This is a little bit of a different post. This is about something I've learned about networking, support, and a little bit about the film world here in Chicago. Back in school, Kevin Cooper, my teacher for pre-production and Producer of Secondhand Lions with Michael Caine, Robert Duvall, and Haley Joel Osment once said in passing, "it's amazing how much work gets done at parties."

Now that I've been in the film world a little bit, I've started to experience that. Even someone as introverted and on the most part pretty shy as myself when it comes to networking/party situations, I still see this as truth.

Back towards the end of June I got a Facebook invite for a promo night at Augie's Booze & Schmooze in Chicago. It was from a buddy, Preston Tate Jr. I had worked with Preston back at College of DuPage on a short film titled "The Bell Tolls" that we did for a directing class. Preston and I kept in touch over the years and he landed a role in a film called "Critical Nexus" coming out in September. This was a promo night for the film as well as a location actually used in the film, pretty cool!

Edit: Preston's career is growing, he recently had a role on Sirens on USA Network. I wrote about it here.

So, I went to go support him, and also catch up since I haven't spoken to him in a while. While socializing (and taking advantage of the wrist band deal!) I had a brief conversation with director Tirf Alexius, and met a few of the producers, along with misc cast and crew. They announced that the movie would be playing at a theater close to the apartment I was going to be moving into in July, so I definitely wanted to check out a red carpet premiere up close and in person. Also, I really liked the energy of the group, seeing the promotion stage of a completed film was incredibly exciting to watch and motivating.

I kept in touch with the Tirf, and as they continued to promote the heck out of the movie,they  wanted to put together recap videos of the events. They had video and stills of the events, but as luck would have it they needed an editor to put it all together, and that's where I came into play!

Here's the first promo I put together for the team at the promo night at Fiesta Cantina in Wrigleyville, I also attended the promo night (and gave myself a quick cameo in the video!). The banner picture from this post is me with the lead in the film Karmann Bajuyo from that night.

They enjoyed the video, and a couple weeks later called me back to the studio to edit another one!

So who would have thought that a night of partying in support of an actor I worked with while in school would somehow end up with me editing promos for the movie itself and who knows what else?

Edit: turns out the "who knows what else" ended up happening! Check out my new blog about that!