I got in contact with the guys over at Futureme.org about using their site in the film and they gave me their seal of approval.
I had been tinkering with the idea for the script for a while until I ran into their site. It made it all gel.
If you've got an e-mail address you suspect you'll have for many years to come, send yourself an message...into the future!!!
Future Me
Enjoy.
-30-
Breakthrough
I tend to write better at night. Ideas flow easier. If I wake up and grab some coffee, I can't crank things out as easily as if I get home, decompress, spend time with the family and then write. I'm just not a morning writer.
Last night, I was able to break the block I've been having on this script. I managed to get the body of the plot worked out and I managed to squeeze in the idea I had about the multi-verse. It's gonna be good.
What I've been really worried about was having to invest too much time and money into having special effects or complicated stunts or anything that might require a big production. What I've done, effectively, is found a way around them with a few decent plot devices.
I think I might go over 30 minutes, but not by much. 35 maybe. I need to finish the script and then figure in how long the credit sequences bookending the film are gonna be. But that won't be until I've got a cleaned up copy of the script.
Felt good to break through. Hope to keep up the momentum.
-30-
Last night, I was able to break the block I've been having on this script. I managed to get the body of the plot worked out and I managed to squeeze in the idea I had about the multi-verse. It's gonna be good.
What I've been really worried about was having to invest too much time and money into having special effects or complicated stunts or anything that might require a big production. What I've done, effectively, is found a way around them with a few decent plot devices.
I think I might go over 30 minutes, but not by much. 35 maybe. I need to finish the script and then figure in how long the credit sequences bookending the film are gonna be. But that won't be until I've got a cleaned up copy of the script.
Felt good to break through. Hope to keep up the momentum.
-30-
Can't Tell The Players Without A Program
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Well, I've decided against being in my own film. My wife, who can see right through me, is right: I do want to act. But I've decided against this being my time to do so. With all the crap I have to do, I don't want to worry about my performance being stilted because I had a thousand things to worry about.
My wife and my director of photography are gonna help me cast the film. I consulted with a friend who's wife is an indie director and he's gonna give me leads on where to scout for talent. I figure that we'll go through a couple of dozen actors before we find what we want.
It's exciting to think of my wife helping me on this. She's got a keen eye for details and she's much more organized than me, so it will be a great help.
The few people whom I've told about the film concept have been really receptive, so I'm thinking I'm on the right track. I think that the film will fair well and might even have feature possibilities if we can get it all done in time and it finds a proper home (distribution wise).
-30-
My wife and my director of photography are gonna help me cast the film. I consulted with a friend who's wife is an indie director and he's gonna give me leads on where to scout for talent. I figure that we'll go through a couple of dozen actors before we find what we want.
It's exciting to think of my wife helping me on this. She's got a keen eye for details and she's much more organized than me, so it will be a great help.
The few people whom I've told about the film concept have been really receptive, so I'm thinking I'm on the right track. I think that the film will fair well and might even have feature possibilities if we can get it all done in time and it finds a proper home (distribution wise).
-30-
"I'm having...trouble." - Robocop 2
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
The script is giving me a bit of trouble. I can see the feature possibilities and it makes the scope grow bigger. I only want 30 minutes, with credits at both ends.
Also, I've been doing some reading on string theory and the concept of multiple universes (two very pertinent things to the subject matter) and it's making me think of all kinds of possibilities for the resolution of the plot.
I'm already 1/3 of the way into the script and it's rolling nicely. I think that with some work, I can have this ready in a week or so. But I have to hammer away at it with great resolve.
I'm concerned with rushing through it, but at the same time, I want to be able to finish it and polish it later. I think that's the way to go. Either way, I don't want any aspect of the script to suffer, so I'm gonna take it easy.
I feel good. Very good. The Austin Film Festival will be the launching pad for the film. I entered a script a couple of years ago to Project Greenlight. Sadly, I didn't make it past the first round. But I got a 90 page script out of it that I still plan to develop more.
Things are looking up.
-30-
Also, I've been doing some reading on string theory and the concept of multiple universes (two very pertinent things to the subject matter) and it's making me think of all kinds of possibilities for the resolution of the plot.
I'm already 1/3 of the way into the script and it's rolling nicely. I think that with some work, I can have this ready in a week or so. But I have to hammer away at it with great resolve.
I'm concerned with rushing through it, but at the same time, I want to be able to finish it and polish it later. I think that's the way to go. Either way, I don't want any aspect of the script to suffer, so I'm gonna take it easy.
I feel good. Very good. The Austin Film Festival will be the launching pad for the film. I entered a script a couple of years ago to Project Greenlight. Sadly, I didn't make it past the first round. But I got a 90 page script out of it that I still plan to develop more.
