But it's only been a year..............
Hello, everyone. Just an update of sorts to all of you supportive and patient people. By the way--thank you for the patience and support. Bridget and I started this project a little over a year ago, and I can honestly say that I cannot believe it is still not finished. Some say that good things come to those who wait. Well--what happened to YOLO? Fine--I do believe that we need to wait for good things, and that everything does happen in time--sometimes I just get a little frustrated with the process. So--good news and bad--You can decide which is which.
Kristy is no longer with us. After 4+ months of no progress--we all decided that it would be best to part ways. I will admit--it's been a trying time, and I am embarrassed that a trailer was never posted or that the Iowa DVD is still not completed. Unfortunately--I had no control over this. All I can say is that we are moving forward from here. Sadly, this project is hanging by a thread. Don't get me wrong--I really believe that it will eventually get finished--it's just that the momentum has definitely slowed down, but--we will see.
The worst news is this: We missed the deadline for the Ellen Show. Since no trailer was ever made or uploaded--we were unable to send in the necessary clips needed to secure our spot. This too is embarrassing. I've pretty much decided that I will no longer post expected dates or possible outcomes--mostly because every single one of them has fallen through. I'm not gonna lie--as far as the film goes--I feel like a complete failure. I have no one to blame but myself. So many of you sent me money, and read the blog, and cheered at the potential, yet I have delivered nothing. The mistakes that I have made along the way cannot be undone, but I remain optimistic that I will complete this project--someday--somehow.
So, once I do know more--we can resubmit to the Ellen Show. I'm hopeful that enough of you will still be willing to write in to get me on. I had over 1,000 letters last time, but was unable to get a 3 minute clip put together. If I get the same support as before--you can bet that I will get the clip in--even if I have to drive to the studios and put on a frickin puppet show--they will see something, and I WILL get to be on the show.
I will keep everyone posted about the IOWA dvd and the Ellen show and the film.
The good news is that Bridget has decided to edit the film. A lot of great things have happened for her in the last year, and I could not be happier. I'm so grateful that after the right amount of time had passed-- she decided it was indeed the only way to get this thing done. I've believed in her all along, and will continue to do so. The goal now for everyone is: patience.I have no idea when this movie will be finished, but I know that Bridget is both willing and capable--so there ya go. I'm happy that it is back in her hands, and that she cares enough to see it get made. I guess the lesson here is that good things do come to those who wait.
After all--it's only been a year.............
Until next time, TJ
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Update and what to expect in the next 6 months
I'm not sure what the etiquette is about when you can no longer say Happy New Year, and frankly, I don't care--so--Happy New Year to the readers, fans, and even the foes of Tiny Superstars. Bridget told me today that no one reads our blog anymore. I do not believe that is true, and I am here to prove her wrong. Ok--I'll fill you all in on what is happening. Ready? Here we go:
First and foremost I want to wish two of the tiny superstars a happy birthday. Kristy's special day was Jan 1st and Bridget's was on Jan 12th. They are now 24 and 25 years old which means two things: 1.) I am old as hell and 2.) Bridget can now legally rent a car. So--Happy Birthday, kittens. I hope your day was wonderful.
Ok, so things are moving along nicely--well--sort of. Bridget and Kristy have yet to meet, but besides that--e'erthing is on track. The release date we are now shooting for is July 1st which of course is my birthday. I'm 99.9% sure that we will make that goal. Some things that you can expect before the release date:
1. The IOWA DVD. I will be sending copies of my Iowa show to some of our backers AND to the many people who are about to buy it. Link will be up by Thursday. DVD will be $10 with free shipping. This DVD will also include an Iowa show soundtrack AND my new chapbook (TJ Takes on the World of Food) ALL proceeds will go to Tiny Superstars and will help us with distribution costs, film festival entry fees, and maybe something gangsta' for me. We will see.
