/afk – The Blog

Well, it’s official…Alex and I have decided to score the entire film ourselves, with a generous helping of our friend’s musical talents.  That being said, let me just say that I am a musical infant compared to Alex who is taking to his guitar much like an infant takes to their thumb, naturally.  Now that you are all impressed with my gifted use of the word ‘infant’ in one sentence I can continue with ease.

We have our introduction complete, segment 1 complete and character 1 intro complete.  Things are looking sick.

(I am writing this post while Alex is jamming…so I am gonna break out on some lyrics.)

Foraging through the darkest of nights
I can see her
I can feel her
How I need her

Ok…new song…wait, back to my post…

Let’s just say that the mood of music is as important to us as communicating our message. In fact, it plays a vital part in making sure that we get that message across. So, look for more from us on /afk, the film, the music and the passion.

Vaya Con Dios! – I have always wanted to use that line.

Greg

I just got back home from a whirlwind trip to the ‘City of Music.’  Holy Damn, I love that town.  In recent years, I have told myself that someday I want to live in NYC or Chicago.  After experiencing the people, the greenery, the energy and the spirit that is Nashville, I am a changed man.  My next spot to live is definitely with the warm southern folk of that beautiful city.  Shit, I might even decide to walk barefoot and pick up an accent.

Many thanks go out to Liz Woolley and her loyal crew from OLGA who have helped me with my labor of love over the last four years.  Thank you for your time and your hearts.  I felt so welcome this weekend and that means so much to me.  It’s great to share our ideas for /afk and see the passion that you share for the project.  Thank you.  We are entering unchartered waters at this point, with a film that is now complete, a clean storyboard and simply amazing footage.  Now, the burden is on us and we are going to be doing all that we can to put together our film by the end of the year.

I also want to thank the people of Nashville.  Now this might sound corny, but this weekend I shared an experience with the city.  Right now, /afk is happening.  One year ago, I was putting it together in the hopes of wrapping it all up in a nice little bow.  There was no certainty a year ago.  At this point, /afk exists.  There is nothing that can stop it.  It’s almost as if I had been rolling a boulder up a long and steep hill over the last four years, only to reach the peak this weekend.  Well, Nashville and I were together this weekend and we bonded like passionate lovers exchanging kisses in the night.  I look forward to more quality time in this city, especially as we move to announce our next project.  (Stay tuned.)

There was also a bit of irony this weekend.  It turns out that the hotel that we stayed at with the OLGA crew, the Clubhouse Inn and Suites, is right next to The Southwestern Company.  Keep in mind, I did not pick the hotel.  In 1997, I worked for the Southwestern Company in the summer as a door-to-door book salesmen.  We had trained at the facility right by our hotel and that was the only other time I had been to Nashville.  Selling books door-to-door proved to be my life’s biggest challenge at that point and I learned so much through my experience.  It is so ironic and powerful to know that two very significant things in my life have revolved around Nashville and each time I have left that city I know so much more about myself and who I am in this world.

I know that what I was doing this weekend, traveling, filming and meeting great people, is one of my deep passions.  This is where I want to take my life, on a journey to learn more about people, to share my experiences and to offer our communal experience to the world.  In time, I will be able to do all of these things exclusively.  And with the help of all the people around me that time is rapidly approaching.

Lastly, I want to say thank you to my dad, my constant inspiration.  I know I had to miss your birthday this weekend, and I thank you for understanding that I needed to do this.  I love you and honor the creative gifts you have given me.

I often get to a point where I feel compelled to thank everyone, so let me do so very succinctly.  Thank you.  You know who you are.

Much love

Greg

So, today I realized that things are about to get tough.  We are ready to start cutting and am now realizing that this is the point where we will need to dig in for the long haul.  My dad said to me, “anything worthwhile in life is difficult.”  Truer words have never been spoken.  While I know I have heard those word before, hearing it from your dad makes it more powerful.

