2016.

2016, Let’s see... 

You see an influx of hate towards a year when it comes to an end and how the next year will be better. No one really ever says Wow that was the best year!  But in all honesty, it was a good year if you are here to see the next. You may have had some heartache, hardships and loss. But you still get to go through another year of life and that is really something special. 

I tend to recall negatives in my life, I can think back to being a toddler and work myself towards now and point out all the bad unhappy times. In changing that, forcing the brain to seek for the good it changes the outcome of how I want to live, get gives a more hopeful view and with that positive things happen. 

I have posted articles about the power of positive thinking and how I am the only one to blame for my failures. I stand by those and believe them to be true. The years I have dwelled in the past, felt bad for all I didn’t have and came up with excuse after excuse as to why something didn’t work out, I lived in that manner for that year and many others. It takes something to strike a chord and move you to change and REALLY stand by it. Moving to Nashville was that chord and everything since then has pushed me where I feel I should be. Yes, I had great loss in doing so… My Dad the day we moved and almost all of my fur babies have moved on as well. That first year here dealing with losing one of my biggest influences in life was the rock bottom you hear of before you see the crack of light and start to climb towards it. I for once felt a shift and finally started to blossom.  But that was 2013 and we move on..

I brought in 2016 filming Jones World and working on a documentary about Toddzilla, when it actually hit midnight I took a photo of Matthew from across the crowd, then went right back into documenting the rest of the show. The very first day of the year, very tired and sore… We went to film a surprise engagement that would have me get in a helicopter and fly over Nashville to document the newly engaged couple. This set the tone for the year and wow what a year it was!

I found myself settled in the first year of my very first relationship and although it wasn’t always smooth (mostly on my part) I learned a lot and stuck to my promises and always worked out any issues. Dating someone who is also your best friend you tend to lose sight of some parts of the relationship, working together also has a certain effect on that. I’m thankful I am learning these lessons with him and with everything look forward to the future of this crazy little thing called love.

2016 took me to 9 states as well as 2 difference cities within my own state.  You can read about the year in travel here

Those trips sparked a new documentary for us and we jumped head first into making our dream a reality. Never in my life would I think I would have got to do the things I did in 2016, from interviewing Bruce Campbell and the rest of the cast of Evil Dead, to standing in the middle of nowhere North Carolina looking at the remains of the cabin they filmed part 2 in as well as stepping foot into the house The Color Purple was filmed in.  

With every city the hunt for Vegan food was a must for me and have to hand it to Chicago for having the a lot of options, Pittsburgh however had a place we could both eat at, Charlotte however takes the cake for having Vegan food that the non-vegan boyfriend was willing to drive to twice! 

Our time at weddings in 2016 was at an all time high, you learn a lot about people at weddings as well as how to film something on the fly and for me packing food is important too! 

We got to make a few great music videos this year as well as some live shows, I love watching people do what drives them as we are doing what drives us. I love watching Matthew work and feel so grateful we both have the same passion in this art form, it’s never been about a easy way to make money. This line of work when done right isn’t easy, if it is you might be lacking somewhere in there. 

We had our fair share of downs in 2016, mostly towards the end of the year financially we got hit hard! A great Lawyer cost a lot, and we only wanted the best for our legal issues. Matthew wanted nothing more than to stand up for what he felt was right and I would do anything I could to support him on that, in the end it was never about winning or losing, it was about standing up for what was right for us.  The details are no longer important and we are working on moving forward from it, a lot was learned, to many visits to the court house happened and we are better for it. Money can be replaced, it sucked losing every bit of savings we had for emergencies and our projects but we can get it all back in due time. What we gained was peace of mind and money can’t really buy that now can it? Hitting people in the wallet is a low blow so instead of waiting to communicate over something taking them to court may not get you the result you want.  We remained rich in love and support, gained a little weight from stress eating haha, but we can lose the weight and rebuild out bank, that’s what I have to hold to and let go of the rest.

