It's a Win!

It's a win, it's a win! Chuck Negron - Biography of an Entertainer won The Prism Award in the straight to DVD category!

What an exciting, inspiring day the day of the filming was. The day began with breakfast at the Waffle House in Irving, Texas. Chuck, Princess Laran, a friend of her's and me ready to take on the day. Months before, a live concert had been filmed at SMU which we intended to release on DVD. Unfortunately, technical problems and an inept film crew did such a poor job that the footage was almost a total waste. The good news, the audio was fabulous and it became Chuck Negron Live In Concert the two CD set. In an attempt to regain my footing after the terrible filming at SMU (and, after the book was released), the concept changed. It was decided that a documentary of the book would be made. After months of planning, the day finally arrived. On a sound stage in Irving, Texas, we began. The footage of Chuck in the chair talking and the music video of The Robin was filmed by Brad Murano of Film Xero. Frederick Wolcott (a screenwriter), Steve Miller (Film Xero), Chuck and I spent months planning how we wanted it to look, feel and the message we wanted to send. (None of the aforementioned people (except Chuck) were given credit on the final project, but we are the ones responsible for the documentary, which became the "Bio", coming into existence and for the way it looks and feels). I don't believe in taking credit for work I didn't do, but I do believe strongly in giving credit to those that did do the work! Onward! For eight hour, we all sat in our chairs, Frederick Wolcott and Steve Miller asking questions, me coaching them from behind on where to go next, I knew the story better then they. Chuck doing one of the things he does best, being interviewed. After the 8 hour interview was completed and we felt like we had enough to make a full-length documentary, we were all so excited about what we knew we had in the can, we continued on. Next, we filmed a music video of The Robin (Film Xero has filmed a lot of music videos for a variety of artists and almost all of The Eagles music videos). As exhaustion set in, the silliness appeared. The last effort of the day, a music video of The Gift. That music video didn't come out so well, Chuck has way too much going on in his face for the stark staging we used.

Within the next couple of months, the editing began. I spent days sitting in the middle of my bed, phone to my ear, talking, watching and editing the footage over and over again with Frederick Wolcott. After months of editing, my lack of sanity (which had been gone for a while) got worse, I ran out of money and steam. The project languished until 2004 when Chuck acquired the footage and completed the project with other film makers. Chuck did an amazing job finishing that project. When I saw it for the first time, I had to laugh, Chuck even managed to use a piece of the footage from the horrible SMU shoot on the DVD.

And, now to win The Prism Award! What a marvel. I felt a bit cheated when Chuck Negron Live In Concert was nominated but didn't win. Ozzie Osborne won that year, of course, that was the year he was everywhere. Hurrah for Hollywood!

I'm very proud of the final DVD, I'm proud of Chuck for completing the project and, The Prism Awards have always been special to me, I'm very proud of my contribution to that project.

The best or worst part of all, depending on how you look at it, while planning the filming at SMU, the release of the "Live In Concert" CDs, the planning and filming of the documentary and all the other projects Chuck and I did together, I was completely unsane, certifiable, totally out of my head and totally out of touch with my own reality! Can you even imagine what I could do with my now (after a whole lot of work), sane brain? Drugs and drinks aren't the only things that can cause aberrant behavior, sometimes life changes and unavoidable accidents can do it also. I thank God everyday that addiction wasn't something I had to deal with. I choose to look at those years as years of learning, growing and changing. I'll always regret the bad life chooses I made, the pain I caused others and myself during my madness, but I also rejoice in the really good stuff that came out of that very same madness, like the Live CD and the award winning DVD! I celebrate Chuck and some others (you know who you are) that stepped in and cleaned up alot of the wreakage my unsane actions created. I hope you too will forgive and forget the bad and celebrate the good.