Thanks to all of those who participated at SDCC in what I have come to call, “The /afk Guerrilla Marketing Campaign of 2008.”  You will be pleased to know that our traffic on the trailer site, www.afkthefilm.com, saw over 300 hits from our efforts.  To some, that number may seem small, but considering that we passed out only 1000 postcards, I would say our market penetration was excellent and our marketing pieces spot on.

It was interesting to realize that people did not want to take my postcard at first.  Perhaps, they thought me another mercenary of the SDCC-spawned ’swag’ machine.  Only when I said, “Take a look at MY movie,” did people warm to my presence.  I can’t take credit for the simplicity of the line (Kudos Alex), but it points out how people don’t really give a shit about having something forced into their faces.  They care more about the face that is offering the material.  For that reason, I took it upon myself to engage people in the process and the theories behind my own quest for balance.

I am so excited about this project and its birth to the world.

Greg

It’s late.  I’m tired, but I am compelled to write.  I was going for some deep thought about how good it feels to be alive right now, but I am afraid that I will fall far short of the depth of which I aspire.  And so, you will simply have to witness the ‘ramblings of a sick mind’.

I am wiped out.  On the horizon is a storm of decisions that will need to be laid to waste in the weeks and months to come.  

This weekend is SDCC and I could not be more excited.  Each year our crew gets stronger and we are quickly scaling our metaphorical mountains.  Marketing…marketing…marketing.

The /afk ‘to do’ list is dwindling and we go into full post-production next week.  Tapes are captured, digitized and logged.  There are few remaining tapes to be transcribed, but that can come as we progress.  A laptop and some good old-fashioned inspiration are sure to be my dearest companions.  We will laugh, scream, yell and weep, that is for certain.  I welcome it.

LA has been amazing to me.  I have been reinventing myself out here as a result of a kind of identity bankruptcy.  All my stuff is still in Tucson; my toys, my house, my girl, my life.  Yet, I see myself more clearly than ever.  It’s true what they say about possessions, that they end up owning you.  But, I will take it one step further, they can end up defining you.  It’s when our ’stuff’ speaks more of who we are than our own mind and heart that we have become corrupted.  

I see some of my friends out here who embrace this vision.  But, I also see others who do not.  They have moved hundreds of miles only to remain slave to their own identity life-support system.  I am an expert at defining the idea of a healthy escape, it’s been my life for the last four years with /afk.  But to ‘escape’ usually means that one is willing to leave something behind to gain something.  Remember, I am referring to escape as a positive maxim in life.  We all must escape from time to time, whether from reality or from our identities.  It is the only way to truly reflect on these lives that we lead.  If you are unable to venture any distance from those things that make you comfortable, you will never escape from the prison that defines who you are.  

Yes, I used the word ‘prison’ for a reason.  We are who we are today because of a countless list of experiences and situations that have become synonymous with our life.  But, when was the last time you stopped to make sure you liked your definition of ‘life’?  Is it possible that we have been tumbling through our lives without securing the brakes from time to time to make sure we liked where we were headed?  Personally, I do this all the time, as evidenced by this entirely ‘too deep’ conversation.  

The point…

If we never break free from our life-support system, our comfort zone, how can you expect to ever breathe fresh air?

Greg

The new marketing pieces have arrived and boy are they beautiful.  Many thanks go out to Kurtis Durfey, an amazing friend, talented graphic artist and accomplished choral flutist.  Take a look.  

Back Side - Both Postcards

These pieces will be distributed at the 2008 SDCC and at BlizzCon 2008, so keep an eye out for this exclusive swank.  The ideas expressed in these postcards allude to the culmination of our /afk story line and a few of our key characters.

Spread the word…support independent media.

Greg

I am sitting at home in my barren apartment and I have never been so happy.  I have no TV, I have nothing but my bed and a teeny little desk and my beloved laptop.  I did get internet today, so I can boast one luxury at least.

