old Sony x160

Hey everyone. I'm wondering if anyone has an old Sony PXW X160 camera kickingbaround that they would be willing to donate. If you do please send it to Sterling Johnston Films Box 96, Alma, Ontario Canada. 

Merry Christmas

Marry Christmas Everyone.  

Old Canoes

I need to purchase a bunch of old Canoes for the movies we are making this summer. Currently the prices are down. I get get some 14 and 16 foot canoes for $300 each.  Just wondering if anyone is interested in helping purchase them? 

First film of 12

The first draft of the first film is written. The script should be finalized in the next few days. The 12 Gifts of Christmas is a working title for now. The plan is to film it over Christmas break and into January. 

If you live in Ontario Canada and you would like to support the girls film we do eccept non rubber checks.  Please make checks payable to Sterling Johnston. Box 96, Alma, Ontario, Canada N0B 1A0

Christmas movie

I finally have an interesting new Christmas movie idea for Maryn and Stella. I will keep working on the idea and I should be able to do the first draft of the script. I'm planing a 47 page script.

If all goes well we will be filming over the Christmas vacation.  The planned budget is $2000

17 Days to Christmas

Wow where has the year gone. I'm still editing the boys diving movie. We are doing some additional filming on Monday and we are going to rent the pool for an additional 2 hours in the new year by the looks of it.  I need to take the actors to some public swims to brush up on their diving skills. We couldn't afford to keep up their formal diving lessons. 

I'm still working on the Zombie Zone 82, Madison's movie,  Trace's movie, scout Jamboree and Maryn's Christmas movie.  

Lots going on and I'm struggling with brain fog the last few days. 

Madison movie script

I have the first draft of the 8 page script outline completed for Madison's new feature film script completed.  Now to expand it out into a full draft script. Looking at 75 to 80 page target. 

Recap

I took my website down as I am looking for new webhosting. the billing problem with the last one has been solved now. Not sure if im going to go back to them or continue looking else where. Im a 20 year costomer with them but they got bought by another company and thats always when problems start.

Zombie Zone 82 script

The last few days I have been cranking out the zombie zone 82 film script. It's my best script yet. I can't wait to cast the film and get it in the can. Going to be looking for 25 boys to play the scout troop... We will have to do a bunch of fundraising to get the film made as I'm completely tapped out. Canada UK only. USA please like subscribe and share links to your friends.  We really need to get the subscriptions and views into the hundreds of thousands so we can start promoting products like normal YouTubers 

Casting Calls

We have a casting call for a Boy age 9 to 11 for a feature film project filming summer 2022

Must have camping, fishing, canoning, swimming skills. A general intrest in nature. No acting exsperiance required. just a commitment to finishing the film project once started. A parent or parent apportinted guardian must be on location. If you would like to set up an audittion or a meeting to talk about the project, please eamil Director Sterling Johnston at sterlingjohnstonfilms@gmail.com

Casting Calls

Yes we have a casting call for 150 boys age 8 to 12 for a Cub Scout Jamboree feature film project. Two day commitment for background acting

Two week commitment for lead roles.

No acting experience required. 

Must have good swimming skills for a lead role. Parent or parent appointed guardian must be on location. 

Filming in the Fergus Elora Guelph area. 

Early to mid Summer 2024 for filming.

If you son is interested please email Director Sterling Johnston to set up a meeting to talk about the project

 Sterlingjohnstonfilms@gmail.com 

New film Music

Im planning to buy some new film music this weekend at Film Roits black friday sale. Music always helps with new film productions as I am no musiciann,

Bye Bye Website

I had to terminate my website as the web hosting company keeps taking money out of my bank without my permission. Their customer service is incredibly slow and they don't do what they say they are going to do. I don't know how many times I told them to turn off the automatic payment system and how many times they say they have turned it off but they just keep taking money.

So I deleted the website and I have terminated their services 

A sneak Peak

Here is a sneak peak of Madison's promo video that goes live next week.  Madison's video

7 feature ideas

I now have 7 feature film ideas. This one is really good. I'm not sure if I should include it in my 12 features challenge. It does intake finding an amazing cast to pull it off. Humm 

it's hard to believe

It's hard to believe I have been working on film project for almost 41 years and I have yet to make a living at it. It's not that I don't have good ideas as I have inspired many of the top people in Hollywood over the years. I have contributed greatly and I may make a film or two about it one day. Or I may write a book I'm not sure. 

