At the beginning of the year, I said it’d be the Year of the Hobo. That proved true. Many people make New Year’s Resolutions or goals for the upcoming year…and then forget them by February. Not us. It might have been the most productive, most enjoyable, busiest year of my life, full of huge life changes, important decisions and huge strides forward in career and life. And so, here’s the summary.

We set out to shoot a project every month–we started in January and edited our brand new imagery reel (which is quite out of date at this point, and needs to be redone again).

From February to June, we shot something every month.

February we shot a musical in a void, Last Man on Earth (still in audio post-production).
March we shot a spec commercial for Avia shoes (still with the VFX department).
April we shot an industrial piece for the Orange County Breast Cancer Fundraiser.

May we shot a comedy short, The Man Date.

June I was in a comedic music video with artist Johnny Walker.

(Most of the above short film projects are still in the works. We know it takes a long time to complete anything in post-production, but when you have multiple projects ongoing, shooting more, and aren’t paying anything…things take time. We promise them soon enough.)

In June, things got complicated. Up to this point, Vern and I had been working together as the Hobosoul, and it was mid-June when we amicably decided to part ways. He’s gone on to establish the successful Long Beach Film Company where he has produced a few short films and has been directing many things in the music realm.

From this point on, the Hobosoul underwent a great overhaul, which resulted in a slow down of production. I brought Chuck Oldfield and DeAndra Rich into greater roles in the company, as creatives and imaginers as well as two who have helped with tons of behind the scenes in this new phase. I worked closely with Ramsey McDaniel who gave a complete redesign to the website and the face of the company (the look you see today) and my brother Ashley to get this thing on the net and working.

It was also right around this time that my tenure with Where the Wild Things Are ended, and I was looking forward to some much needed and desired time off from work…but it never works that way. About a month after I was done there, I got a call from Pat McMahon who was going to be editing a new film (The Ward) by director John Carpenter. It was an opportunity I could not pass up. We started shooting in August, and I’ve been on the job ever since. A master filmmaker is what John Carpenter is, and a hell of a human being (Pat too, actually).

Also in this time, we shot a short film that will be called “Where the Worm Does Not Die”. Look for it sometime in 2010.

Further, (I was ridiculously busy towards the end of this summer), I started cutting a short film for director Walter Robot. Walter Robot is a directing team composed of Christopher Louie and Bill Barminski. They were recently nominated for a MTV Music Video award and won the Best Music Video award at the LA Film Festival in 2009. This has gotten them great renown, and are currently working on their first feature film script. For this short, entitled Mermaid, The Hobosoul took on a role as a producing partner on the film and submitted to Sundance. We didn’t get in, but established a good relationship/friendship with the team and look forward to working with them again.

Even more, we’ve entertained a few meetings with Warner Brothers television and have been in touch with people from Discovery pitching some television show ideas we’ve had. We’ve had a lot of interest, but this business is a dicey one. I’d go into more detail about it, but I don’t trust you.

As the year continued, I met another guy named Ashley Bradford in late October. Not too many guys out there with that name. Anyway, Ashley owns a company called Illuminate Design, is a forensics expert and is in a band. We’ve been meeting up regularly on a friendly level and hope to eventually get something going on a professional level as well, either involved with his music or a potential tag-team of Illuminate and Hobosoul.

In November, I entertained another type of personal meeting. I took a big leap into the world of “real” people. I proposed to my girlfriend, DeAndra, and we will be getting married in April of 2010. We’ll be moving into the motorhome in West LA after the wedding. Who could pass up a girl that would do that? Not me.

In related news, my younger brother, Ashley, got married the day before I asked DeAndra’s father for her hand in marriage. I’m the last Stone man standing, and I’m about to go down in flames like the rest (but gladly).

In December, we were cutting and cutting and cutting. One of those things was my hair. I cut about 10 inches off and will be donating it to Locks for Love. Chuck has been taking off on a number of industrial projects, helping to organize the internals of the company and making money for us as well. I acted two weeks in a row in different short film projects, one for Casey Strand‘s personal short film project and another for Randy Bol’s Christmas “card” for 2009. Video for those soon to come.

For more familial news, my older brother, Mark, and his wife, Jen, had their first child, a girl. Her name is Autumn Violet Stone, and I’m a “wojek” (the Polish word for uncle pronounced voy-ek) for the first time. She’s way cuter than my brother or his wife.

On a personal level, life has changed a lot. I took only a few trips this year, and mostly to visit family. Sundance is a regular, but also explored Oklahoma more than I ever thought I would, found a cabin on an island in my hometown I never knew about, fished on Lake Cachuma with my dad, and biked all around the LA area.
My van has finally been completed and I’ve taken it on numerous trips in and outside of LA.
DeAndra and I took a road trip up to Santa Cruz/Monterey Bay area, a place I’d wanted to go since I moved here.
I lost twenty pounds. My clothes don’t fit anymore, but it feels great.
I took polish cooking lessons from Hania Moen, Vern’s mom, learning how to cook a number of dishes. DeAndra and I also committed to cooking something new every Wednesday night for the first half of the year, so we learned a whole slew of new foods – while eating healthier too!
We tackled our first alcohol making process–which is a true hobo activity. This we actually did starting in 2008 but it took until March when our mead (honey wine) was at it’s delicious peak. A very simple recipe that we’ve repeated a number of times. I also created a prune vodka, made by putting prunes into vodka for 6 weeks. Vodka that is tasty and gives you the runs. In 2010, beer is the next alcohol making venture I’ll undertake.

Which brings me to today, twelve days into the new year, stating that this year just might top the last. I can’t say I have such an ambitious goal as one film project a month, but I can say that I do want to tackle a few bigger projects. Spend some more money on some really good quality scripts, and maybe, if I’m lucky, get someone else to trust me with some money to put together a decent budget project. In the meantime, I’ll spend time developing projects (I have a number of short and feature length ideas in my head) and relationships. When you work too much, I find, you lose touch with people who really matter. And that’s a bummer. Cause in the end, all we have are relationships. I don’t know what the future of the company holds, what stories we’ll tell or what jobs we’ll work on, but I do know that I want you to be a part of it.

Let’s hang out in 2010, it’s been too long.