2007, a look back

2007 was an enormously important, momentous, terrifying and wonderful year in the tiny world of Josh Forbes. (Which probably accounts for my blogging reticence, but since Zach Braff has a blog I guess I can't really use that as an excuse.)

The biggest event, of course, was the death of my father. January 30 2007. Something so frightening about the finality of that date. It's still something that I can't really wrap my mind around. It still seems like it never happened. I'll just stop by his house and he'll be there in the kitchen smoking Camel Light 100s, watching The Game. I guess what makes things tough is that ever since my parents' divorce when I was 16 or so, my dad and I sort of drifted apart like astronauts after an explosion. Two people floating further and further away, hands waving to grasp something, the infinite cosmos reflected in our helmets. By the grace of God, we were able to somehow repair the breach over the years, and although we were never as close my brother and he were, I think that we were as close as a long distance father and son could be. We bonded over our obsessive love of cataloging music and movies and his amazing ability to not only tell stories, but to live them out. If you didn't know, my dad was a crazy-super-bad ass cop for years and years. Think Tom Selleck plus Vic Mackey plus muscles. He was the first and greatest super hero I've ever known.

The next big story of 2007 is that it was the year that I really dug my heels into the soft mud of music videos and made a real go at it. I left Factory Features and joined up with Lanette Phillips, a call from out of the blue that has made all the difference in my life. She somehow discovered me, was friends with the Irving guys I think... in any event, she got me my first big video job for Sara Bareilles.

Speaking of... let's do a rundown of the videos that I accomplished this year (counting your blessings is a sure cure for the New Year doldrums, right?)

Great Northern - Home
This might be my favorite video to date. Or at least the most visually rich and engaging. At least I'd like to think so. It combines so many things that I love, Houdini-era spiritualism, wonder cabinets, things made out of wood. We pulled it off for next to nothing, but only because I didn't know any better. I swear, my horizons were so much wider a year ago than today. It's really sad, and strange, actually. Money can really corrupt a filmmaker. It's also a great help, but you have to be incredibly careful to get soft and used to spending buckets of money. Don't get me wrong, money is nice, and my crew definitely deserves to be paid, but there's a sense of camaraderie and wonder in shooting something when you have nothing than when you're able to spend tons of money. Big ups to my animator Manvsmagnet, AKA Matt Smithson. That kid knocked the video out of the park. Even though we were thousands of miles apart, we were somehow psychically linked in a way that is quite rare, and incredibly addicting.

Division Day - Tigers
This video was so much fun to shoot. Or at least I think it was. It's fun to watch, anyway. Great band, great song, great bunch of folks to work with. I could do stuff like this for the rest of my life.

Jenny Owen Youngs - Hot in Herre
I had a choice between this song, and her much bigger hit, "F**k Was I". I still feel like I made the right decision. Perez Hilton even posted it for me. This pretty much solidified my love for giant animal costumes. I'm not sure what that's all about. Jenny is a super wild girl, too. She's pretty much certifiably insane, which is why we get along so well, I think. Plus she loves comic books and Buffy.

Sara Bareilles - Love Song
This was my big jump. Not that you can tell from the end result. Still feels very in line with my other work. I really don't know what to say about my style. It's basically what you'd get if you could record a retarded person's dreams. I guess I'm just frustrated that we were rushed in post. I did this one with Matt Smithson again, and the post side of things was just super short-changed. People apparently like it a lot, and everyone did a great job, it just feels like it's missing something to me. The extra post time would have really pimped out the Love Song box, which would have helped. In any case, it was my first brush with "beauty" and "glam" and I made it out on the other side.

Ingrid Michaelson - Keep Breathing
This one is done, and it's beautiful, I just can't post it until they clear stuff with Vh1. I hope they run it. I think the video is really great, and the song is goosebump-worthy. Ingrid is such a complete doll, and one of my favorite people in the whole world to collaborate with. She's full of good ideas, generous, and completely trusting.

And now, the three that nearly killed me...
I shot three videos in December, and am in post with all three currently...

