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

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