For Christmas to happen for me, I ended up selling one of the last big things my Dad ever got me, my beloved Honda CRV. I recall him pulling up to the house after getting her and his face just being so happy when I came out and said “You got a new car?!” and he said “I think you can borrow it, for as long as you need”  I drove that thing all the way to 220,842 miles. It took us everywhere!  Finally got to the point that putting money into her was getting to be too much, the A/C broke twice and the transmission was getting a little iffy. I won’t lie about the fact of cleaning her out with tears in my eyes. But she helped me put gifts under the tree for those I love the most and I think Dad would have been happy to know that... more seeing Jack’s face seeing his train table. 

Up’s and Down’s… a year in life. Nothing to change or dwell on, we can’t fix any of it only learn from it. Forgiving those mistakes we made or others made is important, but not forgetting what caused those moments for forgiveness just as important. I don’t think you can make a wrong right by just ignoring it and moving on as nothing happened, people forget the magic of an apology but it takes more courage to admit wrong doing that it does to just brush it under the rug. 

I am thankful everyday for the people in my life. How true they are not only to me but to themselves.  There are of course ideas and goals for the coming year, bigger and better. I will always work towards gaining a better respect for myself and others. As well as work towards a healthy lifestyle and stability for my household.  I think a disconnect from true distractions will be worth a shot, I over share sometimes and will pull back a great deal now focusing on business and promoting what we do instead of what is going on with our lives. If someone wants to hear it, they would ask. Posting my every move gives us nothing to catch up on now does it? Then next year, my year in review might be a something worth reading. I love being collection to so many people from my life, but the instant gratification has to be stopped some and relationships need to be looked at as more than a few likes on Facebook.

So, please follow all my projects to keep up. 

Thanks for reading this to the end and I wish you the best year going forward!

A year in travel and movie making.

2016 took me to 9 states as well as 2 difference cities within my own state.  

A year in travel that I never thought would happen, first I finally went to Memphis,TN to film a wedding, but I finally made it! I also had to drive in to Arkansas just to go! 

Trips a side, I saw The Kills right at home in Nashville, TN for the second time with my best friend, in which I believe I caught whatever happened to me next… Off to French Lick Resort in Indiana it was the only “vacation” stop of the year. They had a Wizard of Oz train ride I had to go on, plus staying in this old resort was something we both couldn’t resist. That was followed with a trip across Ohio, into Pittsburgh, PA for what was supposed to be a small side project based on a super fan of The Evil Dead movies and how he obtained the workshed from the second movies filming location. We visited his home right outside of Pittsburgh in a small town in West Virginia. But Pittsburgh is on the list to visit again! I got the Flu on this trip and can now say I have rode down the interstate breaking a fever and feeling like death was hovering. 

Road trips in general prove a lot in a relationship, being super sick on one takes it to a new level and in the end proves how good of a partner you have. Trying to make it home from Pittsburgh like that had us pit stop in Louisville, KY for a night. As many times as I have been to Louisville I never stayed over there, let’s just say hotwire.com is our best friend when traveling you pay much cheaper prices and end up at Crowne Plaza’s. My problem with these 4 star hotels is most of them lack one thing, a stoppable bath tub… So at a lower end one like in Louisville the tub actually let me stop it and soak, which was helpful.

So, the trip to Pittsburgh was beyond worth it regardless of me being sick. Matthew has since became really good friends with the “super fan” Mike and we have joined forces to dig deeper into the filming locations of The Evil Dead movies, enter Evil Dead Uproot.   

Matthew and I already had our first documentary we were working on, our labor of love. But this idea came up and he is such a big fan of those movies it fell into place. We thought, what if we could interview the cast and people who worked on the movies, visit the locations and help people who had an interest see what it’s like there today.  In one way it just seemed like another great idea we had, seeing as we have a full length movie floating around, tons of short stories and other ideas we think are great. But this, it felt different.

First order of business, “If we can’t get Bruce, is it worth it?” We just took the honest approach, sent a ton of e-mails to everyone and their brother in hopes ANYONE would be interested in speaking to us. Mike had the inside scoop with the owner of the Evil Dead 2 cabin and we knew the land from part 1 would be a problem later. First e-mail back, Bruce giving us 15 minutes in Chicago at the Comic Con, it was the closest we was going to be to Nashville.  