Salvador Santana - Summer's Day
That's right, kids, the son of Carlos himself. Sal's a super sweet guy, and totally fun to work with. I'm working with my new pals Chris and Bill at Walter Robot on the animation, and it should be a lot of fun.

DJ Sharam - The One
Sharam, of Deep Dish fame, with Daniel Beddingfield have cooked up a surefire dancefloor burner, and I'm doing my best to add my spin to it. This one's gonna have a lot of animation from the guys at Ghost Town Media. I'm super excited to be working with these guys. They do tons of stuff with my pal Ace Norton, and are just amazingly talented.

Nicole Atkins - Maybe Tonight
This is the one I'm hanging my hat on, I think. This one's gonna be big. Or at least it felt that way. Plus there's no animation so I can take more credit for it, and that's what it's all about. This involved a team-up with the world's most amazing circus/vaudeville dance troupe, Lucent Dossier. They are insanely amazing, and generous, and hard working and I just can't say enough good things about them. Nicole was really amazing, too. Such a great performer and, again, so generous. I'm truly blessed to work with such great artists.

And that was 2007, as far as videos are concerned. A heck of a lot of work to do alongside my job at the ad agency. I'm still here, by the way. I have this fear that I'll end up the Harvey Pekar or Charles Bukowski of music videos. Both guys kept their day jobs their entire career. The goal right now is to pull up stakes around June when Andrea graduates school and gets a job. I'm still really concerned about insurance and all that jazz, but it'll work itself out, it always does.

DAILEY
The copywriting job has been really useful in a lot of ways. It's nice to always be creating things, even if they're shitty ideas for candy bars. These still aren't my people, they know it and I know it, but we have an arrangement and it's working out.

UTA
Another amazing development is that I've signed with UTA. Well, I haven't technically signed anything, but I told the agent at UTA that I've been meeting with that I want to sign, so I think that counts as the same thing. This wouldn't be possible without the amazing grace and generosity of my pal Tagore and his (and now my) friend Dave Bernad. Dave is Mike White's assistant and for whatever reason, he took a liking to me. He started setting up meetings with me and agents and before I knew it I met with Yuli, and I took the plunge. It's one of things that takes a long time and a lot of lunches, but he seems to think that he can get me work directing something, and well, who am I to argue? I'm just along for the ride.

ANDREA
(Boy, I feel like a dick for putting her down here, but I'll just keep typing like nothing happened...) Andrea is doing really really well. She's in the final throes of her doctoral program, and there's nobody more proud of her than I am. She's been such an amazing encouragement, and all-around buddy. I really have no idea how I would survive without her. I think about it a lot, like when she doesn't call at night or has to drive really far, and it scares the hell out of me. I can't wait to see her running at full speed. It's so exciting how her practicing psychology is so perfectly mirroring my filmmaking stuff. It's really nice.

FAMILY
Everybody seems to be doing well. My mom's still rocking the real estate market and living what seems to me to be the perfect life. She lives with Michael, the lawyer, who is just an all out amazing guy--he was reading On The Road for fun this Christmas--and they both seem happy as two little grubs in a grubhole. It looks like my brother is getting married in May, which will take place in Puerta Vallarta. We're saving up money right now. It should be a blast. I gotta work on my tan.

Which brings me to my New Year's resolutions... or goals...or whatever....

I've heard that goals are important, and even more important to put them down on paper, or in this case, in ones and zeroes. In no particular order:
*I want to work out more
*I'm in my second day of not smoking. I want to continue not smoking.
*I want to get a digital SLR camera. I'm getting old, and there are so many opportunities for memories that are just being frittered away.
*I want to sign with a company. Lanette says that the guy at Furlined wants to talk with me, which would be amazing.
*in any case, I want to leave Dailey and do my own freelance directing. Which effectively scares the shit out of me, but it's gotta happen.
*Attached to that, I need my own health insurance. Yikes.
*I also want things to level out a little bit so i can spend more time with Andrea.
*I'd also like to travel, which unfortunately doesn't seem very likely this year, but at least mexico, or a drive up north.

Oh man... now I'm on an insurance kick....I'm freaking out...

Anyway, it was an epic year for me, but also an extremely quick one. Here's to 2008 being even better. Thanks for reading.