"Work hard and you will be useful." I'm not sure I believe that any more. I've put hundreds of thousands of dollars into film and video projects. I've up to 5000 work hours in one year for many years in a row and I have yet to get rewarded for all that hard work.  It's like god will not let me make money or something. I don't know what I need to do to break the glass ceiling. Hummm

New Ideas

I'm currently brain storming some new ideas for films..I'm hoping to think up some new original script ideas. Possibly new directions to go in that capture the audeniaces I'magination. I really need that block buster "Home Alone" type film. 

Summer Casting Call

Yep so we are looking for 120 boys age 8 to12 for two large cast films and we have a ton of lead roles available. Zombie Zone has 25 actors. The scout jamboree has 120 back ground and leads the soccer team film has 120 plus background and leads, ghost of thunder lake has 6 leads. Reality tv pilot, 12 boys on an 80s canoe trip has 12 lead roles.  Casting is already open so if your son is looking to try his hand at film acting send me an email. Parent or parent appointed guardian must be on set. casting@sterlingjohnstonfilms.ca 

next summer's films.

Sydney has shown an interest in Zombie Zone 82. And Madison is interested in working on a film. 

All past actors are welcome to return to make more films with me regardless of age. Just send me a quick email. 

12 feature films project

I think I'm going to go with my 12 feature films in one year project. Film one feature each month. Have viewers follow me along on the adventure. Hopefully it generates a tune of interest. 

Rules, 

12 kids feature films by the Dec 31 2024 starting Jan 1 2024. 

Next to Zero budget as I have no money. 

No more than two volunteer helpers on each film

I will write, produce direct and edit each film

I may need to ask a friend to help with VFX as I don't have the computer or programs to do VFX 

People can donate money, props and locations.

The biggest challenge will be finding the actors needed. I may have to fundraise to pay for actors. 

What are your thoughts? Please comment or email. 

Impossible Challenge?

I'm thinking about taking on the impossible Challenge next year. What is the impossible Challenge you may ask? To make one feature film every month. So 12 full length feature films. Can it be done? 

old school

Found an old school over by Ottawa that I would love to buy and turn into a film studio. Maybe someone will buy it and donate it to me. Ha ha ha. I definately don't have the cash to buy something like this but it would be cool.  Just keeping the dream alive. Maybe one day I will find the perfect property to buy. Waterfront old summer camp would work too. https://youtu.be/8M4jv1iBDq4?si=L2ZMkMOV3jJgN0Qf

Big thank you

A great big thank you goes out to Michael for sponcering the website for the next two months. It will be up for an other 8 weeks and we shall see if it gets saved agian.

Getting excited for next summer

As this year was a bit disappointing I'm starting to get very excited for the possiblies next summer. People are starting to get back to do stuff again. It should be a good year for finding actors. My plan is to make films in different city's so there is a larger group to audition. 

New film siers idea.

Hey everyone. I'm wondering if our fans would like to see a four feature film series? The same actors in each film and posted on YouTube at the end of each season.  Winter, spring, summer, fall and possibly a other winter. It would have a cast of 25, inner city youth group 1983 setting. Middy Ducks slash Summer Project type storyline. Please comment below or email me your thoughts.

Greg's Map

Greg's treasure Map is doing well.  Hopefully it finds a massive audience like Home Alone. 

https://youtu.be/4iQJy2ZiddI

Youtube

We currently make $1 per 1,000 views on YouTube. We need to figure out how to make the same as normal YouTubers. Any ideas? 

Website?

I'm wondering if anyone would like to help keep the website going? It require $150 to keep it going for the next year. 

U12 Divers

We changed the films title to better reprsent the films story line. Also Greg's Map will go live on Youtube Sept 23, We are hoping to get 100,000 views in the first week. Lets show the actors you care about thier fim acting cares and watch the whole film and not just snips.

One ice cream cart

The ice cream cart is almost finished. Just needs the logos put on. 

