Archive for June 2007

Nearer Your Destination

June 29, 2007 by Dave.

Here’s one reason for the previous semi-cryptic lyrical blog: I’ve got one more project to mail out today. My application package for the Disney/ABC writing fellowship is ready to go. The winners of the fellowship are given $50,000 over the course of one year, including benefits and one month housing costs (you need to relocate to LA), to write for Disney/ABC. They have both a feature and a TV portion to the fellowship. The deadline is July 1 and I’m mailing mine out tonight. I was going to mail it out earlier today, but of course I forgot one page of the package that I needed to copy— if you forget ANYTHING in the package, the application is rejected. Well mine’s all ready to go and will be postmarked after my shift ends at 10 pm tonight.

So basically yeah, I’m nearing my destination or at least trying to be. I just can’t deal with much sliding back anymore. I’m hanging onto hope a lot these days, hoping that my own abilities can get me out of my own financial jam. I’m hoping I can nab one of the three big applications I sent out (Sundance Writer’s Lab, NALIP’s Latino Producer’s Academy, and now ABC/Disney) and really get a foot up in my career. I’m also trying to sell or option a screenplay by the end of the year. With a few things considered I have a definite shot, whether it pans out is the key.

To an extent I feel like I’m still trying to win something rather than sell something. I learned earlier last year that applying to contests is a way to avoid actually getting to your goals. You buy into gambling for a shot as opposed to actually going out and doing the hard footwork to raise funds for a film. Going for competitive grants are a shift away from that gamble, but it’s still a competitive gamble in some ways. It’s easier for me to gamble than to beg. I’ve had to beg for a lot of money in my childhood and it sucks, so I guess that’s affecting how I approach my film career.

That’s not to say these grants or fellowships aren’t valuable. The Producer’s Academy would have me shoot 3-6 scenes from a script to create a trailer/investor reel to use to fundraise for a project. And Sundance is Sundance. And really I am plugging away on trying to sell something. Two scripts I have need revision and I think I have a potential sale at hand. It’s just getting past these grant deadlines and getting to that writing that will help.

If anything, letting people know about my upcoming projects are my way to put out more positive energy towards them. I’m trying to be more positive and give me more hope to keep pushing forward on it. So send some positive energy back! :)

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Simon On My Mind

June 29, 2007 by Dave.

This song has been stuck in my head today. Mainly because Simon sung it on Charlie Rose last night and I had to punch the captions for it, but it’s sticking. Maybe it’s also that last verse that’s killer, too.

============
Slip slidin’ away
Slip slidin’ away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you’re slip slidin’ away

I know a man
He came from my home town
He wore his passion for his woman
Like a thorny crown
He said Dolores
I live in fear
My love for you’s so overpowering
I’m afraid that I will disappear

Slip slidin’ away
Slip slidin’ away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you’re slip slidin’ away

I know a woman
Became a wife
These are the very words she uses
To describe her life
She said a good day
Ain’t got no rain
She said a bad day’s when I lie in bed
And think of things that might have been

Slip slidin’ away
Slip slidin’ away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you’re slip slidin’ away

And I know a fa-ther
Who had a son
He longed to tell him all the reasons
For the things he’d done
He came a long way
Just to explain
He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping
Then he turned around and headed home again

Slip slidin’ away
Slip slidin’ away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you’re slip slidin’ away

God only knows
God makes his plan
The information’s unavailable
To the mortal man
We’re working our jobs
Collect our pay
Believe we’re gliding down the highway
When in fact we’re slip slidin’ away

Slip slidin’ away
Slip slidin’ away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you’re slip slidin’ away

Slip slidin’ away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you’re slip slidin’ away
Mmm…

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I know… I gotta get back in the game a bit more. :)

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Unintended Victim of Poverty

June 15, 2007 by Dave.

*sigh* As a consequence of my financial situation, I had to close out my Cafe Press store account, Si Se Puede. I was trying to sell T-shirts like my “I am NOT a Suspect” and other such political slogans. It’s less than eight bucks a month, but I can’t even justify it when no one is buying anythign from it. I thin the last time anyone did was back in December of last year. Thing is I really liked some of the stuff I had up there, but I just can’t keep seeing moeny go oout when nothing is coming it. It’s not like I didn’t advertise, but no one was buying. I may open it again when I’m on more stable financial ground. For now the store is closed.

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Ups and Downs… And a Couple of Middles

June 14, 2007 by Dave.

I guess this would be an update, since I really haven’t been able to write much of anything else lately. I need to write this to at least get some it off my chest. I’m basically on a lot of ups and downs as off late and I’m just trying to ride the waves.

First the downs. I will in fact have to file for bankruptcy sometime this year. I need to raise the money to pay for the lawyer first. I’ve been told it costs about $1,700 to file and go through all the stuff to get the kind of protection. As it goes I may not be able to get it. I’m in a gray area— which seems to be a huge factor in my life these days— where I really owe $92,000 in total, but only maybe $15,000 or so could be covered by bankruptcy protection. It might not actually be worth it to file for that amount, but since it will take a while to raise the funds and start the worksheets to get the process going, I’ll have time to see where I’m at.

