30 Before 30: Day 28 - Ambition and Summer Short Films

It took me a long time to realize how ambitious I was. As well as hard working, driven, and passionate.

Just not in everything.

In fact, if something isn't creative it's hard for me to keep an interest and all those traits I just mentioned tend to go out the window.

Math for instance. I ignore it as much as possible, do it when I need to, and turn anything math related into a story to garner interest for myself.

But when it comes to my creative pursuits, which I see as my livelihood, I throw in all those traits. That is why I've now shot 3 short films this year, all of them quite a bit different, but each one very much in my style of filmmaking. One is finished, one is nearing a rough cut, and the third just finished filming.

When I found out I'd be returning to Kansas for a week for my birthday my first thought wasn't anything like, "Awesome! A vacation from all this work!" No, my response was instantly, "A week in Kansas? I can make another movie!" And so I contacted my friend and we figured out a script within about a month, he did all the producing work, and yesterday I shot an entire short film in the middle of the Kansas woods on a hot summer day with a total of 4 actors (including me) as I directed, shot most of it, and had a rotating number of people for grip and sound recording.

In the end I'm pretty sure I got all the footage I needed.

Also, it was fantasy, which may be one of the most difficult things to do on a very low budget. Though, this one we wrote with that in mind. And what I like about filming in Kansas is I can get locations for free. In this case, it was a patch of woods that don't look they belong in Kansas but that's exactly where we were.

So in my ambition I continue to make films and they tend to be pretty intense. I tend to push things pretty hard in the films I make and there tends to be A LOT that is shot in a short period of time. I've learned how to do things on very little and it's worked to my advantage.

I'm just hoping this little short comes together in post. I have a feeling it will when I look back and see how well Winter's Spirit turned out.

So in the coming month look forward to 2 more short films: Red Roses Painted Black and Summer Sonata.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I've enjoyed making them. My stories aren't just for me. They're for you. Without an audience, my stories have no home.

30 Before 30: Day 26 - Directing

My whole life I remember wanting to make movies. And I think acting, too. But especially making movies. But when I was younger I never really thought it was actually a viable option.

I didn't have access to any equipment. I didn't grow up with video cameras. I had no way to actually shoot footage as a little kid like so many major directors have done today. But I did have an imagination and pencil and paper. I created worlds in my head and it was through my imagination I could still live.

And it was through my imagination I would discover in time that I had a unique vision unlike other directors, I just wouldn't find it until my 20's.

I remember when I was a kid watching the BBC Chronicles of Narnia movies. I grew up on these movies as well as the books which are some of my favorite books. I would rank The Silver Chair as one of my favorite books of all time and I would actually say the BBC film was the best of the four films they made. Truthfully, the production value of these films isn't anything exceptional and they certainly feel dated. I still loved them as a kid.

At the same time, I thought to myself back then, "I want to make better versions of these movies." Yes, when I was a kid I wanted to make remakes of The Chronicles of Narnia. I know there are remakes. Two of them I think are pretty well adapted, the third one not so much. I'm hoping someday I still get the opportunity to direct a Narnai film but I'm not holding out hope.

My dream project is actually and adaptation of The Neverending Story. That book is incredible!

In case you haven't realized, I love fantasy. A lot of my films have some kind of whimsical or fantastical feel to it, often times in a darker direction, but not always. I definitely have my own unique vision for films and people who know my films even tell me they can see an "Ian Adema feel" to them.

I didn't actually get a chance to make any movies until high school... at least not my own. Some of my friends did some stuff for fun when I was in Junior High that I "acted" in. And the first things I ever made were not that great. I call it my "training period" but even in that time I had teachers who saw my potential and believed in me.

I would say I didn't make anything truly worth showcasing to the public until I shot Beyond The Mirror in 2009. That's really when I truly found my voice and style. And Whimsical Pictures.

Since then I've still done a lot and learned a lot. I've always been determined to find a way into the industry. I'm the underdog so the cards have been stacked against me.

But I'm persistent, hardworking, and ambitious. Nothing has stopped me from making movies. Not even the Army. In fact, I wrote, shot, edited, directed, produced, and did sound design for a feature film while I was on Active Duty. That's like two full time jobs at the same time.

And I made a short film and wrote the first draft of a novel while in the army.

And tomorrow I'm shooting another short film. I also shot a short film at Christmas. And I shot a short film a couple months ago currently in post.

So to add up: Winter's Spirit, Red Roses Painted Black, and Summer Sonata all shot in 2016.

Yes, I want to direct. It's what I want to do with my life. I love it. I love telling stories.

And I hope someday one of those films inspires somebody in the best way possible.

I tell these stories for people. Not just for myself.

I hope you enjoy them.

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30 Before 30: Day 14 - Self publishing

Today, the link for my first published novel went up on Amazon. I ultimately decided to self publish. And being a poor artist, I also ended up designing my own book cover below.

Link to my book on Amazon (soon available for Kindle but I recommend the hard copy form because it's formatted better):

https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Bones-1-Ian-Adema/dp/1535059443/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467568414&sr=8-1&keywords=Ian+Adema

A little history of this book (which is the first in a trilogy I haven't finished).

The first line I ever scrawled that this book would become happened in 2009 in a physics class. I had a thought that was a sentence and I wrote it down on a notepad.

Then, shortly before I joined the Army, I started the actual story. Shipped off to basic training, once I had free time there I had nothing more than paper and pencil. In that time I wrote the first 6 chapters of the novel, working my creative muscle and also entertaining the other trainees. When I arrived at advanced training, finally with access to a computer, I typed up those chapters and continued writing, finishing maybe about half the book.

When I shipped out to Hawaii, writing took a bit of a stand still at first. After about 6 months, I wrote a feature screenplay. Then I shot that screenplay. After principle production was done, I decided to discipline myself to write. I took out a template online with 365 days in boxes and I would write every day, checking off every box, no matter how little I wrote. Some days I wrote a few thousand words. Other days a few hundred.

In 45 days I had finished the novel while editing my feature and working on active duty in the Army. And I spent the past couple years, over time, coming back and revising the novel. Last year I tried to send it to publishers with no luck. I thought about it again this year but decided, in the end, that it was worth it to just self publish.

So that's what I've done.

I'm very proud of this book! I hope you'll enjoy Taron's journey as much as I have writing it and I look forward to completing his story for you down the road.