Wow. It took a lot longer than I had anticipated, but the first draft of my future-award-winning short film is finally complete. The first draft, anyway. I don’t anticipate too many changes to it though – we’ll see what kind of feedback I get from people though.

It was a lot more work than I initially thought it would be. I may have made it harder on myself by not writing my scenes out on cue cards first, but that’s the learning process I guess. I’ve written many scripts in my time, but for some reason this one felt different. it’s a little bit different from the type of thing I normally write, which was part of the challenge.

I’m excited though! I just re-read it before posting this and I really like how it plays out. I just hope I’m not the only one.

So now that the script is in place we can start moving on to the planning stage. I’d like to do most of the shooting in early August which means we’ll have to work fast to get everything in order. I don’t think it will be a problem. Since I’ll be shooting and editing everything myself I will have a pretty good idea in mind of how to pull it off.

The next film club meeting will be Monday. I can’t wait to finally reveal what I have been working on to the group.

So, I’m writing this script.. and… I love it! I am so excited about where it’s going. I don’t know if it’s because I’m super-motivated to make a film for the Barrie Film Festival, or because I’m super-motivated from reading Rebel Without A Crew, or if I’m super-motivated because this crazy Midland Film Club idea is so much fun… or maybe it’s the combination of everything, but I feel like it’s really coming together. In fact, I’m so excited about this idea that we (meaning myself and my wife Erika – my special effects make-up guru) invested in a good amount of make-up supplies for this thing! Some really cool stuff too! BUT… I’m not going to reveal what because I want to maintain the mystery for a little while.

I have to go finish off this script now… It’s at the most exciting part!

As I mentioned earlier, the Barrie Film Festival in coming up in October and submissions are due in September. That really doesn’t give us much time, but I’m determined that we WILL enter something this year.
Personally, it will be my first festival film entry. I can’t believe I have been in this industry professionally for over 11 years and I still haven’t produced a ‘real’ short film. I’m not sure why. Fear maybe? Fear of the cost. Fear of what people might think.
But who cares what people might think! I used to – maybe it was all the rejections I got from girls in high school that scarred me – but I feel like I’ve mostly grown out of it now. Of course, I’m sure we never completely grown out of that stage – we all care what people think to a certain degree – but I feel different about it than I used to.
As for the cost – well I still don’t have any money, but I feel like I don’t need it, as long as I can make the time to work on the film I can continue to work the way I do to keep our heads afloat during the process.
I should have the script done by the end of the weekend – by the end of today if everything goes according to plan. (It rarely does with a 20-month old, and a 7 year old home on summer vacation).
I have decided to write my own script for this project because… well I had an idea. The kind of idea that gets stuck in your head and you just NEED to write it down. I have about 6 pages written so far and the few people I have told about it are pretty excited about it. They may have been putting me on, but oh well. It helps keep me motivated when others seem excited – even if they are just being nice.

Next week we’ll be starting to push the Business Profile Film packages a little more. We have to save up for our feature and this is one of the ways we’re going to do it. About 10% of each profile film will go towards our feature – more if we start doing well enough. I’ve shown the packages and the pricing to quite a few business contacts and they all pretty much agree that they are a bargain. One or two people thought they were pricey, but that’s to be expected. Not a lot of people know how much work and resources go into what I do, so the fact that most people think the pricing is a bargain is a good sign!

Well, I have a busy day ahead – especially if I want to get the first draft of that script completed. Even if I don’t get to it today I still get to finish off a couple of other projects and get them off my plate, which is always a nice feeling. Off to work!

The Barrie Film Festival has announced the deadline for entries into their shorts competition. September 7th! We better get shooting real soon!

ALSO;

I found “Bedhead” on YouTube. It’s an award winning short film that Robert Rodriguez made before El Mariachi and it’s incredibly motivating for me!
It looks pretty dated by today’s standards, but it’s a wonderful reminder that story and creativity are more important than technology and polish. Here it is:

I really should. I have ideas ready to be put in pixels. I have no good excuse to not write right now.

So why am I writing this blog entry instead? I guess I’m using it as a kind of warm up. Maybe I just want to justify the time to myself in more definite terms. Maybe I just want to be sure to document my thoughts before I start writing, run out of time, or something else pops up.

I think that about does it. I am actually going to go write now, believe it or not. What about? Well… You’ll just have to wait and see…

Here’s one of the songs on the playlist I’ll be listening too during the process…