Author |
Topic: Full plan for the documentary (Read 314 times) |
|
SommelierCH
New Board Hall of Famer
I’m awed by the amazing resiliency that we possess
Gender: 
Posts: 606
|
 |
Full plan for the documentary
« on: Nov 24th, 2002, 5:32pm » |
 Quote  Modify
|
O.K. Kids,
I’m going to kick it into high gear, and I’m going to cover a LOT of territory (probably not sequentially)—so just read it as best you can, stream of unconsciousness. I will try to group the major thoughts into paragraphs, but this is the shotgun approach, with a whole bunch of shells.
I’m going to start over and approach things in stages. If even one of these stages reaches fruition, we will have success. But, they are designed, to build on the foundation of the preceding one, to reach the ultimate goal: Helping Clusterheads Stop the Pain!! If the final stage is reached and our “Dances with the Beast/ The Clusterhead Video Quilt” makes money for O.U.C.H., we could:
1. Start a relief fund for members that have no insurance and supplement those who do.
2. Scholarship fund for Medical Students entering this field and contractually bind them, to treating our members on a quid pro quo basis.
3. Hire lobbyists to change the way insurance companies and employers deal with us.
Even if we don’t make money—we will still get the word out—everyday we read on the board about people who have had CH’s for years groping around in the dark, with no where to turn, misdiagnosed, given bad meds and still suffering. When we get the word out, these people will at least know what they have and with this information, they can fight for themselves. They, at the very least, will learn about abortives and preventatives (Sorry, baby aspirin doesn’t work). Say that we don’t (hypothetically of course) reach the neurologists –we WILL reach the sufferers, and at this point, I think that is more important. This, is the real answer to Bob P’s question, which was: “So that leaves the general public. What do you expect to accomplish by them seeing it?”
Every CH sufferer deserves to have the knowledge that we do!
|
| « Last Edit: Nov 29th, 2002, 6:51pm by SommelierCH » |
 IP Logged |
Wine is a little like love. When the right one comes along, you know it!
|
|
|
SommelierCH
New Board Hall of Famer
I’m awed by the amazing resiliency that we possess
Gender:
Posts: 606
|
|
Re: STARRING: Bea Arthur as Jonny Mule
« Reply #1 on: Nov 24th, 2002, 5:33pm » |
Quote Modify
|
First, let me start at a more basic level. Let’s pull this web-site into the 20th century..LOL. We are still just TYPING messages to each other, that is SOOO Gutenberg. Why don’t we have a streaming video web page (like Bob P’s photo page, but a magnitude greater). Make a video of yourselves and we can post it (for this part even a cheap web cam will suffice)—we will see what each other really looks like and sounds like. Tell us your story, your pain, your happiness, your frustration with the medical community, how you find relief, what meds work for you, how you cope, how you love. (I, for one, would love to see and hear Elaine tell us about being pushed out of the house, see in her eyes reliving the hat chase, see her with Buddy and the wonderful caring and tender love they have for each other. That post, embodies the essence of human drama—our ability to cry and laugh at the same time. Shakespeare understood that. When I direct (or act, for that matter) Shakespeare, I want to help the actors find the humor in the drama, and the drama in the humor. Hamlet, played straight on as a tragedy becomes mind bendingly numbing, we can only absorb so much pain and sorrow before we, as an audience, just shut down. But if you can find the humor within the drama, immediately your character becomes three dimensional and alive, vibrant and real. It becomes a human. Elaine’s story caught me in that magical space, not going up, not going down, but doing both at once. It was beautiful. All of us Clusterheads have that comedy/tragedy [remember those 2 masks of theatre?], up/down, yin/yang. Take me for instance, wine is one of my great loves, it flows in my veins/yet, it causes me my greatest pain. Now onward) I can view these videos and select (only if you want to be considered) the best to start our Quilt with. Imagine how much of a blast that would be—even if nothing else comes of it, that would be a major success in itself—and no pressure (to begin with) to achieve “show quality”, so everyone would feel comfortable participating. Those outstanding videos, if they want to participate on the next level, can be tweaked and improved to get to “show quality”. Modifications might be on the same lines as a pot luck dinner, i.e. “we don’t need 4, three bean salads”. Anyone with a video camera probably doesn’t use it much and wishes they could make better videos. You will. I will post video tips—beginning now: The major weakness in all home videos is sound. The microphone that is on the consumer type video camera sucks. The greatest single improvement you can make is