I went back to Boise a couple weeks ago, my mother’s dad died. It was a nice funeral, full of great stories. He was remembered for his contribution to his denomination, which really irked me, but it wasn’t my funeral, so whatever. I took Cora along, which was fantastic. We had talked about her meeting my parents, it was only a matter of when. Then all of a sudden I needed to go to Boise, and privately decided to not even bring it up with her. However one night it just fell out of my mouth. I did feel bad about putting her on the spot and about asking her to take time off of work on such short notice. But it was really nice to have her there. She liked my family and they liked her, so it really couldn’t have turned out better.

I’m enjoying my days working from home. I’d still like to get back into a more normal schedule come August, we’ll see. I’m working on good projects even if the money’s not what I’d like.

I need a new personal project. I don’t have the best track record of finishing personal films, but it just seems like it’s time for a new one. I’ve got a couple ideas. At the moment I have more than enough stuff to do in a day, if I can get far enough head of my bills I’ll have the time to wade into something fun and creative.

davidloveslife.com is a place to check up on David Hildreth, it's updated every other week or so. You're currently reading via RSS, for the full effect follow this link:

July

My contract is up and I’m trying my best to not jump right back into a new one. I have a few options, some better than others… some more fun, some with less pay. I can’t tell you how blessed I feel to have options.
So, hopefully I’ll spend a month doing smaller projects and then settle back into a contract position or a steady seat somewhere.

If you haven’t seen my new reel yet take a moment to check it out:

David Hildreth – Reel 2010 from David Hildreth on Vimeo.

A reel is never done, so it’ll probably change within a week or so. I can’t say I’m as immediately proud as I was of my reel last year, but it’s growing on me. ;)

Other areas of my life are also going great, really great actually. Everything is coming up Milhouse.

davidloveslife.com is a place to check up on David Hildreth, it's updated every other week or so. You're currently reading via RSS, for the full effect follow this link:

New

I’ll be in LA for a day next week to oversee the color correction. It’s such a great feeling to have that scheduled and the assets out of my office. The documentary had its audio mixed earlier this week and it came back great. My boss and I had gone back and forth about how the surround sound mix should be put together and my viewpoint was so completely backed by Technicolor. That felt amazing.

I finally got my Tetris arcade machine working. It’s a lot of fun, and a great if I’ve got some time to kill or an afternoon to waste. It’s been sitting in my living room since last November, so when someone asks about it, it’s much more fun to go play than explain that I can’t get it working. The sound still doesn’t work, which is a bit of a blessing. When I first got the cabinet it was very loud, there’s no volume nob and Lord knows I wasn’t going to try and add one.

The band, who’s management I work for, is going on tour this fall. Dates have been booked, all though most not announced. There is still a good chance I’ll go out on the road for a bit, so that could be interesting. If nothing else, I’ll have steady work though the end of the year.

I promise to write about interesting things again, someday.

davidloveslife.com is a place to check up on David Hildreth, it's updated every other week or so. You're currently reading via RSS, for the full effect follow this link:

Tetris

So, as the end of my contract as grown closer my mind has begun to wonder. When people ask me about how I got to the valley, or about what work I’ll do when this DVD is done, I almost always volunteer the information that I don’t like this city and that I want to get back to the Northwest. It’s true that I don’t really like Phoenix, it’s bland and backwards. The city has no character, the people no communal identity and it’s really fucking hot in the summer. Seriously, even as I get use to the winters, the summers are still awful at times.
I’ve looked at work elsewhere, I’ve priced places to live and done the math on how I’d get out of my lease. A month or so ago I saw a very interesting opportunity from Sojourners for an internship program they have in DC. It would be the change I was looking for and I’d be doing work that I believe in.
However, the more I thought about it the more I realized that just because I craved change, it didn’t mean that it was what was best.

I’m blessed to be where I am. I’m blessed with good friends, steady work and a great church.

Always telling people that I don’t like Phoenix is just an excuse to look past all that I have. It’s just an excuse to put all of the things I don’t like about my life and explain it away as something that this city or this situation or this job has done to me. If I can’t be happy with what God has given me in Phoenix then I can’t be happy with being blessed in Portland or in Vancouver or in Boise.
So, I’m no longer telling people that I don’t like Phoenix. It doesn’t matter. I’ll choose to focus on the good things I have here and when it’s time to leave it will be because there is another opportunity elsewhere, not just because I want out.

This might not sound like a big deal because only four people knew about the Sojo internship. It might not sound like a big deal because I’m sure I’ll continue to complain about tons of stuff anyway. This is however an end to my “I’m only in Phoenix for film school” attitude, and that’s a big change for me.

davidloveslife.com is a place to check up on David Hildreth, it's updated every other week or so. You're currently reading via RSS, for the full effect follow this link:

What I have

After waiting about a year I finally recieved the audio I need to finish my concert DVD project. There is still a lot of work to be done, but at least the end is now in sight. It looks like the next few weeks will consist of me going through the thousands of cuts in the concert one by one to make sure the audio is synced correctly. Solos and certain parts of the vocals needed to be fixed so sometimes things don’t line up quite right. This is the tedious part of editorial work. The DVD itself is almost done, I spent a week animating menus and writing scripts to author the disc. Thankfully it’s a pretty straightforward DVD, nothing extraordinary or complicated. Using DVD Studio Pro again really makes me want to learn Scenarist, Apple’s effort into authoring just seems more half hearted than ever.

I have started and trashed half a dozen blog entries since my last. I can’t seem to write these days… so I’ll stop trying.
Things are well, I hope everything is well with you.

davidloveslife.com is a place to check up on David Hildreth, it's updated every other week or so. You're currently reading via RSS, for the full effect follow this link:

Finally