing down funding, and interviewing potential crew. All in all, I'm stoked. I hope tomorrow is half as good.

Great birthday party today! Nice girls all the way around.

Drinking, eating, and piano later. I'm going to announce for crew and stuff on craigslist and CASA now. We'll see what develops. I've had a few promising leads on department heads, but not enough to keep me comfortable.

Great week. Lots of meetings. Lunches and the like. Coffee meeting tomorrow.

Saw Troy tonight. What a crock of cinematic shit. Bad writing. Bad acting. Bad directing. Horrible score. Bad editing. I can forgive some things, but not bad writing. Why I put that on my Netflix list, I'll never know. I'm trying to remember if Brad Pitt's been in a really good movie since Fight Club. I don't remember. I spent the whole movie trying to remember who played Agememnon. It was Brian Cox. I recognized the voice, but had forgotten where I heard it. He was great in Adaptation.

Coffee meeting tomorrow, then birthday party, then dinner. Maybe poker later.

Happy to welcome Edmund Vest to the Security Threat Team. Edmund will be writing his own blog soon.

'Night.

We went location scouting this weekend. Found some strong possibilities in Summit County. Lots of stuff happening now. Trying to balance work and film and freelance and family and stuff. I am obsessed. The film is going to happen probably in June. Met some cool people in Keystone. Found some cool houses. I'm going to call the owner of this one particular house tomorrow. We have a lot more leads. Thank you Craigslist.com.

This week should see an email to our investor friends and potential investor friends explaining our current situation, then a press release to whoever we can think of announcing our presence and looking for people. Rock on.

Location scouting

One song in my head. All day. For days. Breathe by Anna Nalick. If you haven't heard it, please visit www.annanalick.com and listen to the song. Buy the CD. We saw Anna open for Ari Hest (www.arihest.com) here in Denver at a little dive bar. Great show. Neither of these performers will be spending much more time in dive bars. Buy the CDs. Now.

Reason Number Two

So another reason I don't write very often is that the
official corporate filter at my place of employment
does not allow me the option of even going to
blogger.com. So then, my lovely and intelligent wife
tells me I can just send an email to my blog to be
read later. Woo hoo! I'm on that! Rock on.

This blog marks my first foray into the world of email
blogging. Wow. Who really cares?

So much to write. So little time. So much excitement in the world. I wish I wanted to bloc more. I think the problem, if you can call it that, is that I have an audience. The perfect audience. My wife. She actually laughs at what I say. Why risk rejection anywhere else? Why blog? I suppose if you don't have that individual audience, a blog is the next best thing.

So if you happen to stumble across my little blog and really want to read a blog from someone who actually writes more than once every six months, check out www.rageboy.com. He blogs more than I ever will and his persistent narcissism will entertain you. At least, it entertains me. Mostly. And occasionally, he posts pictures of naked people that don't get picked up by the corporate filter. Sometimes during the day, you just need a little narcissism and nudity.

This is where my head is today.

I've got it. They're all in the cabin or they soon will be. Now I have to start killing them....

Today, I embraced the vacuum of middle management achievement. I mean, I guess I've always been a little bored by my job, but today...

The world is no better off now than it was when before I went to work today. In fact, you could probably go back to when I started my job two and one half years ago and say the same thing. There's been no tangible improvement at least. I have nothing that I can point at and say, "That's cool. I did that."

Screenwriting certainly gives me that feeling. I can point at a completed script or even a completed page and say, I did that. There it is. Right in front of me. Tangible.

I guess that my world has been tangibly improved by my job. I have a bigger house. Good neighborhood. More stuff. Well-fed kids. These things are important. Probably more important than I'd care to admit.

I just wish I could get the good paycheck and still have something tangible at the end of the day.

Quick Script Update:

Fuck! I hate it when the characters I create get stuck and I can't figure out what to do. I know Point A. I know Point C. Point B is a pain in the ass. Maybe my subconscious will figure it out while I'm sleeping tonight... Thanks, Linda Seger, for that piece of advice.

It's like the problem of the cars. What to do with all the damn cars in front of the house. Dead people have cars too. I can tell when screenwriters cheat and don't deal with the cars. It drives me nuts.

One thought. I've now heard a couple of versions of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah and I can't get the song from my head. So I went back to find the original version. I just listened to a clip of it at www.leonardcohen.com. I like the other versions better. Is that wrong? Is it wrong to like the copy better than the original?

I guess maybe the moral of the story is that writers shouldn't sing....

So I'm trying to figure out what impact turning thirty has had on me, now that I've been thirty for like almost a whole month now. Someone told me that when you're thirty people start to take you more seriously. I'm still waiting for that, but I feel it. I feel more important, less immature. Child like things passing away and all that jazz.

It's coming though. Something is coming.

I don't know if anyone is taking me more seriously but maybe I'm taking myself more seriously. No more bullshit. It's time for me to be me, whatever that means. That little glimmer of inspiration, that hope that my life would be something great, seems a little more bright. A little more focused. Everywhere.

That's not to say that my life isn't great. It is. Crap... time for bed...

Phew, I got that out of the way. The virgin post is done. Thank god. The cherry is broken. Now what...