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June 30, 2008 -
A Production Story
A little loving here and there
...
As we've moved forward on the film, I couldn't help but look back
exactly a year ago and remember that we were just setting up our
production office and starting to prep the film. What actually got
me thinking about it was setting up the building that we're using
for our post production. It sits separate from the main
house, only about fifty feet or so away ...
During the production it was used for various purposes; to store
wardrobe and to change in and out of, the AD's used it to print
their paperwork, props to store some items, sound to do some
voiceover work, and various other things I'm probably not even
aware of. Somewhere along the way it got nicknamed 'The Love
Shack'. Now right off the bat, I sensed there had to be a
logical reason to call it that. And of course, my suspicion
was there were things going on in there that I obviously knew
nothing about. But to me the nickname probably gave it away
...
Now on
about every production I've been on there are always the rumors of
such happenings. And sure, boys and girls, or men and women,
will be, well men and women. So such going's on should be
expected and no big deal. On our production I did become
aware of such 'activities' during various stages of the shoot, and
really paid no attention to it. By the end of the shoot I
got the 'scoop' on several other 'situations' that I was totally
unaware of. And I imagine there are others I will never be
aware of. So be it. It's truly none of my business.
It would only become so if somehow the work was affected. As
far as I can tell, that did not happen ...
So, why
concern myself with this now? Well, I am officially retiring
the 'The Love Shack' and renaming it 'The Post Pad'. It
somehow seems more appropriate and up to date, even though I'm
hoping Bob (our editor), the hopeless romantic he is, will of
course continue to pour a little more love into the project ...
Jerry
June 21, 2008 -
Editorial
Pieces coming together like magic
...
Yes, we finally have a real editor hard at work transforming all
the pieces of the puzzle into a real film. We should have an
assembly by next month and a rough cut in August. We're
pushing the process to have something ready to publicly show by
October ...
And now,
introducing him,
Robert Gordon (Bob), who has a fair amount of credits and
comes very highly recommended. Obviously, I'm still learning
how to work with him, but so far it's been quite good. In
his first week I've already learned a few things I didn't know.
Not that that should be a surprise, but that I'm always much happier
learning new things related to the process of creating ...
He
reviewed the first few minutes he'd put together for me, and while
I was not really surprised since I've seen the footage so much, it
certainly had a different feel than I had expected. But of
course, it's raw and needs a few more ingredients. The chef
is just getting the ingredients together and giving me an early
sip. For now I'm staying out of the 'kitchen' and letting
him go wild with his recipe. I haven't given him a whole lot
of direction. He's just putting it together based on his
interpretation of the script. I like having a fresh set of
objective eyes on the footage, and him figuring out what we
actually shot, instead of me thinking what we shot and telling him
so. But once he's had his say, I'll go in with my stack of
notes and we'll hammer it out. And hopefully come out with a
feast for everyone ...
While Bob
is doing all the heaving lifting, I'm intensifying my efforts to
bringing aboard a composer. I been referred to about ten of
them, all seeming to be qualified. We shall see. I'm
also researching film festivals and distributors, so the saga
moves on ...
You should
check this
article on alternative distribution. Quite intriguing
...
Jerry
Comments --
The next great female filmmaker? -- 6/18
Lifetime Networks is currently searching for
the next-great-female filmmaker and we'd like you to encourage
your readers to enter! Who knows, maybe one of your talented
readers will be thanking you live from the Kodak Theatre.
Where: Potential contestants can visit
http://www.mylifetime.com/sweeps/ewfc/submit.php to submit
their video entries.
When: We'll be accepting entries through July 8
The winner will receive the opportunity to have her short film
shown on Lifetime Movie Networks, a cash prize of $5,000 as well
as trips to networking events and festivals.
Help us shatter Hollywood's glass ceiling!
Best regards,
David, On behalf of MyLifetime.com
June 10, 2008 -
Website Touches
Progress, finally
...