2. The Tiny Superstars dinner which is for our very special backers who donated $150 or more and checked the box marked SPECIAL REWARD. The dinner will be super fun. I'll be cooking the meal--Bridget will make the dessert and look pretty, and Kristy will probably bring her own food, because she is one of "those" people. LOL!! We are all looking forward to celebrating with Emily, Steven, Juan, Summer, Erin, Mary, and Justin. I'm sure Sarah, Dustin, and Jess will also be joining us, and I'll probably bring my better half. We will post pictures from this dinner. Cheers in advance.
3. A video of Bridget doing karaoke. We promised this so very long ago, and I plan on seeing it through.
4. A premiere/special preview of the film. This will be a really fun event, because all of our hard work will have paid off, and we will be able to celebrate. More info on that will come soon. The backers who donated $75 or more will receive free entrance and VIP treatment at this event, and everyone else will have an opportunity to buy tickets to this catered soiree.
5. A date for the Ellen Show. We are working really hard to get Ellen the footage she needs to help us promote this film. Since several hundred of you wrote into the show, Ellen has agreed to have me on to discuss the film as well as my story. We do not have a date for this yet, but it will happen. You will see me on Ellen before the end of the year. I promise.
6. Photos: Carrie will be taking a few snaps of all of us for promotion and such. I'm not interested in climbing another mountain for a photoshoot. Hopefully that won't be a requirement this time.
7. Blog posts from B Naj and Kristy along with some clips and such. In order for Bridget to write a post though--we have to make sure she knows peeps are reading so leave a comment if you can.
So there ya go. That's a lot of stuff for you all to expect.
Kristy is working diligently of the ten million piece puzzle that will become a film, Bridget is slammed with a new full time job AND an internship, and I'm still teaching and doing the funny. Please check out tjhuberg.net for more on what's up with me or follow me on twitter @tjishilarious
Thanks for reading everyone. We really do appreciate the support, and you all know how I like proving Bridget wrong. I'm still enjoying this journey, and am looking forward to next week when B and K will finally have a face to face conversation about The Artist Formally Known as Trina. Be back soon. I'll leave you with a recent snap of me and my banjolele for your viewing pleasure.
TEEJ
First and foremost I want to wish two of the tiny superstars a happy birthday. Kristy's special day was Jan 1st and Bridget's was on Jan 12th. They are now 24 and 25 years old which means two things: 1.) I am old as hell and 2.) Bridget can now legally rent a car. So--Happy Birthday, kittens. I hope your day was wonderful.
Ok, so things are moving along nicely--well--sort of. Bridget and Kristy have yet to meet, but besides that--e'erthing is on track. The release date we are now shooting for is July 1st which of course is my birthday. I'm 99.9% sure that we will make that goal. Some things that you can expect before the release date:
1. The IOWA DVD. I will be sending copies of my Iowa show to some of our backers AND to the many people who are about to buy it. Link will be up by Thursday. DVD will be $10 with free shipping. This DVD will also include an Iowa show soundtrack AND my new chapbook (TJ Takes on the World of Food) ALL proceeds will go to Tiny Superstars and will help us with distribution costs, film festival entry fees, and maybe something gangsta' for me. We will see.
2. The Tiny Superstars dinner which is for our very special backers who donated $150 or more and checked the box marked SPECIAL REWARD. The dinner will be super fun. I'll be cooking the meal--Bridget will make the dessert and look pretty, and Kristy will probably bring her own food, because she is one of "those" people. LOL!! We are all looking forward to celebrating with Emily, Steven, Juan, Summer, Erin, Mary, and Justin. I'm sure Sarah, Dustin, and Jess will also be joining us, and I'll probably bring my better half. We will post pictures from this dinner. Cheers in advance.
3. A video of Bridget doing karaoke. We promised this so very long ago, and I plan on seeing it through.
4. A premiere/special preview of the film. This will be a really fun event, because all of our hard work will have paid off, and we will be able to celebrate. More info on that will come soon. The backers who donated $75 or more will receive free entrance and VIP treatment at this event, and everyone else will have an opportunity to buy tickets to this catered soiree.
