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3:41 PM, Sunday, March 13th, 2016:   This is honestly it. Wait, that sounds kind of final. Here's what I'm trying to say...   This video says literally everything I can about Hats & Minigolf in the shortest amount of time I can pull off and if it doesn't lead to something bigger, there's just fuck-all more I can do. That's actually a good thing because rarely do I put a reel together without feeling apprehensive, but whew, this took me 2 months. I shit you not. This was supposed to be the SECOND new video of the year with the charity video being first. Anyway, lemme link the video and go from there...     Just watched it again for the umpteenth time. Man, it just nails everything special about the concept. I left out soooooooooooooo much, but truly feel like every second is necessary and it's still freaking over 7 minutes.   The biggest difficulty in making something like this is that I don't really have a focused audience. A reel for a network pitch would be 2-3 minutes and specific to EACH network pitch... but I also need to attract a show-runner or celebrity and express that this is a LONG form interview. Not a quick 5 minute YouTube thing... long-form interview shows are not normal these days and it's a strange concept to push so you kind of have to put more into a reel then normal. 7:49 is very long to expect anyone to sit through... but the alternative is making 8 different 2 minute videos and making sure each audience sees THEIR specific one. That's fucking impossible. And I have to believe that if I get to the point where a celebrity or connected show-runner is watching ANYTHING? It had better cover what I need it to cover because I'm only getting one shot. In fact, I've shared it with some people and they already say "Oh yeah, I saw that a couple months ago - COOL!" - it doesn't matter I made it 34 seconds ago, some people give you one opening and then stop caring. So you just have to hope they hang on through the whole thing...   ...and of course, you all know my editing style - it's really fast. I mean I covered the first 10 years of the journey in 6 seconds. Uhm, ouch. But, yeah - that's about all it means to this. I have to bring it up because more than just the concept? I have to sell me a little. Who am I, why would anyone of any stature talk to me... that kind of thing. My showbiz background, as random and spotty as it was, helps. I do indeed relate ona bunch of levels to people in showbiz. My PERSONAL failures, my... well my everything in the past 20 years allows me to direct Hats & Minigolf interviews in a different way than most people. So how do you show all that?   Well, you take months. Fuck, man. That's the problem with having produced 6 of the shows. That's 3 hours of content plus needing to explain how it came to be in the first place and the press it's already gotten. What do you cut? The first thing I did was scan through every interview and take the funniest moments and ended up having to cut one of the best interviews (Dean Haglund) because the subjects were SO meaty, it was lost in a reel. I mean, you can barely touch the surface of that interview in a 7 second clip. I love it, but for the reel, too much set-up.   But even the funny parts of 5 videos is over 45 minutes. So now you're just cutting off your babies. SO you do a voice over and try and piece it together. Then something isn't right and you have to go away and come back. So much of the editing process was just during the day doing other shit trying to envision what I was really trying to say? You put something together, and then realize it's missing something. So you start over. Eventually last week I really focused and kept redoing the voice over until it was succinct and efficient - and STILL cut it up in the final edit. For example, I felt it was pretty important to express that the majority of the guests - I HAD NEVER MET! It seems like we're all friends, but we were all just kinda acting. I consider them friends now, but they really just saw the Gedde episode and agreed to do it. That speaks volumes for the strength of the show, but in the final edit I felt it didn't REALLY matter. It's something that could be talked about in addition to the video during a meeting and not necessarily needed INSIDE the video. And shit, another 20 seconds got it shorter. Eventually I was under 10 minutes and then had to keep chopping up extremely funny moments because of pacing. But what should the pacing be when spotlighting a show that EMBRACES a long form format? So it's this weird editing challenge where you have to give people 10-15 seconds of something that let's them know the story was 5 minutes. Bizarre. In fact I've never really had that challenge. People watching have to grasp that these are very long in depth conversations, but need to grasp that really fast and without me saying "HEY! This is a really long in-depth conversation!". Ha.   The overwhelming feeling though is it looks FUN and as a viewer you do respect that I built it. Like, it doesn't matter if you don't realize in the first 6 seconds I played all those characters, or the pilot on Comedy Central or alllllll those talents... but you almost by osmosis respect the scope of GolfKon and how well it's been received. That is somewhat surreal to me because GolfKon is really just the physical manifestation of the virtual creativity I've always shown... that people never really "got". They all "get" GolfKon because they're standing on it. Some of the things I've produced on computer are light years beyond the construction abilities I have, but it just flies over people's heads. It's just one of those things.   Alright, I threw it on FB (because no one shares YouTube videos anymore) and I'm hoping people will share it and we get some sort of bites. It's time. I'm in the 160s weight-wise (I know, that seems trivial, but when you peaked over 200, you're excited) and can reasonably take a meeting and look like me, not fat santa.   And as I said at the top? This is it. I've done all I can with the concept and if the video in THIS entry doesn't open the doors, then I haven't the slightest idea how else to proceed. There's relief in that. Let's see what happens next.   Adam