The other day I met with Vin Flores and his business associate Brian about the film aspect of the project. I was encouraged while we talked and afterwards, because I feel that Vin, who has a vested interest in the success of the project, is a perfect match for the feature length documentary and will be able to truly capture the heart of “The Conversation”. His artistic flare, creativity, and talent will help us present the raw emotions, fears, and strengths that revolve around “The Conversation” with the world in such a unique way that hopefully everyone will be talking about HIV openly.

The first order of business is to develop a 10-minute short that will show how the feature length version will appear in its artistic, topical, and documentary style. We are currently seeking out a minimum of 5 people to do local interviews here in Austin, Texas. Vin will be interviewing each of the interviewees beforehand and then schedule times for a filmed interview. Vin is the perfect person to hold the interviews and ask the questions, as he possesses such a gentle, kind, and compassionate spirit, I’m sure that everyone will feel at ease with his presence. After the 5 interviews are completed, one person will be selected to do a more lengthy follow up filming which will be able to provide a story that people can connect with.

The 10-minute short will serve as our introduction to raise funds for the feature length documentary. Based upon the initial costs involved with just doing the short, then I’m sure we’ll need all the support we can obtain. Raising funds and searching out the interviewees is my job, along with helping Vin see my visions for the project, which he does easily. Thus over the next few weeks I’ll be working to find the funds ($500 to $1,000) for the short, talking to people about volunteering for the film, and setting up our shooting locations. I suppose it’s a good thing I had the honor of doing set designs for Bob Hope.

The funds for the short are mostly for equipment rental and to pay for a few services that Vin and Brian cannot provide. I wasn’t sure how I was going to raise the funds, as I am limited by my disability income, however, yesterday I went walking with my dear friend Rebecca and she said, “Sebastian, shucks, just tell 40 people that you need $25 each and I’ll start by giving you the first $25. I’m sure more will give you money to support the project.” Not knowing 40 people I’m not sure how to approach this aspect, but I will ask everyone I know to donate whatever funds they can, along with my doing some work for old clients to raise the funds myself. Amazingly, the universe brought about a client calling me today asking if I could do a few projects for him, I jumped at the chance.

While I’ve been working on developing the project one seemingly simple thing ends up not being so simple. Just the idea of requesting donations involves more steps forward to allow the project to evolve, such as filing the legal paperwork with the state of Texas, opening a dedicated bank account, creating some type of an account with an online payment center, and then having everything put up on the website. Each day as these simple items become more complex I find myself overwhelmed and at times not sure of the next step.

But this I know, that the universe will bring everyone who is supposed to be involved with the project here when they are needed. And as I wonderful lady in the grocery market said today, “just be patient.” She wasn’t really talking about the project, but something else at the time, but I told her that I needed to hear that today. Everything that I was nervous about today, talking with my best friend and talking with my doctor about starting HIV medications, didn’t happen for various reasons. Perhaps my heart wasn’t in the right place or it wasn’t time for these things to happen. Thus, patience seems to be the thought for the day.

We hope to have the 10-minute short completed and ready for viewing on our website by late May or early June. I’m excited, nervous, and increasingly overwhelmed, but it’s going to be something worthwhile and I cannot wait to be able to share the finished product with everyone.

If you’d like to see some of Vin’s work, please visit his YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/faroh73