I spent a few days in Texas huddling with my webmaster, trying to
finalize some of the finer points of our new website design and
clarify a few snafus and miscommunications. I think we're
completely on the same page now and things should go quicker.
A little tidbit from the Production Notes page to whet your
appetite ...
THE ADVENTURE
Background.
Developing, producing and distributing an independent film is an
all-encompassing and overwhelming venture and adventure.
Filmmakers, explorers all, must take on the world to breath life
into their vision and push its birth into that very same world. A
cinematic team that collaborates towards this artistic creation
requires a deep level of persistence, dedication and enthusiasm.
During this process, this adventure, if this team grows together
they can become a family. A film family united for a singular
goal, an overriding hope. A hope that this film family can create
a significant cinematic work, one the world has never seen before.
Character & Story.
Unique characters must inhabit a compelling and engaging story,
usually driving it into fresh and unexpected territories, and
hopefully giving it a distinctive life of its own. Two very
unique ‘characters’ inhabit this film. One is a strong, beautiful
and magnificent testament to vertical creation, the other a
subtle, barely perceptible but significant harmonic. One an outer
landscape, the other an inner landscape, known and unknown,
blending and struggling with each other. Together both offer a
lush tapestry that blends throughout this narrative, allowing a
typical, disconnected, modern family to work out their problems in
a unique way.
Mount
Shasta - “Where Heaven
and Earth Meet”
“I consider the evening twilight on Mt. Shasta
one of the grandest sights I have ever witnessed.”
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 1903
“When I first caught sight of it over the
braided folds of the Sacramento Valley, I was fifty miles away and
afoot, alone and weary. Yet all my blood turned to
wine, and I have not been weary since.”
-- John Muir, 1874
“Lonely as God, and white as a winter moon,
Mount Shasta starts up sudden and solitary from the heart of
the great black forests of Northern California.”
-- Joaquin Miller, 1874
“And
well this Golden State shall thrive, if like its own Mount Shasta,
Sovereign Law shall lift itself in pure
atmosphere - so high.”
-- John Rollin Ridge, 1854
“Mount Shasta, a vision of immensity such as pertains to the
vast universe rather than to our own planet.”
-- James Dwight Dana, 1849
Mt. Shasta, a 14,179-foot strato-volcano in northern California, rises
abruptly some 10,000 feet above the surrounding level ground that
encircles it, and on a clear day is quite a majestic sight for
more than 100 miles.
This impressive mountain has a very
rich cultural history that goes back to the numerous Native
American tribes who have inhabited the nearby area for hundreds of
years. They have long considered the mountain sacred. In
addition, various groups of spiritual seekers consider Shasta a
place with mystical powers. A few have been coming since the
1930’s, and there was profound growth for such mystical practices
in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s. This activity has spawned all types of
remarkable stories about the mountain to the point that it is
considered one of the seven sacred mountains of the world. The
numerous books written the past 100 years about Mt. Shasta’s
spiritual energy and the experiences people have had on the
mountain have also contributed to an extensive and growing
mythology.
There is no doubt that Mt. Shasta
is a special place, and the team who created Dreams Awake
felt very privileged to have been able to shoot their film in such
an extraordinary setting. Also, the Shasta area does have a bit
of film history itself. In 1934 MGM Studios sent a
group of cameramen to shoot background shots for their project,
The Rear Car. By all accounts it seems the film never
actually went into production. In 1972 Climb An Angry Mountain,
starring Fess Parker, was shot in the surrounding area, mostly in
McCloud and Weed. In 1976 Baby Blue Marine, starring
Jan-Michael Vincent, had a couple scenes shot in McCloud and
Weed. In 1986 Stand by Me had a scene shot in McCloud. In
2007 Babysitter Wanted had a few scenes shot in Weed and
Lake Shastina and various other locations in Siskiyou County.
Even though these films had scenes that were shot in the
area, Dreams Awake is the first feature film that was
completely shot on and around Mt. Shasta.