More Progress

I have done a bunch more work on the ice cream cart. 

Making some progress

I'm making some progress on the ice cream cart bike for the U12 Boys Diving film. 

Where are we?

Well the pool has denied our request to rent the pool for the film so now I'm trying to find another one. Other option is make a diving film with out diving boards and a pool. Michael and I are working the problems. We are also down to just the four actors. 

website closing

I'm going to close my website again. Going to try to set up a redrict to my blog here or one free webpage. I have run out of money to keep it going.

Diving film

So far everything that could go wrong with a film project has gone wrong. I'm down to four actors. I guess I'm going to try and write a script that works for Conan, Ezra, Winston and Neo. 

I wonder what kind of film that is going to look like ? 

Gearing Up

I'm gearing up for the diving film and Lily's Ghost Story. I'm on the very edge of writing the film scripts. I'm just double checking who the actors are as I don't want to do rewrites every other day. The films are way less muddy if I can lock a cast in and write for the cast. Moving lines around and trying to fit actors into roles I didn't write for them turns into trying to make something from nothing. 

What to do?

There is no shame in failing for to truely fail is to have not tried at all.

losing sleep

I'm losing a lot of sleep over this diving film. I having written the film script yet as I don't know who is going to be in the film. For sure we have Conan and the Briski brothers. Possibly Arlo. 

I'm already losing filming dates out of the min 10 days of filming to make a feature.  I have no choice but to make it a 47 min film.

The diving practice scenes are going to look very thin with only 5 people on deck. It's not going to be the exciting film I was hoping it would be. 

I also don't know if we can get the pool rental time we need. 

The budget is now under $1000 as I'm broke and Micheal is now coving the cost. Hummm canceling the project is not an option as the guys have put so much effort into learning to dive. 

The show must go on. Hopefully I can pull some rabbits out of my magical hat as I always do to make something that at least looks like a film when finished. 

Going to be a busy week.

It's going to be a busy film production week. Going to film Lily's fundraiser video, Conan's U12 Boys Diving film update video and meeting with a returning actor about possible film projects this summer. 

Working away

We have some nice weather so I have been just working away at building the ice cream cart. I cut the bike and kids bike trailer. I did a bunch of welding but I still have much more to do.  It's starting to look like a ice cream cart.

Ice cream cart parts

So I was out thrift store shopping this morning and bought some parts to make the ice cream cart for the U12 Boys Diving film. An old 90s BMX bike, old kids carrier bike trailer and a snacks Coleman cooler for the ice and icecream  I will post more as I build the cart. 

new props

I purchased a few items today for a few future film projects.

New prop build

I'm now planning to build a ice cream bike for the U12 Boys Diving film project. I'm looking for old bike parts, some old plywood scrapes and a set of bells to go on the bike handle. 

Not much.

Not much happening last week. Not much happening this week.  I do need to have a meeting with actors parents to give them the diving lesson money. I will most likely film a quick thank you video. 

March 14th?

Wow, it's March 14 the already. I better get back to script writing. I'm getting way behind on it. 

Camera bike

I took the rusty old wire basket off the the trike. I need to make a steel plate to adapt a seat on the back for the camera man to sit on. 

new camera bike convertion

I drove 6 hours round trip to pick up an old trike Michael purchased to convert into a camera bike. I took it for a test drive and wow does it mess with the biking brain.  We may need to convert it to a bike trailer to use as a camera bike. 

Maryn's Lily's Ghost Story Feature Film Project Promo #1 Feb 2023

Maryn's Promo Video for Lily's Ghost Story #2 Feb 2023

Sloane's Promo for Lily's Ghost Story Feb 28 2023

Lily's ghost story

Had an amazing week interviewing girls for Lily's Ghost Story. I wrote their fundraiser scripts and I will hopefully get them all filmed this week.  I will post them on the production website and YouTube time release on Thursdays I think.

Lily's Ghost Story

I meet some amazing female lead actors in th elast two weeks. Lily's Ghost story is looking like it could be an amazing film when completed. Im gathering up all the information I need to write the script with in the limts placed on it. Sloane's mother has offered her privet campsite for one of the filming locations. This will help out alot to keep within the strick budget. I have updated my website to include the new feature film project.