The big problem will be changing my own spending habits. What’s the point of bankruptcy protection if you’re just going to get into another hole down the road? The biggest problem is that I’m paying out more than I’m taking in. Some of it is necessary (medicine, food, etc), but some of the stuff I is just expenses that is hard to deal with (weekly allowance) and the occasional but expensive surprise costs that can really hurt you (medical costs again, car troubles/car repairs, bills higher than expected). Right now I’m living check to check. I shouldn’t be at this point like this when I make enough money. And I do make enough but only if I never move, never buy anymore clothes and stuff like that. It’s nuts.

Some of the middles. This really should be an up but I’m a little ambivalent about it. My parents are going to lend me some money to pay down the back taxes I owe this year (and sparked the whole bankruptcy process). I asked both my mom and dad for $1,000 each to pay down the money and I would enter a payment schedule to pay down the rest enough to kill it off with next year’s tax refund. Dad agreed to lend it to me, which is great; my mom did something which is why I’m ambivalent about things. She asked me how much I would need to make me feel comfortable about the situation. I’m not comfortable having to borrow money from my parents so that’s kind of a loaded question. She’s going to lend me $2,000 to help pay things down further. It definitely helps and I’ll take it, but I’m just weirded out by it a bit.

Part of me getting back on financial track is having to do whatever OT I can find. It’s not that easy where I’m at, because there’s no set ways to get it. Luckily the last couple of weekends they’ve needed some help a few hours at a time. What’s going to be hard is August. That month has no holidays in it, and it seems people are taking their vacations now or earlier so no guarantee of OT. Very scary and unstable times right now. Sophia’s mom and I have been talking about my needing to work more OT hours. While she’s not happy about it, it means there are some weekends that I can only take Sophia one night. I need to work that much in order to afford my life these days.

The ups. I sent out my full application to the Latino Producer’s Academy yesterday. Actually I sent it out to my producing partner on early Thursday morning, and she hand delivered it on Monday. However there were a few things missing, specifically a clip reel of something I directed. The application was strange about that and a lot of other people were confused, too. I didn’t think I had one (especially one I liked), however I found a short scene I directed for a directing class at BU about 10 years ago. Some of it is cringe-worthy (I realize now I cast it badly), but they needed to see me at work so I sent it in. I made a dub copy and we had until today to get it all in. Turns out they needed two copies of it so I wound up sending the dub and the original just so I can get it there in time. Hopefully this gets me into the Academy in August. I feel I really need to be there to get my career up on the upswing. The only problem would be getting there. The thing with the Academy is they pretty much supply you with the stuff once you get to Tucson, AZ, but you’re responsible to get there yourself. So if I’m successful in getting there, I’m gonna go into a little further debt to fly out there and that’ll be it. I’ve already chopped up two of my cards and will stop paying for ANYTHING by credit card unless an emergency after that.

The Academy is one of several opportunities that I am going for this year. I’ve already submitted an application to the Sundance Writer’s Lab; they’ll let me know if they want me to send them the script by August. The deadline for the ABC/Disney fellowship is coming up—they offer a paid writing gig in LA for one year. I’m applying and hoping for each one to come through so keep the prayers and good thoughts coming. I still have a ton of writing I need to do. Some for the Sundance script, some for other scripts that have a shot at getting sold, some for new ideas I have for web based series. Just have no time to do so.

That’s my life so far.

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It’s Always in the Last Place…

June 1, 2007 by Dave.

Last March, I flew to Long Beach, CA for a film conference. Before I went I went to my neighborhood Wallgreen’s for a couple of cigars for an offering. They needed my ID so I showed them my driver’s license bought the cigars, did the offering and went to he airport with no problems. When I got to the airport, they asked for my ID. When I went fishing for my driver’s license it was gone! I thought they forgot to give it back to me at the Wallgreen’s. Luckily I had my old and expired driver’s license in my wallet as well, so I used that. I’m not sure what scared me more: driving in LA and Las Vegas at almost exactly the speed limit because I didn’t want to get pinched by the West Coast cops with, or knowing that I flew round-trip from Boston to LA with two stopovers each way under the “watchful” eye of the TSA using an out of date driver’s license. When I got back from the trip, I went back to the Wallgreen’s to see if they found my driver’s license. Nothing. Never heard about it, never saw it. I dished out another $20 to get a new driver’s license.

Today the group that held the conference I went to that trip sent me an updated membership card. It meant having to replace the previous one so I looked for it in my wallet. I pulled out what I thought was the old membership card; turns out it was the old driver’s license—the one missing for over a year, the one that had me freaked out driving on the West Coast, the one I paid money to replace! God I don’t think I’ve ever been that pissed off to see my driver’s license in my life!


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