Anyways, I wanted to take a moment and thank all of the people who have been helping me move forward on /afk.  Sometimes we thank people in the aftermath of our accomplishments, but I feel I need to thank some people right now.  In no particular order…

Aaron, thanks for digitizing and I appreciate the help on the transcription.  I honor your loyalty.  Nick, I appreciate the energy and look forward to the help on more transcribing.  WWCBD 2010.  Alex, you see the vision and it’s a pleasure to work with you on this project.  Of course, there will be more.  Kurtis, you are a mad scientist and I love it.  Your art is sick and I am so glad to have you hands on my stuff…wait.  Shit.  Matt, thanks for helping me keep the dream alive.  The future looks bright my friend.  Lastly, Kyra, thanks for your guidance and understanding my need to be so far away from you right now.

/afk would not be where it is today were it not for the trust and dedication of those who make the film amazing.  To Ross, Scott, Brian, Craig and Erik; my friends, my brothers, I offer you my thanks.

There are many more people that deserve thanks, and since you all know me to be a gracious person, please take this moment of written silence to pat yourself on the back.  

SILENCE…………………………………..ssshhhhhh……………………………………………………….

You may now consider yourself rightfully thanked.

Greg

Behold the corkboard and absorb its power.  Simple to complex, and it begins now.  Stay tuned for more updates on our progress on /afk.

Every company I have ever worked for seemed to be obsessed with the concept of perfection.  There was a kind of cult-like agreement that ‘perfection’ was actually attainable on a regular basis.  In time, I began to see that they were right, it was possible.  Let’s be clear, perfection never occurred, but by simply aiming for that as a benchmark, the result was as close as it could be.  As a manager it was up to me to make sure that my crew was trained, polished and prepared for each customer that came our way.  In essence, we were always looking for ways to make the standard sales process into something that approached near perfection.  It was exhausting, yet at the end of the day, I was fulfilled.

In all honesty, I may have been a bit of a tyrant in days gone by.  I may have been one of the proverbial drinkers of the ‘Kool-Aid’.  At that time, my identity and self-respect came from achieving my goals as an employee and manager.  I was the perfect example of a company man. 

These days that same sense of fulfillment in my work environment does not exist.  Perhaps it has to do with my age; I am no longer an impressionable twenty-something.  I still seek excellence in all that I do and work diligently to extract that from my team members, but my passion for perfection is waning.  I have become more of a realist, in that, I expect the best from my team and am realistic that perfection is not worthy of obsession.  I expect excellence, not perfection.  I feel that there are more important ways to expend my excess energies.  

In that last two months, I have been working hard on finishing up “/afk”.  I have rarely been so focused, or inspired, and I find that the core of my happiness and self-fulfillment is generated by working on this film.  Last week I finished the script, we are almost done with transcription and very soon we will actually begin cutting the film.  The satisfaction I get out of life has shifted from that of an external measure, a traditional job, to that of a more internal one, a creative passion.  I still feel good about accomplishing things while at work, but it does not fill me up like it used to, it simply gets me through the day.  What makes me who I am and what inspires me on a daily basis is the idea of one day delivering my passion to the world.

I realize now that the concept of identity takes a while to congeal.  We may think we know who we are by taking a look around us and assigning meaning to our lives and possessions.  But, in truth, we are always changing, preparing ourselves for our purpose.  I truly believe that we all have a purpose in life, and that purpose calls us into action and satisfies our soul unlike anything else.  For me, my past experience has prepared me to embrace the life that I live now.  In the past, I have been harnessed as an instrument of excellence for someone else.  But, are we not the most deserving of our own energies.  I must remain a devoted employee for the time being, but I have chosen to reserve the best of who I am for the proliferation of my identity, thirty three years in preparation.

Rest assured, this site will soon be brimming with creative excesses as our rabid minds squeeze gallons upon gallons of intellectual ectoplasm within the brevity of a few keystrokes.  In other words, come back soon.

Greg