treat this as a test. my first blog post by cell. i’m nowhere near a computer right now and who knows what this will look like.

long story very short:
i trained as an actor from high school (Nixa, MO) to college (SMSU) and in New York, where i lived and worked as an actor (also for a very very large publishing company who was very very good to me). i’ve always been a writer and have been writing short stories and scripts for a very long time.

the backstory:
shortly after september 11, my best friend james sheldon and i decided we were going to pursue our true aim in life: filmmaking. we were both actors and had been focusing mainly on stage, but we both really loved movies. so we both started pursuing roles in film and learning as much as we possibly could about filmmaking. i started converting a play that i had written into a screenplay, and from there started writing short films. they were fun to make, and all of my friends were either in film school, studying film acting, or working in the business so it wasn’t too hard to find advice and support.

it has come to my attention that my blog is missing posts that i have sent over the past several days. this is more than likely due to some blogger mail server problem (i’ve been blogging via email). unfortunately, this blog has become an exploration in the difficulty in creating it. i will begin changing that now.

what a great meeting we had today. thanks to bucky bowman and the arts patronage initiative, springfield, mo is on the path to having a really great film community. today we took the first steps in developing a local film commission, and uniting the small community of filmmakers already operating in the ozarks. hopefully, this will prompt investors to see just how viable film can be as a revenue generating mechanism for this area.

now we just have to make some movies!

james and i have been talking, and we’re exploring the possibility of postponing our shoot of ozark mile and shooting a smaller film instead. the reasoning is that we might be able to convince financiers to invest in ozark mile, based on the results they see we are capable of producing without a budget.

when i ventured out on this project to create ozark mile, I had no idea the path would be as arduous as it has become. not to say the struggle hasn’t been worthwhile…it has. but when james sheldon and i first set our sights on producing a film in MO, we both felt that it would be pretty easy to find support in doing so. and we found that we were largely correct#–the average person is so eager to help or support in whatever way they can that it is very inspiring to just talk with people about the project. but when it comes to financing the film, things take a different turn. we’ve had so many people tell us they’re interested, want to invest, plan to invest, but then ultimately we can’t seem to get them to commit. not because they can’t see the value in the project, or the promise of building a film community in the Ozarks, but for reasons we just never even hear. we have yet to find a single person who would turn us down because they thought the project would be unsuccessful#–in fact, we’ve only heard how the project can’t help but succeed.

I think it’s time we all quit being such pansies. let me explain.

we ask our public servants to represent our interests in the government, and then we gripe when we’re not represented well. but yet we also never really inform our representatives of our views. do we? I encourage everyone to begin writing your representatives…the worst that could happen is you’ll receive a cordial letter in reply (see below).

I recently wrote roy blunt of missouri and asked that he consider voting against the proposed bill allowing oil drilling in the arctic national wildlife refuge (ANWR). after all, I thought the idea of a wildlife refuge was that it remain untouched by mankind in order to preserve the natural order of ecology in the reserve. apparently this is not the case. apparently, the wildlife refuge can also be leased to energy companies in order to increase revenue to the state of alaska and the U.S. treasury. who knew!

letter to roy blunt:

well the posting worked…how about photos?