In Dreams Awake, Mt. Shasta
represents a parable for the inner quest and the backdrop to play
out the struggle. Shasta, where transformative adventures reveal,
purify and free the human spirit for a higher reality and
purpose. This magic mountain, with its secret lore from Native
American and mystical legends, serves the plot by being the
background tapestry for which everything plays out, reinforcing
the tenuous, shifting balance between the physical and spiritual
worlds. Essentially, this is a spiritual mystery about learning
why we could be here on earth. The underlying lesson being that
magic is one of the fundamental, underlying properties of
reality. We just have to learn where and how to look for it, so
we can wake up and be more aware to our true inner nature.
Inner Sound
– “Music of the Gods”
Historically speaking, most
cultures of the world have had some type of creation myth that
involved sound, usually sound as the first creation and that
everything else created came from such ‘otherworldly’ sound in the
ether. A number of spiritual, mystical and religious texts have
spoken of this metaphysical equation of sound as an element of
their most honored traditions.
Plato wrote that the cosmos was
constructed according to musical intervals and proportions.
Pythagoras called it ‘Music of the Spheres’ and believed that it
fills our inner ears and we are constantly in contact with it from
the moment of our birth. Another Greek philosopher, Heraclitus,
called it ‘Logos’ (divine word or sound). Some Native American
traditions call it ‘Song of the Creator,’ while the Bible calls it
‘The Word’ and ‘Voice of Many Waters’. Hindus refer to it as
‘Anahad Shabd’ (unlimited tone or unstruck melody) and ‘Akash Bani’
(voice from the heavens), while the Sufis say it is ‘Saute Surmad’
(tone that fills the cosmos). Lao Tzu described the Tao as
‘unimpeded harmony’ and referred to the ‘Great Tone’ as the source
of all things. A number of other cultures, such as the
Aborigines, Aztecs, Eskimos, Malayans and Persians all believed
that the universe originated in sound.
Today there is a popular, still
developing theory among physicists called String Theory, which
attempts to provide a complete, unified and consistent description
of the fundamental structure of our universe. Very basically, it
explains the smallest possible component of reality as a vibrating
string, or a bundle of them intertwined, and that how matter is
created depends on the way these strings vibrate. And of course
when something vibrates, it creates a tone or harmonic of tones.
String theory tries to bridge and tie together the theories of
relativity and quantum mechanics into the currently accepted “Big
Bang” theory of the universe’s creation. In fact, the very word
Universe means ‘one song’, uni meaning one and verse meaning
song. Is creation merely a song being sung? A cosmic symphony of
sorts? And each of us exists as a unique harmonic signature
within that symphony?
Okay,
enough of that. Did any of you see the
front page of the June 1, Sunday edition of the LA
Times? A story about Mt. Shasta was there, about a new array
of radio telescopes in the area searching for ET. The latest SETI
project, it's supposed to be the largest such operation in the
world. Hhhmm, almost ties into the film. Is there a
marketing angle here, or just wishful thinking? ...
And
finally, I have chosen my editor. More on that next time ...
Jerry
May 31, 2008
- The Search Continues
Fewer choices
...
I'm narrowing it down, the final jackpot for the editor
sweepstakes. I've interviewed nine candidates now and have
it down to three finalists. Now it gets tricky, as all three
of them would probably work. Now the intuition thing plays
out. Which one would work best for me? And is a great
fit for the film? At this point I'm not completely sure, so
now what? Pull out my crystal ball? Roll the dice?
Dance an offering to the gods? Uh, no...
On top of
that I did promise three editors I'd meet with them in San
Francisco on my way back up to Shasta. I should honor that,
but that probably means putting that decision off a few days.
I do want to find someone soon, but maybe hurrying the decision
isn't the best way to go. Plus, I do have a couple more
interviews here. I guess it's a good problem to have,
several who could work ...
On another
front, I've gotten a few distribution inquiries lately, all from
foreign distributors. Hhhmm, in my spare time (ha, right) I
have been working on a distribution strategy, a type of hybrid
plan. That landscape seems to be changing rapidly, but I
still don't see a light at the end of the tunnel for indies really
breaking out of traditional paradigms. The theories are out
there, but we might be years away from making that pan out.
