Consulting

I used to work for management consultant/life coach during high school. I would sit in utter amazement at the sheer amount of business the man would do on a weekly basis, doing things that seemed to me to be completely inane. He would be flied out to do conferences, deliver speeches, meet with top 50 CEOs. 

The man couldn't use a computer. I wrote nearly every document, composed every email. In nearly every one he would be making simple observations, pointing out the obvious and making very "duh" recommendations. "Your business is losing money, cut staff." "Your employees don't feel recognized, set up a rewards program."

He used to have a saying, "It's lonely at the top" when he talked about working with CEOs and business owners. In some cases, just getting an outside opinion, even when the answer was staring these execs in the face was enough to warrant his huge retainer. 

And so I find myself in a similar position (not moneywise), thinking about his old maxim. I'm consulting. And for these business owners, I am now the one making these recommendations (although I like to think mine are a bit more worthwhile). 

Life is full of ironies. 

Below: a youtube series that you may be seeing more of.

Limbo

Since Tucker got off his ass and updated the blog, it's only fair that I do the same. I've been back in Los Angeles for three weeks now, alot has happened and alot has not. I'll give you a brief update on IHTSBIH, my life and a few random things that have ruffled my feathers of late.

First, the movie. As Tucker mentioned I am indeed going through the hundred or so hours of footage I have. Generally, my plan is sort all the footage into three categories: DVD, web, both. The DVD stuff I'm actually sub-categorizing. My general goal (and this will most likely change when we land a studio who decides that they know better than a 22 year old) is to have one 40-45 minute general behind the scenes featurette and a number of smaller featurettes. 

Based on my recollection, I'm excited to develop the main documentary. Every set is filled with drama, pain, laughter and the full spectrum of emotions. Ours was no exception. My camera captured alot, some of which I'm sure will never see the light of day (Slingblade watching Jesse perform for the first time was quite a treat, but given his job, that footage is a bust). On the plus side, I am very interested to put the footage of Czuchry working with Tucker one on one split screen with the final performance. Should be very insightful. 

But all that is a long way down the road. 

For now, I'm in limbo. I'm working for Tucker part time, which is great. Watching footage is fun, and starting to cut in my head is great mind exercise. On the flipside though, I'm still basically waiting on a number of jobs to come through. It's frustrating as hell. I'm convinced no business moves slower than Hollywood. 

I'm the sort of person who loves to always be engaged and Tucker has been encouraging me to pursue a number of internet projects I have gestating. I can't put my finger on what has prevented me from doing that. Perhaps the constant reminders from my friends as they go to work everyday is a bit grating. My mom constantly reminds me that I worked for 3 months 12+ hours a day in Louisiana while my friends were job searching, but now that I'm back in L.A. I'm itching for a challenge. I want to walk into a studio and tell them that given the right set of circumstances you can recreate the magic of the IHTSBIH blog. There are concrete reasons why our work consistently outperformed major studio websites. I know this. I have this expertise. 

Or maybe I should take Ryan Holiday's advice and work directly with other filmmaker's who want to develop blogs. I've looked around, most filmmaker blogs are AWFUL. Even Rob Cohen, who clearly had some of the right stuff on his Mummy blog, wasn't even close to the IHTSBIH blog. I think Ryan is right, but as much as I'm comfortable marketing the art of film and the art of the filmmaker, I need to learn how to better market myself.  

And of course the pending SAG strike will only broaden my job opportunities. Unbelievable. Maybe they'll eventually find that internet money, but my guess is we're headed for another industry slowdown. 

For now though I'm in limbo. Living cheaply, enjoying the gorgeous L.A. weather and girls. Taking life one day at a time. A job will come. I know this. 

Patience is the virtue I need to re-discover, which is like finding a needle in a haystack in this town. 

A random photo of me on some statue in Shreveport below.