to buy an external “shotgun microphone”. I will post sites that will give tons of info on this stuff. Most people don’t use their video cameras because they don’t have anything to shoot. Well…if you haven’t filmed your parents or grandparents in an interview setting, talking about their lives as far back as they can remember, plus talking about their parents and grandparents—DO IT NOW! As a 46 (oops, I meant 39) yr. old orphan, I can tell you that my interview with my parents 12 yrs. ago, is one of my most valued treasures and the essence of what I know about my family tree. If you have kids, film yourself, talking about your own heritage and put it away until their 21st birthday, and then present it to them as their family legacy. The only way to get better at shooting video is to shoot video. DUH! You paid for that damn camera, get it out and use it. The tape is cheap and if you screw up bad, you just record over it. We would need “Digital Video” (DV from now on) to put up on the site and for me to edit on my computer. If your camera is not DV, you’re not left out, you can just run the analog tape feed into a DV camera, borrowed or rented (cheap) and the camera will turn it into DV. If you don’t have access to a camera, or feel intimidated about the whole thing, I will shoot your story myself, if you happen to be passing through LA. However, part of what will make this work is the fact that we are spread out around the world, and the locale and sense of place that you are coming from should be integrally incorporated if possible. This stage alone would be a major and rewarding move forward for all of us on this amazing site.
|
|
IP Logged |
Wine is a little like love. When the right one comes along, you know it!
|
|
|
SommelierCH
New Board Hall of Famer
I’m awed by the amazing resiliency that we possess
Gender:
Posts: 606
|
|
Re: STARRING: Bea Arthur as Jonny Mule
« Reply #2 on: Nov 24th, 2002, 5:34pm » |
Quote Modify
|
I know it’s hard to understand, if you don’t live in Hollywood, how much money is thrown around, day in and day out, in the entertainment business (the “Industry”, from now on). For example in just the last 2 months, in just my restaurant: A waiter (who was a NOVICE script writer) sold two scripts in 2 (count ‘em, two) weeks. The first for $275,000.00 and the second (just because he sold the first) for $450,000.00. He has to split 50/50 with his writing partner, never the less, he quit being a waiter. Another waiter in the restaurant got a small part in a movie and $50,000.00. And a waitress landed a commercial and got $25,000.00 up front, with much more than that in royalties, to follow. That’s in just 2 months, in just one restaurant. If you don’t see it with your own eyes, you just can’t believe it! This Industry throws tons of money around, and is still dieing for good content, begging for SOMETHING, to fill up those 150 channels. Real footage of real people is the hottest part of the market right now—our timing couldn’t be better—2 yrs. ago, this project would never have been seriously considered, now it’s almost a shoe-in.
The reason that projects like this fail or never even get started, is not because the idea is no good, rather it’s because you have to inspire someone else to: Direct, Produce, Write, Work the camera, Edit, Design, Act, etc. If you wait for someone else to get inspired and find the time and do it for you on a shoestring budget—it will never get done! Like me, as an actor, going out on auditions, over and over, year after year, sitting at home afterwards waiting for “The Call” that will send me on my way to the big time. Bahaaaaaaa. Wrong. I realized that if anything was going to happen “I” would have to make it happen, not depend on some casting director who didn’t like the color of my hair, or the style of my shirt (I kid you not). Mucho money is needed, in normal situations to feed the script writer(s), director, producer, costumer, set designer, talent (actors) of course; but the real cost and major hurdle for most projects lies in the “post-production” i.e. editing and soundtrack. The hardest chunk is renting studio space with an editing machine and paying, at least one, editor (who may or may not share your vision) to sit for umpteen hours on end, going over the raw footage, nursing it to completion. The editor can make or break the whole thing, but they will NEVER have your passion or love for the project, they are a hired gun. To them it’s just another paycheck. This project is designed from the ground up, to break that vicious cycle (insert here PFDAN’s and Amen). You people will direct and write for yourselves, I will edit (hell, I’m real tired of looking at footage of myself, over and over), then after I put it together, we turn it over to our musicians to add original or cover music for the soundtrack (“Love theme from: Dances with the Beast”?). This is directed, produced, written and staring the Clusterheads themselves. How cool is that? That alone is an instant media grabber!