I see and meet more and more people trying to make that happen,
but until there are true runaway hits in that world it won't be a
true viable paradigm. Now maybe, that is part of the point.
Maybe true runaway hits is not what that paradigm is about.
But we do need some type of metric to define some type of success
for it to be a viable path for those floundering around in that
space. Don't we? ...
Once this
editor situation is resolved I'm going to start searching for a
marketing person. I certainly don't think I can sit around
and wait for a distributor, or an audience, to find us. Once
we have a real film, whether we search for a distributor or try to
find an audience on our own, we will for sure need a way to stand
out from the crowd. It boggles me how many films are being
made these days, which means finding our true path out of that
massive world and into the light of day has gotten a whole lot
harder. And the journey continues ...
Jerry
Comments --
Inside Look into Action on Film Festival - Interview with
Founder Del Weston -- 5/22
Check out the IndieClub.com interview with
longtime IndieClub.com member & founder of the 4th Annual Action
on Film Festival, which takes place this year at the end of July
in Pasadena, CA. IndieClub.com is very excited to support
AOFFEST! It is a festival that features a wide range of quality
films, and most importantly, Del Weston and his team go above
and beyond to support filmmakers and the indie filmmaking
community as a whole.
Del set aside some time from his busy schedule of preparing for
the upcoming festival to talk with us about everything from the
fest submission process (yep - they're still accepting) to
distributors, to the Black Tie Awards show, to cigars.
Check out the interview at the IndieClub.com website:
http://www.indieclub.com/Q&A/delweston.asp
May 20, 2008
- The Editor Search
Lots of choices?
...
It's been a while I know, but my wife and I took a much-needed
vacation, and I had to forget about all this for awhile. Of
course, that didn't completely work, yet I did get some rest and
relaxation. On to the task at hand...
I'm going
to vent a bit, so I'll apologize up front, but I'll try to keep it
to a minimum. As I've previously stated, I'm currently
looking for an editor to bring all the marvelous pieces of our
masterpiece together. The resumes have been flowing in,
almost 200 by last count. Next week I'll start interviews
and weed through that. So far I've got about a dozen decent
candidates. Below is the ad I've been running on all the
main film job boards I know about ...
FEATURE EDITOR WANTED
WAY TO GO MEDIA has finished
production of an independent feature film and is currently seeking
a dramatic feature editor experienced with HD in Final Cut Studio.
We need a solid technical and
creative person who is well-organized, detail oriented and a good
communicator. You must have a strong story sense, and be willing
to experiment with the aesthetics and style of the material. You
will be working closely with the director throughout the post
process, and together will be responsible for the quality of the
final delivery. You should have a working knowledge of additional
software packages that support the post process, possibly After
Effects, Photoshop, Shake, and other editorial support solutions,
as well as be familiar with third party plug-ins as needed. Also,
you should have color correction, motion graphics, compositing and
audio skills. It would also help to have special effects
experience, or at least be able to collaborate on workflow
process. We expect someone with a good work ethic, a positive
attitude and who is resourceful. It would also help to have
knowledge of setup and management of hardware, and be able to
export/compress video for online trailers.
Footage is HDCAM that has been
imported into Mac Pro with ProRes codec. There is also some P2
footage, but is minimal. We have our own system, and you must be
willing to work in Mt. Shasta, CA over the summer and have project
completed in September. Pay negotiable. Please email your resume
with references and reel to (blank).
DREAMS AWAKE -- While on vacation
a disconnected family gets stranded near mystical Mt. Shasta and
gets more than they could have ever bargained for. A family drama
grows into a spiritual mystery, and finally becomes a mystical
adventure. A glimpse into the subtle but intense possibilities of
the human spirit, this story delves into that magical lore between
reality and illusions, dreams and awake, and life and immortality.