Off to Chicago we went in August, which we love Chicago they have great vegan food and well hell we had our first Press Passes for Comic Con. I won’t go into the nitty gritty of behind the curtain on this process but will say, you must have a drive for the end result, you must be willing to be on standby, stressed out and willing to deal with a lot.. a LOT of hoops. But, it happened and that’s all that mattered.

There he was Bruce Campbell, sitting in front of our cameras looking Matthew in the eye answering his questions. If everyone else told us “no’” at this point it wouldn’t have matter, or so it seemed at the time. Our 15 minutes that Bruce said we could have, was cut to 10 minutes by Comic Con and to be honest he seemed like he could have talked to us a little longer, so maybe a second time will happen. 

The trip home from Chicago was bitter sweet, we were wore out from everything we went through while there again, I can’t put into words how stressful the whole thing was. Oh I should mention Mike brought the shed, we helped carry it in, set it up and run his booth while on “standby”. Those conventions serve garbage food that neither of us were willing to eat yet, plus the waits in line were up to an hour, an apple, a bottle of water and some popcorn was all we had in 12 hour day, not to mention lugging gear to and from, add in a mad dash into the city for a possible interview that we missed by minutes due to traffic, parking and carrying everything 4 blocks to the hotel. Maybe next time.

But the trip also had us on fire and ready to take this head on! 

Off to North Carolina! Deep into the woods once stood the shell of a cabin that is now a pile of wood, it just happens to be on one of the most inspiring, nicest, most genuinely kind mans property. Never, in my life would I think I would be out fighting huge spiders, looking for rattlesnakes and wild hogs all while photographing and filming a HUGE structure that was used to make a movie.  It was beyond hot and humid, but jeans were a must. Even though it’s not standing anymore, the size alone took me a while to wrap my head around. They built it JUST for outside shots and run ins. The fake trees and pile of coal still there are proof it’s not just a hunting cabin, it was for a movie.  Which, its on the land that The Color Purple was made, going into the house and see the stair case was also something I never really thought I would be doing. 

Wadesboro, was a huge success for us. People came out and spoke with us about the movie being made there, dropped of pictures of the set and we found every place they used in the film fairy easy. We still will have to return to bid the cabin site a farewell and show its removal in the spring of 2017.

On the way home from North Carolina, I realized how close we got to South Carolina and use to always talk about going to Landrum, SC with my Dad. So Matthew and I took a detour and I got to go. Walking around a town with my last name on everything was strange, course I am thankful for the founding Landrums and glad they have a town in our name. I travel with one of my Dad’s rings so I made sure to wear it while there so he could see I made it.

Luck would have it, the rest of the cast and the special effect guys would be in Cleveland in late September.  Holy Cow!  That had to happen and it did, not without issues but it did! You are dealing with multiple people at one place within a few days, do the math and see how that might work out in your head and then times that by at least 6. The ladies worked with us well, as did the guy who played Scotty. Tom Sullivan opened up his room after hours for his interview and brought in Bart Peirce, these two made all the fun stuff in the movie happen. For us, listening to them would be the highlight and at this moment I realized Bruce was not the only one we wanted to hear from. The few hours we got to spend with them were a real look into making movies and for me Tom is such a genuinely nice guy which great stories I could listen to him talk for much longer. Matthew on the last day started getting sick, so things had to happen quickly so we could get to the next hotel and rest! But, we pulled it off and it felt great getting the cast of Evil Dead on film.  2017 has the cast for part 2 and of course Sam and Rob are on our list, but we will make it work without them still worth a shot in trying!

Lastly, Morristown, TN. Evil Dead was filmed there, it’s a small town in East Tennessee and it’s a place that, NO ONE wants to talk to you. We went earlier in the year and put fliers up; those brought a guy who helped on the film when he was in High School, he shared his time on the set with us and had some stories we hadn’t heard yet. Other than that, Morristown let us down. We had very little help from the press outlets there and all the leads we had fell flat. The owners of the property the cabin once stood contacted us before we even contacted them to tell us we were not welcome there. This puts a dark cloud over the film, but we plan to work around it and not make the focus on one spot.  Only thing I would have done differently was having my gas fuel points card before this all started and I wish Hotwire had a rewards program, also that every town have at least a subway for those of us who like to eat grease free.