5. A date for the Ellen Show. We are working really hard to get Ellen the footage she needs to help us promote this film. Since several hundred of you wrote into the show, Ellen has agreed to have me on to discuss the film as well as my story. We do not have a date for this yet, but it will happen. You will see me on Ellen before the end of the year. I promise.
6. Photos: Carrie will be taking a few snaps of all of us for promotion and such. I'm not interested in climbing another mountain for a photoshoot. Hopefully that won't be a requirement this time.
7. Blog posts from B Naj and Kristy along with some clips and such. In order for Bridget to write a post though--we have to make sure she knows peeps are reading so leave a comment if you can.
So there ya go. That's a lot of stuff for you all to expect.
Kristy is working diligently of the ten million piece puzzle that will become a film, Bridget is slammed with a new full time job AND an internship, and I'm still teaching and doing the funny. Please check out tjhuberg.net for more on what's up with me or follow me on twitter @tjishilarious
Thanks for reading everyone. We really do appreciate the support, and you all know how I like proving Bridget wrong. I'm still enjoying this journey, and am looking forward to next week when B and K will finally have a face to face conversation about The Artist Formally Known as Trina. Be back soon. I'll leave you with a recent snap of me and my banjolele for your viewing pleasure.
TEEJ
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Lonely Tea Time
Hello Tiny Superstar friends!
I HAD a present for you, but it's misbehaving so I'll wait on sharing the clip with you another day so that I can bring you a post, as an update must be better than nothing.
As of now, I have that clip thrown together, as well as 3 edits of the Iowa Show for a DVD (day 1, day 2, and an amalgamation of both days) which I believe TJ is planning on selling in addition to sending out to our lovely backers. So, for those of you who won't get one by being a backer, and who either missed the show or want to remember it always, stay tuned for more on that later. (huzzah for rewards!)
I will be taking the next week to really buckle down and assess how to put all the footage together for maximum story awesome, once my editing program and my computer cooperate with the footage and release what I've edited for your viewing pleasure.
I have a lot of work ahead of me, and while it's kind of scary to have such a big project to put together, it's also super exciting. There's a lot of themes and ideas expressed in the footage that I really want to reveal in a proper way. My biggest fear with what I have to edit is portraying an incomplete story - something that is one-sided and doesn't show the kind of understanding and acceptance that I think has played an integral part in TJ's story. Somebody doesn't become as awesome and well-rounded as TJ without going through a lot of crap, so there's a lot of less savory topics to cover that because I personally don't know the people in her life, I'm very concerned with portraying them incorrectly.
I've always believed people don't hurt others intentionally, and that everything we do is simply because we think it's best for ourselves, for our families, for our friends, and for society. Sometimes it really is for the best, and sometimes it's misguided. I don't really believe in good and bad. And as a filmmaker, especially one in America, that is a very hard thing to hold on to in a final product, because you often get accused of not having a point of view or that you have a weak story. To me, strength is found in a well-rounded subject that makes you really think about your own morals and definitions and whatnot. It doesn't have to change your mind, it just needs to make you think. I have some really strong viewpoints on a lot of things, but I absolutely love thinking about what leads people to viewpoints opposite my own, and I love encouraging other people to essentially put themselves in others' shoes as well.
One of the biggest challenges I faced in putting together the clip... I think I mentioned to you guys that I always try to listen for "sound bytes," and the key reason for that is to summarize or highlight something and bring it together, which, as you probably know, is how you throw a trailer together. The problem with sound bytes is that they're quick and dirty ways to hash information together. They are immediate points of view that have no context. They cause a lot of problems a lot of the time. So yeah. I did a lot of looking into other documentaries and the choices they made for promoting their movies, and reflecting on the two documentaries I've worked on in the past and how I threw clips for them together. There are some easy choices I could make with throwing this together, but I really want the trailer to accurately portray the themes of the movie - which are actually the only definites I have about it right now, other than it's about TJ. So... I hope I did okay, because I'm never fully satisfied with what I throw together.