More info:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1053835/
or
www.waytogomedia.com
or
www.dreamsawake.tv
A lot to
ask for I know, but what I would like. Here's the gripe, or
should I more correctly state, a lesson for some of you out there
when applying for such a position. Mostly for you young
starting out editors ...
Please
don't beg, plead, or offer your first born to me. It's very
unbecoming, and I certainly don't want to terrify a little one ...
Don't
apply for something you absolutely have no qualifications for.
Like you're going to a community college to get an associate
degree in philosophy and happen to take an editing class or two
and thought you'd like to 'give it a try'. Right ...
Please
don't list everything (ten pages worth) you've ever done since you
were born - 'third place in a class photo contest in middle
school'. Okay ...
You live
in Indonesia and you plan to take a vacation in the states, so
you'll have a couple weeks available here that you could work on
it. Hhhmmm ...
You work
for a small publishing house in the heartland, but you'd like to
escape and do my editing for me. Copy editing. Huh?
Sorry, wrong position ...
You've
worked at a small TV station for 20 years doing a lot of the daily
grunt work and you want to escape. You've done basic news,
sports and weather spot editing and only know Avids. But of
course you've never done any narrative work or long form of any
kind, but you'd like to and meanwhile you'd like to learn the
Apple system. Wow ...
You live
in another foreign country, though I'm not sure which one because
you don't speak English, but from what I gather you think we can
figure out how to communicate. And another thing, you want
to work at your place, wherever that is, and we can periodically
communicate...who knows how (or why?). Amazing ...
You're an
all around indie filmmaker who writes, shoots, directs and edits
all your own ultra low budget films, so ya'd like to take a stab
at editing someone else's film for a change. I have great
respect for what you do and all you do, especially in a true indie
way. However, I'm not sure I'm ready to hand over my film to
someone, who while they may be a true auteur filmmaker, isn't a
true editor nor who may have the depth of experience I'd like in
my editor. If you wanted to get together and discuss the
whole world of filmmaking and compare notes, great. I'd love
to. If I wanted to go this route, I'd edit the film myself,
but I'm actually learning the folly of that. Yeah ...
There's no
way you can leave the big congested city to work at such an
amazingly beautiful place as Mt. Shasta over the summer on heaven
forbid, someone else's equipment at someone else's facility.
Only at your facility in which you will only charge me $1000/day
and I can come down to it when you feel I need to. Oh boy
...
Had
enough? There's more, lots more, but I've had enough.
You get the point. It never amazes me the variety of people
who not only work in the film industry but the variety of people
who work at each job. I find it utterly fascinating.
Now, I'm really not trying to make fun of these editorial
candidates, just wake them up a bit to the reality. Actually
my heart goes out to them, but please people try to read and
understand who and what I (or anyone) want and need. Plus,
there is the factor of the amount of time I have to waste sorting
through all this. Of course, that goes with the territory.
The important thing here for me, is how this presents you to
someone like me. If this is how you apply for a job, this
probably reflects on how you will do the job. It doesn't
instill any confidence, and it really is true that you only have
one chance to make a first impression ...
Now there
were several other candidates who maybe weren't quite right for
this position, but I didn't mind that they applied. They had
cut a few shorts, some commercials, music videos and such, and
been doing this maybe 2, 3 or 4 years. They want to stretch
and push their edge or envelope or whatever you want to call it.
They either hadn't done any features, or hadn't done much if any
narrative work. Shoot, go for it and try to get the
experience you want. Not a problem. For me though,
this is a very major decision for the film, and I want to 'get it
right'. And I plan to. I noticed that a lot of the
younger candidates seemed very technically proficient, but maybe
short on story sense. For me story sense trumps the
technical. I don't know if that just comes from experience
or not, so maybe the older ones get that better? I'm not
sure, but it seems to make obvious sense, though I'm sure that
isn't true for all of you out there ...
Just one
more simple beef, and I'll knock all this off. Online reels.
They are fine for initial contact, but please in the final
analysis I'd like to see more than a few minutes of a couple
scenes edited from several different films. A complete
narrative work to analyze would be great. Send me one, or
direct me to what I should get. I think the professional
editors understand that, so get a clue. Okay, enough already
...
