Hello ladies and gents. Good to be talking with you again, that is if you even remember who I am, or why you read this blog. Let's start over shall we, my name is Jordan McCaleb. I am a Filmmaker and Writer, currently living in Texas and working as a Worship and Arts Ministry Assistant for the First Baptist Church of Kaufman.
I love to write, make movies, and I love my job where I make movies (kind of) and get to be with awesome people. It's been quite too long since I last updated here, things have been...busy. I am currently finishing the final months of High School, training for a Mission Trip to Beijing China, and preparing to be an uncle!
It's quite a load, but I've enjoyed it nonetheless. So, unless you actually check my YouTube channel, you don't know what I've made in the last 8 months. I made a terribly awkward and mediocre short film and a sub par entry into the Crash the Doritos Superbowl contest.
I learned a lot from both of these, the two biggest things are as follows,
1. Don't rush: I tried too hard to rush things. I didn't allow myself enough time to flesh out the story, and I tried to fit the filming all in one day for both. Sometimes it's understandable, when you have people that may only be available for the one day. For me, from now on, I always try and schedule it out, more time means less mistakes, and the ability to concentrate on certain things for longer.
2. Don't be embarrassed to show your video to everyone, not just Youtube: This was something I struggled with after finishing my first short film LOCKDOWN. I finished a cut that I felt I could do no more good with, and subsequently realized that it sucked. I hated it, it makes me cringe every time I watch it, but that's part of the game. I was put at ease the other day when reading an interview with Steven Spielberg. He talked about how the only movie he can watch, as if it wasn't his, the only movie he was truly happy with, is Raiders of the Lost Ark.
That means this visual master class Director, actually has things he isn't happy about in his movies. Now granted he doesn't hate his movies as I hate my first short, but there are always going to be things you wish you did differently (exempting Raiders of the Lost Ark of course).
So, once I overcame the fear of showing it to people in person, I felt better. I was able to get real constructive criticism, and improve on my films.
Those were the two big things I learned, that I can tell have already improved me as a young Director.
So on to the news. I currently have a couple of projects in the pipeline. A comedic short video (5 min), and another major short film. My next short which I have been working on since September of last year, is the biggest project I will have tackled yet.
I'm planning for about five days of shooting, and a $1,000 budget. It's an Action/Revenge piece, that takes heavy inspiration from Ryan Gosling's Drive. That I will shoot in the Summer, so I'm looking at a November release date at the latest.
Hopefully I can shoot my short comedic piece in the next few weeks here, and get ya'll something funny.
Well, thanks again for stopping by and listening to me drone (All four of you). I'll try and be better about updating in the future. The links to my recent works are below.
Have a lovely day,
-Jordan
Get the Doritos: http://youtu.be/L7RwgHuZSbk
Get the Doritos Trailer: http://youtu.be/oi5cbHMiO_8
Call of the Wild, Doritos Commercial: http://youtu.be/RFbs9LKqIn8