Anyways, I'm currently sitting at home attempting to enjoy this lonely tea time I've put together because I started feeling dizzy and then ill a bit ago which makes me sad because I wanted to see TJ's show tonight and also get some more honey from the farmer's market across the street from the Improv because as you can see I am running low. I am hoping I am not getting my roommate's sick, because he has been miserable since yesterday. It does give me more time to figure out the mixdown problems I guess. One solution is just re-editing the trailer and re-importing all the footage, which would suck, but at least it would fix it. Theoretically.
Anyways...
- Kristy
I HAD a present for you, but it's misbehaving so I'll wait on sharing the clip with you another day so that I can bring you a post, as an update must be better than nothing.
As of now, I have that clip thrown together, as well as 3 edits of the Iowa Show for a DVD (day 1, day 2, and an amalgamation of both days) which I believe TJ is planning on selling in addition to sending out to our lovely backers. So, for those of you who won't get one by being a backer, and who either missed the show or want to remember it always, stay tuned for more on that later. (huzzah for rewards!)
I will be taking the next week to really buckle down and assess how to put all the footage together for maximum story awesome, once my editing program and my computer cooperate with the footage and release what I've edited for your viewing pleasure.
I have a lot of work ahead of me, and while it's kind of scary to have such a big project to put together, it's also super exciting. There's a lot of themes and ideas expressed in the footage that I really want to reveal in a proper way. My biggest fear with what I have to edit is portraying an incomplete story - something that is one-sided and doesn't show the kind of understanding and acceptance that I think has played an integral part in TJ's story. Somebody doesn't become as awesome and well-rounded as TJ without going through a lot of crap, so there's a lot of less savory topics to cover that because I personally don't know the people in her life, I'm very concerned with portraying them incorrectly.
I've always believed people don't hurt others intentionally, and that everything we do is simply because we think it's best for ourselves, for our families, for our friends, and for society. Sometimes it really is for the best, and sometimes it's misguided. I don't really believe in good and bad. And as a filmmaker, especially one in America, that is a very hard thing to hold on to in a final product, because you often get accused of not having a point of view or that you have a weak story. To me, strength is found in a well-rounded subject that makes you really think about your own morals and definitions and whatnot. It doesn't have to change your mind, it just needs to make you think. I have some really strong viewpoints on a lot of things, but I absolutely love thinking about what leads people to viewpoints opposite my own, and I love encouraging other people to essentially put themselves in others' shoes as well.
One of the biggest challenges I faced in putting together the clip... I think I mentioned to you guys that I always try to listen for "sound bytes," and the key reason for that is to summarize or highlight something and bring it together, which, as you probably know, is how you throw a trailer together. The problem with sound bytes is that they're quick and dirty ways to hash information together. They are immediate points of view that have no context. They cause a lot of problems a lot of the time. So yeah. I did a lot of looking into other documentaries and the choices they made for promoting their movies, and reflecting on the two documentaries I've worked on in the past and how I threw clips for them together. There are some easy choices I could make with throwing this together, but I really want the trailer to accurately portray the themes of the movie - which are actually the only definites I have about it right now, other than it's about TJ. So... I hope I did okay, because I'm never fully satisfied with what I throw together.
Anyways, I'm currently sitting at home attempting to enjoy this lonely tea time I've put together because I started feeling dizzy and then ill a bit ago which makes me sad because I wanted to see TJ's show tonight and also get some more honey from the farmer's market across the street from the Improv because as you can see I am running low. I am hoping I am not getting my roommate's sick, because he has been miserable since yesterday. It does give me more time to figure out the mixdown problems I guess. One solution is just re-editing the trailer and re-importing all the footage, which would suck, but at least it would fix it. Theoretically.
Anyways...
- Kristy
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