Anyway,
wish me luck. I'm hoping by next month me and my newfound
editor will be hard at work on this last leg of this long journey
...
A final
note. Today is the 100th birthday of my favorite
actor. TCM had several
of his films on last night, and I watched parts of three of them;
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Anatomy of a Murder,
and Harvey. I loved them all, and even though you
were aware of him in each role, each one was so different than the
other. He had both a center to himself and quite a range he
could explore. But then, having John Ford, Otto Preminger
and Henry Koster as directors may have helped some. Very
cool ...
Jerry
Comments --
The Journal of Short Film -- 5/20
The Journal of Short Film released Volume 11
(Spring 2008) today. Vol.11 is the long-awaited Portland Volume,
featuring 24 filmmakers from Portland, Oregon. The JSF is a
quarterly DVD that, to date, has published over 120 filmmakers
from 10 countries.
The Journal was thrilled to have Portland filmmaker Karl Lind
serve as guest editor for Vol.11. The collection maintains the
JSF's normal wild diversity while highlighting one of the most
singular, lively art scenes in the country. This is the Journal's
first geographically themed volume, and, through Lind's work and
Portland's amazing depth of talent, the result is impressive.
www.theJSF.org
May 7, 2008
- The Hero's (filmmaker's?) Journey
A tunnel, a battle, a process, and maybe a light?
...
Feeling a little burnt out the other day, I got to thinking about
the 'good old days', before the tricklings of the idea for this
story first surfaced from my subconsious. Wow, that's been
about five years now. No wonder I've been feeling a little
beat up lately, living with this story as long as I have and
watching it morph into something beyond what I had imagined.
In fact, that's exactly where I am right now, watching a major
change getting ready to happen, doing battle, not knowing where it
will go, changing in the process and bringing something back
better than I planned, all for the world to see ...
It's a bit
like the hero's journey, huh? Joseph Campbell, right?
Remember? The monomyth, the commonality of mythologies that have
been in the world all over the world for thousands of years in
thousands of cultures? Which Campbell had so articulately
laid out in his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, about
the archetypal hero...
The
protagonist in Dreams Awake in essence goes through this
hero's journey. There is a very definite call to
adventure, which she must answer, or else... Then
there is a series of events, a road of trials, if you will,
in which you hope she achieves the goal, or boon, as it's
called. This sometimes means the hero finds important
self-knowledge, leading the return to the ordinary world.
And in the end, the hero must apply the boon, meaning she
uses what was learned to improve the world she lives in. So
it's not just about the hero, but the society, culture,
civilization they inhabit. Makes you wonder if possibly this
mythological construct was used as a means to keep people in place
or in order. Meaning it's a well-designed way for a culture
to preach the idea that unless the struggle an individual goes
through is good for the society they live in, their own personal
struggle is not that important. Hhhmmm, maybe, but
maybe too that's a part of the fabric a culture needs to keep it
viable. The individual's struggle for the good of their
whole world. I guess, not a bad way to live ...
In the end
I'd like to think that our little film works out that way, as far
as the story goes for the hero and as far as the film goes
in the world. I do know that as the creator of this little
expedition through storyland, that the journey is something I
could never have predicted. But then, who would have wanted
to? We surely can't take the fun out of the process, and I
am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Yes,
and about time, the battle weary soul that I am ...
Jerry
Comments --
Indieshares Launch -- 5/3
IndieShares, a new independent film company based in Seattle, WA
is on the verge of igniting an independent film revolution by
giving the audience a say in what movies are made and for the
first time in history an opportunity to own a piece of the action.
IndieShares receives thousands of scripts online, which then move
through its rigorous and proprietary review process. Scripts with
the highest IndieScores are optioned and then voted on by the
public.
Right now, at www.indieshares.com, movie fans can watch three
video pitches and cast their vote for free. When voting concludes,
the winning script will be made into a securities offering. The
general public will then have the opportunity to invest as little
as $10 per share in the winning screenplay. In the future,
IndieShares plans to have multiple voting events and investment
opportunities available simultaneously.