To QHR or not to QHR?

We are currently planning to do a QHR Report with Conan at a Toronto event. It will cost $80 in gas and $50 in entry fees. Parking is free. So $130 is the cost. At 38 cents per 1000 YouTube views it's going to take 342,120 views to break even. Humm 

What's new?

I just updated the website. I added Lily's Ghost Story feature film project to the list of films this year. I will be filming it in May and June 2023. The bugdet is $100. Can a feature film be made for $100. We shall find out.

This weekend

I'm just kicking back, watching some movies and plotting script points. I have a fourth script project in the works. We may film it in May. My plan is to try and make a film for just $100. Can it be done? 

A Huge Thankyou

A great big huge thank you to DJ for his donation of $500 towards getting the U12 Boys Diving Feature film project. It's going to help out 100% to keep it moving forwTd and helping the actors build their resume' and on set acting experience they need to find work in the industry. 

Now what?

The cast Screening is done so now it's time to move onto the next project. I'm on page 40 of Ghost of Thunder Lake.  I have no actors interested in working on this film yet. My guess I will be finding all new actors for the project. 

All the actors of Greg's Treasure Map are interested in U12 Boys Diving and Zombie Zone. I'm not quite ready to write the U12 film yet but I'm getting close. 

The zombie zone 82 film I have the script outline ready to go but it's always hard to give the caritures a voice. I need to hang around with a bunch of kids to refind how they talk and interact.

Mac mini?

Looking at $3,000 or so for a M2 Mac Mini with 32 GB Ram,  1TB storage and using proxy files for editing 4k that should work fine. Then it's just some kind of 4k monitor. Ugh 

Digital cinema package

Just got an email that the Digital cinema package file I made works fine on the theaters projector. She says it looks really good.  That's one huge stress off my shoulders. 

Script writing and casting is the next huge task at hand.

Audio Fix

One thing we need to help make films is a wireless plug on transmitter for our boom pole. 

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1385619-REG/sennheiser_skp_100_g4_a_skp_100_g4_plug_on.html

And receiver.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1385604-REG/sennheiser_ek_100_g4_a_ek_100_g4_wireless.html

Or the best idea is a kit like this so the two parts work to get her for sure. Same price as the two parts. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1385591-REG/sennheiser_ew_100_eng_g4_a1_ew_100_eng_g4.html

4K video editing

With the new camera I'm now working on a replacement computer that can edit 4k video. I'm thinking to go with DaVinci Resolve as it's free. I have my old freind Goerge working on putting an old video gaming computer together that can run the software. Hopefully it doesn't cost much as it's all used parts but he may also just give it to me for free. 20 years ago I donated a brand new $1200 computer to his kids so they could play videos games. 

What's cooking?

I'm currently writing the script for Ghost of Thunder Lake and setting up the casting calls for it. Filming starts late July 2023.

I'm currently planning the script for the U12 Boys diving film. Also replanning it for a much smaller budget than originally planned. Back in Jan 2020 I had 15 boys in diving lessons and this time around only 4 with two more joining in May. They started lessons this week. 

Pool rental fees are up by 50% over two years ago. I haven't found out if they reopened pool rental to the average Joe like me. Fingers crossed I can book the pool rental for July as planned.  I do have a back up plan if they don't.

Submiting to Tiff

Drew really wants me to submit Greg's Treasure Map to TIFF so my plan is to do so. We are going to have a cast screening on Jan 28 and I will find out what the guys think. To submit or not to submit. If it's going to TIFF I would upload to YouTube until October 2023. If it's not going to TIFF I may up load it sooner. 

In other news YouTube has decided that they are over paying me for ads on my videos. I use to make $1 per 1,000 views.  I now get $0.47 per 1,000.  It will now take 3 years to make 100 $ to get a check. 

I love making films, I have been since I was 5 and I will continue to do so. Hopefully I can find some paid work to cover the cost. If not I will make what ever film I can with no cash. It's not like I haven't done that before. "I make films not money."

Film Scripts

I'm just working on film script outlines before jumping in and writing them. I'm not a big fan of re writes as it always messes up the films flow.