Moving Right Along...

Well, things have been moving right long, which is both gratifying and terrifying. It's always scary for me as a project builds momentum. It's the time before anything has actually happened, and everyone is full of expectations and counting on me to pull the whole thing together into a cohesive whole. But really at this point it's all ideas and feelings and my less-than-graceful organizing skills. It's like the old cliché about the top of the roller coaster, except I've built the roller coaster and this is the maiden ride, and I'm a little worried I forgot something really important like bolts. Like I said, things are moving right along.

I started a fundraising campaign on IndieGoGo. I posted the link before and I'll post it at the end of this blog. I was feeling a little strange about it. It's uncomfortable for me to ask people for money, though it was certainly something I needed to do. The response has been amazing. The site has raised more money in 24 hours than I thought it would in a week. Unlike Kickstarter, on IndieGoGo you can keep the funds raised even if you don't meet your goal. This is why I chose this route, because even if I don't raise another dime, the money raised so far will help a great deal. I also know that as an independent filmmaker I'm going to HAVE to get used to asking people for money. At least in this format, the people don't expect to make the money back! Talk about uncomfortable, presenting to investors who want a profit will be a lot tougher than this sort of open ended “give-if-you-want” deal.

Yesterday, I had a production meeting with most of my crew. It was good to get them together, most of them didn't know each other so introductions were made etc. I gave everyone a basic rundown of the schedule for the next 7 weeks and we discussed crew positions I still need to fill and locations I still need to find. I'm supposed to turn in my production book with all my crew positions filled and my locations secured at the end of the week. We'll see how that goes. I'm pretty close to having all those things worked out.

Next weekend we will shoot most of the green screen stuff. We'll be taking still photos and video of the actors doing scenes that take place in the main character's head. The idea is to make two-dimensional puppets of the actors and then video tape them acting out the scene. I'm also going to get the scenes with the actors on video for a number of reasons. These are the scenes that will allow for the most creativity so I want to have all options available to me. Besides, the whole puppet thing may look like shit. As fate would have it, Jim Henson's daughter is bringing a puppet film festival to UCA this week. They'll be doing a 2 hour work shop on Friday where we'll build puppets and make a movie. I am SO there. I hope to get a lot of practical ideas and creative inspiration. What great luck.

Below is the link to the IndieGoGo site. Please go by and take a look, donate if you can, and pass it along regardless of all that money stuff. Thanks!

<iframe src="http://www.indiegogo.com/project/widget/41786?a=221593" width="210px" height="400px" frameborder="1" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Here we go!

This will be quite short, and there's much more to come but I have a title! "tree". Now isn't that exciting? Also, I've started an Indiegogo fundraising page. Annoying I know, but movies are expensive to make, even low-budget student films, so I hope this will offset some of the cost. Please think about donating and if that's not possible please pass the link along.

I'm excited about how the film is coming along. I'm having a production meeting this weekend and will have lots to write about after that. Until then please go check out the Indiegogo site.<iframe src="http://www.indiegogo.com/project/widget/41786?a=221593" width="210px" height="400px" frameborder="1" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Big Hollywood in Little Rock

     I should be better about keeping up with this. But hey, you're not paying for it, so whatever. I've been in a bit of panic. I've been having a hell of a time finding crew members. In fact I still am looking for that dream first assistant director who will keep me organized and on schedule when we shoot and a few other positions. But the kicker came a couple of days ago when it was announced a real live Hollywood movie would be shooting in the area, EXACTLY during the time I planned on shooting. I wasn't too concerned that they need 400 actors, extras, and stand-ins, because those will probably be one to two day bit parts. No, what freaked me out was the crew. I had been hoping to use a pro for my 1st A.D. position, but I can't pay much. And certainly not anywhere near what those guys will be paying. Oh, my panties wadded up real good on this news. After about an hour and a half I realized I could change my shooting schedule pretty radically and not worry about that big fancy pants Hollywood movie at all. I'm still considering this. But to be honest, I'm in my final week of summer school and so I'm a little preoccupied.

     Next week I'm going to take some publicity stills for the film and my fundraising campaign. After going over the budget several times with one of my producers and swallowing some bitter pills, I got it down to about $3,000. I'll have links to an indiegogo site that I'll post here. I'm also planning on throwing a party or two and possibly selling my child and the family heirlooms. I'm afraid our heirlooms are pretty shoddy, but there's a sucker born every minute, so I hope to get enough to cover the bottled water bill.