|
|
IP Logged |
Wine is a little like love. When the right one comes along, you know it!
|
|
|
SommelierCH
New Board Hall of Famer
I’m awed by the amazing resiliency that we possess
Gender:
Posts: 606
|
|
Re: STARRING: Bea Arthur as Jonny Mule
« Reply #3 on: Nov 24th, 2002, 5:34pm » |
Quote Modify
|
Now, for the media and how we will get attention. (Anyone still with me? Take an O2 break and come on back) I mentioned in an earlier post about getting on Oprah (I’ve cried more watching her show, than all the movies I’ve seen in my life put together) (Shut up, King) but like I said I’m on drugs and sleep deprived. I frigging KNOW Dr. Phil and Montell Williams! They both film their shows in LA and come into the restaurant often. Dr. Phil and I spar back and forth all the time. He is incredibly gracious and I’m sure I could convince him to take a stab at our psychological implications and life coping methods AND our resolute determination (all of us, almost to a T) not to be defeated by Cluster headaches. All his other cases would pale and wither standing up next to us. You know how they wine, “I have low self-esteem because I gained too much weight, and I need to eat to escape these terrible MEEEGRAINS”. We would blow them all off the stage. He is incredibly competitive (sports background, and damn he’s big) and would relish the “challenge” of dealing with us, and at the same time, exploring this new and somewhat unknown territory. Montell loves wine! I have spent hours educating him and turning him on to new wines. He never even asks for a wine list anymore, he knows that I understand his palate, so he just says every time “David, just bring me whatever you want”. The way it goes, is that he buys a bottle and I buy him a bottle and at the end of the meal, he side tips me the cost of what I bought him, plus a generous chunk extra for my pocket. He even offered to do a segment for my television pilot. He offered his studio, his production people and himself, gratis. He is very aware of health issues, and since he was diagnosed with MS, he has become somewhat of a health crusader. I can’t imagine that he would turn me down on this incredible topic. Especially if I handed him a complete package like “Dances with the Beast/The Clusterhead Video Quilt”. (Who in the world would not be intrigued and drawn in by that title? I mean, really WTF is that?)
I’ll tell you why Neurologists won’t sit and watch an educational CD. For years I’ve helped to put together dinners sponsored by the Drug Companies. Here’s the deal. They book parties in nice restaurants, set up an Audio Visual Demonstration of their new drug or technique in front of the tables and invite Dr.s in that particular field to attend. The Dr.s show up because it’s a good restaurant and the food and drinks and wine are FREE.
Everyone is having a good time until the invariably tedious presentation begins and they all go brain dead, you can see it in their eyes. Doctors are people too, they like good movies, like everyone they enjoy being entertained. We will be so damned “off the wall” entertaining, that they won’t even know we are preaching to them. They might not watch it as a Doctor, but they WILL WATCH it as a human being. We get to them through the back door, dingleberries and all.
|
|
IP Logged |
Wine is a little like love. When the right one comes along, you know it!
|
|
|
SommelierCH
New Board Hall of Famer
I’m awed by the amazing resiliency that we possess
Gender:
Posts: 606
|
|
Re: STARRING: Bea Arthur as Jonny Mule
« Reply #4 on: Nov 24th, 2002, 5:35pm » |
Quote Modify
|
Finally, let me reply to some of your posts:
CAPT. DAVID: Regarding the cost of a project like this. I’ve explained pretty much the gist of it in the above. For a major project like this my old P3 600 mhz. ain’t gonna cut it. So I would have to upgrade to some sort of P4 and get more storage so I could work with everyone’s DV (one hour of DV takes 13 gigabytes of space). But, I do have a (slightly old) $1,000 editing program and an (older) $1,500 DV camera, that I would use to run everyone’s tapes through in order to get them into my computer. It might last, it might burn out. I’m hoping to have a good holiday season at work, so I can get ahead on my bills and spring for a better computer.
NOT4: Hell, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. Show yourself, warts and all! We are such a disparate group, but unlike other maladies such as cancer, we are connected by almost IDENTICAL symptoms, brought together by the power of the Web (did I hear someone say Microsoft?) We are so alike and yet so different. Go ahead and fire your 9 mm. into your reefer (Indica?)—an outside scriptwriter or director wouldn’t use that—it’s unbelievable, not reality—Well wake up and smell the dingleberries. No one could play YOU. You are unique, show it, let it hang, dog. As far as my accessibility, I will follow your suggestions and take care of that tonight. The reason I didn’t include an email address is because the only other time I have ever responded to a board or chat, was my High School alumni site, and almost immediately the spiders found me and I was buried in spam rendering it useless for when people wanted to contact me.
