Drama: Preproduction Update

The story and concept has been developed and we are awaiting to see who our casting options may be. We are searching around for some locations and are on the right track... trying to leave some room for the sponsored location that we will be given on Wednesday.

Drama is always a tough one - for one, it is very vague and can be done from various different angles - which makes it hard to focus. Also telling the story of the rise and fall of a character in 4 - 7 minutes is a difficult feat, but I love a challenge.

I work visually and like to prepare myself by surrounding myself with imagery, sounds, and moods that will accompany the project. I have MEGA BEARD RECORDS thinking about a dramatic score and cannot wait to see what they have come up with.

Tara Pfister-Minogue (also my wife) will be participating as a actor in the film as well as helping to shape the overall story and process. I am considering some big things... that may or may not be able to be done in the time line.

Needless to say my preproduction time has been spent more on organizing the whole project and not specifically on my film yet... but that will come. At noon on wednesday I will be focused on creating a great short film.

I did however create a mock poster and I think I have come up with a title. "The Strange Attractor". Happy shooting!~

Official Sign-Ups are Closed!

The sign-ups for participation are now closed. If you wish to join in on the project please plan to attend the kick off brunch on Wednesday morning at 9:00 am and enjoy some breakfast goods by Joe and Sugars while schmoozin' with the teams. All interested participants present will be assigned to a team as needed.

See you there.

INT. MEN'S PUBLIC RESTROOM - 2:00am

Joseph enters exhausted, breathing hard and nearly vomiting into the sink. He splashes water on his pale face and stares into the mirror. He is shaking.

CUT TO: INT. MENS BATHROOM STALL - cont.

Joseph enters through the door quickly and falls to his knees. He vomits this time. See see feet in the next stall over. The bathroom door opens and in walks a girl, dressed up, a little bit of call-girl but a little bit of southern belle. Joseph heres her enter and quickly gets on the toilet seat and pulls the door shut, locks it, and pulls his feet up from view.

The women staggers in, obviously drunk, and moves to the sink. She wobbles as she looks at herself in the mirror, she looks deep and we see a single tear stream down her face. She takes a deep breath and centers herself. her hand comes up slowly and scoops the tear away.

She moves towards the toilets and looks curiously at a stand up urinal, a bit confused but she see the open stall in the middle and moves to it. She enters and shuts the door.


-- note: we have our characters in place. (Eye Spy Pictures)

Deadline is coming folks...

Just wanted to send one more shout out. The deadline for team sign up and talent pool sign up is friday August 14th! If you want to participate as a team please sign up soon. If you want to be on a team but don't want to captain it - please check the "TEAMS" section of the site to see what team is looking for some help.

Any and all are welcome to come to the Kick-Off brunch for a last chance to get involved but there is no guarantee if you d not sign up previously.

The kick-off starts at 9:00 am on Wednesday August 19th at the Colleen Johnson Community Room at the La Grande public library. See you there.!

Some Links for the Teams

Hey, sorry I'm so late chiming in.  The Surbulation Station is very excited.  We had our fingers crossed for Sci Fi, but definitely up to the challenge of making a romantic comedy that is both cliche' and mind-blowingly original.  The Surbulation Station loves a challenge.

For those others who have [gladly] excepted their challenges, I have a few encouraging links:

1. A link to the trailer for Dr. Plonk, a fantastic silent film shot in 2007 that ensures Silent Film its place on any respectable genre-list, in my humble opinion.

2. A link to The West Side, an urban western web-series that incorporates such props as a glock, a teddy bear, a crack pipe, and a crowbar, to name a few.

3. A link to something that some of you filmmakers might need, from the sounds of things (You know who you are).

P.S.  I am proud to be working on this project alongside all of you.  And I appreciate your senses of humor.  :)

Silently Speaking

We over at Positronic Films have spent the weekend happy that we don't have to worry about sound editing and sad since that is our background. We also spent the weekend trying to find a single American film in the "genre"of silent movie made since Mel Brooks mocked the era back in 1976. I finally discovered where all the silent movies are, and there are many thousands of them that have been made in America. Unfortunately, they have all been produced by MTV and VH1. The other good thing about being assigned a non-genre as a genre is that we can do any actual genre for our film. So the real question then is how to squeeze in between The Big/Collander in this epic battle for king-of-the-bloody-experimental-surprisingly-quiet-hill.

Collander Films To Write Horror Film

We here at Collander Films have taken the first steps on our horror film. We are excited to be in charge of what is sure to be one of the bloodiest genres of film. Royce and I [Brian] had a chat the other day about some ideas and we think we have hit upon a great one. We discussed different types of horror films and what exactly we wanted to accomplish with the type we chose. David is out of town for a few more days so we cannot communicate with him. We suspect that our nemesis The Big Productions may have kidnapped him. That is just the kind of low trick that those so and so's over there would try, BUT worry not we have a plan for them as well. It will be unpleasant and most likely involve some serious and repeated viewings of Blue Velvet, a film I consider a masterpiece. Beware, Jason. I may even go so far as to use all 4 hours of Inland Empire.....Oh, I'll do it!

Showdown!

Well it looks as if my Arch-Filmmaking-Nemesis Brian Wallis will be "Captaining" the "Collander Films" "Team". And how fitting (in a very nemesis-y) way that he will be making a "horror" "film". It's also quite fitting that I have stolen his OWN BROTHER for my team! (Cue: Evil laugh)

In other news, I was going to spend this weekend making a steady-cam out of pipes and such, but have since been assigned the experimental "genre". Upon doing some research, (wikipedia) I found that a quick search for "experimental films" returns a veritable who's-who list of filmmakers I want to punch in the face (I'm looking at you, David Lynch). So in lieu of that, this weekend will not be spent making a Steady-Cam Out of Pipes and Such, but shall indeed be spent slaughtering pigs, making lavish costumes, and becoming more pretentious.

I shall also set into motion a plan to DESTROY Collander Films.

Here come the Genres'

Although we need a few more teams to actually commit to the project I have decided to distribute the genres as teams sign up... so if you want a good jump start on scripting and story sign up now!

I am taking a few days away - defrag and rest - then coming back with a vengeance to see this project's success to the bitter end.

So here is the list that you randomly receive your genre from:

DRAMA

HORROR

ROMANTIC COMEDY

ACTION

SILENT

EXPERIMENTAL

SCI-FI FANTASY

The genres will be drawn from a hat and then placed back in the hat - so teams may end up with the same genre.

Check the "TEAMS" page for your genre. It will be posted in your Team Section! Happy Scripting!

For a list of genre descriptions visit: http://www.filmsite.org/genres.html

Joe & Sugars to provide the kick off "craft services"

A special thanks to Wayla and the crew at Joe and Sugars (located on Adams Avenue in Historic Downtown La Grande - plug). They will be providing all the filmmakers and participants with some morning kick-off coffee and an array a great pickens to get the juiced flowing. The kick off event will be held at the community room at the public library in downtown La Grande. Schmoozing and eating starts at 9:00am!