     I've also filled out the paper work to become a SAG student signatory film, which will allow me to use SAG (Screen Actors Guild) actors without paying them what they are supposed to get. The paper work has gotten me more paperwork. I hope this is worth it. I just know Judge Reinhold, Mary Steenburgen, Joey Lauren Adams, Mattew McConnaughey (doing the Hollywood movie), and Reese Witherspoon (also doing the Hollywood movie) will ALL come make cameos in my movie. Sure they will...

Short Film #3

     My film still doesn't have an name. Unlike art or music, movies have to have names. I'd be fine with Woody Allen films being called "Untitled #7" or "Feature #15", but I guess the suits wouldn't stand for it. I will tease a name out of this damn film soon. I had less trouble naming my son.

     Since I don't have a great name that clues you in on what my film is about, I'll share a bit, in 25 words or less. That's how they do it in Hollywood. Well, if this was Hollywood I'd start with, “It's a cross between...” But this isn't Hollywood, and thank God for that. Still, I'll give it to you in 25 words or less.

My film is about a single mom who must write a short story in five days. She gets distracted by sex, yoga, and fun things.

Twenty-five words exactly. Nice. What that doesn't tell you is what's actually at the heart of the film, the themes. These are procrastination and inspiration. In the film, we look inside “May's” mind, that's the lead character by the way. There are scenes where she is daydreaming or working out things in her short story. These are going to be a big challenge for me as a filmmaker. I will be using the Adobe After Effects program to build these interior scenes. I'm making video puppets. I am still deciding if I'll make actual puppets and shoot them or build them digitally. When I was originally hatching this project, I was working closely with my long time art cohort Christina Forbes. She was going to build the puppets with me and the sets for them. She passed away this Spring, so I'm sadly having to do some serious rethinking. Luckily, I have someone who is going to be helping me with visual effects, Lyle Arnett. He's pretty kick ass at this stuff, so he has agreed to help me make it look good. My mind's eye is bigger than my technical stomach or something like that, so he's going to be key in making these scenes work. Though I'm very sad to not be able to finish this project with Christina, I'm really looking forward to working with Lyle and seeing what I can come up with now.

So back to the themes of the script. If you know my past work in theater and print, or if you know me at all, you know I tend to gravitate toward sex and procrastination. In that regard, I'm still doing what I've always done, but I've changed mediums. I'm extremely excited about telling this story using film. I feel like film lends itself to the kinds of stories I want to tell. I don't want to be limited to a stage. In film, you get to master time and space without all the tedious typing of a novel. I love it.

On a nuts and bolts note: I've got producers lined up. And my main characters have been cast. I am now working on becoming a SAG (Screen Actor's Guild) Student Signatory. If I manage to do that I can cast members of the union but don't have to pay them union wages. There are a few “stars” in town that I'm going to hit up to make cameos in the film. Why not? More on all that as it develops.

I Can't Believe I'm Doing This

     I'm doing what I said I would never do, I'm writing a blog. Before you start up with the hilarious comments, I would like to tell you why I'm doing this, because I have a purpose other than wanting you to be wowed by my insightful writing.

     Yes, I have a purpose. Finally.

     I am now entering my third and final year of the University of Central Arkansas' MFA Digital Filmmaking program. This year I will produce and direct my thesis film. It's a film I wrote last year, though it's been in my head in some form or other since I applied to the program. I've decided a blog of my experiences making this film might be entertaining, and give, particularly non-filmmakers a view into what it takes to make a short film. So I'm actually starting my blog during, what I like to call, pre-preproduction.

     I have my script. I have my lead actress and a couple of other roles cast. I have a preliminary budget but no money. I can see what I want it to be, but that's about it at this point. I have no crew. I have no locations. I have no set shooting dates. At this point, on a good day, I think of my film as the Taoist un-carved block.  On a bad day, I think of it as screwed. In other words, it's very exciting times.

     In this blog I will write about every aspect of making this film. I'll write about finding a crew, about raising funds, casting actors, shooting, editing, defending it before my committee and entering the film into various film festivals next spring. At this point you may be wondering what the name of my film is, well, me too. I'll let you know here first.

     In my next post I'll tell you a little about the film itself, and what I as a filmmaker am hoping to accomplish. Until then, please don't think poorly of me and the fact that I've started a blog. I promise not to talk about raising kids or politics.