Victor O'frank and les brown
11Jun

The Alchemy

by chiemeliein Inspirational 9 Comment(s)

For my first blog post I thought I’d share a true life story of mine and I hope it gives you something much more than the words written here

It was an early morning in summer 2014 – I had just moved to Kyiv with my best friend and we were having one of those lazy mornings , the kind that makes you wish for a breakfast in bed, except that in this case , I was engrossed with the thought of my trip to NY. The week before that , I had received my visa to the states on a film course at New York film academy and after I read their programme schedule, I figured I’ll be making a short film at the end of the course  . So I began the preproduction process on which film to make. I had always been a big fan of motivational speakers and at that time Les brown was at the top of my list (he still is ) . I  spent the previous 6 months swimming in the pool of his numerous tapes and books but that very morning , he wasn’t particularly in mind . I shared my thought with my bestie and she said, “what if you made a film that could inspire people” —Bang , that was it . The movie appeared .

 

Lesley Short film DVD

Lesley Short film DVD

Les Brown has a number of untold stories and I could recreate any of them. After a quick deliberation , I culled the story of his to tell. In that moment , one extra thought came to mind and this is the reason I wrote this short. I thought of the possibility of actually meeting him and sharing the idea of not just making the short film but developing a feature out of it. But first I knew I had to create something . I proceeded to write the script and then made a quick research on how to contact him . At this point I was slightly disappointed at my findings – First, he lives in Florida and secondly , he doesn’t meet people and if you want to book a one on one meeting , it cost $2500 and quite honestly , I wasn’t prepared to spend that much . After this finding ,I had two options , back down and just do something else , I mean why make a film and you can’t exactly use it for anything . On the verge of making the backdown decision, a quote from a book I read the week before “The alchemist ” came to mind —

“if you decide on a plan, the whole universe conspires to make it come true “.

Lesley Movie

Shooting the movie Lesley at Heimbold building. Sarah lawrence College Yonkers.

I continued with my plans and actually developed the short film titled Lesley – I tried to write his son John Lesley and his daughter but got no response. I wrote countless emails but no one replied . At this point ,after 2 months of staying in NY with 3 days to my flight departure and holding a short film I made for a man I just might never meet , it felt like I had failed and really I felt so too. I didn’t have enough money to fly to Florida , even if I was to find his house address , it was going to be hard nut. So ,2 days before my final departure ,I was on the phone with an old friend and I just ranted about holding a film i couldn’t show Les Brown. In that moment, I somehow

The Conference at Queens , NY

The Conference at Queens , NY

opened his facebook page and voila , it was slowly coming together — he had scheduled a conference just few blocks away from where I stayed in NY , and believe me , I paused with the phone call , my mouth ;wide open,in awe of this amazing miracle – well except for another problem . He will be there a day after I had left which leaves me with one option -change your flight plan . That brought me to yet another knot —I called the agency I bought the flight ticket from and they said it will cost $300 to make the changes i required — I was running low on cash already and didn’t exactly have that –so I decided to call the airline directly and to my utmost surprise , I think the operator forgot to ask for my credit card details but all I know was that she changed it to another day and didn’t charge a dime—-

“if you decide on a plan –the whole world conspires to make it come true ”

      So here I was , mic in my hands, staring at a man I had only seen on YouTube and always wished to meet. Stuck for a moment , I finally got to speak .

“You made a film for me ?” He asked , “yes sir ” , I replied . “Oh my,I always knew I was heading to hollywood ” he added .He was excited to say the least -I threw the option for a feature length , he said he was open for that. He proceeded to hand me some of his tapes and his personal contact , so we could keep in touch for the project . A few weeks later , I received his autobiography, and what will be my first attempt at a Hollywood project is on the way …. It’s funny how these things work ,Les may not know it , neither was the air France phone operator , but all that plan , errors and a huge conference was set up for one tiny guy from the east, who simply made a plan one lazy morning and it all came to fruition because, once you set out on a plan , the whole world conspires to make it come true.

9 COMMENTS
Eze Onyinye Junior on / Reply

My good friend, am happy to go through your blog, seeing your wonderful achievements so far. God who has started it will definitely continue and end it when you must have achieved your dreams. God Bless you my brother

Thank you sir….I really appreciate

Nice one. I’m inspired and I love the quote “once you make a plan, the whole world conspires to make it come true”

Nice one, I’m inspired and I love the quote ” once you set out a plan, the whole world conspires to make it come true”.

Thanks aubrey

Its again proven that the world only give you what you demand and not another tiny bit. I’m motivated Vic

This is awesome. Good this is coming at the right time

this is awesome. This is coming just at the right time.

I have always believed in it,thanks for the write up….i am inspired even more.

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