DON: Tell me exactly what the status of O.U.C.H. is a non-profit. There was a big producer, who was way into collecting wine, that had heard about me and came by to talk, I didn’t know him from Adam, but as we were talking about wine I mentioned my “Interactive Wine and Food Adventure” television show and he jumped at it. Seems he had a non-profit, and needed to run some money through it or he would lose it, his analogy to me was the non-profit television show “Sesame Street”. I passed because I was dealing with alcohol and I use cuss words. However, if this project is produced through a non-profit, are there extra advantages for us? Do you or anyone else know of some freebee grants for Multi-media health education? I really need a faster computer to pull this off.
JONNY: I love and respect you (uh…in…a…umm..football teammate sort of way) and yes, I would greatly appreciate being able to watch that CD, if you can make it happen. You embody parts of all of us (except the teef, of course) and I count on you to be the barometer of reality. I hope you are looking forward to working with Bea!
Yes, there is a lot of money thrown around by The Industry in this town, but it is also a town of incredible failure and broken dreams. Believe me I would not have put so much time, thought and passion into this if I didn’t believe we could succeed. And I reiterate, if we only accomplish one stage, we have succeeded. I’m tired of trying to do my own show by myself, it is a very lonely struggle. I’ve gone through 4 producers (who eventually-no matter what they are contributing, want 50% of me) and 3 on screen partners who have flaked on me. But I know you guys aren’t going anywhere-we’re all stuck together with this pain madness glue.
PFDAN’s
David J.
P.S. Just a couple of requests: I would like one of my 2 strikes taken away, cause I know I’ll screw up again and I don’t do well without a net and … I’m single if anyone…..LOL.
|
|
IP Logged |
Wine is a little like love. When the right one comes along, you know it!
|
|
|
captdshea
CH.com Alumnus
New Board Junior
Gender:
Posts: 79
|
|
Re: STARRING: Bea Arthur as Jonny Mule
« Reply #5 on: Nov 24th, 2002, 6:11pm » |
Quote Modify
|
HEY David J. Great Ideas you have. Count on me to help if it comes togeather for you. I work in Africa on A 60 and 60 rotation. So I have Alot of time on my hands
when I'm around the U.S.
You have no strikes against you until the Webmaster D.J. says you do. And than you get 100 strikes before
you are warn that one more strike you will have 101
against you.
STRIKE THIS, is my moto.
David
|
| « Last Edit: Nov 24th, 2002, 6:12pm by captdshea » |
IP Logged |
"Seek knowledge and truth"
"Respect divergent points of view"
|
|
|
Bob P
New Board Hall of Famer
Shut up Bob!
Gender:
Posts: 3436
|
|
Re: STARRING: Bea Arthur as Jonny Mule
« Reply #6 on: Nov 24th, 2002, 7:18pm » |
Quote Modify
|
Streaming video page like this:
http://pahlow.net/ch/movies.htm
I've asked 4 other clusterheads who have done similar news appearances to send me theirs but never got hem.
|
|
IP Logged |
Mrs. Barlow, I never, and I repeat never, ever pissed in your steam iron.
"SHUT UP HUB!"
|
|
|
SommelierCH
New Board Hall of Famer
I’m awed by the amazing resiliency that we possess
Gender:
Posts: 606
|
|
Re: Full plan for the documentary
« Reply #7 on: Nov 29th, 2002, 7:00pm » |
Quote Modify
|
Sorry kids, I changed the Subject of this post so that people like desparate could find it. The rest of you just hit return. 
des.: Here’s the full plan, good luck wading through it, but thanks for the feedback. We don’t need the whole membership to participate, just a few good spots will do. If nothing else, we will get a video page going on this site. I’ll be in touch, right now it’s off to work.
David J.
|
|
IP Logged |
Wine is a little like love. When the right one comes along, you know it!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home
Help
Search
Members
Member Map
Login
Register
Reply
Notify of replies
Send Topic
Print
test rss