Things are looking up.
-30-
What Came First?
Sunday, January 22, 2006
I've written scripts and stories based on a title. Nothing more. I have a script, my first, failed feature film, "Caught In The Rain." I had the title before I had the script. In fact, the title existed almost 8 years before the script idea was ever conceived. It started out as a poem. I use to write a lot of poetry. I was very tortured in my late teens. I had a bunch of notebooks just crammed with one liners and all sorts of nonsensical crap. I took the Jim Morrison approach to my early work one night, while still living with my parents. I attempted to burn all my work in a garbage can, dousing it with some lighter fluid. I was purging my creativity. I didn't make it very far. My mother had her sights set on preserving my work.
Before and after the poetry bit, I wrote short stories. My high school buddies and I made up a fictional CIA team of mercenaries called, "The Death Squad." There were four of them. My character was the linchpin of the group. They all used aliases, but later faked their deaths and returned to the real world, under their real names, to run their team off the reservation. They used money they'd collect during their black ops to fund their intricately devised hideouts and fancy weaponry. They all had specialties and very distinct personalities. Each one of us created our own characters and later, I did most of the writing. But we all did one chapter in this incredibly long epic where we went after the mob bosses in our respective cities and then introduced our character's replacements, who would turn out to be their sons. It was wild. When my friends and I split off, after high school, the storyline broke into two timelines. In one, I was killed by two of the other members of the team and in the other, we split off, amicably and led our own lives. I wrote the latter. A very disgruntled buddy of mine wrote the timeline where I got killed. He killed me. Our friendship was very fractured.
I wrote as much and as often as I could. I carried notebooks for most of my life. My dad bought me a computer early in my teens, an Apple, and I really started to go at it. I started my first novel when I was 17. I never finished it. But there were other false starts. Lots of them.
I didn't always keep a journal, but I threatened to start one frequently. There are fractured bits of time, saved on floppy discs and type written pages all over the place. One could make a fairly accurate progression of my work and my personality with them.
Eventually, when I realized that I wanted to be involved with film, I decided to take the novel and just write a screenplay. It would be easier. I started looking up script formatting and checking out books on filmmaking from the library. Once I got the basic gist of it, I began to dream up ideas for scripts. "Caught In The Rain" came about just before "Boondock Saints" was released, but I didn't move on it then. I waited until I had a video camera and even bought a Steadicam rig to shoot it. I made it about a quarter of the way before the rig broke, my cast bailed and I lost inspiration. I've managed to piece together a scene not too recently during a shoot at the house of my production assistant's cousin. It was the end of the script where the bad guy gets owned. I have to say, for my lack of planning and the bad blocking, it wasn't half bad. I shot the scene myself, had three actors, one with a real gun and managed to get myself in the scene via a VHS tape. It turned out great. I was really hyped that night. I still have the video of the first reading of the script we had at the bar I worked at.
I've done a few things since then. I've written a bunch of stuff and pieces of things I'll include in scripts to come. I still think about writing a novel. I think I've got one good one in me. I've got dozens of scripts that are just ready to be written.
One thing at a time.
-30-
Before and after the poetry bit, I wrote short stories. My high school buddies and I made up a fictional CIA team of mercenaries called, "The Death Squad." There were four of them. My character was the linchpin of the group. They all used aliases, but later faked their deaths and returned to the real world, under their real names, to run their team off the reservation. They used money they'd collect during their black ops to fund their intricately devised hideouts and fancy weaponry. They all had specialties and very distinct personalities. Each one of us created our own characters and later, I did most of the writing. But we all did one chapter in this incredibly long epic where we went after the mob bosses in our respective cities and then introduced our character's replacements, who would turn out to be their sons. It was wild. When my friends and I split off, after high school, the storyline broke into two timelines. In one, I was killed by two of the other members of the team and in the other, we split off, amicably and led our own lives. I wrote the latter. A very disgruntled buddy of mine wrote the timeline where I got killed. He killed me. Our friendship was very fractured.
I wrote as much and as often as I could. I carried notebooks for most of my life. My dad bought me a computer early in my teens, an Apple, and I really started to go at it. I started my first novel when I was 17. I never finished it. But there were other false starts. Lots of them.
I didn't always keep a journal, but I threatened to start one frequently. There are fractured bits of time, saved on floppy discs and type written pages all over the place. One could make a fairly accurate progression of my work and my personality with them.
