Sunday, December 16, 2007

Moving Forward With Rick and I's Project


I will be honest, the merging venture of mine with Borderline Films to make a couple of films has become quite stale. There have been no set plans that have been set in stone for over a year now. In filmmaking unless you have assistants and other collaborative people who have assistants working for them, working with you, then your plan has to be suttle and simple. There is no such thing as 'six projects on the table' at once when you are not making any money to do this. It's not mentally or physically possible. It is one project and one project only. With this venture, one day it has been one thing, the other day, something completely different. Before we knew it, a year had passed by and we really, (with the exception of a meeting with important well established filmmakers,) were not or are not any closer than we were. I will not say I am not part to blame in the situation. My lack of extra time made it very hard to consistently pump out progress on scheduling, trailers, websites etc… But then again, I only re-scheduled, re-budgeted, and broke down that script four times or more, because it kept changing. Maybe that was my fault too. I could have intervened and made sure we had a ready to shoot script that was locked and loaded. I will continue to be a part of Borderline and do anything needed to be done to further advance our progress, but my visions, projects and ideas have taken a backseat to a list of projects that are no where near ready for pre-production which means if I waited for my spot since apparently there is no room for it, I would be 50. Everybody at this point in time seems to be doing their own thing anyway.



Either way, with the future of The Tag Along feature undetermined, I figured I'd go off on my own until further notice. Many people will say that another short film at this point in my life would be a waste of time. I don't think so. I think my plan is going quite well, even with the extended period of stand still I just experienced. Shorts are easier to put together and more importantly, are huge for securing the right people to help you take a huge step in the right direction career wise. (That is of course if your film is any good.) I'm not taking any chances in that particular department.



For the past year, Richard Deal aka "Demus" and I have tried to put a short film together based off of one of his short stories. He is a brilliant writer and I am not, but I can adapt a story for the screen and shoot it pretty well, so putting our heads together may make for a great team. I have read five of his past stories. Two of them would be too much to take on with a shoestring budget. Two would be borderline pushing our luck, but may be able to be pulled off and one is a simple one to two day shoot in a hotel room entitled 'Two Wrongs.' We had planned on shooting 'Wrongs' when I completed 'Meter', but something happened on the way to the forum. I studied this script and even had adapted it almost word for word. It was again a dialogue driven piece. I as I thought about it, began to realize another film in a confined area with 75% of it being dialogue would be almost repeating myself considering 12 minutes of the 15 minutes of Meter is dialogue in a cab. I was stuck again. Then Rick wrote yet another brilliant short story that actually won a contest on The Mystery Author's Site. It was and still is amazing. I read it six times in one sitting and started to think: This one would make a fantastic short. This is the one with Meter in tow would be all the calling card we'd need. It would involve money. Not too much, but way over Meter's budget including constructing a couple of minor sets and finding a little access to a green screen studio. (I think I have that handled.) I also started to think or maybe it was more like assume with a nicely produced recent film under my belt, I may be able to find a couple of investors to float us a couple grand to make the film because these days in fact, short film investors tend to make their money back if the investment didn't exceed the $15,000 mark. If it is done right, I am confident it would put both Rick and I on the map for possible future jobs or maybe even one of the features I have planned for my 35th birthday. For now, I am designing story boards, gathering lumber, working on a business package and most importantly, going back to work for myself again. Step 1: Finish my Wedding Video Step 2: Make Jeopardy. If you want to keep up with pre-production,(like Meter's Corner of my site,) Click Here.It will be more of an in depth look. To read Rick's brilliant award winning story. Click Here
*Disclaimer: This story's rights have been secured and copyrighted. Any replication or material taking directly from this story is eligible for prosecution under the law in Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act.
Here are some of my boards I am using as part of the business package.




Designs for constructing the Newspaper stand:



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