- 11:34 PM,
Saturday, August 19th, 2023:
-
- At least when
I got the Kenny texts I was expecting them. Sure,
I wasn't expecting him to lie and me catch him within
the text chain, but still - it was no surprise that we
were working on this project, it was the dyno day...
that was established.
-
- To get a call
from... fuck do I say his name? This is locked of
course but are we ALREADY on the Charlotte road
on DAY ONE. Not a good sign, is it? Alright he
gets a fake fucking name because
JESUS FUCK DUDE WHAT WERE YOU THINKING.
-
- I shall call
him Billy.
-
- Billy's wife and
kid are close with my wife and kids and have been for
years. Our favorite pastime is hanging out, letting
the kids be crazy, while we sit and talk, eat, drink
and be merry. Wonderful routine, we get along very,
very well. We rarely speak of career stuff other than
"How's the Delorean biz..." or vice-versa. Both Billy
and his wife are creative people doing all sorts of
stuff. They had both followed my VR180 thing and seen
videos from time to time. The last one being the
Clippers one which finally went live only 10 days ago.
He asked if he could share it with a friend he knew
who produced for the NFL and of course: "YES!
It's public share it with anyone who will watch it."
Desperately trying to get the right people to see it
and my friends have been trying to help.
-
- So color me
surprised when I got a call tonight that said
"Great news, we're gonna be pitching to the
NFL next week."
-
- I felt like
someone punched me in the stomach. I couldn't
breathe. I calmed myself and got the information
and proceeded to tell Talya in the front yard and
promptly lose my shit. Thankfully, Nest Cam saves the
day for that...
-
-
-
- As I say in
the video, and certainly all of you at home are
saying: "WHO'S WE?!?!" He admitted it happened
faster than he expected but OBVIOUSLY he made it sound
like we were a team. I don't even know what Billy
DOES to partner up with!??! His resume is simply
"creative director" and while he was that at actual
studios... the only work I've ever seen from him are
Christmas cards. Don't get me wrong they're really
fucking good Christmas cards... but you just
INSERTED yourself into this process and never
notified me. Ever. I now have NO choice but
to just ride along and then... what, blow up our
entire friendship and destroy my kids because
I have NO IDEA what the fuck you're
doing or how you're planning to be involved? I've
spent a year of my life and well into 5 figures
building this and while of course I'm appreciative for
the meeting... how are we a TEAM? And how does a TEAM
start like that? How did you ever think it was OK to
just DO IT. I called him back and tried to dip my
toe in the "what in the ever-loving fuck are you
doing" pool but finally realized we just need to hang
one-on-one and talk this out.
-
- Since this is
locked I can tell you point blank: I want
FUCK all to do with ANYONE who would do this
without asking me. I'm fucked because he's already
shared my work, my name... he's clearly friends with
the dude at the NFL and he said he did make it clear
this was my video... but he somehow seems to think
because he has an interest and passion about VR, that
makes him part of the team. And I don't know how to
explain to him that all previous production experience
is nearly worthless once you throw on a headset and
start moving things around in a 3D 180 degree space.
It took me 50+ videos and crazy ass productions to
understand this and now because he
REALLY WANTS TO do it too... he just does?
Not as an agent, but as some sort of team?
I mean, even agents
LET YOU KNOW THEY ARE REPRESENTING YOU BEFORE DOING IT.
What the fuck is happening? My brain is about to split
in half.
-
- This will
devastate my kids. They don't deserve this.
I will do everything in my power to keep some
semblance of normalcy together, but I don't see
how he didn't just destroy the relationship. Every
scenerio becomes problematic the biggest
being: I DON'T TRUST HIM. Like...
how's that. I did... we've known each other for years.
I would let them watch my kids without a second
thought. But after this? Holy horseshit. How dare
someone just do that and then expect you to be happy
because it's the NFL. Uhm - I don't want it like
THIS dude. It's 100% my work, the video was
public and you shared that. That's a finder's fee.
When you NEVER SPEAK to the person before sharing
it? That's a finder's fee. It's not even a
manager/agent representation deal because that's
something YOU HAVE TO AGREE TO.
And I get it - this happened fast and maybe the
NFL dude just presumed I wanted Billy involved
and Billy didn't stop that line of thinking... but the
next call to me is "Hey I have some really strange
news, and we should sit down and talk when you get a
chance." Not
"WE HAVE A PITCH MEETING!" Fucking
christ man. That translates ONE WAY: "I took
it upon myself to pitch us as a team to my friend and
it worked. So now you're connected to me unless you
want to just throw away any shot at the
NFL."
-
- ...which I swear
to you, I will do in a heartbeat. Billy can pitch it
by himself. Shit - download everything and play it for
them yourself and then figure out how to make it. This
shit is bonkers. Who the fuck does this? I mean
in a quarter-century of LA I've seen my share of slimy
shit but this is easily the most jaw-dropping move
I've ever seen. Kenny is a close 2nd, but his was
SO MUCH MORE understandable. He thought he
could get away with the lie and tried.
HOW THE FUCK DID BILLY THINK THIS WOULD WORK?
How did he make that phone call to me!?!?! How was he
so void of consideration that he expected me to be
happy? We NEVER spoke about this! Though as I did
mention in the video in June when I figured out
Apple TV+ subscribers were going to have access to
VR180 I told him I figured out my path and
he wrote back something to the effect of "How do we
get on that!". Which I showed to Talya and was
like "Huh?". She didn't understand either and we just
kind of shook our heads and moved on. Because he has
NEVER produced any VR180 content. Doesn't have a
camera, doesn't have the computer that could edit
it... I mean... for the life of me I do
NOT understand what this WE shit is - in June
I thought he was just being friendly?!?!? Like...
no that doesn't even make sense. But again, we never
spoke about a "we" and I wasn't about to get into it
with him over that text. He just seemed like he wants
to be involved in the next big thing.
-
- Well he found a
way to be involved: team up without telling me! Force
me to accept it or lose the opportunity. What a
friend!
-
- Un, fucking,
real.
-
- But whooopee, what
great news.
-
- Adam
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