Eventually, when I realized that I wanted to be involved with film, I decided to take the novel and just write a screenplay. It would be easier. I started looking up script formatting and checking out books on filmmaking from the library. Once I got the basic gist of it, I began to dream up ideas for scripts. "Caught In The Rain" came about just before "Boondock Saints" was released, but I didn't move on it then. I waited until I had a video camera and even bought a Steadicam rig to shoot it. I made it about a quarter of the way before the rig broke, my cast bailed and I lost inspiration. I've managed to piece together a scene not too recently during a shoot at the house of my production assistant's cousin. It was the end of the script where the bad guy gets owned. I have to say, for my lack of planning and the bad blocking, it wasn't half bad. I shot the scene myself, had three actors, one with a real gun and managed to get myself in the scene via a VHS tape. It turned out great. I was really hyped that night. I still have the video of the first reading of the script we had at the bar I worked at.
I've done a few things since then. I've written a bunch of stuff and pieces of things I'll include in scripts to come. I still think about writing a novel. I think I've got one good one in me. I've got dozens of scripts that are just ready to be written.
One thing at a time.
-30-
Fire Inside
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
There are countless films that feed this fire I have to be a writer/director. I could go into a rant that would take me a few hours and I could drop a hundred titles. But I credit Richard Donner's "Superman" with being the film that ignited the fire.
If you know me, you know my feelings about Superman. I love Superman. But it wasn't the hero that made me love film, it was the tag line on the poster. "You Will Believe A Man Can Fly." I believed. Without a doubt. Now, I want to make other people believe.
I collect posters, ticket stubs, press kits, the tear-away part of my Netflix rentals, dvds, VHS tapes and anything else I can get my hands on. I've recently started writing down, on the tear-away parts of my Netflix rentals, the movies that I saw and my rating. I keep a film guide on my living room table and tell my wife and kids to always keep it there. IMDB is a fixture on my Firefox toolbar bookmarks at home and work. And I try to learn all kinds of inane trivia about the making of movies, actors and Hollywood in general.
My friends say things that I write down in a notebook that I carry in my back pocket. I work the dialogue into my scripts. I've got all kinds of ideas.
I carry my miniDV camera everywhere I go. I've got stock footage coming outta my whazoo. I mean to use every bit of it too.
Some nights, I just stay up and write, watch a movie and research some obscure movie on the internet- all at the same time.
Am I addicted. You bet your ass I am.
But all of this is nothing if I can't do three things:
First and most importantly, share it all with my wife. She shares her passions with me and revels in my love of mine.
Two, to write and direct movies in Hollywood. No one should knows this much crap about movies and not try and make some.
And finally, to make my parents proud. They've supported me, like my wife, in this insane endeavor to become a filmmaker since I was a kid.
I am truly blessed. Now I just gotta get up off my ass and do this.
"Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted-One moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?" - Eminem
Gotta get crackin'.
If you know me, you know my feelings about Superman. I love Superman. But it wasn't the hero that made me love film, it was the tag line on the poster. "You Will Believe A Man Can Fly." I believed. Without a doubt. Now, I want to make other people believe.
I collect posters, ticket stubs, press kits, the tear-away part of my Netflix rentals, dvds, VHS tapes and anything else I can get my hands on. I've recently started writing down, on the tear-away parts of my Netflix rentals, the movies that I saw and my rating. I keep a film guide on my living room table and tell my wife and kids to always keep it there. IMDB is a fixture on my Firefox toolbar bookmarks at home and work. And I try to learn all kinds of inane trivia about the making of movies, actors and Hollywood in general.
My friends say things that I write down in a notebook that I carry in my back pocket. I work the dialogue into my scripts. I've got all kinds of ideas.
I carry my miniDV camera everywhere I go. I've got stock footage coming outta my whazoo. I mean to use every bit of it too.
Some nights, I just stay up and write, watch a movie and research some obscure movie on the internet- all at the same time.
Am I addicted. You bet your ass I am.
But all of this is nothing if I can't do three things:
First and most importantly, share it all with my wife. She shares her passions with me and revels in my love of mine.
Two, to write and direct movies in Hollywood. No one should knows this much crap about movies and not try and make some.
And finally, to make my parents proud. They've supported me, like my wife, in this insane endeavor to become a filmmaker since I was a kid.
I am truly blessed. Now I just gotta get up off my ass and do this.
"Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted-One moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?" - Eminem
Gotta get crackin'.
My Mission
I'd like to get as much down about the inner workings of this film I'm working on, not just for others to read, but as a sort of catharsis. I find that when I get thoughts jotted down, it flushes out some of the blockage that I experience.
I also want to keep a record of this, and of future projects, so that I can look back and say, "What was I thinking?" or "I'm a freakin' genius!!" or "Random thought here!!"
This is gonna be fun!
-30-
I also want to keep a record of this, and of future projects, so that I can look back and say, "What was I thinking?" or "I'm a freakin' genius!!" or "Random thought here!!"
This is gonna be fun!
-30-
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