Please take a look at our website,
www.indieshares.com.
Thank you,Jay Schwartz
April 27, 2008
- MacGuffin?
The bait, a gimmick, sleight of hand, or plain old imagination?
...
We all know what a MacGuffin is, right? Well, just in case
you forgot, let's rehash it a bit. Very basically, it's a
plot device to help get the story going, in effect an engine that
gets cranked up to drive the characters (and us) into the story.
What may be unique about it's role as a plot device is the fact
that what it really is in the end is quite insignificant. In
other words, it's a type of fool's gold with maybe some apparent
value, but in the end not worth much of anything. It's main
function is get the characters going, engage the audience and move
the plot along. Usually it's an actual physical item,
but can also be an action, a person, or an event, all of which are
usually ambiguous ...
Examples:
The suitcase in Pulp Fiction, the stolen money in Psycho,
the maltese falcon in The Maltese Falcon, the sleigh
Rosebud in Citizen Kane. We could go on and on with
this, but you get the gist of it. Although these are not
good examples for the concept that the less specific the MacGuffin
the more interest the audience will have, they were very obviously
used well in their respective films. In addition, most of us
are quite aware that it was Hitchcock who used this device very
successfully in his films and the term has become synonymous with
a 'Hitchcock' film ...
In the
end, the MacGuffin's real purpose is pull us into the main
characters' world and to in essence 'fall in love' with them so we
will follow them wherever the story takes us. So, the
MacGuffin itself is a hollow, featureless gimmick that just allows
us to fall into the story, until we can establish an emotional
resonance with the characters, finally satisfying our curiosity
about these characters' lives. The MacGuffin hooks us, but
doesn't drive us home, just fuels our imagination towards
resolution ...
What does
all this have to do with Dreams Awake? Within the
first ten minutes of the film, a Macguffin is offered up that
helps kick start the story, and which the characters discover and
eventually realize is...ha, I can't spill all the beans, can I?
You'll have to see the film for yourself. Coming soon ...
Jerry
April 15, 2008
- Shasta Pix
Enjoy, enjoy
...
A
few flakes dropped last night, so a new
coat for the mountain.
A couple shots from the deck.
April 10, 2008
- Web Works
Winging by a wire and bringing the fire
...
I've been
spending most of my time lately getting all the stuff together we
need for the new website. Even though someone other than
myself is designing it and making sure it all works right.
We hope to have the first version up by next month. This is
certainly taking a lot more time than I anticipated.
Especially since my main focus as been the rough cut I'm still
working on. However, other matters beyond the edit (and
website) has taken my attention away ...
A little
about the website itself. It will consist of five main
sections:
1)
Story, which will include a logline and synopsis with several
photos that help represent the story, along with a director
interview and a few more photos;
2) Cast,
which will include bios of the eight main cast members, as well as
quite number of photos of them, along with a few photos of the
other cast members, and finally several photos of the cast and
director "at work".
3)
Production, which will include production notes about several
elements of the production, key crew bios, a number of behind the
scenes photos of the crew, some behind the scenes video, and a
blog.
4)
Media, which will include several appropriate media photos,
news articles and broadcast pieces (to be updated as we get more
coverage), trailers and an EPK (electronic press kit).
5)
Community, which will include some appropriate photos, contact
page, forum, and social network links.
I don't
believe we'll have every piece ready to go, but most of it will be
there. I'm also quite sure we'll add some other elements as
this progresses ...
As far as
the edit, that has been slow going, as previously mentioned.
Once I'm done with this rough edit, I'll hire an editor to work
with me. In fact, I'm currently looking for one. So if
you're out there, contact me now. Also, I'm currently
consulting with someone on the visual effects elements we need in
some of our more challenging scenes. Hopefully that will
help me get a grip on that so I know exactly who I need to hire.
Until then, back to the grindstone ...
Jerry
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