Post by The Candyman on Oct 23, 2005 23:08:12 GMT -5
Greetings, fellow members!
I haven't been posting much these past few weeks because I've been up to my neck in schoolwork. I've also been working hard on writing a script for an upcoming online film festival, which I'm now proud to announce is finished.
I'm not directing this one. The same website I submitted Stuffed Fantasies for is now involved in a new type of festival: a "Studio" festival. The idea is basically to simulate the actual Hollywood experience, and that means that filmmakers will not be writing, directing and editing. Rather, we're divided up into teams of three: a Writer, Director, and Editor. Each of these members has to report to their respective "Studio Head," who is in charge of making sure deadlines are met, problems are solved, etc.
I've been working for the past month, and now I'm pleased to announce that the Writing phase is over, and I have finished the final draft. The film is titled The Act and is my first attempt at serious character drama. I mainly stick to writing comedy or "weird" serious stuff, but this is actually about events that potentially could actually happen in our universe. The director and I have been in constant communication throughout the whole writing process, brainstorming, thinking of ideas, using some, rejecting others, using some only to later reject them, etc. I think this is quite possibly the best script I've ever written in terms of character development and writing, so I'm pretty excited about it. At least 90% of my original outline ended up being changed by the final draft, and I think the movie is only better for it.
We're current in the second stage of development: directing. The movie will be directed by DJ "Deej" Halloway in California over the course of the next 5 weeks. DJ's a great guy, and he has enough experience to know what he's doing. You can see some of his short films over at his production company's website, www.unseenhands.com.
Shooting will be finished at the end of November, whereupon the footage will be sent all the way to Toronto, Canada to be edited by Andrew Cranford. He was my assigned editor the last studio festival (which unfortunately my script for which was never directed), and though I haven't seen any of his work and he's never edited a short film before (just everything else imaginable, including feature films), I'm confident he'll be able to do a good job.
For those of you curious about the plot of the movie, all I can say is this: it's about a youth minister whose life is turned upside down when an event from his past catches up to him in the form of blackmail. To say any more would ruin the movie. The script was limited to 15-pages, so it's not like I have room to go into details without revealing important plot twists. If you want to know more, you'll just have to wait until the film is released. Tough cookies.
Here's all I know from Deej so far: he's got most of his actors lined up, and should have a definite cast settled upon within the next few weeks. Shooting is tentatively scheduled for November 13-15, with reshoots around Thanksgiving. It's also possible he'll manage to work out a surprise location that wasn't planned for in the script. It will depend on how much money he's willing to spend, and whether or not he can get in, shoot, and get out before being caught and asked for a filming permit. Guerrilla filmmaking - you gotta love it. I'll keep this thread updated with news (and eventually hopefully some movie stills) as soon as I have it.
That's all for now. Look for The Act to be released online the week of January 16, 2006.
I haven't been posting much these past few weeks because I've been up to my neck in schoolwork. I've also been working hard on writing a script for an upcoming online film festival, which I'm now proud to announce is finished.
I'm not directing this one. The same website I submitted Stuffed Fantasies for is now involved in a new type of festival: a "Studio" festival. The idea is basically to simulate the actual Hollywood experience, and that means that filmmakers will not be writing, directing and editing. Rather, we're divided up into teams of three: a Writer, Director, and Editor. Each of these members has to report to their respective "Studio Head," who is in charge of making sure deadlines are met, problems are solved, etc.
I've been working for the past month, and now I'm pleased to announce that the Writing phase is over, and I have finished the final draft. The film is titled The Act and is my first attempt at serious character drama. I mainly stick to writing comedy or "weird" serious stuff, but this is actually about events that potentially could actually happen in our universe. The director and I have been in constant communication throughout the whole writing process, brainstorming, thinking of ideas, using some, rejecting others, using some only to later reject them, etc. I think this is quite possibly the best script I've ever written in terms of character development and writing, so I'm pretty excited about it. At least 90% of my original outline ended up being changed by the final draft, and I think the movie is only better for it.
We're current in the second stage of development: directing. The movie will be directed by DJ "Deej" Halloway in California over the course of the next 5 weeks. DJ's a great guy, and he has enough experience to know what he's doing. You can see some of his short films over at his production company's website, www.unseenhands.com.
Shooting will be finished at the end of November, whereupon the footage will be sent all the way to Toronto, Canada to be edited by Andrew Cranford. He was my assigned editor the last studio festival (which unfortunately my script for which was never directed), and though I haven't seen any of his work and he's never edited a short film before (just everything else imaginable, including feature films), I'm confident he'll be able to do a good job.
For those of you curious about the plot of the movie, all I can say is this: it's about a youth minister whose life is turned upside down when an event from his past catches up to him in the form of blackmail. To say any more would ruin the movie. The script was limited to 15-pages, so it's not like I have room to go into details without revealing important plot twists. If you want to know more, you'll just have to wait until the film is released. Tough cookies.
Here's all I know from Deej so far: he's got most of his actors lined up, and should have a definite cast settled upon within the next few weeks. Shooting is tentatively scheduled for November 13-15, with reshoots around Thanksgiving. It's also possible he'll manage to work out a surprise location that wasn't planned for in the script. It will depend on how much money he's willing to spend, and whether or not he can get in, shoot, and get out before being caught and asked for a filming permit. Guerrilla filmmaking - you gotta love it. I'll keep this thread updated with news (and eventually hopefully some movie stills) as soon as I have it.
That's all for now. Look for The Act to be released online the week of January 16, 2006.