The Big Change
So its been some time since there has been any changes to the avid website, tutorialgrid, and really the facebook… I have been tearing myself apart for the past year trying to figure out what direction I wanted to push Avid Productions 479 into and always coming up with nothing. I didn’t feel the same way I did when I started the company. Avid was started to create films and do fun stuff as a production company with friends and as I moved away further and further less and less people came with me. Everyone who had helped me build it to where it was moved on to their own projects and most of them were not video related. I was missing a big part of my life that I thought I could just fill with projects until I found more people who were interested in working with me… but the more I waited and the more I frantically tried to fill the gap with some projects that I thought had meaning the more I felt alone and helpless. At one point I was on top of the world and everyone wanted to be apart of projects I was in and immediately lost everything the next. I finally decided to take a break to really reflect on what I should do going further. I put down every project I started, locked away my cameras, and I even turned off my computer for nearly a year. It was tough getting by for a while that I actually applied for a job after not working for a company in 3 years. I would learn that this would be the best kick in the butt to get my act back together. I was asked to create a film for a charity called Sheepdog Impact Assistance and this time things were going to be different.
I went all out and spent every dime I could on the production!
I met the owner Lance in the coffee shop of the building they were in and he proceeded to tell me about what there non profit stood for. The non profit helped wounded vets get back into civilian living after having been injured in the line of duty or at war. In a way I felt like I was going through the same thing some of these people were. They had a smaller budget than what im use to working with but I decided to take on the gig anyway. This was going to be it. This is what was going to re invent my way of doing things.
The production was going to take place in less than a month At Bethel Ranch in Texas. This left me with very little time to get a storyboard together or even start outlining a script pattern for the short film while working full time. I remember budgeting the short film with trying to make a little money off the top that maybe I could use a 5D Mark III and use a glidecam and rent some really nice lenses… and then it hit me. If im going to do this I want to do this like nothing I have ever done before. So I rented a Red with some great cine primes. To my surprise the camera I rented ended up weighing about 30 pounds after everything was added and i had to run with it for 6 hours in a field… But it was that day that I went out and spent every dime I could on the production.
After everything was said and done I finally showcased the film to 1000k people at the Sheepdog Charity Ball. When it received a standing ovation at the end I finally realized I couldn’t give up. I finally felt how I did back then when I worked with all my friends… Except this time it was just me. Avid Productions 479 was a great way to learn how to do business and that I am extremely thankful for. Going forward I am the Artist/Producer/Director known as Cherokee Turner no longer hiding behind the veil of a business. Its time to be great once again.
