Pre-Production Looms

We've been super busy these past weeks, but it is paying off in a most satisfying way! We had a great meeting with Garett Maggart recently and went over the script treatment. Since he's lived with Joe McKay for quite some time, so we wanted to make sure that there was nothing in our plans that didn't ring true. We also wanted to make double super sure that what we have plan will be fun for him actor-wise. Fun doesn't always mean comedy for actors. It means that it's something fun for them to do. Fun varies with the actor, their personalities and experiences. He liked what we came up with for the script and its underpinnings.

That means that we can really start pre-production asap. I'm assembling the crew. I've been very lucky to find crew from the original Demon Under Glass. Aside from them knowing the material, there is a comfort level of working with people you've known for a decade. I trust that they can pull off miracles because I've seen them do it before. Additionally, they've honed their skills either through school or through job experience. And then, there are some new people that I've met doing my experiments with cooking and little comedy videos. Among them is a really adorable actor that I hired to be adorable. I discovered recently that he has this fight background and really wants to choreograph some vampire fights. I also think he'll made adorable vampire chow!

We have all of our equipment squared away with frugal use of the Indiegogo funds and the lovely Frugal Filmmaker Youtube page. We even found a solution to the fangs that is comfortable but not insanely expensive. And that came from the Goth crown that follows the film. It's absolutely amazing and it won't take very long to order. That was a relief as we really needed to have more than one set of fangs in case of an accident or a hard piece of sourdough bread.

The answer to the big question is mid-June. I'm working a production now (that's the interesting photo we

have here) but we're still setting up for this one. It's sort of like when you've worked for 8 hours, you don't mind working ten. What's an extra day to my week. Eek! I'll be posting the script and the casting breakdown on a link to a pdf next week for those who don't mind spoilers.

Thank you for your patience!

Scouting Party

I went location scouting last week. I both love and hate location scouting. Why they used to be called scouting parties is beyond comprehension. There was no cake at all! But it is an essential chore. On the one hand, I have to see with my own eyes how close the locations are to what has been written in the script. This is especially true when Jon is directing. After working with him for many years, I know exactly how much leeway I have with his needs to get the scene just right. I also know how many angles Jon needs in photographs for each location. I usually have a lot of questions to ask like how much can we alter the location (move things around or re-dress the location as something else). I love location scouting, because it makes me excited about what is going to happen next with the film. It's second to casting in making the project more real. Finally, as a woman, I have to make sure there are decent bathrooms nearby and that there is a place to eat and rest for the cast and crew. The hate of location scouting comes from the walking. When I set up a scout, I pick a very narrow area in which there is a hub where I can rest and get my bearings. When others set up scouts, there usually isn't a hub. There is a lot of walking hither and yon. I put in six miles in one day. And it was not a good day for that. We were having a spate of really cool days and one that was blistering hot. Guess which one was the one we scouted? Blistering! The upside is that I know where to find the cooler spots for that location. And then there are the stairs. I always manage to avoid locations with stairs. Even one flight can seem like Everest after ten hours. After 12 hours, it might as well be Mt. Doom. Yes, including the fire. Elevators help, but crew always find themselves taking stairs because they are always faster. They are exhausting when everyone is healthy. I really try to avoid them now. But the area is perfect in so many ways. I can forgive one set of stairs. It could be worse. We've always

wanted to film on Vasquez Rocks. That involves a cliff!

With that little scouting trip, we believe we now have all the locations we need that do not have permit or insurance issues. They will not be secured until the script is locked down. That should happen very soon as well. The location will actually help in finishing the script, because we had an issue with night shoots. One of our actors has a play this summer, so we wouldn't be able to do the number of night shoots that we would need to to for these scenes. This issue was becoming a real source of tension as we tried to finalize the script. This location always looks like night even in broad daylight. For the first time since the end of the fundraising campaign, I am actually visualizing scenes in my head. This has not been an easy process – re-tooling the script in light of the much smaller budget. I know what fans have been clamoring to see regarding Joe and Simon over the years (Is Joe a frightened prisoner or a willing accomplice? Do they fight over Simon's feeding? Have their been others who knew what Simon was?) We also wanted to explore the theme of vampire fans throughout the ages. I felt that the script we had really explored all of those in a fun way. But I am also reminded of a saying in screenwriting. A writer must be willing to 'murder your darlings.' That means, so save a script, a writer must be willing to 'kill' scenes that they love because they aren't feasible for some reason. That's never easy even though the scenes or plots or whatever gets killed can come back in another script. It sure shan't been here. I'm really liking the results here.

Note: Donors who do not fear major spoilers will be given a link to the new synopsis and episode outline in the next blog.

Our next big challenge is casting the two new characters that are in this script. I plan to put the actors among others on the case.