Hello All you good people out there in Boston & New England. Its your fine & friendly X-Hollywood Reject, Craig Amabello, reporting in from the local Nut house... Or is this a Crack house? I always get those two mixed up.
Anyways, I got a PAYING GIG!.... Yippee, Yahoooo. There actually are real business people out here with money & a budget. Can you believe that? I am one of 6 cameramen shooting a band tomorrow night at the Rock 101 Sky show in Manchester NH at the Arms Park.
The name of the group is The Gary Hoey band. They are headlining the show tomorrow night & I hear some great things about this band. Some real talented guys playing rock & roll. The buzz is that a few weeks ago Gary Hoey played an acoustic live song "Only Human" at the Rock 101 radio show & ever since then the song has been the most requested song & they have been playing it a lot & it seems like the band is really starting to take off here in New england. So being the smart guys that they seem to be, they want a video shot of this new hit of theirs, so they hired a BRILLIANT & TALENTED guy like myself, along with 5 other cameramen to capture tomorrow nights live performance at the Sky show.
So if any of you Cool people out there wanna see some really good bands, & the Headliner "Gary Hoey".... Come on down for a FREE CONCERT courtesy of Rock 101 in Manchester NH. They have the greatest FIREWORKS Show you will ever see in New England ( Hence, the name... Rock 101's Sky Show).
Hell, maybe you people can even say hello to me, or Throw Rocks at me, or Money... (But if your going to throw rocks at me, all I ask is that could you attach a hundred dollar bill to it, so that I can at least pay for some of my Medical bills).
Also on another note, I have been attempting to help out some Local small business people. (Well actually, it is a girl that wants to start a stripper bachelor party company... But hell, I'm all for young, entrepreneurial women empowering themselves by starting up their own business out here in New England... So I'm always willing to lend a hand). So being the nice guy that I am, I offered her as a sign of good will & faith, to shoot some head shots of her & some sexy outfits to help promote herself on the website she is building. She told me that she has LOTS of other girls that are going to need head shots & Photography & if I shoot her stills first..... FOR FREE....... She would get me a lot of work working with other girls.... Hmmmmmmm.... Where have I heard that before?
So anyways, I book studio time, on my dime, shoot some decent photo's of her, & the whole time I'm doing the shoot with her, she keeps mentioning that she wants to do a Porn movie. I let it slide & continue the shoot, (being the true Professional that I am) & she continues to mention her desire to do a Porno movie through out the entire still shoot. So I finally tell her, "Look, if you want to do a porn, well fine, we'll book another date & do a video shoot then". Long story short, I finish the shoot, go home, burn a cd, send them out to her that night & I wait a week...... & never hear a word from her. I finally email her, asking how she liked the photo's & she said there were some really nice pictures that I took, but she wished the lighting was better on some of the other pictures. (hell, I admit, my weakness is in lighting & we rushed through the shoot in 2 hours). Then she tells me, "When I learn how to light better, she MIGHT let me do a Porn movie of her!.... & then she stated that ALL these other girls that wanted head shots before were now suddenly only TWO girls & that they wouldn't be available for a few months!".... The Gall of some people.... I was totally SCAMMED by this young chick & you wonder why it is that I FAILED in HOLLYWOOD!
Then just last week, I received an email from a model that said she wanted me to do a shoot of her for the suicide girls website. She said she needed 3 sets of pictures & suicide girls would pay $800.00 for the entire shoot. She stated that she had no money to pay me but that if I would shoot these stills for her on SPEC, that she would split the $800.00 with me once she got paid. I reluctantly agreed, (still having a bad taste in my mouth after last months still shoot with the little scam artist stripper girl). So I call her & tell her that I have booked studio time & was ready to do the shoot & she explains to me that she wants to do the shoot out doors NAKED at a local cemetery! I tell her that I am not comfortable with that because we would be breaking the law doing nudity out in a public place & that is not how I do business. (As whacky as I may appear to you people, I truly am a professional, & always work within the law). My gigs may seem weird to some, but I WILL SHOOT ALMOST ANYTHING, as long as it is LEGAL... This is how I learned to survive out in Hollywood, & you have to understand that I do not JUDGE people by the gigs I do, or what they do... A job is a job & I always do the best that I can to be professional, do a great job & to treat clients with courtesy, dignity & respect. It is not for me to judge what others do..... And if a client wants to hang upside down, naked, with her hair on fire & crocodiles snapping at her head.... Well that is just fine with me, as long as they understand exactly what it is they are getting into & how potentially dangerous something like this may be! Anyways...... After booking studio time again, & explaining what we could shoot at the studio to this wanna-be suicide girl.... She completely blows me off & I never hear from her again!
So does this give you people some kind of clue as to why I am a failure in life, with my show biz career, with my directing, with my video & photography business.... & my UTTER FAILURE IN HOLLYWOOD? After all these years in show biz..... I am still naive & foolish enough to take people at their word. To allow people to LIE to me... To SCAM me..... because I still want to believe in people & take them at their word & not try to judge them.... When the hell will I EVER LEARN???????
Well, that's all I have to say for now good people of Boston.... I hope some of you out there are being productive... Making money... Creating some cool, Fun Art...... I know I am still struggling everyday to barely get by, but I refuse to quit!.... But I have to admit.... there isn't a day that goes by that I don't wish I was back in Hollywood!
This has been another show biz blog on "Notes from the edge"... from your friendly X-Hollywood Reject..... Craig Amabello.
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